First Term at Malory Towers review

I decided to write this review to hopefully help you to see the magic that can be seen in children’s books. Not only that, but to see how an author who has been accused of being sexist can write such strong, clearly defined characters who do not need the help of men to solve their problems.

First Term at Malory Towers is the first of six books by Enid Blyton. It is the third school series written by Blyton, starting the year after she finished the St Clare’s series and was inspired by Blyton’s oldest daughter Gillian going to boarding school.

In the books we follow the heroine, Darrell Rivers, through her school life, which include her ups and downs, friends and enemies. It has to be my favourite school series and has always made me want to attend Malory Towers.

We meet an excited Darrell ready to set off to school in her brand new uniform. It’s nice to have a book start with someone being excited to go off to school and even though the idea of a brown and orange uniform sounds quite unappealing, I do think it could look very nice if matched properly.

We follow Darrell from her home to the station to catch the train for Cornwall, where Malory Towers is located. Naturally she is nervous about her new school, wondering what it will be like and if she’ll make friends. Blyton makes it very easy for the reader to relate to Darrell from the beginning, and these nerves that she experiences make her more human. The fun really begins when she is plunged into the world of Malory Towers at the station. First she is introduced to the sensible Miss Potts who is to be her form mistress and head of North Tower where Darrell is to sleep.

From the formidable Miss Potts we are then introduced to Alicia Johns, a girl in Darrell’s form who has been at Malory Towers for some time (though we are not told how long). Darrell takes an instant liking to Alicia, hoping that this older girl will be her special friend.

Alicia comes across as a hard character from the start and I’ve always wondered why Darrell so wants her as a friend when it’s easy for the reader identify her as a class clown and a bit of a bully. Alicia does get a little better, but I’ve never really warmed to Alicia or understood why you would want her as friend. She reminds me of the popular girls at school who would bully you without a thought to your feelings if you got on their wrong side.

Gwendoline Lacey is another a new girl, however she has none of the characteristics Darrell has which make her so instantly likeable. She is painted as a cry baby, spoilt and worst of all in the sporty world of Malory Towers: overweight. The girls don’t make Gwendoline’s life easy, and Alicia especially says some quite spiteful things to her over the course of the book.

The only other new girl to join them is quiet Sally Hope who seems the complete opposite to everyone else in the train carriage because she does not seem excited about going away to boarding school. She is quiet and withdrawn, which allows her to slide into the background for a short while in this book.

So on to Malory Towers, with its four towers North, South, East and West, which hold the girls’ dormitories and common rooms. Darrell, Sally and Gwendoline are all in North Tower together, with a stern matron and Miss Potts to keep an eye on them.

The term begins quite calmly with lots of fun but hard work as well. Alicia turns out to be the trickster of the form which adds a whole lot of enjoyment to lessons and Darrell wishes Alicia would be her special friend. However she soon learns that mucking around has its price as her marks for school work start to slip.

Sally’s brief illness acts as a catalyst for a complete change of character. After being a very closed off character who often fades into the background, her persona changes and she becomes a very lovely person very quickly and she becomes like an open flower instead of a closed one. The new Sally is instantly likeable. I think you see more of her personality in those last few chapters than you ever do in the rest of the books, except in the third form where Sally’s jealousy gets the better of her, but at the same time she does fade into the background a lot of the time.

I hope I haven’t given too much away from First Form at Malory Towers, but I don’t want to ruin the book for you. Personally I love this book. The ups and the downs of the term make it such a thrilling read, for instance when Darrell is nicer to Mary-Lou and the spiteful tricks Gwendoline plays.

I hope I have managed to show you what a good read this is, and how characters of their time, can break the stereotype. Enjoy this light read, and let me know what you think!

About the writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

Miranda Hart: Is It Just Me?

image from here

Many of you probably know Miranda Hart better for her award winning TV series than her writing, but her ‘biography’ caused a great stir in the literary world. Whenever a big, of the moment, star brings out their autobiography it means big things; they’re going places and plan to be around a while, as Ms Hart has done.

However, I’m not entirely sure that this book is a conventional biography, which seems to fit in with what I know about Miranda Hart. I do not watch her TV series’, but find her amusing whenever I have seen her elsewhere- and certainly in Call the Midwife she is quite brilliant as the posh nurse.

