Little Evie in the Wild Wood by Jackie Morris and Catherine Hyde

review by Maryom

Come with Little Evie  for a walk through the Wild Woods, as she carries her basket laden with jam tarts. The tension builds as Little Evie wanders further into the wood, till the sunlight is just a glimmer in the distance. What is waiting for her, hiding in the shadows beneath the trees..

   "Great eyes, the better to see her with
     Great ears, the better to hear her call ...."


Drawing inspiration from Little Red Riding Hood, here is a tale that shows that wild places are not necessarily full of danger.  

This is the first joint project from two of my favourite artists. Catherine Hyde's dark, brooding style of painting perfectly complements Jackie Morris' poetic prose, both evoking the shadowy world of the Wild Wood, pierced by shafts of sunlight, filled with the rustlings of birds and small creatures.

This is a book to share in many ways; an ideal 'happy ending' bedtime story to read to a small child, or for an older one to read to themselves or search out the woodland creatures hiding in the forest's depths, or maybe - and this what I'd like to do - take it out to your nearest wood and share the things that Little Evie sees and hears; listen to

    "the birdsong
       and the sound of the greenwood,
         leaves growing, twigs cracking,
           the rustle of beetles
             and the buzzing of bees"

A gorgeous book that I'm sure many children will treasure for years and years.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - picture book, folk tale,  

You can of course buy Little Evie in the Wild Wood from Amazon but the authors are running a special competition through a selection of independent retailers - details of which can be found here along with more pictures of Little Evie.

Brighton Belle by Sara Sheridan

review by Maryom

1951. Brighton. With the war over and the Nazis brought to justice at Nuremberg, Mirabelle Bevan (Secret Service, retired) thinks her skills are no longer required. After her lover's death she retires to the seaside to put the past behind her and takes a job at a debt collection agency run by the charismatic Big Ben McGuigan. But when the case of Romana Laszlo - a pregnant Hungarian refugee - comes in, Mirabelle soon discovers that her specialist knowledge is vital. With enthusiastic assistance from insurance clerk Vesta Churchill, they follow a mysterious trail of gold sovereigns and corpses that only they can unravel.

Mirabelle won't quite admit it but she's finding post-war life a little dull, so a little mystery to solve comes as quite a diversion. She's an independent, sophisticated young woman in the habit of thinking and acting for herself but she soon discovers that there's a huge difference between sitting in an office, writing the manual on covert ops, and putting them into practice. Vesta is more cautious and baulks at some of things Mirabelle asks her to do but never chickens out. Together they make an interesting and unusual team.

Brighton Belle is what I like to consider a good old-fashioned 'cosy' crime book - there are no psycho serial killers loosing their grudges on the world just good old bad guys prepared to murder their way to a profit - and Mirabelle herself is a 'traditional' amateur sleuth - think Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence series or a Brighton based Mma Ramotswe. Brighton itself is a murky sort of place with underworld gangs operating almost in the open and a corrupt police force that turns a blind eye. It hadn't really occurred to me till I started to add the 'tags' to this post but I suppose fiction written now and set in the 1950s counts as 'historical'

This is my first Mirabelle Bevan mystery - a lucky find at the library which, after reading Sheridan's Secret of the Sands, I'd expected to enjoy - and most definitely did! I'm now hoping they stock more!

Maryom's review - 5 stars

Publisher - Polygon

Genre - crime, adult, historical
 
Buy Brighton Belle (A Mirabelle Bevan Mystery) from Amazon

Undone by Cat Clarke

review by Maryom

Since childhood Jem Halliday has been in love with the boy next door - Kai. The only snag is, Kai is gay. Jem makes the best of it and they still continue as best friends, spending every spare minute together but then the unthinkable happens - Kai is 'outed' online is such a way that he takes his life. Jem's world falls apart. She almost follows him but is stopped by receiving the first of a series of letters written to her by Kai in his last hours and deciding that revenge on those she believes responsible would be a better plan....

Is it possible to like a book if you don't like the main character? I often say it isn't but in this case maybe it is. I started this book a while ago - and put it down because I didn't like Jem and her attitude - she's far too self-centred. Then, I decided to give it another go and got hooked reading it; although she was still annoying. The story centres on Jem's plan for revenge on the people she feels were responsible for Kai taking his own life - the so called Team Popular, the girls and guys at school that she feels everyone wants to be. As she infiltrates their clique, she grows to see that the people she'd disliked from a distance aren't all bad, that a lot of what she'd thought about them was just her perception and that once she's got to know them they are likeable. As the story progressed, I definitely felt more sympathy for Team Popular than I did for Jem.
It's a no-holds barred story about growing up and finding oneself - and as a parent I didn't like the casual assumption that all 16 year olds drink and have sex; maybe some, let's hope not all, do, but it's too easy for teens to fall into the assumption that that only weirdos and the terminally un-cool don't and this book seemed to re-inforce that outlook.

Overall, I found Undone a rather sad read that left me with a huge sense of loss that so many lives could be ruined by one stupid act.

Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher - Quercus
Genre - YA  

 Buy Undone from Amazon

We Have Lift Off by Sean Taylor

Illustrated by Hannah Shaw

Review by The Mole

Farmer Tanner doesn't care about the pollution he makes and the impact it has on others. A clever pig decides to build an intergalactic space rocket so the animals can escape to a clean start in space somewhere. A few test flights don't go according to plan until an impromptu flight seems to solve all their problems... but what for for everyone else?

This most delightful book has colour in abundance on every page and lots of words to read. It's a sort of crossover from the early reader to the more confident reader and contains a couple of very important environmental messages - anti pollution and recycling.

An excellent book both from the illustrations, which fill every page with colour and humour, and the story, which is simple and silly but so very poignant in it's message.

To read to youngsters, for youngsters to read aloud or for youngsters to read to themselves. Although it could be used as just a picture book it is so much more than that.

Publisher - Frances Lincoln
Genre - Children's, picture book, Early Reader
Buy We Have Lift-Off! (Time to Read) from Amazon

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

review by Maryom

Lexie has been sent down from University and idling her time away at home in Cornwall when a chance meeting with sophisticated Londoner Innes Kent opens a whole new world for her. Following him, she moves to London and a journalistic career in the 1950s Soho art scene.
In the present day, Elina is physically and emotionally wrecked, trying to come to terms with the world after the birth of her first child. Her boyfriend Ted finds fatherhood brings back a flood of memories that don't seem to tie in with what he knows of his childhood. His search leads him to unexpected places and events which link Lexie and Elina.

My first thought was Wow Why haven't I read this sooner? Since winning the Costa prize back in 2010 and all the great things I'd heard about it, it had sort of been on my radar as something I should read sometime but was just one of books I'd never got round to. Reading O'Farrell's latest novel, Instructions for a Heatwave, gave me the little push I needed to visit the library and borrow this at last. Now I'm annoyed that I hadn't read it before.
O'Farrell's appeal lies in the way she seemingly effortlessly gets into her characters, finds out what makes them tick, how they live, sleep and breathe. The way she captures the upheaval caused by the birth of a child is astounding - that feeling that the world now revolves around the baby and everything else falls by the wayside. That isn't to say that the other plot line is slight by comparison - both carry the same weight and impact. They move round each other and compelled me to read, read, read to find out how and when they would meet - and when they did, the realisation of what had happened hit me like a bomb shell!
An excellent book and if like me you've just not got round to reading it, do it now!

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Headline
Genre - adult fiction


Buy The Hand That First Held Mine from Amazon

The Qualities of Wood by Mary Vensel White

Review by The Mole

Betty Gardiner dies and Nowell Gardiner, her grandson, returns to prepare the house for sale. Later Vivian, his wife, joins him as do his brother and his future wife. A girl is found dead in the woods and there are mysterious neighbours roaming the woods as well. The death is ruled an accident but Vivian can't so easily put it to one side and as she cleans and organises the house other secrets start to bubble to the surface.

I very quickly found myself drawn into the story and the characters, most of whom contained contradictions but those contradictions were entirely within character. I was drawn into reading but also found myself trying to second guess the plot - something that spoiled the book for me a little but I am sure that that was just me.

One thing I couldn't reconcile though was the ending. It felt rushed - contrived - a little like a French Farce with doors opening on all sides of the stage and characters coming on to share their secrets. Once again, I am sure that was me and on the whole the story was addictive and haunting and had a happy ending. Or was it sad? You decide.

The copy I have says that it is available in paperback on 25th July 2013 although I am struggling to see it on sale anywhere except in eBook format.

Publisher - The Friday Project
Genre - Adult literary fiction

Some Day I'll Find You by Richard Madeley

  review by Maryom

" James Blackwell is sexy and handsome and a fighter pilot - every girl's dream partner. At least that is what Diana Arnold thinks when her brother first introduces them. Before long they are in love and marry hastily just as war is declared. Then fate delivers what is the first of its cruel twists: James, the day of their wedding, is shot down over Northern France and killed. Diana is left not only a widow but pregnant with their child. Ten years later, contentedly remarried, Diana finds herself in the south of France, sitting one morning in a sunny village square. A taxi draws up and she hears the voice of a man speaking English - the unmistakable voice of someone who will set out to torment her and blackmail her and from whom there can be only one means of escape..."

I must admit I was intrigued when I saw that Richard Madeley had written a novel - after all as co-host of the long-running Richard + Judy Book Club he must have developed some idea of what he likes and what makes a good book. So what would his offering be like?
Well, curiously it feels like the sort of story that gets labelled 'women's fiction' - a tale of love and deceit  moving from the English countryside at the start of WW2 to the glamorous setting of the French Riviera in the 50s. It's a great plot outline but unfortunately the style of writing didn't really 'grab' me. I found the characters a bit flat and the plot too predictable, especially after reading the publishers' synopsis quoted above.
I'm sure there are lots of readers who will love it - my mum for one -
but I'm not one of them.

Maryom's review - 3 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - romantic fiction

Buy Some Day I'll Find You from Amazon