Bracelet of Bones by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Not All Blood and Guts

review by Maryom

Solveig's father, Halfdan, has upped and offed, gone to follow his old comrade-in-arms, Harald Hardrada to Miklagard and join the Empress's guards there. Solveig is not pleased to be left behind with her stepmother and two irritating stepbrothers, and determines to follow him despite the long, arduous journey and many dangers on the way.

Vikings are well known as warriors and raiders but this story introduces their 'gentler' side as traders - buying and selling goods throughout the Baltic, up river to Novgorod and down the other side of the watershed to the Black Sea and Miklagard (modern Istanbul).

Solveig's epic adventure takes her along this route, on foot and by boat, with something new almost every step of the way. This world is brought wonderfully to life for the reader - it almost seems possible to be beside Solveig as the boat hurls down rapids or as she stands entranced by the sights and sounds of a bustling southern market.

Harald Hardrada was a real historical figure - I won't say more as I think his story will figure in any sequels - and the author has blended fact and fiction to create an exciting story backed with historical detail. As a young teen, inspired by Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas in The Vikings, I loved anything even remotely Viking related and read all Henry Treece's novels - this is a really good successor to them.

An excellent adventure proving that Vikings weren't all blood and guts - likely, I think, to appeal to both boys and girls.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars
Publisher - Quercus 
Genre - teenage, historical fiction,

Buy Bracelet of Bones (Viking Sagas) from Amazon

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Fantasy Island
review by Maryom

As a small child, Jacob was fascinated by his grandfather's tales of the children's home where he was brought up on a remote Welsh island, of the weird and wonderful children he shared it with and of the hideous monsters hunting them down. As he grows older, Jacob dismisses them as mere stories until after his grandfather's gruesome death, he discovers a box of old photographs which show these strange children - and Jacob finds himself driven to investigate the place where all these things occurred and to lay the past hopefully to rest.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a book that may well appeal to lovers of the quirky and weird but didn't really grab me. I thought it started really well - with Jacob's dismissal of his grandfather's tales as make-believe and then his dawning realisation that there may have been some truth behind them. It was when the story moved to Wales that it tailed off a bit. I found my thoughts snagging and tripping over irrelevancies - the island and its inhabitants felt Scottish rather than Welsh, the age of the photographs didn't match the supposed date they were taken. The characters suffered in the same way - the American ones - Jacob and family, his best mate, even the staff at the shop - were better drawn than the 'peculiar children' or the other islanders.

Having said that, I read it under the misconception that it was adult fiction. I think as teen fantasy it probably works better.


Maryom's review - 3.5 stars
Publisher - Quirk Books
Genre - teen, fantasy

May Contain Traces of Magic by Tom Holt

A comfy pair of slippers
Review by The Mole

Chris and Karen moved in together a number of years ago and their life is getting very routine. Chris sells magic items for JWW Retail and is stuck in a rut. His sat nav offers advice on how to break out of the rut but then he is given a trainee, Angela to take around with him. And then... well stuff happens. Demons try to kill him - or do they? And time goes wonkey. And he falls down a toilet or two. Well it's Tom Holt isn't it? And Tom Holt doesn't do this stuff without throwing in lots of humour.

I first 'met' Tom Holt when Karen, a nurse on Cardiac Care, asked me what I was reading - it was a Pratchett and so she suggested Tom Holt and brought in Ye Gods! I only had the book for a few hours before being moved to Cardiology but as soon as I was released into the care of the  community, I contacted Amazon and bought my own copy to finish it and since then I have read quite a few.

Before I started blogging about books I pretty well only read Pratchett/Holt/Robert Rankin books but since then I have read so many new authors of so many genres and I have enjoyed so many (I stand by every review I have done).

This book was a birthday present and has been sitting on the TBR pile for more than a year and as I awaited the postman I decided this one was next. Well, we all have shoes for different occasions; hiking, running, shopping dancing, gardening etc and when we have completed those activities and get home at the end of the day - worn out and happy with our feet, we slip our slippers on and our feet say 'Thanks,that was fun and those shoes were good but this is what life is all about - let's chill'. That is what picking this book up was like, a comfy pair of slippers at the end of the day.

Thoroughly enjoyed what I found to be the best Holt yet. And that's why I don't allocate star ratings to books any more, because when you've given the maximum then you can't give any more.

Fantastic fun read - EXCELLENT!

Publisher - Orbit Books
Genre - Adult Fiction, Humour, Fantasy


Buy May Contain Traces of Magic from Amazon

World Book Day - 1st March 2012

It's soon to be World Book Day again! 

When our youngest was at primary school this was an exciting day with events about books focussed around it. Still, today, children are given a £1 book token and a range of £1 books is available at many retailers for them to pick from or they can use it as a discount on a more expensive book.