However, instead of describing areas of her life in chronological order, and in detail, like so many biographies do; hart decides to dedicate this so-called biography into a How to deal with Everyday life, manual or Miran-ual (she actually creates and uses this word frequently in the book).

Hart’s book describes situations that have arisen in her life and how she had handled them, while advising her readers (or My Dear Reader Chums) how to avoid her mistakes at all costs. Hart talks the readers through how not to make mistakes at office parties with making uncomfortable small talk, embarrassing yourself at dates, and awkward family Christmases.

All the time this advice is going on, I did wonder why we were not being treated to a more conventional biography of her life, as far back as she could remember to the present day; but then I remembered this is Miranda Hart. Conventional just is not in the rule book.

The book itself is (at best) semi-autobiographical as Hart draws on her life experience without filling in the time with blow by blow account of her life. It makes it stand out certainly, but I believe it’s classification is wrong. More a humorous self-help manual than anything, “Is it Just Me?” has a bewitching quality that comes across in Hart’s on screen personality, and there is something very engaging and comforting about this book. It does not take itself seriously, which adds to the character; everything is always ready to have the innuendo or micky taken out of it. Something a good biography should be able to do!

An easy read for sure, full of “Gosh that is so me!” moments and not as difficult to follow as a tricky personal timeline, this book is one that has to be read from start to finish, even if you only dip in and out of it over time.

Obviously if you are a Miranda fan, it is a must read, but even for those who do not like the tall gangly Miranda Hart it should be on your reading list as the nights draw in and we all cuddle up under our blankets with hot chocolate, tea or coffee (not to mention a cheeky biscuit… or three).

My only peeve about this otherwise comical text is that when Hart talks about boarding schools, and she compares hers to Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, she spells it with two L’s i.e. Mallory Towers. Major pet peeve, and one that any proof writer and editor should have checked. However, do not worry Ms Hart, you are not alone in spelling one of my favourite author’s most popular series wrong; even some diehard fans are guilty of this. Just for next time, please do try and remember!

So there you have it, Miranda Hart’s “Is it just me?” is a good autumn read, light, playful and easy to come back to. A must have book for a short chapter here and there on those long winters nights. Easily a four out of five.

About the Writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

The Hunger Games review

After the Twilight phenomenon started to die down teenage girls around the world were on the lookout for the next big thing. That thing was Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Intrigued by all I had heard about it, and unable to borrow it from the library because the waiting list was THAT long, I found a cheap copy online and took a chance on it.

The story is of a 16 year old, Katniss Everdeen, who is from an area called District 12 in the post-apocalyptic country of Panem (once the United States of America). As punishment for an uprising 74 years ago the Capitol “reaps” a young man and young woman from each district to compete in the annual Hunger Games. During these games the young men and women, known as tributes, must fight to the death for the honour of being crowned the King or Queen of the Hunger Games. Katniss’ younger sister gets chosen as the tribute for District 12 originally, but Katniss volunteers to take her place.

Peeta Mellark, an old school peer of hers, is chosen as the male tribute from District 12 after Katniss volunteers, and together they set off to the Capitol to train and be paraded in front of the public before the start of the games. Katniss is unimpressed by the Capitol and Effie Trinket, the District 12 escort, gives up on trying to teach Katniss manners because of her straight-forward personality and her habit of speaking before the thinks.

District 12’s only former champion, the perpetually drunk Haymitch Abernathy, is Peeta and Katniss’ mentor for The Hunger Games, helping them to win sponsors and make it through the games. To start off with, Haymitch doesn’t like Katniss and Peeta’s attitudes, Katniss being too serious and Peeta being persistent. In the end however, Haymitch relents and promises to do his best for the tributes, even though he has no hope of them winning. Haymitch makes Katniss see that if she is to stand a chance in the arena, there is a game she has to play. Katniss realises that this is the only way she can keep the promise that she made to Primrose to win the games and make it home safely.

During the training in the Capitol, Katniss manages to impress the game makers earning her the highest score out of the 24 tributes. This means the other tributes will be looking to kill her quickly as she is a threat to them winning.

It takes a while to get to the actual Hunger Games but Collins’ first person narrative is very engaging. You read the book as if you are Katniss, in the middle of everything, with no way out. The action begins there, and Collins doesn’t shy away from some of the more gruesome deaths. Katniss proves to be a very able young woman, if rather impetuous: she would rather act than think at times.

