REVIEW: A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland

Oh I adored A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland.  Adored it.  And it was such a surprise of a book too.  You know how when sometimes a certain title or a specific cover design just speaks to you on another level?  That's what it was for me with this book.  I really had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this book but something about the title and especially that lobster just really appealed to me and it meant I had to read it, just to find out what it meant.  And as I said, it was love.

I remember that I did read the synopsis of the book before I read it but I'm pretty sure I didn't really understand what was going on from the brief blurb.  And that's okay with me, I actually really love the idea of going into a story blind.  But if you're not into the blind-reading thing, then this book is about Esther and her family.  Esther and the Solar family believe that their lives are consumed by One Big Fear and that eventually each family member will die because of their fears.  Esther's brother's fear is the dark, her father's is agoraphobia, her mother is superstitious about bad luck.  Esther isn't sure what her Big Fear is yet but she still lives in fear and carries around a list of her fears that could potentially be The One. 

Then one day, Esther gets pick-pocketed by Jonah Smallwood, someone she used to know in elementary school.  And despite this theft of epic proportions (he stole a fruit roll-up) Esther and Jonah become friends and Jonah ends up helping Esther confront her fears one at a time to show her that life is about more than fear.

I'm finding it difficult to put into words how much I loved this book.  It's very quirky.  Esther and Jonah and everybody who populates this book has their own little quirks and ways of speaking.  Esther is continuously dressing up in outlandish ways, her brother and their entire family are all just so ...different.  But I felt like it just worked within this story. 

There's also a sort of magical realism vibe to the book, some sort of magical quality because of Esther's view of the world of the world, of her family, of the curse and her view of herself.  I loved the ways in which serious topics such as mental illness are discussed in this book and I thought that the story unfolded in a way that was both believable and hit the right tone.  I thought there were some fascinating characters in this book, some really sweet relationships and friendships.  And the Solar family will definitely be a family that I remember for a very long time. 

But it's definitely Esther and Jonah that stole my heart in this book. I feel like reading this book all over again in order to spend more time with them, getting to know them both as they got to know each other.  I really do recommend this book.

REVIEW: One Italian Summer by Keris Stainton

I downloaded One Italian Summer by Keris Stainton off Netgalley awhile back and after mentioning it on Twitter, I got a message from the author. She very kindly informed me that One Italian Summer is very much a book about grief and she knew of the losses I've faced this year.  But when I finally sat down to tackle some of my Netgalley reading this year ... this is the book that I gravitated towards anyway.  I think I wanted to read a book about loss and grief, if only to see if these characters felt at all like how I felt.  It felt like there could be comfort in that as well as heartbreak.

And you know what? I really loved this book.  It is a book about loss and grief. It's a book about struggling to move on from it.  It's also a book  about sisters and kissing and it's set in Italy and is about figuring out important life stuff.  I liked how it was about all of that.  Plus, it just felt like a comfort.  The main character in One Italian Summer is Millie. She's got two sisters, Leonie and Elyse and their dad died the previous year. They're all headed off to Italy where they have so many memories and family history involving their dad and the entire family are dealing with his death in their own ways.

I loved Millie and her sisters. They felt so real to me. The way they bicker with each other, the way Leonie is pretty gross. The closeness, the teasing, the secrets. I think I'll always love books involving sisters, which is sort of weird as I don't have sisters of my own. But I feel like if I did, they'd be like these three girls.  My only sort of complaint about the book though is that I couldn't actually tell until much later in the book how old each of the girls were until it specifically mentions it halfway to three quarters of the way through. Sometimes it felt like Leonie and Elyse were maybe twins? Sometimes it felt like Leonie was way younger than the other two and I had to keep readjusting my mental image of them all when I came across new scraps of information regarding age.

In terms of the grief aspects of the book, I kind of loved that this book is set a year after their dad dies. So often stories like this are told sooner when the loss is more sudden, the grief more raw. But I liked that the sisters' feelings are a year old. And still painful, still able to cause heartache. It's a year on and Millie's mum is still kind of vacant and using work to hide from facing up to her feelings. There were things said about their dad that made me hurt.  The silly little stories they remembered, the made-up words, the special moments shared between them all. The not wanting to let go. They end up talking to people that their dad knew before and one of the girls gets all excited about a story that isn't very exciting ... but it's something new that they didn't know before. And I completely relate to that feeling. I know what that excitement is like.

I also, of course loved Millie's complicated relationship with Luke. Someone she had history with from the previous summer and now they're both thrown together in the same place and don't know what to do about each other. I loved that delicious awkwardness at first, that underlying embarrassment together with yearning anyway. And Italy! How have I not mentioned Italy as yet?! Italy has to be one of my favourite places ever and reading about Rome and Positano made me want to visit all over again.

I'm sorry for the scattiness of this review. I'm out of practice. But if you couldn't tell, I did love this book. And I very much recommend it.

REVIEW: Finding Jennifer Jones by Anne Cassidy

Earlier this year I finally read Looking For JJ, the first book by Anne Cassidy about child killer, Jennifer Jones. I thought that book was dark and surprising and very thought-provoking and after I finished reading it, I was incredibly intrigued to see where the author would take this story next. And I wasn't disappointed with the sequel, Finding Jennifer Jones.  It didn't quite reach the same level of emotions that Looking For JJ did but it was still incredibly fascinating and thoughtful and I was gripped by it from the very first page.

