Thanks to Chris and Claire for my copy of this book and to the Love Books team for organising this blog tour.
What did I like?
The story is simple but effective. The rhyme works well and it is funny. The monsters are really quite cute and they have individual characteristics that make them stand out. While the authors state at the beginning that the book is for reading to children, I think it’s just right for beginner readers needing something to practice with.
What didn’t I like?
Nothing. I enjoyed it all.
What do I think of the illustrations?
I really liked the illustrations, they’re fun and the muted colour palette is perfect. The colour pop of the ice cream at the end is perfect.
Would I read other books by the author?
Yes, and then send them on to my cousin for his children who are at about the right age to enjoy them, 3 – 5 years old.
I enjoy an Icelandic Noir, Scandi Noir in general, and books from Orenda Books especially. The team have excellent taste and employ brilliant translators. I also collect first editions, usually of sci fi and fantasy from Goldsboro Books, but this was a special case – a new author from Orenda! I was intrigued buy the blurb and ordered it to support the author and publisher. I am so pleased I did.
I bought it when it first came out and started reading it but other books and work took precedent, so I put it down. Then I got the second book, which I was ever more intrigued by. I reviewed it for the blog tour, and have the same special edition. I read that quickly and promised myself I would read the first book. And today I have.
I don’t regret spending several hours today reading, it’s been rather relaxing reading a book because I want to rather than because I need to for blog tours or work. I had time to really get into it.
It was a tense read, as Elma navigates both her complex relationship with her family and her new colleagues in Akranes CID. Then an unknown woman is found dead on the beach by the lighthouse. It takes a lot of digging to find out who she is and how she ended up in the sea by Akranes. The investigation drags up 30-year-old secrets, crimes against children, and an unexpected killer.
I was so engrossed I was late for a coffee date with a friend I haven’t seen in six months. and then once I got back I settled down with a mug of hot chocolate to finish reading the second half of the book. It was gripping. I really needed to know who did what, but also found Elma a fascinating and complex character. Her willingness to sidestep her boss when she identifies his unwillingness to upset and important family. Elma doesn’t care, her years away from Akranes have broken any connections she might have had, had she stayed. Her mother’s gossip is actually helpful.
I found the ending a bit frustrating, because the killer is caught but the instigators escape punishment. I know things continue in ‘Girls Who Lie’, but if I’d read this one first I’d have been a bit unhappy.
I recommend getting both, blocking out your weekend and settling in with snacks, coffee/tea/hot chocolate and possibly a commode, because you will not want to be disturbed.
While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure that Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.
Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But, his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.
But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason, and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years, the chance to finally solve the case, while all around them the uncertainty of war continues, impossible to ignore.
BLANKA VON FROCK When you want more but you have all you need, it’s Blanka von Frock, whose tale you should read. She bullies her sisters in their frozen windmill, and her greedy demands give the village a chill: “I want what I want and I want it today, so listen up sisters and do as I say” D.M. Mullan’s Curious Tales D.M. Mullan’s Curious Tales is a series of peculiar modern fables from author D.M. Mullan and illustrator Kirsteen Harris-Jones. With a classic rhyming style and wonderfully quirky illustrations, each book centres around a unique little individual and tells their story all whilst being part of a wider, interconnected, world.
Constable – 29th September 2020 hardback £20.00 – also available as an eBook/audio
The definitive, authorised biography of
Lee Child
“Riveting . . . archival diligence . . . [Martin] is a skilled and audacious interlocutor, too, but her subject is just as adept as interviewee . . . starkly affecting” – Irish Times
The Reacher Guy is a life of bestselling superstar Lee Child, a portrait of the artist as a young man, refracted through the life of his fictional avatar, Jack Reacher. It tells the story of how the boy from Birmingham reinvented himself to become the strongest brand in publishing, selling over one hundred million books in more than forty different languages across the globe.
Heather Martin interviews friends, teachers, colleagues and neighbours, including agents and editors. Based primarily on her conversations with the author over a period of years, together with readings of his books and research in his literary archive, this authorised biography reveals the man behind the myth, tracing his origins back through the generations to Northern Ireland and County Durham, and following the trajectory of his extraordinary career via New York and Hollywood until the climactic moment when, in 2020, having written a continuous series of twenty-four books, he finally floats free of his fictional creation.
Lee Child comments: “I met Heather Martin some years ago, and we started talking about why people love telling and hearing stories. To get more depth and detail we started talking about why I do. Eventually I said, ‘If you want to really get to the bottom of it, you’re going to have to write my biography.’ So she did. It was a fun and illuminating process. I had forgotten a lot, and it was fascinating to be reminded. Now it all makes sense.”
“Vivid and entertaining . . . a must-buy for any aspiring novelist, thanks in particular to its terrific insight into how Child’s first book was written, rewritten, edited, sold and published.” – The Telegraph
“You’ll emerge from the first 300-odd pages knowing more about [Child’s] formative years that you do about your own.” – The Times
In Scotland, in1941, as WW2 increases in ferocity, Rhona Begg goes against her parents’ wishes and enlists in the ATS—a decision that brings with it heart-breaking consequences. After the war, weighed down with regret and grief, Rhona receives news that has the power to change her life.
Across the ocean in Australia, Nell Duncan worries about her husband who is fighting in the Far East. When she receives the dreaded news that he is missing in action, her world collapses. The end of the war brings changes to Nell’s life, but her dream of bearing a child is no longer possible and she grieves for what might have been.
In 1971, when Joy Baker gives birth to her daughter, she begins the journey to discover her ancestry. What she finds shocks her to the core and propels her on a journey to the land of her birth.
Three women. Three mothers. Three astonishing stories.
From wartime Scotland to present day Australia. A Mother’s Story is an emotion-filled sweeping family saga.
After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.
From the small town in Scotland where she grew up Scotland, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!
Everything Is Better With Dragons 