Ferryman by Claire McFall Extract

Today I'm really happy to be taking part in the Claire McFall blog tour celebrating the re-release of Ferryman as well as the publication of the sequel, Trespassers. I remember I wasn't entirely sure if this book would be for me when Ferryman was first published but I'm so glad that I gave it a chance. If you too are unsure or on the fence about reading it then perhaps the extract below will help you decide! 

Ferryman extract

“Wait, stop! Where the hell are we going?” Dylan huffed to a standstill and cemented her feet to the ground, folding her arms across her chest. She ’d been blindly following him, but they had been marching for twenty minutes in total silence now, going in who knew which direction and he hadn ’t said a word since the curt “Come with me.” All of the questions, all reasons for staying at the tunnel mouth that had inexplicably vanished from her head when he ’d ordered her to follow had now returned with full force.

He continued on for a few strides, before turning and looking at her with his eyebrows raised. “What?”

“What?!” Dylan ’s voice rose an octave with incredulity. 

“We’ve just come out of a train crash where everybody else seems to have disappeared. I have no idea where we are, and you are marching us halfway across the middle of nowhere, away from the place where they are going to be looking for us!”

“Who do you imagine is looking for us?” That arrogant half-smirk snuck back onto his lips.

Dylan frowned for a moment, confused by the strange question, before launching into her argument once more. “Well, the police for one. My parents.” Dylan felt a little thrill at being able to say that in the plural for the first time. “When the train doesn ’t arrive at the next station, don ’t you think the train company might wonder where it is?”

She raised her eyebrows here, secretly pleased with the strength of her line of reasoning, and waited for him to respond.

He laughed. It was almost a musical sound, but underpinned with a hint of mockery. His reaction confounded and infuriated her again. Dylan pursed her lips, waiting for the punchline, but it didn’t come. Instead he smiled. It changed his entire face, warming his natural coldness. But there was still something not quite right about it. It looked sincere, but it didn’t stretch to his eyes. They remained icy and aloof.

He walked over to Dylan and ducked down slightly so that he could look into her eyes, shocking blue into startled green. His closeness made her a little uncomfortable, but she stood her ground.

“If I told you you weren’t where you thought you were, what would you say?” he asked.

“What?” Dylan was totally confused, and not a little bit intimidated. His arrogance was maddening, making fun of her at every turn and coming out with nonsense statements like that. What could be the point of his question except to bamboozle her and make her doubt herself?

“Never mind,” he chuckled, reading her expression. “Turn around. Could you find the tunnel again if you had to?”

Dylan looked over her shoulder. The landscape was empty and unfamiliar. Everything looked the same. Stark, windswept hills as far as the eye could see, dipping down into gullied valleys where vegetation revelled in the shelter from the constant gales. There was no sign of the tunnel entrance or even the train tracks. That was weird; they hadn’t gone very far. She felt a tightening in her chest as she realised that she had no idea what direction they had come from, that she would be completely lost if Tristan left her now.

“No,” she whispered, grasping how much trust she had put in this unfriendly stranger.

Tristan laughed as he watched the realisation trickle across her face. “Then I guess you ’re stuck with me.” 

Claire McFall is a writer and a teacher who lives and works in the Scottish Borders. She is the author of paranormal thriller Black Cairn Point, winner of the inaugural Scottish Teenage Book Prize 2017. Her debut novel Ferryman won a Scottish Children’s Book Award, and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Branford Boase award. Her other books include dystopian thriller Bombmaker.

Trespassers, the much-anticipated sequel to Ferryman, will be published on 14^th September 2017. 

Ayisha Malik on A Refuge in A Change Is Gonna Come #ChangeBook

I'm so happy and honoured to be today's blog tour post for MY favourite book of the year so far, A Change Is Gonna Come. This is an anthology published by 12 BAME authors: 8 already established authors and 4 debut for a YA audience. I loved the mix of genres and topics that each author chose to cover and I really think there is something in this anthology for everyone.

I absolutely jumped at the chance to host a blog tour stop for this book, especially one from Ayisha Malik, author of Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged and The Other Half of Happiness. Her story, A Refuge, is a story of friendship and empathy and I adored it.  Over to you, Ayisha...

There are certain memories that linger more than others, evoking a rather strong feeling, capturing a part of the past you call upon when feeling reflective. I think often about my visit to the Calais refugee camp. I went a few times; the first time because I was in Paris for a month and it felt like an omission of conscience not to; the second time because, selfishly, I wanted to recreate the first experience. I went again a year later, this time taking a bunch of friends, because I wanted them to feel what I had felt.