Before I started reading Finding Jennifer Jones, I did wonder if Looking For JJ really needed a sequel. It felt like quite a lot had been covered in the first book already. And then I started reading Finding Jennifer Jones and realised that Anne Cassidy probably knew what she was doing here. And I found it really wonderful (if at times unrealistic?) to see the conclusion to Jennifer's story and to see things from a different perspective and to catch up on some of the other characters' lives that we were introduced to in the first book.

Finding Jennifer Jones takes place several years after the events of Looking For JJ and JJ is now Kate Rickman and a student at Exmouth University. She lives with roommates off campus, has a summer job and is trying to hold a normal life after the dramatics of her release and the media storm that happened in Looking For JJ.

Things should be wonderful for Kate.  She got what she wanted: her anonymity back, attending university, the ability to go on with her life.  But there are certain things that hold her back from fully appreciating what she has.  Two things happen that really spur this story on.  The first is that a girl is found drowned in the sea and evidence is found that links this drowned girl to Kate.  The second is that Kate reaches out to Lucy (Mouse) in London and apologies to her for what happened all those years ago.

I found both aspects of this new plot really fascinating. It was difficult to witness Kate's experiences with the police and their investigation to this new tragedy.  It felt unfair and slightly harrowing how quickly Kate is mistreated and assumed to have committed this crime. I could really feel Kate's frustration at never being able to live down the events of her past.  Which is why I could really believe in her wanted to clear the air with Lucy.  Everything that happened in that second half of the novel had me on edge as I knew she was doing the wrong thing but it also felt entirely believeable that she might make the mistakes she did.

I really enjoyed Finding Jennifer Jones.  I loved seeing some loose tied up and seeing the conclusion to her story.  I wanted good things for this character and I was amazed by how real she felt to me while reading this two books.

Interview with Lydia Syson, author of Liberty's Fire

I'm incredibly pleased to be sharing with you today an interview with Lydia Syson, the author of three historical YA novels including Liberty's Fire which will be published this week. I hope you have already read my Author Spotlight earlier this week and my review of Liberty's Fire yesterday. I think this is a really wonderful novel, one that I highly recommend. Which is why I was very happy to pick Lydia's brain about some of the characters and story line of her new novel. I hope you enjoy!

Hello and welcome to Fluttering Butterflies! Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little something about your new book, Liberty's Fire? 

Thank you so much for having me!  I’m Lydia Syson, and I mainly write historical fiction. Passion combined with politics have become a bit of trademark for me, and my latest book is definitely no exception. It’s set in Paris in 1871, nearly forty years after the revolution in Les Mis, and the barricades are rising again.

You're no stranger to multiple POVs but Liberty's Fire has 4 perspectives! How do you juggle each of their stories and voices? And did you have a favourite? 

Actually, when I started writing the book I felt that it needed a strong, omniscient narrator – something you associate more with nineteenth-century fiction than current YA (think Victor Hugo and Dickens) –  and something very different from A World Between Us and That Burning Summer.  I was planning to focus on Anatole and Zéphyrine, a violinist and a working-class artificial flower-maker, destitute since the death of her grandmother.  That didn't quite work out. I became so interested in Jules and Marie that I knew they had to have an equal share of the story.  Gay characters in historical fiction are very rare, and after visiting the cemetery of Père Lachaise where the last battle of the Commune was fought, and seeing Oscar Wilde’s grave, I couldn't get that phrase ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ out of my head.  And I could also see that Marie, a soprano at Anatole’s opera house, needed to be shown in all her complexity, because her situation was just as interesting and difficult as that of the other three. Being a woman of any class was pretty tough in nineteenth-century Paris. 

Fine-tuning the juggling of their interwoven stories and voices was something that happened in the rewrites. It tends to be quite instinctive for me. I’m not good at mapping complicated plots and story arcs, and always set my characters’ stories against a real, historical chronology.  I did find it hard not to make them sound too English! And although that omniscient narrative voice I’d started with gradually retreated, I think it stayed with me just enough to hold the other four perspectives together thought the whole novel.  As for my favourite, I think it’s Jules.  Who is yours?

My favourite is also Jules. Not only because I loved everything about his photography techniques but because I loved his relationship with Anatole so much. It felt very emotional and heart-breaking throughout.

Jules, Anatole and Marie each have pretty creative outlets with photography and music. Why these hobbies and are they passions you share? I found the descriptions of Jules' photography in particular to be fascinating! 

Almost as soon as I started researching the Commune, I realised photography and music had to be central to the plot, for lots of different reasons.  I was really struck by the operatic and theatrical imagery in so many accounts of the events of 1871: witnesses on both sides often compared the city to a stage. I wanted to get that sense of drama and spectacle into Liberty’s Fire. 

I wouldn't call myself an ‘opera buff’ but I’ve always loved going when I can. (By the way, if you book ahead and have a head for heights, you can still get seats at the Royal Opera House for less than the price of a West End cinema ticket!  Cheaper than football!) Some of my absolute favourite operas are set in Paris, and were written in the 19th century. La Traviata, Manon and La Bohème all have me in tears, and were very much on my mind when I was writing. The figure of the fallen woman is ever present in those operas, and the redemptive power of love is another huge theme.