Katniss is resourceful in the games, and still manages to defy the Capitol and its wishes. The first person narrative helps you understand what she does and why she does it. Unlike the Twilight series, which shares a similar love triangle situation, The Hunger Games has a female character who cannot be accused of being a Mary Sue.

Personally, I could have done with reading these books when I was a bit younger. The style, as I have pointed out, is engaging, you get carried through the story no problem, but I think I’m too old for the book to have struck a proper chord with me. If I was younger, around the age I was when I discovered Twilight, I would adore this series. As it was, I got caught up in the first book, surrounded by the hysteria that the movie brought with it; but even though I purchased the second two books I have still not read them! I just cannot connect with Katniss, her relationship issues with Peeta, or her sacrifice for her sister. The book is compelling, the story is well executed but for me – I’m sorry Hunger Games fans! – I’m just too old now.

It is easy to see why the character of Katniss Everdeen resonates with teenagers and young adults. Even though she is a character in the future there is a lot about her that taps into the feeling of not wanting to be ruled by an external source and quietly fighting to make your own changes. Katniss is a role model for teenage girls (and women) everywhere who want to quietly fight the system and just get on with their lives (we’re ignoring the fact that she’s in a TV show where she has to kill people to survive). The power of Katniss comes from her desire to just get things done without being changed. From the moment she saves her sister from the reaping, Katniss is convinced that she will die.

So if you are looking for a book with a strong female protagonist, fighting in her own quiet way against a repressive system, then look no further than The Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire! And the girl who can show you how to just be yourself. For that, award yourself 4 out of 5 arrows.

May the Odds Ever Be in Your Favour!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard review

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is part of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter collection. It’s a small book that quite happily sits alongside other books in the Harry Potter Franchise such as Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, I guess you have pretty much read this already, but let’s go through it again shall we? It is a very short book, 105 pages to be exact, containing a foreword by Rowling herself, five short wizarding fables, and notes from Albus Dumbledore himself. The nice thing about this book is that it fits well with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and makes such a good addition to the series.

The stories are short, written in a style unlike Rowling’s own as she’s pretending to write as a different person, in this instance Beedle the Bard. The stories have a simplistic writing structure as if you were to read them to a child as bedtime stories, yet are not uninteresting.

Like muggle (note: a muggle is a non-magical human in the Harry Potter world) fairy stories there are morals about being good, brave and clever triumphing over selfishness, foolishness and evil. Of course one of the stories is already well known as it forms the backbone of the seventh Harry Potter book. The Tale of the Three Brothers is about three wizards who wish to cheat death and fail through their own boastfulness and desires. You get to see the difference between the brothers and understand the choice of their gifts and the outcomes because of their choices.

For anyone who knows the seventh book very well, the Tale of the Three Brothers should come as no surprise to you. The notes from Dumbledore that succeed the tale are by far some of the most extensive in the book; which is a surprise as the legend itself is quite short but once again we come back to the fact that this account  is the one that links back so strongly to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Dumbledore’s notes make for interesting reading, almost a look into the folklore of the Harry Potter universe. You get a real feeling for the richness of the world that J K Rowling sorted and this little book adds wonderfully to the collection.

My favourite of the five is second one where three ailing witches and a luckless knight set out to bath in a fountain of “Fair Fortune”. This fountain is supposed to allow a person to change their life in one way.

The three witches and a knight (who is never named as more than “the Luckless Knight”) have to complete challenges to reach the fountain and then at the end, their goodness and unselfishness means that everyone receives their wishes from the Fair Fountain.

It’s a nice little story that helpfully reminds people that you get more from being hardworking, good and generous. It would be interesting to see what young children thought if you read them these stories; because that is who the books are aimed at. It just happens that a lot of people who first grabbed this book and read it so eagerly would have been from the Harry Potter generation.

These stories, even though they have a magical element, should be considered worthy of a children’s bedtime story any day.

I know that last time I reviewed J K Rowling for you, I was less than impressed and The Tales of Beedle the Bard pretty much cements my belief that Rowling is certainly better suited to her fantastical writings. Of course I have not yet had a chance to sit down and read Rowling’s book A Cuckoos Calling under the name Robert Galbraith. I look forward to seeing if her second foray into adult fiction was better than her first.