The thing about volunteering is that you take away from it far more than you give. Because of this, sometimes people’s lack of empathy can confuse me – although it’s an emotional thing, it feels almost illogical. I wanted to write a story about how someone is changed through their experience at a refugee camp, not because of this condescending idea of helping others, but because of the impact it can have on you. Even volunteering is a selfish act, but my character, Sabrina, is forced to do so by her parents. I wanted to focus on the unexpected relationships that can be formed in places where there is tragedy; how intense they can be, yet how transient. Her relationship with Homa in some ways reflects the redeeming nature of friendship, however short-lived it might be. Sabrina, like so many of us, is lonely and suffers feelings of emotional displacement, not least because her parents are always at each other’s throat. So, it felt fitting that I should put my character in a situation where her life is mirrored by someone who is physically displaced.

It’s often in the worst of situations that you’ll be able to see the best of humanity. For me, visiting the camp and writing this story just reminded me of the lessons we can teach each other about resilience, defiance and, most importantly, hope.



Thank you, Ayisha! Do follow Ayisha on Twitter and check out the other #ChangeBook blog tour stops listed below! A Change Is Gonna Come is published by Stripes Publishing on 10th August. 

REVIEW: A Change Is Gonna Come by Various

A Change Is Gonna Come the anthology of short stories and poems written by 12 BAME authors and published by Stripes Publishing is my favourite book of the year so far.  I hoped it'd be great when I first heard of it and I had high expectations for it, for sure.  But I wasn't quite prepared for how important and inspiring it'd be until I finally sat down to read it.

I loved it so very much.

I think there was just something special about reading so many stories in one collection with people of colour as protagonists. Like, I didn't even realise how emotional that would make me.  Because it's so very much not what I'm used to.  Being mixed-race has meant that so often I don't see myself in the books that I read and it isn't until I come across a book like this that these strong feelings come out.  And this book is such a celebration. I felt weepy reading it. But also inspired. Each of the short stories and poems in this book were really well-written and providing such a wonderful emotional arc within not very many pages.  I love how empowering this book felt, how emotional it is, how important it is.

Aside from it being a collection of short stories and the occasional poem about people of colour, the first story is also about a girl with OCD and the story by Tanya Byrne is about lesbians.  And I cheered at this. Both mentally and probably literally when I read that. I want more intersectional stories in my life. I need them.

While a lot of the stories were contemporary there was also some magical realism in there, a story about time travel and kind of a dystopian read, Catherine Johnson's story is inspired by actual historical events. And I liked that things got changed up like that. That each of the authors had their own visions for 'change' and what that means.  Some of the stories centred around race issues: Nikesh Shukla's story is about a friendship falling apart after Brexit; Ayisha Malik's story is about visiting the Calais refugee camp.  I thought it was great that this book took into account such current events but also that the stories balanced out being serious and playful whilst all being hopeful at the same time.

There aren't that many books about or by people of colour in the UK right now.  So this book feels like such a necessity. Representation matters.  People of all ages need to see themselves in books.  I hope A Change Is Gonna Come signals actual change amongst publishing in this country. I, for one, read this absolutely amazing anthology and I felt utterly inspired.

Wedding Playlist by Lisa Williamson - All About Mia Blog Tour

I am very happy today to be taking part in the blog tour for UKYA book, All About Mia by Lisa Williamson!  I really loved Lisa's debut book, The Art of Being Normal and I'm hugely excited for All About Mia.  A story about sisters is a story that I will pretty much always want to read.  Not convinced? 

One family, three sisters.
GRACE, the oldest: straight-A student. 
AUDREY, the youngest: future Olympic swimming champion. 
And MIA, the mess in the middle. 
Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends – not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers. 
When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves. 
But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control – boozing, boys and bad behaviour – and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it All About Mia might put at risk the very things she loves the most.

Today Lisa is here to share with us all the All About Mia wedding playlist!  (Listen along to the actual music here while you read why Lisa chose each song) Weddings! They're so my favourite, even - especially - if dramatic things happen.  Over to you, Lisa... 

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Wedding Playlist by Lisa Williamson

I love a good wedding. Always have, probably always will. Ever since my beloved Auntie Joyce got married when I was seven and I wore a yellow dress and straw boater hat and ate so many sausage rolls I was almost sick, I've been hooked (seriously, it was one of the best days of my life). I've since been to more weddings than I can count and enjoyed every single one. I love having an excuse to dress up for once and stick on a pair of sparkly shoes. I love seeing all my mates wearing their best outfits and looking all shiny and smiley. I love watching the happy couple get the giggles exchanging their vows. I love that magical hour between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast where you get to stand around drinking prosecco on an empty stomach. I even love the speeches. But the thing I love most of all, the bit I really look forward to, is when the tables are pushed aside, the lights go down and it's time to dance.