Under the Paris Commune, concerts – classical and otherwise – were not just a way of raising money for widows and orphans, but part of praiseworthy efforts to open the arts up to everybody. Communards didn't want music to be elitist. As soon as I read about the concerts held in the Tuileries Palace, I knew I had to include them. The Palace stood next to the Louvre and had recently been occupied by the Empress but was then thrown open to the people of Paris. I won’t give away what happened to it…

As for photography, it was – as you say – a particularly fascinating time in the development of the art, and raises all kinds of questions about representation and interpretation and truth.  (This next bit might need a ***spoiler alert***?!)  In the aftermath of the destruction of the Commune photographs were used as criminal evidence for the first time in history, but also as propaganda, to turn people against the ideals of the Communards. One photographer even faked execution scenes using photomontages, which look crude today but were as convincing at the time as photoshopping is now.  Eventually the authorities banned these images because they continued to be so divisive at a time when France was trying to forget the Commune had ever happened.  

I’m no more a photographer than I am a musician, but I love working with images when I’m writing, and it’s an art form I hugely admire.  And in fact just this week, for the first time in my life, some photographs I took have been published in book called Wild Swimming Walks (http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/wild-swimming-walks-south-east/) full of brilliant recommendations for places in southern England where you can enjoy river-, lake, pond- and sea-swimming.  

The Spanish Civil War, World War II, now France in 1871. What is about these historical time periods that inspire you or grab your attention? 

They’re all times when people were fighting for their ideals and the stakes were very high. They are also epoques that have been heavily mythologised and/or romanticised. The distortions of Cold War historiography have meant that they are all ripe for re-evaluation, so there’s lots of interesting new material being produced by historians which most people will never come across, and, without being heavy about it, I love finding ways of conveying that kind of stuff to readers through stories that bring ideas alive, but don’t feel remotely like hard work to read.    

Tell me about Paris! Did you visit for research purposes? Did that play a part in setting your book there? Do you have a favourite Paris location? 

The idea of the Commune and what happened to it, and the significance of the event – for example for International Brigaders in the Spanish Civil War – meant the book had to be set in Paris, but of course I was also very excited to have a wonderful excuse to spend some time there. I was incredibly lucky in getting a grant from the Arts Council which not only allowed me to spend a lot of time in libraries in this country, but also to make two trips to Paris, where I stayed with an extremely helpful old school friend.  My first ever experience of being alone abroad was in Paris, where I did a couple of amazing French exchanges in Paris in my teens, staying with a wonderful family who took me everywhere and showed me all sorts of things and fed me delicious food – and I used to go to Paris quite regularly in my twenties to visit friends, so I thought I knew the city reasonably well, for a casual visitor. But in the last year, my eyes have really been opened. I hope reading Liberty’s Fire will have the same effect on readers.  As for locations, the museum at St Denis was a great new discovery, I have rather fallen in love with the 9th arrondisement which I didn't know well, and I’d urge everyone who goes to Paris to wander in the arcades or ‘passages’ where Anatole first met Jules.  

You've written about politics previously in A World Between Us and again in Liberty's Fire. What do you think modern readers can take from the ways in which politics has shaped history and what views, if any, do you have about the upcoming election? 

A lot! If nothing else, an understanding of how hard the struggle for democratic rights across the world has been, and how fragile these rights – and the right to protest - remain. In Britain, the right to vote was connected with property ownership and women didn't have voting equality with men until 1928. Eighteen-year-olds have only been voting since 1969. I know I’m getting old but that doesn't seem that long ago to me!  

I can’t deny that it’s horribly easy to be cynical and disillusioned about politics in this country, specially for young people, who face really tough times right now in terms of housing, employment and education. I desperately hope that reading about the past will help bring back idealism and passion into politics today. I’m constantly moved and inspired by the risks people have taken over the centuries in their efforts to make the world a fairer and more equal place. I’d love to hear more young people talking about politics, and enthused by the idea by making an informed choice – informed by the past as well as the present. If you get yourself to a polling station, you can play your part in shaping the future. Voting for the first time should be really exciting and I’m really hoping that the last minute campaign to get more young people and women and people from all kinds of minority groups to register – the recent change to the system made this necessary – will have had an impact. 

A World Between Us begins during a world recession, when immigrants were scapegoated and far-right views became so acceptable that, during the 1935 Jubilee celebrations, people lining the streets greeted the royal parade with a fascist salute.  How far away are Nigel Farage and UKIP from Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts, who supported Hitler and Franco and Mussolini? 

Liberty’s Fire tells the story of the Paris Commune, a revolution of working people partly triggered by the enormous gulf between rich and poor in 19th century Paris. In this country the child poverty crisis gets worse each year yet there are more sterling billionaires living in London than any other city in the world.  We need to talk about these things, and how and why we arrived here. Inequality is bad for everyone, and the young suffer most.  How have we let globalisation and multinational power take over from the internationalist ideals of both the Commune and the Spanish Civil War anti-fascist volunteers?