OK but why WORLD Book Day? It focuses on the classroom and the bookshops so why the word 'WORLD'.

There are others involved too that are taking this international for extremely good causes. What is a book? A book is an entertainment. It's a learning tool - if only learning to read. Learning to read paves the way for improvement in life and, potentially, a way out of poverty. So based on starting young, Book Aid International work at this time to "support literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa". And at this time schools can help them in their work by some fun fund raising ideas that they have on their website www.bookaid.org or maybe you can come up with ideas of your own. Have a read of their site, have a word with the school and see if we can't all help them in this work.

Edwin Spencer: Mission Improbable by J D Irwin

No ordinary science lesson
Review by The Mole

Edwin Spencer is an ordinary boy (and that makes a bit of a change before we start!) with three academically excelling sisters while he plods along, like boys do, doing the minimum at school. Then in a science lesson a vortex appears and a voice commands him to enter it. Edwin hasn't lost control of his mind and like all sensible people keeps well clear. But the vortex is out to get him and one day, while hiding in a cupboard, he gets dragged off to a strange adventure.

I made a mistake with this book and tried to out guess the author but it's not a book like that. The story twists and turns and the reader knows all the information as it's given and can try to guess who the bad guys are. It didn't help, I still got it wrong!

Well plotted, engaging and fast moving this story is bound delight the 9+ readers, both boys and girls. The story is shared with a heroine in the form of Perpetua, an academically excelling student in Edwin's form who also happens to be 'concerned' (nosey?) about Edwin and so gets caught in the vortex.

This story is bound to delight young readers and another adventure follows in Edwin Spencer: Shadow Magic.


Publisher - Catnip Publishing
Genre - Children's 8+ fantasy fiction

Buy Edwin Spencer Mission Improbable from Amazon

This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees

review by Maryom

This Is Not Forgiveness is the story of three intertwined lives
- there's Rob - invalided out of the army after a land mine explosion badly damaged his leg, now disillusioned and drifting, unable to pick up the pieces of his life,

- his younger brother Jamie - always picked on and even bullied by his older brother but still looking up to him,

- and Caro, the girl that attracts them both - trouble-filled, attention craving and searching for something to give meaning to her life. Jamie is falling deeper under her spell but love and a happy ending is not on her agenda. She's more interested in radical protests and political terrorism. Rob's discontent gives her an idea of the way to make the ultimate attention grabbing stunt.

This Is Not Forgiveness is a compelling, disturbing, brilliant read. I picked it up from the library one day - and had finished it by next morning!

It starts as a letter from Jamie to Rob, trying to work through his anger at his brother, then moves to personal accounts from Jamie, Rob and Caro. Telling the story from three different points of view gets the reader inside the heads of these emotionally scarred young people - all more vulnerable than they would let the world believe. I felt I could share their emotions - no matter how mixed up and confused - and sympathise with them.

It's one of those stories where I wanted to grab the characters and tell them to stop what they're doing because they're in out of their depth. From page one the reader is aware that something dreadful has happened but I wanted to step in and prevent it, the unravelling is so painful to watch.

It's a book that asks questions but doesn't preach. For those who want to investigate further, it raises interesting socio-political issues or you could just read it as a love story/race-against-time thriller.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Bloomsbury
Genre - YA
Buy This is Not Forgiveness from Amazon

Cold Kiss by John Rector

A Cold Thriller
Review by The Mole

Nate and Sara are broke and running away to get married  because Sara's parents don't approve. When a stranded motorist offers silly amounts of cash for a lift to Omaha then Sara persuades Nate to relent in his objections. A snow storm is brewing and they are losing the race against it. The scene is set....

OK, this kind of scene is well used by many authors but what John Rector brings to it is new and refreshing, in a bloodthirsty, psychopathic sort of way. The story is told from the 'I' that is Nate and we learn more about his history, his health and why he keeps having blinding headaches, as the story progresses. Although I found myself having sympathy with him and his story, I couldn't bring myself to like or trust him. Sara, his girlfriend, is more straightforward and understanding of Nate's problems and supportive but finds herself increasingly alienated by his behaviour. His behaviour? The Motel is, typically to such stories, populated by people whose behaviour is less than perfect. The tension builds and the reader is left knowing that someone is going to do something to someone but trying to guess who those someones are going to be.

There are times when you say to yourself 'that could not happen!'. In fact there are times when the characters acknowledge the fictional quality of the scene they are in and also say 'that could not happen!'. This doesn't change the fact that this was one of the books that I have had most difficulty putting down and been most anxious to pick up again.

John Rector's début novel is a must for thriller readers, I thoroughly recommend it!

Publisher - Simon and Schuster
Genre - Adult Thriller