Wedding DJs are generally considered the bottom of the DJ hierarchy. Which is madness. The perfect wedding playlist is a work of art and I’m prepared to have it out with anyone who thinks differently. I once went to a wedding where the groom (a self-confessed music snob) hired his mate (a fellow music snob) to DJ the reception. For the next three hours he played all his favourite records to a deserted dance floor, ignoring every single one of my requests. My disappointment was acute. There's a time and place for so-called 'cool' music and a wedding is neither. Weddings are about shared joy and nostalgia. They're about dancing like no one's watching. They're about doing the Macarena and the Locomotion and discovering you still know the routine to 'Saturday Night' by Wigfield. Wedding discos are the polar opposite of cool and this is why I love them so much. It’s also probably why I was so keen to write a wedding in All About Mia.

The wedding in question is that of Mia’s parents. Having become engaged as teenagers, twenty years later they finally get round to tying the knot. Unfortunately, their day doesn’t turn out as picture-perfect as they planned, largely thanks to the drunken antics of their middle daughter Mia. One thing that is on point though, is the disco.

I was delighted when my publisher liked my suggestion of including the wedding disco playlist in the back of the book. After much deliberation, here are the twelve songs I narrowed it down to:

Back for Good - Take That

This is Mia’s mum and dad’s first dance. The lyrics are actually a bit sad considering the happy occasion:

Got fist of pure emotion

Got a head of shattered dreams

Gotta leave it, gotta leave it all behind now

However, it was number one when they got together twenty years earlier and has been ‘their song’ ever since. Grace performs a version of it during the wedding ceremony, much to Mia’s annoyance.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston

Pretty much the perfect pop song, I think I’ve requested this at every single wedding I’ve ever been to. The second Whitney goes ‘woooooooo!’ over the opening bars, I’m in musical ecstasy. ‘How Will I Know’ (also by Whitney) has the same happifying effect.

A Little Respect - Erasure

I LOVE eighties music. It’s the music of my childhood and makes me feel instantly nostalgic for disco floors filled with dry ice and dancing rainbow lights. The bit when Andy Bell sings ‘I’m so in love with you’ gives me proper intense feels every single time.

Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon

A modern classic. Best played towards the end of the night, by which point the female guests have kicked off their heels and the blokes have abandoned their suit jackets and wrapped their ties round their foreheads like Rambo and everyone’s jumping around like idiots.

Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyoncé

No explanation required. Dance routine compulsory.  

Got My Mind Set On You - George Harrison

I picked this one in tribute to Mia’s mum and dad and their epic twenty-year engagement. The lyrics were just too perfect to ignore:

It's gonna take time

A whole lot of precious time

It's gonna take patience and time, um

To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it

To do it right child

Walking On Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves

Who can resist that beat? Not me. I asked a few friends for their favourite wedding disco songs and this was fellow YA author Non Pratt’s excellent contribution. This is another one you can’t help but dance like a crazy person to (the only way to dance at a wedding in my opinion).

We Are Family - Sister Sledge

‘We are family, I got all my sisters with me!’ The perfect soundtrack to a story about three sisters, this was a no-brainer. In an alternative version of the Campbell-Richardson wedding, where things don’t go completely tits-up, I like to imagine Mia, Grace and Audrey having a ball dancing to this together.

You Make My Dreams Come True – Hall & Oates

My friend Dale is a wedding DJ and was kind enough to share his most played songs with me, of which this was one of them. Indeed, it featured prominently at Dale’s own wedding. Immortalised in the film 500 Days of Summer, this is total musical sunshine and makes me smile every time I hear it.

Higher and Higher (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) – Jackie Wilson

Romantic and uplifting with a great beat, this is THE perfect song to play at a wedding.

You and Me Song – The Wannadies

Another song designed for jumping up and down to with your mates. The unassuming verses make the rousing chorus all the more joyous to yell along with. A cheesy must.

Shake It Off – Taylor Swift

Mia’s anthem. If you read the book, you’ll probably work out why.

 

What I Write To by Rebecca Denton - This Beats Perfect Blog Tour

Today I'm really happy to be hosting this wonderful guest post by debut author, Rebecca Denton, for This Beats Perfect.  This Beats Perfect sounds really amazing. I'm loving books about music and fandom lately. Here is the summary for this book, then over to Rebecca...

Amelie Ayres has impeccable taste in music. Bowie. Bush. Bob. So when she finds herself backstage at The Keep’s only UK gig she expects to hate it; after all they are world’s most tragic band. In fact she feels a grudging respect – not (obviously) for their music, but for the work that goes in to making them megastars. And when lead singer, ‘Maxx’, is not dressed up as a cross between Elvis and a My Little Pony, he is actually rather normal, talented and has creative struggles not too dissimilar to her own.