So, yes, I've got a lot of views about the upcoming election - so nailbitingly close – more than we've got room for here! I’d say that it’s more important than ever to engage with politics, but there are lots of ways of doing this, and it doesn't have to be party politics.  And even if you can’t support one party’s policies 100% (which is hard), imagine the alternative might be, and vote (or argue if you’re too young!) against that.  

I'm only a recent convert to reading YA historical fiction. Do you have any further recommendations for me and other sometimes-reluctant historical fiction readers? 

Two wonderful anthologies came out last year, which offer a chance to dip into a great range of historical writers and see who and what takes your fancy: Daughters of Time from The History Girls (a group blog - http://the-history-girls.blogspot.co.uk  - which I've joined relatively recently, and another good place to get ideas) and War Girls, which are all stories of women and girls set during WW1. I’m a big fan of Elizabeth Wein, and I think Code Name Verity will be a classic – I defy anyone not to find it gripping.  

But I think the most important thing is to experiment widely, and plunge right in without worrying too much about when a book is set or whether it might be just like school. Historical fiction encompasses love stories, thrillers, detective fiction, fantasy, ghost stories, war, and often a combination, so it depends what you’re in the mood for. Surprise yourself! 

And finally, Liberty's Fire was definitely one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2015. Which book(s) (UKYA or otherwise!) would be on your list?  

Thank you!  That’s wonderful to hear.  A long list… There’s so much great YA also coming out just this Thursday, including Keren David’s This is Not a Love Story (I loved seeing Jewish North London teenage life in a novel for the first time when I read early drafts of this), Liz Kessler’s Read me like a book, Lucy Coats’ Cleo, and while I’m encouraging others to step out of the boundaries of their favourite genre I should do the same and read more fantastical books, I must say I’m really intrigued by Frances Hardinge The Lie Tree - Kent, islands, 19th century, rumour – it’s ticking all the right boxes for me. As a mother of identical if not conjoined twins and a fan of The Weight of Water I can’t help looking forward to Sarah Crossan’s One.  Nigel MacDowell is a wonderful writer tackling a time and place close to my heart in The House of Mountfathom.  I’m already feeling autumn is too long to wait for this and also Catherine Johnson’s sequel to the fabulous Sawbones, which takes our characters to Paris and into the fray of the first French Revolution.

On the adult side, I want to read the new Toni Morrison, God Help the Child.   I read all her early work but have got very behind in the last few years. I loved Skippy Dies and think I won’t be able to resist The Mark and the Void. There’s a new Pat Barker: Noonday. And I’m planning to read Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan novels in Sardinia this summer, ready for the publication of the 4th book in September.  As for non-fiction, there’s a new interpretation of the Holocaust by Timothy Snyder and I’m not sure when Kate Summerscale’s new book is out but I hope it’s soon.  But I’m also looking forward to some surprises myself.

Thank you so much, Lydia, for these wonderful answers!  

Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson will be published by Hot Key Books on the 7th of May! Do look out for it.

REVIEW: Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson

Liberty's Fire by Lydia Syson is another really fascinating, exciting and emotional story by one of my favourite recent authors. It's set in another historical time period that I knew nothing about and yet as I was reading this story, I was swept away into the lives of these four main characters and I found myself hugely emotionally invested in their lives and this Paris of 1871 that was under such tumult.

Knowing nothing about the Commune of Paris, I knew absolutely nothing about what would happen but the build-up to that last 100 pages quickly grew as I was reading the story. Everything is gearing up towards something massive and knowing very little about the actual historical events meant that I was both on the edge of my seat and also hugely surprised by the turn of events that occurred.

One of the major reasons that I love Lydia Syson's stories so much is because it really felt like this revolution in Paris was brought to life for me and it has been the same with her previous two books as well. These characters, their relationships to each other, the way in which everything happens: it all felt so real to me and I was definitely invested in each of the four characters' well-being.  I felt like I understood them as people and while sometimes at the start of the story I felt shaky about the state of events politically in this story, by the end, I felt like I got it.

Liberty's Fire tells us the story of what happens between March and May 1871 in Paris during a time of political upheaval when a new socialist political party called the Commune came into power.  This story is told from four perspectives and through these perspectives the reader is able to see these events in a much broader way.

The first main character, Zephyrine, is a teenage girl who has been looking after her poorly grandmother who passes away just as the Commune is taking over.  Being all alone in Paris, Zephyrine worries about how she will feed herself and pay off her grandmother's bills.  But she is soon swept away in the politics of this new party and becomes very passionate about the Commune's ideals of sharing the wealth and providing better social care and education for everyone.  

There is also Anatole and Jules, friends and roommates. Anatole, a violinist, meets and falls in love with Zephryine and becomes just as quickly wrapped up in her as with her politics. But Anatole's friends, Jules, a wealthy American photographer, and Marie, an opera singer worried about her brother, don't share this same enthusiasm.

Zephyrine's experiences both with working with the Commune and also in her relationships with Jules and Anatole show off a great many things about what it was like for poor women in this time period. There is a great deal about the treatment of women here and also about the conditions of poor people which is a deep contrast to the ways in which Jules lives. I think Zephyrine's reaction to Jules' and Anatole's cat, Minou, is a great example of this. Jules is very well-off and is able to provide for Anatole and a pet during a time when the divide between working class and the wealthy is extreme.