The only thing I do take issue with is that the stories are not longer, and that there are not more of them. When I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I imagined the book that Hermione got given to be a lot heftier and thicker than on the one produced. It would be nice, if Ms Rowling gets inspiration and time for it, to have a bigger book full of Wizarding folklore to dip in and out of. Just a thought! (Copyright Stephanie Woods 2013 😉 )

Ms Rowling is an incredible woman as we all know, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard demonstrates her considerable talent as well as Harry Potter did. So if you haven’t read it, pick up a copy and give it a go because it gets a magical four wands out of five!

About the writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

Confessions of a Book Addict

Where to start? Books have been quite a large part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. My home has always been a haven of books, my mother is a qualified librarian, she took me to work with her, and well… it all just really was inevitable.

Books are a big part of my life, so much so that I’ve ended up working as a library assistant and am seriously considering it as my career (if libraries can be saved!) and I have realised more recently, that I have a rather big problem.

I am a book addict.

Barely an hour at work goes by where I’m not nose deep in a book, new or old, adults or children, trying to determine if it’s something I would want to read.

The really lucky books get to come home with me, and sit, sometimes for ages on my shelves as I try to find time to read them. Some books come back to the library, unread, only to be taken out at a later date.

Withdrawn stock is another issue. As long as we don’t take too much, sometimes we’re allowed to pick a book or two from the donations and withdrawn book sale. It’s terrible! Books I’ve eyed up on Amazon or on our shelves suddenly find themselves in my handbag on the way home and now, I’m seriously running out of space to keep them.

I can pretty much remember the first time I brought books on my own accord; in fact that is where it all started. I don’t remember buying my own books before this. I guess I must have had book vouchers before to buy books, but I have a feeling I wasn’t very involved in the decision on which books to buy.

I must have been about 5 or 6 at the time, because I remember after I brought these books I read them with my parents before bed each night.

So there I am, in a small local bookshop in Wokingham with my mother, looking at a shelf full of 1995 editions of the Famous Five by Enid Blyton.

Now, for those who know me, this probably won’t come as a surprise, after all I do run the World of Blyton Blog and belong to the Enid Blyton Society.

But I remember standing in this little independent bookshop, looking at the books, wondering which of these glossy new novels I wanted to buy. My mother was a strong advocate of me starting at the beginning but in the end I decided to take the books that had more than one copy on the shelves, because I didn’t want anyone to be left out.

I can’t describe to you how exciting it all was, these were my first “grown-up” books with no pictures. I still have the books now- a testament to my mother’s reluctance to give away books. Those books, Five Fall into Adventure, Five go to Mystery Moor, and Five Have Plenty of Fun were not only the slide from picture books to proper reading, but a slide from a regular reader to a book addict.

I find myself nowadays buying books all over the place. Sometimes in Waterstones I treat myself to an expensive hardback only to find the same copy in the library the next morning! (This has actually happened)

For example this morning I actually had to physically stop myself buying a set of books off Amazon (while being at work and not being able to find the first book in the series on our catalogue). These books I’m sure would have been bought on a whim. Also, I have never read that particular author before, but inspired by a movie with one of my favourite actors in, I wanted to read the books!

As my mother always said;

“Read the books before you see the movie; the book is always better!”

You see, if they had had a copy of the book I wanted at work, it wouldn’t have been an issue. I wouldn’t have had to stop myself from buying the books.

I don’t know if there is a group for book addicts- and if there was I’m sure we would all just sit about discussing our favourite books anyway. I mean I can talk books until the cows come home: I just love books!

See part of the problem is that they’re not seen as a dangerous thing (unless you’re throwing them- but I never advocate throwing books: they may get hurt!), and a lot of the time you can’t match the signs of addiction with Book Addicts.

But in other respects, its expensive, they make you “anti-social”, can cause emotional trauma (trust me there are some books I’ve never recovered from *stage whisper* Harry Potter).

I’ve never been ashamed of being a book addict; in fact I think at secondary school I was a little bit snobbish about it all. There were the more popular girls in my classes who would make fun of me for reading books, but I always believed that I was taking the moral high ground and believed I was better than them, not because I was picking on them right back- oh no, I was an introvert when it came to bullies, but because I had more imagination, more freedom, more knowledge and common sense than them all put together, because I read!