But the next morning she wakes up rolls over and discovers a million new @’s on social media. Overnight a photo of her backstage has made her a subject of global speculation. Suddenly the world needs to know #Who’sThatGirl? – but for all the wrong reasons.

All Amelie wants is to play her music. She’s got the guitar, the songs, the soul and, in the safety of her bedroom, she’s got the voice. But when it comes to getting up on stage, she struggles with self-doubt.

Immaculate’s a concept. Flawless is fake. But just sometimes music – and hearts – can rock a perfect beat. 

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I’m one of those people that works well with a ton of distraction. The TV on, the radio on, music, whatever - for some reason I’m more comfortable working when there’s noise. There’s something nice about dipping out of the world you’re creating and having a constant atmosphere of inspiration to dip in and out of.

Last year, the Nobel’s caused great controversy by awarding the prize for literature to Bob Dylan.  There were lots of book folk angered by this for various reasons, the New York Times had a piece that simply argued by giving the award to him, a musician, a writer missed out.  And in these times of declining long form reading, that is a damn shame.

But when it comes to telling stories, in my opinion lyrics can be as potent as any poetry.  Here are a couple of the artists that inspired me when I was writing This Beats Perfect.

Regina Spektor

You might know her as the writer of the OISTNB theme song, but there’s so much more to her than that track. If there was ever an artist that made me want to start writing, Regina Spektor was the one. When I saw her play in a pokey little place off Tottenham Court Road over 10 years ago, she sat at a piano and sang/told these brilliant, eccentric stories that were just so mind-blowingly creative.  After a decade of guitar rock I felt like someone blew open a door to a whole new room.  I feel the recorded music sadly lacks that raw brilliance I saw live back then. But it’s still magic.

Tom Waits

Nothing makes me happier than songwriters who are theatrical and flamboyant storytellers and therefore I heart Tom Waits. As an artist, he is the *real deal* my friends – and there is no one I’d rather see live right now. Preferably in a dark, dingy wine bar in Berlin or Paris.  Prepare for heartbreak:

Get a taste of his theatrics; check out this classic interview with a perplexed Australian. This interview was apparently the inspiration for Heath Ledgers The Joker.

Wing Jones Photo Blog Tour

I absolutely adored Wing Jones by Katherine Jones! Which is why I'm hugely pleased to be on the blog tour, AND to be the final tour stop. Below we have Katherine Webber sharing one of her favourite quotes, I hope you enjoy it.

Wing Jones is the much anticipated debut novel from Katherine Webber, publishing 5^th January 2017 in the UK. With a grandmother from China and another from Ghana, fifteen-year-old Wing is often caught between worlds. But when tragedy strikes, Wing discovers a talent for running she never knew she had. Wing's speed could bring her family everything it needs. It could also stop Wing getting the one thing she wants…

Katherine Webber was born in Southern California but has lived in Atlanta, Hawaii, Hong Kong and now in London. For several years she worked at the reading charity BookTrust, where she worked on projects such as The Letterbox Club which delivers parcels of books to children in care, and YALC, the Young Adult Literature Convention. You can find her on Twitter@kwebberwrites

Throughout January, over 40 bloggers will be participating in the #WJphototour – a photo blog tour documenting Katherine’s path to publishing her debut novel. From childhood memories that inspired her writing to her time living in Atlanta and Asia that influenced the book to authors she’s met over the years right up to receiving her first finished copy of the book, follow along to see Katherine’s author life unfold! Keep an eye on the hashtag to see the latest photos! Now, over to Katherine Webber...

Whew! If you’ve been following along this whole time, WELL DONE! I hope you aren’t bored of my face and that you enjoyed finding out about my path to publication and what inspired me! I wanted to end the #WJPhotoTour with something to inspire other aspiring authors and writers. This is one of my favorite quotes, I have it on a postcard next to my bed. Being a published author is a dream come true, but I started writing because I love it. Because it makes me happy. Everyone’s path to publication is different and unique. Don’t get discouraged. Maybe it won’t be by the time you thought you would, or it won’t be with the first book you write, or even the second. Have hope. You’ll get there.

REVIEW: Wing Jones by Katherine Webber

I so loved Wing Jones by Katherine Webber.  Wing Jones is definitely a book that I heard a lot about, way before publication date, and I'd been looking forward to reading it for some time.  I am sometimes nervous to start such books, for fear of them not living up to expectations.  But this book? This book was beauty and love and hope all wrapped up in this gorgeous cover.