I really loved each of these characters and throughout the story I really got a sense for who they are and for what is important to each of them.  I loved seeing the passion that each of these characters feels: Zephryine for this new radical movement. Jules for his photography and also Anatole. Anatole and his passion for music and Zephryine. Marie and her singing but also the welfare of her brother.  When things kick off it is very interesting to see where these characters end up and to see where their passions and ideals lead them.

I really loved this book. It was shocking and fascinating and just hugely emotional.  I found every detail of this book to be really interesting: the importance of the photographs, the fear and uncertainty of women who have been raised to a higher political power, the ending. This book was such a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me and I highly recommend that you read it!

Author Spotight: Lydia Syson

I would like to regularly shine a light on some amazing UKYA authors!

Today I would very much like to shine a spotlight on one of my favourite recent UKYA authors, Lydia Syson.  Lydia is the author of three amazing YA historical books, A World Between Us, That Burning Summer and newly-published Liberty's Fire which I will be discussing today.

It was with Lydia's first book for young adults that really captured my attention, but I also really love reading Lydia's blog in which her passion for history and politics really shines through. She's also writes for The History Girls which is a fantasy collaborative blog written by historical fiction writers!

Lydia Syson ... Lydia on Twitter ... The History Girls 

A World Between Us 

In 2012, I read Lydia Syson's first book for young adults, A World Between Us, and it was incredible. And for me, utterly surprising. Because previous to reading this book, I really didn't consider myself a fan of historical fiction. There was always something about it that put me off that I couldn't connect to on an emotional level. I think, perhaps, the reason that I agreed to read and review this book had a lot to do with the cover design (designer: Jan Bielecki, I believe!) The whole look of the book from the cover had me intrigued and so I sat down and this book changed how I felt about reading fiction based in a historical time period.  And it just completely changed my mind.

I think what I loved so much about reading this book is that it was so very easy to get swept away into the stories of these three main characters. A World Between Us is set during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and it follows three main characters as they navigate through the horrors of this war. I knew absolutely nothing about the Spanish Civil War prior to reading this story. Nothing. And after finishing this story, I was hugely intrigued and curious to know more. To research more, to uncover more because my interest had been piqued in this incredibly entertaining way. And it didn't feel like I was gaining a bunch of historical knowledge and detail into this time period when I was reading either. Everything felt incredibly natural and seamless. As well as emotional. I was committed to these three characters and their relationships to each other and their happiness and well-being. I needed that.

That Burning Summer

The following year, Hot Key Books published Lydia's second book, That Burning Summer. This time, the story focused on another three characters during the summer of 1940 in rural England during World War II. It centers around a 16 year old girl called Peggy and her brother, Ernest, and about Henryk, a Polish pilot who has crash-landed near to where Peggy lives. Peggy decides to care for Henryk herself in an abandoned church and soon feelings develop between Peggy and Henryk. 

I think what I loved so much about this book is about the exploration of courage. Both in doing what we feel is right as well as the mental courage it takes to do difficult things. It's also about loyalty. I read this book during a very large reading and blogging slump and never did review it but I think I'd like to re-read it at some point. Again, I felt really connected to the characters and their relationship to each other. I also loved the historical detail and the ease in which Lydia Syson tells this story without the historical elements weighing down the narrative. I felt like this was a very interesting and emotional story that had an added bonus of learning something I hadn't known before.

Liberty's Fire

And that brings me to Lydia's third book for adults, Liberty's Fire. Liberty's Fire is being published on the 7th of May by Hot Key Books and I really recommend that you not only pick up this book but also her two previous books as well.  This book is set in Paris in 1871 and it tells the story of a revolution from the perspectives of four different characters. I have a review of this book and an interview with Lydia coming up this week in which I will be writing more and you'll be hearing more about the story and the characters and everything else. Do look out for both of those!  

For now, let me just say that this book was another absolutely fascinating, emotional story rich in detail and told in Lydia's amazing writing style. I feel like I went on a journey with these characters. And everything, from the descriptions of the opera or 19th century photography techniques to the politics of the Communard: everything just drew me in and I couldn't help but be swept away by this story. 

Have you read anything by Lydia Syson? Have I tempted you to read any of these books by her?

Author Spotlight: Sally Gardner

I would like to regularly shine a light on some amazing UKYA authors. I hope you enjoy this new feature!

Sally Gardner is the author of many books for children and young people including picture books, early readers, middle grade book and young adult novels.  I will be focusing more on Sally's teen books throughout this post.  

I think the first time that Sally Gardner really showed up on my radar was with the publication of Maggot Moon, which won both the Costa Children's Book Award as well as the Carnegie, which is an amazing achievement! 

But the fact that Sally Gardner has been quite outspoken about her dyslexia and the challenges she faced growing up really made me sit up and take notice as well.  She didn't learn to read until she was 14 but went on to do very well at art college, and working in both theatre and costume design before writing and illustrating beautiful and engaging books. 

Many of Sally Gardner's books are historical fiction.  I, Coriander (published in 2005) was about 17th century London.  It sounds really good, with a fantasy twist and the addition of magical powers and a fairy princess!  Coriander sounds like a fun main character...