I know, I know; it didn’t make me better than them, but at the time it made me feel better about myself.

Inevitably you could say that reading led me to writing because I would never have taken up writing if I didn’t have such wonderful authors as inspiration. Authors like J.K Rowling who swung up into fame quite quickly, and Enid Blyton who typed away on a keyboard in a male dominated world. Terry Pratchett the creature of the wonderfully sublime Discworld series, full of sarcastic humour, and obvious humour come to that!  More recently, Sara Sheridan (Twitter Account? Website?) of the Mirabelle Beven Mysteries has given me lots of inspiration for my own work.

Its authors like these who make me think that one day, possibly, my little scribblings might be more than just little, and certainly more than scribblings. Could it be that one day my work might mean something to someone the way these authors do to me?

See, I wouldn’t have these aspirations if I’d not been a book addict, pouring over page after page drinking in descriptions, new ideas, life!

For me, books are more than just words, they ease the soul, soothe the worry and take you away. And No, you don’t get the same feel with a Kindle.

So stroll on to L-Space (copyright Terry Pratchett) at your own peril. Come on! We’re waiting for you to join us!

About the Writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

Sundays at Tiffany’s review

To all of you who have ever given hope to one day find your imaginary friend to be a real person later in life; this is the book for you!

Michael is Jane’s imaginary friend, and we start when Jane is days away from turning nine, and Michael is burdened with the worst possible job of an imaginary friends, he has to tell her that he needs to leave.

After realising that the party her mother has thrown was not intended for her in the first place, Jane is distraught and seeks company in Michael, but he can only do so much for her has to leave her forever.

Or does he?

Fast forward; Jane’s now an adult, planning her wedding to the star of her broadway show Thank Heaven and is less than satisfied. Her, supposedly leading man, is not very interested in her, and Jane can’t thinking back on how Michael treated her.

Much to Jane’s disbelief, she stumbles across Michael once again, but this time he is real, remembers her and their relationship stumbles onto the next level until Michael realises that he has one last job to do!

We follow the book through two perspectives, the first is through Jane’s inner monologue (first person) and the second is told from Michael’s side of the story, but in third person.

It makes for interesting reading.

The chapters are short and easy to read. In fact it makes for brilliant easy reading as the two perspectives are easy to follow. You know quite clearly when you’ve changed from one to the other.

James Patterson is well known in literary circles for writing adventure and crime books, so this is a completely different genre for him.

However over the last couple of years he has been writing increasingly with co-authors. Someone once said to me that it was a tactic of launching a new author, but unfortunately I have not seen anything from Gabrielle Charbonnet since Sundays at Tiffany’s, which is a shame because I suspect that she was the driving force behind this book- it has that feel of a woman’s touch to it.

The thing about this book that doesn’t make it just another love story, is the magical element to it, Michael comes back to Jane when she needs him most in her adult life, and that’s nice. You never get an explanation of it, but it has a Godly feel about it.

Another thing that makes this book work is the fact that Jane is not some simpering heroine. She’s gusty. She’s not your average beauty in the book, and she’s all the better for that! A woman who lives by her own means and has a brain to boot! What isn’t to like?

Even though this book isn’t well known, it has been made into a movie (unfortunately only available in the US) with the all too lovely Alyssa Milano as Jane, which as far as I can tell causes the plot to lose something- but not having seen it, I can’t tell.

What I can tell you is that the book is worth reading- just if you are a James Patterson fan; Do NOT expect his usual adventure flare.

Sundays at Tiffany’s gets a very magical four out of five. I would have a loved a bit more, just a few more feelings and maybe a slightly more satisfactory conclusion. Apart from that, it’s a darling little book that is well worth a quick read.

Well there you are! Don’t forget to spend Sundays at Tiffany’s!

About the Writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

Beautiful Chaos review

We’re taking a step away from vampires, this time, but we’re not out of the super natural yet. We’re only going as far as Doctor Who.

Now I can hear you asking, you none hard core Whovians, “but Doctor Who is a TV series, why are you reviewing it?”