Katherine Webber has this great way of writing. A very visual, imaginative style and I absolutely adored it, and Wing and her family right from the start.  We're quickly introduced to Wing Jones, half-Chinese, half-Ghananian and her family of single mom, bickering grandmothers and an older brother who soaks up all the limelight. This story is set in Atlanta in the mid-90s, and I loved it so very much.

I guess the biggest, most enjoyable thing for me in this book was witnessing Wing's transformation after a tragedy occurs involving her older brother, and how Wing chooses to adjust to this new life in which her brother isn't the shining beacon that she's always looked up to, always believed to be perfect. In her anger and sadness, she goes on on night-time runs and finds she's really fast and good at running.

Wing Jones has such a great cast of characters.  My favourite characters are, of course, Granny Dee and LaoLao, Wing's two grandmothers who are constantly arguing in this way that was both sad and adorable. But I also loved Wing, herself, some new friends she makes throughout her journey, seeing Marcus as a more complex person as Wing's brother, Monica, his girlfriend.  And then there's Aaron, Marcus's best friend and Wing's crush.  I really loved seeing Aaron through Wing's eyes.

Wing Jones is a story that has so much going for it.  I loved the little glimpses into what Wing goes through when meeting strangers and their confusion as to how her family fits together.  I loved these things because I could relate to them so much, same as the stares, the looks, the questionable things people say like it's okay (it isn't). It has this cute romance to it but also really complicated and emotional family relationships and friendships.  But as I've said before, the highlight for me is Katherine Webber's writing style, in bringing all of this together she weaves this beautiful story together of picking ourselves up after tragedy, of finding who we're meant to be.

This book counts towards the British Books Challenge 2017. 

The YA Sisterhood: Writing Positive Girl Friendships in YA by Catherine Doyle

I'm really happy today to be sharing with you a guest post by Catherine Doyle, the author of both Vendetta and Inferno. Inferno was published at the beginning of this month and both books are incredible exciting and addictive and action-packed. There are wonderful characters and relationships and friendships. Sophie and Millie are such an amazing pair of best friends, so I'm glad Catherine chose to write about their relationship and about girls' friendships in general today. 

Over to you, Catherine...

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The YA Sisterhood: Writing Positive Girl Friendships in YA 

by Catherine Doyle

When I set out to write the Blood for Blood trilogy, I had a very clear goal in mind. I wanted to write about that bright, positive light a best friend brings into your life, to explore that deep sense of loyalty within female friendships. I wanted to write about the relationships that have been most important to me, the ones that anchor and nourish.

I didn’t want to write about petty jealousy, or boy-stealing, or fat-shaming, or ‘mean girls’. I didn’t want to write a best friend who hovered in the background while the protagonist had all the adventures, nor did I want to create a cardboard cut-out character or a love rival. I wanted to write something real, something lasting, and most importantly, something aspirational.

Positive female friendships often feel like a rarity in YA fiction. Usually there’s a boy in the way, or an agenda, or, in the case of thrillers, an impending death. They don’t seem to last very long, or run very deep. Romantic stories and platonic friendship stories, for some reason, often seem to be mutually exclusive. If there’s a love interest in the story, the friendship aspect suffers. If there’s a friendship taking centre stage, romance doesn’t get much of a look-in. As much as I wanted Sophie’s story to be about romance, I also wanted it to be about friendship, too.

In the search for romance, the YA best friend often gets relegated to the back of the plot, where she waits for an occasional high-five, to give out a well-timed scolding or to turn her back on the protagonist at the first sign of strife. Or she’s the shoulder to cry on, the phone call in the night-time, always kept slightly out of the loop. She is a supporting character. She is very rarely the lead. And she should be. Romance cannot be the only thing that matters.

I’m not saying this isn’t indicative of some people’s teenage experience. At a time when young girls are trying to figure themselves out, the quest for boys can often override the desire to maintain a healthy, committed friendship. People drop the ball. It happens. And so it happens a lot in YA too. The problem with this is that it sends a message and it repeats a message that’s already out there: romantic relationships will fulfill you, and friendships should come second or third. No. No no no no no.

When I was a teenager I fell for a slightly sociopathic boy and didn’t heed my friends’ advice on the matter. I became enamoured with the idea of being in love – with the idea of being wanted. My priorities went askew. It took me a while to realize my mistake, and to learn a very important lesson: female friendships are a constancy – romantic partners, especially during your teenage years, are not. At the beginning of Vendetta, Sophie Gracewell might be a bit naive, but one thing she is sure of is her best friend, Millie. The greatest bond is their own. It is absent of resentment or jealousy. It’s a sisterhood. It’s important.