Sally then went on to write The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade both of which are stories set during the French Revolution.  I'd never really come across either of these books before I sat down to write this blog post, but I have to say, I'm intrigued!  I absolutely love reading about the French Revolution and stories set in France in general, but it sounds like The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade are amazing adventure stories, filling with great characters and plenty of drama and mishap.  I will definitely, definitely be on the look out for both of these titles! 

The Double Shadow is probably the book I know the least about, aside from the fact that loads of lovely people have said wonderful things about it.  And actually, I was sent a copy of this book for review but I was put off a bit by the sheer size of it and sent it to one of my amazing guest reviewers (who loved it!) I've since acquired another copy of it and I am determined to uncover this book's secrets! 

And then there's Maggot Moon a book I've heard so very much about!  I've heard this book described the most as being 'original' and having a really stand-out main character, Standish Treadwell. This is the book I'm most looking forward to reading of Sally Gardner's.  I love that it crosses genres and has a main character with dyslexia and the fact that this book won two very prestigious awards.  I'm just looking forward to it in general! 

Ooh, Tinder is the most beautiful, slim little book.  It's illustrated by David Roberts and I've always loved flicking through a finished copy of this book to see the drawings included that go together so well with the text.  Tinder is a retelling of a fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, The Tinderbox, with a setting of the 30 Year War.  I know absolutely nothing about the original fairy tale or the 30 Year War but I'm intrigued.  I hope this book is dark and slightly twisted and, from looking at some of the illustrations, I think that both are the case!

The Door That Led To Where is Sally Gardner's latest book, published this month by Hot Key Books.  It's an absolutely stunning little hardback book and I'm so excited to read it.  It's a sort of time-travel mystery adventure between present day London and 1830s London.  Exciting.

I'm so impressed with this collection of books that I've decided to do my own Sally Gardner read-along this month. I'm aiming to read the four books by her that I own but have not yet read: Tinder, Maggot Moon, The Double Shadow and The Door That Led To Where.  I'd love if you wanted to join with me in this!  

Find out more about Sally Gardner and her books at her website, or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Have you read anything by Sally Gardner? Will you be joining in my readalong?

REVIEW: Say Her Name by James Dawson

I was quite pleasantly surprised by Say Her Name by James Dawson. I'll admit, I did go into this book hoping that it would scare the pants off me and while it didn't quite reach that level for me, I did find Say Her Name consistently and, at times, uncomfortably creepy.  I loved that there was this thread of unease that really built up throughout the story and that there felt like quite a bit of tension.  Plus? I absolutely love the cover.

Say Her Name is the story of Bloody Mary and how the legend of this ghost manifests itself in the lives of a group of teenagers at a boarding school.  It all starts off as a bit of a joke at a Halloween party, when our main character, Bobbie, her room mate, Naya, and a local boy, Caine, end up in front of a mirror invoking Bloody Mary's name. Nothing happens immediately however, unfortunately for the three characters in Say Her Name, that isn't where the story ends.  Things start happening.  Nightmares, scary reflections in mirrors ...and then more.  There's a race against time for these three characters to find out what they can about Mary and this curse in order to save themselves.

I think my favourite aspect of this story is how much I came to care about the characters. Bobbie is a wonderful main character. I think she's funny and witty and has the best dialogue throughout the story.  I liked her relationship with her room mate, Naya, and how they interacted with each other.  And I also really liked Caine as a love interest, especially with how lacking in confidence Bobbie is to believe anything could happen.  But I think the thing I loved the most is what these three characters come to find out, in their search for answers, about Mary's past and how this curse came about. I think it could have been quite easy to not give Mary a back story but I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for Mary's character and I think that made this story a lot more interesting for me.

It also had lots of elements of scariness and horror.  I did read parts of this book late at night, in bed, alone and I found myself succumbing to some of the creepiness, especially with the elements of water and reflections.  My only complaint with the book is that I would have liked the ending to have gone in a different direction. I felt like the conclusion of the book took something away from what the author did with the Mary's back story and motivation.

Review: Unlocked Valentine's Novellas

I recently won a Twitter competition in which @UnlockedBooks were giving away their three special Valentine's Day-themed e-novellas. I was quite excited as I'd read several of the Christmas-themed novellas and really enjoyed them, in particular the story from Esme Taylor (Keris Stainton), All I Want For Christmas.  So with those high expectations, I waited until Valentine's Day in order to start these cute, romantic, sexy short reads. 

Despite the pink covers and the publication of these novellas around Valentine's Day, these both could easily be read and enjoyed at any time of the year.  Both Baby, One More Time by Esme Taylor and In Too Deep by Bea Longworth mention Valentine's Day but only in an off-hand sort of way. There is nothing overtly Valentine's-y at all and I would encourage you to read either of these if you are a fan of contemporary romance. 

Baby, One More Time by Esme Taylor 

 I started off the Valentine's Day e-novellas with Baby, One More Time by Esme Taylor. It's only 66 pages or so and I absolutely flew through the pages.  I was hooked from the very first chapter in which our main character, Cass, is browsing in a book store at the airport and she looks up to see her her ex-boyfriend, Nick. 

Cass and Nick decide to get some coffee together and catch up and what follows is this wonderful, tense exchange between two people with a messy, complicated history but who also seem to still to be deeply attracted to each other.  I loved Cass and Nick right from the start.  It was fun to see them try to navigate this weekend away in New York in which they experiment with being together again despite the reasons in which they broke up.  It was also quite hot without being overly explicit. 