Well for all of you who don’t know, there are plenty of Doctor Who spin-off books out there. Legitimately written, and commissioned by the BBC themselves, these books are for those Doctor Who fans (or Whovians as they like to be known).

These books are usually written by someone with a connection to the show, who has worked on the show in some form of another which makes them bang on the money.

As of yet, the ones that I have read, I have been impressed with. They usually involve the incarnation of the Doctor that is on the telly at the time, so for instance if Martha Jones is involved, you can be assured that you’re reading about David Tennant’s Doctor. Similarly with this book, Beautiful Chaos by Garry Russell you do feel like you have stepped into an episode of Doctor Who, because right in front of your eyes stands the Doctor and Donna Noble.

Now I am going to level with you, the reason I picked up this book originally was because Gary Russell was in the 70’s TV adaptation of the Famous Five, and with me being a big Famous Five fan, I wanted to read what he had written.

And I wasn’t disappointed at all.

Beautiful Chaos contains my overall, hands down, “watch it space boy”, favourite companion. Miss Donna Noble. (I cry every time I watch her last episode- it’s so damn SAD!)

Anyway it is a well-constructed novel, with the right character personalities shining through. We’ve got Tennent’s bouncy Doctor, complimented by his best friend, Donna Noble who is on fine form as ever.

We start on a sad note, a rather pensive but beautifully written prologue that takes place after Donna has gone back to being “normal”- I really can’t say more than that because for those of you who haven’t seen Doctor Who, Series Four, I don’t want to give away the ending, because its one massive story curve. If you’re interested, check it out.

Anyway the prologue starts with Donna’s Grandfather, Wilfred Mott- another of the best characters on Doctor Who. He’s sat and watching the stars. Remembering.

Then we bounce forward a month [Time is none linear in Doctor Who], and everything is the way it should be. Donna and the Doctor, back home in Chiswick for a visit, and Wilfred has got some lovely news. He has discovered a new star and asks the Doctor, Donna and his new lady friend along to the celebratory dinner.

The force working against the human race is a huge technological path; in fact it’s the installation of new super fast fibre optics for broadband run by Dara Morgan. You may be able to guess there is something funny going on- on Doctor Who, there always is.

So while Donna is visiting her Grandfather and Mother, and reminding herself why she’s travelling with the Doctor, he is off out, trying to get to the bottom of all the strange activity surrounding these new fibre optics.

It is a brilliantly written, fast paced story, all 236 pages of it. It creates a beautiful story that is rich in detail and plays out exactly like an episode of Doctor Who. For avid watchers of the show you can hear the sharp tones of Donna Noble’s voice, see the wobble of her head, as she gets annoyed with the Doctor and travel with her through another adventure with the Doctor. Russell has also grabbed David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor and wrestled him accurately to the page.

Even as a casual watcher of Doctor Who, this book feels true to the creation and its life. What makes it work so well on paper is the intricate plot, which would not translate well onto screen, but is such a good adventure on paper. The twists and turns are subtle, and more depth is explored, inner monologues are a big part of the book.

To sum up, the plot is good, the prose is easy and flows well, and what more can you want than Doctor Who and a really kick arse leading lady in the form of Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble.

I think I can guarantee that even if you are not a Doctor Who fan (in a big way) you would enjoy this book. You should probably have some background knowledge of the show, as it probably wouldn’t work without it.

Over all, this book deserves a very adventurous 4.5 out of 5 for it’s perfect Doctor Who nature.

ALLONS-Y! 🙂

About the writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

A Quick Bite review

Want Vampires but want to shy away from the main stream authors of the genre like Stephenie Meyer and Charlaine Harris, but don’t know where to turn? (And trust me there is a lot of trash out there!) Well fear not because Lynsay Sands has a very good line in Vampire Novels.

I favour her Argeneau series with lots of gorgeous vampires who are all part of one big family, and live fairly traditionally in the modern day. However, the way they cope with the blood problem is to drink from bagged blood- the stuff you get from blood banks which stops them feeding off living humans unless it is an emergency.

Oh and the other interesting twist on these vampires?  They’re actually from Atlantis, the lost underwater city, who turned out to be very advanced scientists. The ‘vampireness’ comes from little ‘nanos’ that live in the blood cell and continuously repair the host’s body which is why they can’t go out in the sunshine as the nanos use more blood to repair the sun’s damage.