After Vendetta came out, I received emails from readers declaring themselves ‘Team Nic’, or ‘Team Luca’ (and even some, randomly, ‘Team Dom’). Inferno has just been released, and already I am getting feedback that diverts a little from the ‘I want a Luca’ and settles a little more firmly on the ‘I want a Millie.’ I’m not saying you can’t have both (wouldn’t that be great?!) – but to wish for a strong, empathetic, mutually-supportive friendship in your life is definitely a good thing!



Inferno by Catherine Doyle was published 7th January by Chicken House Books, I highly recommend that you go out and find a copy! 

REVIEW: Inferno by Catherine Doyle

Oh, this series. Inferno by Catherine Doyle is the second book in the Blood for Blood trilogy and oh my god, is it good. I felt like with this book Catherine Doyle took absolutely everything that I loved about the first book, Vendetta, and then just ramped everything up and gave me more. Inferno is incredibly exciting and addictive and action-packed! I loved the characters, the relationships, the friendships. This entire book felt like I was hurtling through everything at such a fast pace and like I just needed to hold on and enjoy the ride!

As much as I'll try not to spoil the events of Inferno, this book is the second in a trilogy and as such, there will be spoilers below for Vendetta. If you haven't yet read that book, please stop reading now. 

Right from the beginning, I really loved Inferno. Sophie went through a great deal at the end of Vendetta and I'm glad Catherine Doyle showed Sophie really at her lowest trying to find some semblance of normal again and putting herself back together both physically and emotionally. Sophie may have been a bit broken at the beginning of this novel but she just continues to grow and grow throughout Inferno and it made my heart happy to see her do this.

And I think the thing that helps Sophie so much is her incredible friendship with Millie. Wow, I love Millie. If I'm honest, I didn't pay that much attention to Millie in the first book so much.  But Inferno was different. Millie was absolutely necessary to Sophie and I loved how close the girls are and how wonderful they are with each other. I love such a central female friendship in any book but especially this one.

Everything to do with the Mafia was tense and nail-biting and surprising. Sophie does her best to take herself out of this thing she's in with the Falcone family but other things lead her right back there with them all. And in Inferno, Sophie discovers even more family lies and deception and it really goes to some dark places. And I loved exploring that darkness alongside Sophie. I was completely and utterly swept away in this series.

This review is turning out to be a list of all the things I love about Inferno, but I'm sorry. I can't stop now. I haven't even gotten to the boys!

First, there's Nicoli. Oh, Nicoli. Even during Vendetta, my heart had already jumped to a different ship, but I did find it fascinating reading more about Nic in this book. It was just really interesting and a little painful to watch Sophie interact with Nic and to piece through her feelings for him and to see him in this different light. And then there's everything delicious with Luca. Oh I love Luca. There's so much emotion there with the two of them. And that thing with the doughnut?? Swoonfest.

My only complaint was this book is that it ended and now there's this awful, gut-wrenching wait for the next book!  Honestly, this series of books is amazing and I love them.  Do read them if you get the chance!

J is for JANGALA A-Z of Railhead by Philip Reeve

I am so happy to be taking part in the A-Z of Railhead by Philip Reeve blog tour today! Railhead is a scifi adventure story from the author of the Mortal Engines quartet. It looks spectacular! It's already available in hardback. Find out more about Railhead and Philip Reeve by visiting Philip Reeve or follow Philip Reeve on Twitter!

Over to you, Philip...

J is for JANGALA

by Philip Reeve

There are many different types of world strung like beads along the lines of the Great Network. Some, barely habitable to begin with, have been terraformed just enough to allow miners and industrial workers to live there, extracting and refining raw materials for richer, kindlier worlds which don’t want to scuff up their own ecosystems. On the planets where large numbers of people live, park-like garden cities sprawl around the K-bahn stations. And here and there there is a planet which is purely used for leisure; resort worlds, and the game preserves of the powerful Corporate Families.

No family is more powerful than the Noons, and the Noons are famous for their forests. The station cities of their worlds are greener than most, and their resort-world of Jangala is one planet-wide forest; tropical jungle at the equator giving way to broadleaf woodland in the temperate zones and vast pine forests near the pole. Small towns and lodges nestle among the trees, welcoming visitors from other worlds and important guests whom the Noons want to impress. Maglev trackways carry picnickers and hunting parties into the deepest parts of the world-forest. 