I also really loved the setting of New York.  As the reader, you can tell how much the author loves New York based on the way she has written Cass and Nick exploring the city with such joy and enthusiasm. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more stories from Esme Taylor!

In Too Deep by Bea Longworth

Next up in my journey through the Valentine's-themed novellas from Unlocked Books, I picked up In Too Deep by Bea Longworth.  I wasn't familiar with the author beforehand but decided to dive right in anyway. 

In Too Deep tells the story of a girl, Daisy, who is feeling all kinds of conflict. First, she's nervous about her rowing try-outs at university, but also, she keeps seeing photos online of her ex-boyfriend which makes Daisy remember the things her ex told her about it being at fault for that unsatisfactory sex life.  While she is out rowing, she crashes into Ben, another rower who blows a bit hot and cold. Sometimes he's sexy and flirty with her and other times very arrogant. 

While there is less sexy times in this book than I expected, the thing that I really enjoyed about this book is how much of it is focused on providing Daisy with more confidence.  There's an extended make-over scene in the middle which really made me happy and I really loved the changes in Daisy after her encounters with Ben! 

COVER REVEAL for The Illusionists by Laure Eve (Fearsome Dreamer, #2)

Last year, I read Fearsome Dreamer, a debut book by UKYA author, Laure Eve. And it was incredible. It was a book that was pretty hard to define, in that it crosses a lot of genre boundaries, but it was to me was a magical tale that I got fully swept away in from the start and I loved it immensely.

Just to remind you about the first book in the series here are the product description and cover.

There is a world where gods you’ve never heard of have wound themselves into hearts, and choice has led its history down a different path.

This is a world where France made a small, downtrodden island called England part of its vast and bloated empire.

There are people here who can cross a thousand miles with their minds. There are rarer people still who can move between continents in the blink of an eye.

These people are dangerous.

And wanted. Desperately wanted.

Apprentice hedgewitch Vela Rue knows that she is destined for more. She knows being whisked off from a dull country life to a city full of mystery and intrigue is meant to be. She knows she has something her government wants, a talent so rare and precious and new that they will do anything to train her in it.

But she doesn’t know that she is being lied to. She doesn’t know that the man teaching her about her talent is becoming obsessed by her, and considered by some to be the most dangerous man alive ...


And the sequel, The Illusionists, will be published the 3rd of July by Hot Key Books. I'm so excited to read it and I hope you are as well.  Thanks to Laure for providing me (and a bunch of other amazing bloggers) with this cover reveal. I absolutely love it.  Find out more about Fearsome Dreamer and The Illusionist by visiting the following links...

The Illusionists on Goodreads ... Laure Eve ... Laure on Twitter ... Laure Eve on Facebook

A shocking new world. A dangerous choice. Two futures preparing to collide...

Having left White behind her in Angle Tar, Rue is trying to make sense of her new and unfamiliar life in World. Its culture is as baffling as is it thrilling to her, and Rue quickly realises World's fascination with technology can have intoxicating and deadly consequences.

She is also desperately lonely. And so is White. Somehow, their longing for each other is crossing into their dreams, dreams that begin to take increasingly strange turns as they appear to give Rue echoes of the future. Then the dreams reveal the advent of something truly monstrous, and with it the realisation that Rue and White will be instrumental in bringing about the most incredible and devastating change in both World and Angle Tar.

But in a world where Life is a virtual reality, where friends can become enemies overnight and where dreams, the future, and the past are somehow merging together, their greatest challenge of all may be to survive. 

 

What do you think?

 

REVIEW: Red Ink by Julie Mayhew

Guest review by Kulsuma

The synopsis for Red Ink by Julie Mayhew is great. Fifteen year old Melon’s mother is killed when she is run over by a bus and Melon now has no family to speak of. I picked up this book to see what Melon would find out about herself after her mother’s death, what family she might find and how she would deal with having a name like Melon. The story is told in a non-linear fashion; showing flashbacks to when Melon’s mother was still alive. Also, time and again, we are told ‘The Story’; the story of how Melon got her unusual name. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this story as much as I wanted to.

From the beginning, we know that Melon’s relationship with her mother wasn’t the most loving. However, I wanted to see if any explanation would be offered through the flashbacks as to why that was. In truth I didn’t enjoy Red Ink because it was a story about the relationship between a mother and a daughter but Melon’s mother never redeemed herself in my eyes.

They simply didn’t understand each other. There were too many lies between them. Melon herself didn’t seem to forgive her. One scene which really stuck with me was when Melon asks her mother once again why she called her Melon and her mother simply laughs at her, asking if she was being teased at school because of it. I couldn’t understand this puzzling behaviour; why would a mother find her child being teased about her name so amusing?

When the ‘true story’ comes out, it is shocking and sad, but not unexpected. However, Melon’s reaction to it was over the top. Furthermore, the ending left much to be desired. I didn’t think it was a ‘happy ending’ at all. What had Melon learnt on her journey? What had she learnt from her mother’s story? Nothing, it seemed. I didn’t enjoy Red Ink because I didn’t understand Melon’s motives for some of the decisions she makes, particularly at the end.