Anyway, it is not as bad as it sounds, in fact it’s quite a quirky and novel twist on the whole vampire thing.

On wards with the story. Lissa Argeneau is a vampire who cannot drink blood from the bags, and is allowed to drink from living people. This little problem prompts her mother into action: she kidnap’s a psychiatrist Dr. Greg Hewitt.

Things do not go smoothly, as you can expect as the psychiatrist wakes up, tied to a bed, in a strange woman’s bedroom. And Lissianna isn’t happy about it either, but soon they start to get along.

Greg tries to start curing Lissianna, by talking her through her problems, but things start to go wrong and Greg becomes a vampire. Not only has he got to help Lissianna through her problem, but he now has to deal with immortality.

In addition, as you might expect, there is another big problem. Someone is on to Lissianna being a vampire and the case really takes a turn when Greg and Lissianna get captured, and forced to stand in the sun all day.

It’s a very well written book, and series for that matter. The characters are a little similar, and the stories get into a pattern. Sands has hit on a good formula with a few twists and turns, and has made it great with such a free flowing natural writing style.

Therefore, if you’re looking for a less mainstream Vampire series to enjoy, this is the one for you. Blood, kidnapping, some fun, some romance, and some fairly high powered sex scenes (so parental advisory on these beauties).

These books, and this one in particular get a very healthy 4 out of 5 for the writing style and imaginative way in the origins of the vampires have been worked out. So enjoy!

About the Writer: Stef is a 22 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

Brighton Belle review

Post War Glamour?

Check.

Beautiful Brighton Scenery?
Check.

Kick arse, Single, Strong, intelligent female protagonist?

Check, check, check and CHECK!

Brighton Belle by Sara Sherian is a perfect post war story, designed for the nostalgic, the inquisitive and for people after a flawed but fabulous, strong female lead character. Well two  kick arse women by the end of the novel, but the more the merrier.

It’s 1951 and we start off at a train station with a young woman travelling down from London to Brighton. At first glance you know that there is something up, and this young woman is going to be the cause of the merry dance around Brighton that our heroine gets mixed up in. This is accentuated when she steals a ration book. The first chapter also gives us one big story curve; the young woman, Romana Laszlo, is heavily pregnant.

My first thought was “I know where this is going”.

How wrong was I?

Well, I can tell you, incredibly. Whatever you’re thinking the storyline might be right now, I’ll tell you good and square that you can forget about that. You may have it half right, but I can guarantee that you won’t have all of it sussed.

Anyway, we then get introduced to the heroine, Mirabelle Bevan who is a secretary for a debt collector- Big Ben McGuigan. Mirabelle however hides an interesting past for during the war she was employed in the Secret Service in Whitehall, London as part of Intelligence. Although she wasn’t a field agent, this makes her instantly interesting and urges the reader to keep turning the page to find out more about her.

I mentioned the word “Single” earlier, and quite quickly we are privy to the reason for this key statement about Mirabelle’s status. We learn that her other half, Jack died from a heart attack a little time after the war, leaving Mirabelle bereft and lonely. By one large she keeps herself to herself, working for McGuigan as an efficient secretary.

However, when Ben McGuigan goes missing and a very interesting case involving the young woman Romana Laszlo comes to Mirabelle’s attention, she starts following leads without much thought.

As the mystery starts to pull her in, and Mirabelle gets tangled up in the threads, she befriends a girl in the next office, Vesta- a black girl in Brighton, who although doesn’t get treated too badly, still gets ignored and shunned. Mirabelle takes a liking to her and Vesta turns out to be a worthy, kick arse woman herself, gutsy as well.

With a helping hand with a priest friend of Mirabelle’s the women discover what is going on in Brighton in regards to Romana Laszlo to a very satisfactory conclusion.

Brighton Belle has all the charm of a post-war novel with the strong plot that goes with it. The mystery just keeps turning in and in on itself until you can’t see a way out. The setting of Brighton is perfect, with its twisty seats and sea side views. We desperately want Mirabelle to come out on top, and as the book nears its end we’re caught up in the drama and the action.

There are a few places where the writing may fall a little flat but it carries through fine enough. If I’m honest I got excited about the book because of the storyline, and read it mostly for research on my own story skills.