21st Century nature-lovers might be shocked by how popular hunting has become in the age of the Network Empire, but life on the Great Network is complex and technological, and the Corporate Families like to get back in touch with nature by tracking large, dangerous animals for days through dense jungle and then blowing them away with high-powered guns. Generations of bio-technologists have laboured to stock the forests of Jangala with some truly impressive beasts, some familiar from Old Earth, others more-or-less new, and genetic templates fashioned by the Guardians have allowed them to revive creatures from prehistory. In different parts of Jangala you might meet woolly mammoth, giant elk, or actual dinosaurs - not the sweet little miniature triceratops and stegosaurs which people keep like lapdogs, but Jurassic giants, red in tooth and claw, a challenge for even the most experienced hunter…

Railhead by Philip Reeve is published on 1st October by OUP.

Exclusive artwork: Railhead by Philip Reeve

Come with me, Zen Starling, she had said. The girl in the red coat. But how did she know his name? 
The Great Network is a place of drones and androids, maintenance spiders and Station Angels. The place of the thousand gates, where sentient trains criss-cross the galaxy in a heartbeat. 
Zen Starling is a petty thief, a street urchin from Thunder City. 
So when mysterious stranger Raven sends Zen and his new friend Nova on a mission to infiltrate the Emperor's train, he jumps at the chance to traverse the Great Network, to cross the galaxy in a heartbeat, to meet interesting people - and to steal their stuff. 
But the Great Network is a dangerous place, and Zen has no idea where his journey will take him.

To celebrate the publication of Railhead by Philip Reeve, OUP have commissioned several other artists to create their own interpretations of the caracters or cityscapes. Railhead is a new, exciting sci-fi adventure story and it's been amazing to see how other artists imagine this world that Philip Reeve has created.

Today, I have the absolute pleasure to be sharing with you another exclusive piece of artwork inspired by Railhead.  

Cleave Cityscape by Jonathan Edwards

I absolutely love this. Do find out more about the artist, Jonathan Edwards at his website.

Railhead by Philip Reeve is published on 1st October by OUP.

Interview with Laura Jarratt #YAShot

Hugely excited today to be taking part in the #YAShot blog and vlog tour again, this time with another of my favourite authors, Laura Jarratt!

Skin Deep really made me sit up and take notice of Laura Jarratt and since then I've always eagerly awaited anything else by her. I especially loved the exploration of identity in her first two novels. But here we are discussing YA Shot and libraries and getting published!

To find out more about Laura Jarratt and her books, do visit the following links:

Laura Jarratt ... Follow Laura Jarratt on Twitter ... Add Laura Jarratt's books on Goodreads

                      To find out more about YA Shot, check out yashot.co.uk

Hello and welcome to Fluttering Butterflies! Could you please introduce yourself and your books? 

Hi, and thank you for having me. I’m Laura and I write YA fiction – romance/thriller is probably the best way to describe my published books, although I’m not really bothered by labels. ‘Teen fiction’ is enough of a category for me.

I’m never very interested in authors’ personal lives but for those who are, I’m married with an eight-year-old stepson and a two-year-old daughter. We’ve got two RSPCA rescue cats, which belong to my daughter, Orlaith. My family is of Irish descent and my husband’s family are a mix of Welsh and English. After twenty years working in comprehensives, I recently moved into the special education sector and I’m now a Headteacher at a school for children with physical, medical and other complex needs. It’s a great job and I’m lucky to be in a position where I enjoy what I do.

You'll be chairing a panel at YAShot called 'Crime and Punishment: fictional wrongdoing and human rights' which sounds really intriguing. What can we expect from this panel and who do you think might find it interesting?

You’ve got a real range of writers on this panel, and a real mix of books in their catalogues. One question I will be asking is whether fictional wrongdoing should always be punished – I expect some interesting answers to that one! I haven’t met any of the others yet but my experience of these things is that we all tend to have very different personalities too, so that should make for a lively debate. My job is to make sure everyone gets to talk and throw some questions into the mix if we stall.

I think it should appeal to all lovers of YA fiction because the books we’ve written are so different that there’ll be something for all readers. Audience participation is always great so come with any questions you want answered.

What other panels or authors are you looking forward to seeing or meeting at YAShot?

I’m hoping we arrive in time to see Playing with Time: Historical fiction and historical settings. And I also want to catch Trigger Warning: Exploring sensitive issues in ethical ways. Which reminds me – I really must find time to ask my husband if there’s anything he’s particularly interested in. I’m dragging him along with me at it’s our anniversary the day after and we’re having some away time in the Cotswolds, so we’ve got to shoot off up there at 5pm. It means I don’t get time to hang out with the other writers afterwards but my family always comes first. Hopefully I’ll find some time to catch up with a few people and say hi to some of the bloggers

YAShot is an event celebrating libraries! What do libraries mean to you?