Overall, while I didn’t enjoy this story, I believe there are many people who will. The writing was beautiful and vivid but on the whole, I didn’t love the story.

Thank you for that, Kulsuma!

REVIEW: Secrets and Sapphires by Leila Rasheed

Secrets and Sapphires is the first book in a new series called 'At Somerton' by Leila Rasheed.  It's been billed as 'Gossip Girl meets Downton Abbey' and I was hugely excited to read it.  While it's always been a bit hit-and-miss with historical fiction for me, I found myself to be hugely excited to read this book and I wasn't at all disappointed.  In fact, I kind of want to read more in this series AND finally start watching Downton Abbey!

Despite the fact that there is quite a large cast of characters that crop up in this slim book, I didn't find myself at all confused, as I thought I might, between all of the characters and their different storylines. In fact, half way through reading Secrets and Sapphires, I thought to myself that I'm really quite glad that there a huge number of characters, as I'm hoping that there will be more stories to be told! I'd definitely be interested.

In this book, we are introduced to the residents, both upstairs and downstairs at Somerton Court.  Despite living a great deal of time in India, the Averley family have returned following the disgrace of Lord Averley in the military in India. Lord Averley is to wed a wealthy widow and her and her children descend upon Somerton Court and shake things up a bit in terms of scandal and scheming and secrets.  It was such fun to witness.

I really loved all of the characters, but the storylines that I was most interested in were that of Ada and Rose's.  Ada is a lady and she's getting ready for her first season in London, but she couldn't care less about it.  Instead, Ada daydreams not of balls and gowns but for the life of an Oxford student.  She wants to make something of herself be educated.  And despite the marriage proposal of an older family friend, Ada also finds herself with growing romantic feelings for the man's protege, Ravi.  Despite how society would view such a match as Ada and Ravi, they continue to correspond with each other via the help of Ada's new maid, Rose.

Now Rose was always going to uncover some great secret about herself that her mother has been hiding all these years, but I still wanted good things for Rose.  She's musically very gifted, but because of her station in life, she's never been able to practice the piano freely. Like Ada, she wants more for herself but feels helpless in the pursuit of her dreams.

While Rose and Ada help each other in the struggles of maintaining a forbidden friendship with a man and Rose's continuation of playing the piano, the rest of the house is a nest of scandal and secrets.  Charlotte and her maid Stella are particularly sneaky and deceiving and I loved to hate them both! It was also interesting to see Sebastian's difficulties in dealing with a former lover. 

All in all, Secrets and Sapphires was a hugely fun novel to read, with many different strands of narrative joining together to paint a complex picture of scandal and society. I cannot wait to read more in this series!

REVIEW: A World Between Us by Lydia Syson

I'm absolutely surprised and blown away by A World Between Us by Lydia Syson! I'd only been vaguely aware of this book previous to a tweet by one of the lovely ladies at Hot Key Books, but when I was offered it for review, I said 'yes' straightaway.  And even though I'm not always the biggest fan of historical fiction, something about this book appealed to me.

And when A World Between Us arrived, I decided not to delay any more and just to dive right into it.  And right from the very beginning, I was absolutely fascinated by this book.  I think Lydia Syson does an incredible job balancing the story of this book told from the perspectives of its three main characters and also giving the reader a good sense of historical detail and what it would have been like during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s.  This is a time period that I know absolutely *nothing* about, but I was gripped by it all.  I found each detail about the horrors of war, the response from the media, and the many ways in which this war changed the lives of many people to be hugely interesting.  I didn't want to stop reading this book and I read most of it in one sitting.

I truly loved each of the three main characters within this book.  First, there's Felix, a young nurse who on her way home one day stumbles into an anti-fascist protest in London.  There, she meets Nat, this passionate guy who believes he can help the Republicans in Spain fight against the fascist regime of Franco.  When Felix has the chance to follow Nat to Spain and volunteer as a nurse to help in this civil war, she does so not quite knowing the full extent of the horrors she will face there.  And as Felix has followed Nat to Spain, so George follows Felix.  George is an old family friend, someone who Felix has known for awhile but she has seemed to miss all the signs of his growing feelings for her until just before Felix flees to Spain.  George manages to change his work assignment and ends up in Spain as a foreign correspondent covering the war.

I can hardly describe how much I loved this book or why.  I really fell for each of the characters and I was fascinated by the experiences that they each have.  I loved seeing this war from three very different points of view. I thought the relationships between George and Felix and Felix and Nat were done very sweetly and these three really made my heart ache.   This book began with some excitement and adventure and romance and it was very interesting to see how much the war takes out of all three of these characters and to see how each of their feelings begin to change.  Right to the very last page, I found myself very emotionally invested in George and Felix and Nat and also about their shared cause of anti-fascism in Spain. Because I knew nothing about this Civil War previous to this book, I really didn't know how it would all end up!

I finished A World Between Us by Lydia Syson with a happy smile on my face despite the tears.  I'm really glad to have read it, to have gained a bit more historical knowledge than I had before and I finished the book absolutely inspired to read more about the Spanish Civil War and also to read more about history in general.  I love being inspired in this way. A huge thank you to Hot Key Books and to Lydia Syson for this.  This book is out now, I highly recommend that you read it!