It has made me realise that not only has my work got a long way to go to be half as good, but what a strong female lead can really do for a book.

Not that I didn’t know that before, but if you consider this story as being written in 1951 there were not a huge number of strong independent women strolling about without being over shadowed by a man in some shape of form.

The good thing about this book is that there is no man to take over from Mirabelle and it’s women’s work through and through. They may be hampered by not being listened to a lot, but that gets sorted fairly quickly.

If you love crime writing, strong heroine’s and a post war feel to the books you read, Sara Sheridan’s Brighton Belle is for you. It gets a healthy 4 out of 5.

About the Writer: Stef is a 21 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.

Dead Until Dark: A Sookie Stackhouse Mystery review

Vampires. In the five years or so people have gone vampire/ supernatural crazy, and I must admit, I joined that bandwagon with full force. (You can ask anyone I know- I was a fully fledged Twi-hard. Makes me cringe just to think of it now.)

After I established my reading groove within the Supernatural world, I reached beyond Twilight and first of all came up with Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse mysteries. My interest had been piqued by the TV show (currently filming its sixth season I believe). I have never watched more than half an episode of the TV show in my life, but when I picked up the Omnibus volume of the first three books in WHSmith and started to read I knew I had to continue.

As my mother always taught me- the books are better and I have yet to find the exception to the rule. While I am not hooked by the TV series, the books had me devouring page after page of the mysteries, desperate to know what happened with each turn in the plot and I was so glad to have the first three books at my disposal instead of needing to order each one in turn.

Dead Until Dark is the first book in the series and plunges you into the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, and straight into Sookie Stackhouse’s remarkable mind. The story is told via first person so you join Sookie for the ride into a world where vampires have broken cover and “come out of the coffin” to live as “normal” members of society.

We start with Sookie getting excited because a real ‘live vampire has visited the bar she works in and sat helpfully in her section of the restaurant. What we know that no one else does is that Sookie can read minds (don’t worry you’re not in Twilight land- and there is a somewhat logical explanation later in the series). Having established that she can read minds, her interest is grabbed when she can’t listen to the vampire, Bill Compton’s mind.

This basically sets her up in a form of giddy anticipation to know more about him and become closer to Bill in general. And eventually she does. They eventually become an item, although the road is not a smooth one.

Nor would you expect it to be.

To start with there are women dropping dead all over the place in Bon Temps and Sookie takes it upon herself to find out who the killer is. All the women seem to have something in common though: they all hang out with vampires.

As the net tightens in around her brother Jason, Sookie casts her net further afield thinking that a vampire might be the killer. She enlists Bill’s help and gets him to take her to a vampire bar in Shreveport where she meets the Viking vampire and the head honcho of Shreveport, Eric. Eric becomes a permanent feature in Sookie’s life after that night.

The story is an easy read with the twists and turns making it such a successful mystery. If I ever could construct something as good as this for my story, I would be onto a winner. Harris has created a perfectly viable supernatural phenomenon based strongly in a very human word, even though Sookie has a strange power, her world is very human and she tries not to let the supernatural take over her life.

Overall I like the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, even though I got a little confused as to the order around book seven and sort of left the series behind. Harris has done very well in creating a believable situation and making the necessary adjustments for the supernatural to come creeping into real life.

I do believe that if you are a fan of any vampire/werewolf/ fantasy/ supernatural then you should read Charlaine Harris. In fact any of her books would fit into that category perfectly, in fact she mostly seems to write supernatural mystery thrillers.

More specifically if you discovered the world of supernatural fiction through Twilight and the Vampire Diaries, the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, particularly the first book, Dead Until Dark, is a perfect read for you. The series goes from strength to strength as far as I have read, although there are flashes of repetition and you begin to resign yourself to what happens within the books.

As for Dead Until Dark, a enticing first novel to the series and certainly darker and grittier than Twilight, so those of you who hate Stephenie Meyer’s franchise are perfectly safe in the world of Charlaine Harris.

So go fourth and read you little blood suckers because I rate this book a blood lusty 4 out of 5.

 

About the Writer: Stef is a 21 year old graduate who has a lifelong obsession with books and reading who also loves music and live theatre. You’re most likely to find her in a book shop or out in London standing at a theatre stage door. She can be found on twitter and running The World of Blyton.