When I was a kid, we lived in a council house in a very deprived urban area. My mother was a single parent and worked really hard in her job to keep up a decent standard of living. She took me into Manchester city centre every week when I was small to buy me a book and she was the one who taught me to read. Until I was eight, there was no library within easy reach and I was a very fast reader. When a library finally opened near the shopping precinct, she enrolled me in their opening week. I got dropped off at the library on Saturday mornings while she did her shopping and I’d spend the morning browsing the books, fiction and non-fiction. Reading gave me a window into different worlds and the library expanded my horizons even further.

All kids need access to a library and the ones who need it most are the kids whose parents can’t afford books for them.

You've had 4 YA novels published so far, what were your biggest obstacles to overcome with each of these books? 

With Skin Deep, which was my favourite of all of them to write, it was getting used to working with an editor. One of the reasons I signed with Egmont was because I find Stella Paskins great to work with on shaping a book, but there is definitely a process to get used to in working with your editor and building the relationship is really important.

The hardest thing about By Any Other Name was actually meeting the deadline. I had real trouble getting through the word count because I was in a new relationship (I did marry him eventually so he was worth the disruption to my writing) and operating outside my normal writing routine. Structurally it was quite difficult to get the balance right too. We were aiming for a faster pace than with Skin Deep because the book leans much more towards ‘thriller’ and I find that really hard to judge – which is where Stella comes in.

Writing Louder Than Words was lovely because I was off on maternity leave but I did try to be too clever and it didn’t come off so I ended up having to do a monster edit to chop out sections where I’d had Rafi write from ActionX’s perspective. It seemed like a good idea at the time from the point of view of her wanting to be a writer but what I really ended up doing was killing the tension.

I thought I’d found my writing pattern after three books but In Another Life destroyed that view. I just could not write this book in sequence so I ended up writing the first quarter and then the last quarter, and then going back and filling in the middle. It’s because I don’t plot before I write and I hit a panic zone at 25k with this book, which was only dispelled by writing the end so I knew where I was going. I’m fairly pleased with how it came out in the end though, but it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be – I still have some pangs for the book I wanted to write in the first instance.

Can you tell us a little something about your experience in getting an agent and having your first book published?

I didn’t go the usual route and submit. Actually, technically, I did do that at first but with another book and I got nowhere. But while that was going on, I was writing my second unpublished book on a website called Authonomy. It’s where I first came across Stella Paskins because I won a review on my first 10k. While I had my work up there, my agent spotted it and contacted me. We didn’t go out to publishers with that book (Freefalling) as she thought it was too hard to sell commercially but I’d already had another fledgling idea, which became Skin Deep, and she signed me after seeing the first 20k of that. I finished it and she took it out to publishers. Ultimately I had two publishers offering and we went with Egmont. I was actually co-agented initially by Ariella Feiner and Simon Trewin while Ariella (who was then Simon’s assistant) was setting her own list up. Having his name behind us helped editors take us seriously  - he’s a lovely chap and gave me some really good advice about getting the final draft ready to go out for submission.

You are definitely one of my favourite UKYA authors. Who are your favourite UKYA authors or books at the moment?

That’s a really hard question. I don’t read nearly as much YA as I used to. Two reasons really: firstly I have a full time job and a two year old to look after, as well as writing, so my reading time is much more limited than it was; secondly, I’m more into adult fiction at the moment. I guess I’m looking for something amazing to sweep me off my feet in YA. I have high hopes for Jenny Downham’s third novel Unbecoming, but I don’t have time to do it justice at present so I’m waiting for a holiday to read it. At first I thought the pre-release information was uncomfortably like an adult book I’m working on so I was relieved to read more about it and find it’s very different.

In all honesty, I want to find a ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ in UKYA soon. I think we need to up our game and write more of the kind of books that stand the test of time and become classics, those books you still remember twenty years later. You don’t get many of them, of course, but I really feel they’re much too scarce at the moment.

What has been the best experience when interacting with your readers?

I rarely get out to do events because I work full time in term time and it’s not the kind of job where I can take time off so I don’t get to do book tours. My favourite events are school audiences outside of school buildings, like book awards or the Edinburgh book festival. I’m happiest talking to teens and I love doing Q&A sessions with them because they always ask something interesting I wasn’t expecting.  If pushed to declare a favourite, it would be the Portsmouth Book Award – it was a great set-up and I got to talk to fans and hear what they thought of the books.

And finally, can you give us any clues as to what you're working on at the moment?

I’m writing something for the adult market at the moment – a reading group-type novel about a woman investigating the decades-old death of a child who is haunting her.

The YA novel I’m writing next is moving away from thrillers. I want to do something with a bigger concept – a love story on a grander scale, that questions one of the great mysteries of life. There’s no guarantee I can pull it off but I’m giving it a go. I am concerned I’m not good enough to write it though!

Thank you so much, Laura!