The Time Tider

 by Sinéad O'Hart;                                                                          

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Literary Cat©, International Book Reviewer.

Hello, and welcome to my weekend Book Review featuring Adventures in Middle-Grade Fiction.

 

For those wishing the Sunday Selfie, scroll on down!

Without further ado or comic skit from Mrs H and I, we have the distinct pleasure to introduce this weeks timely adventure..... The Time Tider

AUTHOR:  Sinéad O'Hart

 

Cover art by: Abigail L. Dela Cruz

 

Published by: Little Tiger

Publication date for paperback:  2 Feb 2023

 

Paperback ISBN:   978 - 1 - 78895 - 330 - 6

 

Cover price for Paperback £7.99

 

Pages: 223

 

Age range: 8+

Any dogs or cats? No

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

 

Yes, as to plot direction and characters. 

 

Thank you to... 

We are exceedingly grateful to Sinéad O'Hart, and Dannie Price of Little Tiger Publishers for arranging for us to have the advance copy of this excellent book for review. 

 

As ever, our views are our own, and we only share reviews of books we have read and like and feel our readers deserve to know about and that we hope they will enjoy. 

 

The Plot

Set in Ireland, our book opens with 12-year-old Mara collecting food from a City Homeless Outreach point. She pockets extra food when she can, then goes to leave. But being a solitary child, she's caught the eye of the staff. They give chase when she won't stop and discuss being out alone. Mara has a gift and can see what she calls a 'soft place' in time, bubbles if you will, that she can duck into and elude capture, which she does. A short while later, she returns home to the rickety van she has grown up in. Here her dad, Gabriel, is busy with sealed glass jars and strange, gas-like substances within.

 

Mara's life since her mother died has been one long journey. Travelling by backroads and often by night, she and her father crisscross the country. Eluding the people, he says, are chasing them and meaning them harm. What he does when he goes off to see people and conduct business, she doesn't know. At least that was until waking up one morning in an empty van, she goes to explore. Hearing voices, she watches Gabriel conduct a deal. He passes over one of the glass jars for money. The buyer drinks what's within, and Mara thinks her father momentarily vanishes, a fact he later denies. 

 

Mara is of the age when she needs to know. She wonders what it's like to live an ordinary life, have friends and go to school. To be in one place. And to learn more about her mother. She also wants to know more about what Gabriel's up to. 

 

Whilst her father is away from the van, Mara searches his things for clues and answers. The discovery of rolled-up papers in a sealed bottle, entitled The Time Tiders Handbook, heralds the beginning of the adventure. More discoveries follow, including a picture of her mother. But before she can glean much information from her father, their pursuers catch up. In the ensuing frantic escape, with Mara at the van's wheel, her father says he will give himself up. All Mara has to do is keep going and find someone called Lenny. Thrusting his precious and unique watch and notebook into her lap, he jumps out and is captured. 

But who is Lenny? Mara has distant recollections and an idea of his location. And what does he have to do with her father being a Time Tider? Indeed, what is a Time Tider? If she is going to get her father back and get the information she needs, she has no choice but to find Lenny. 

Who is chasing them and why will soon be revealed to her. But as she gets more involved, her search becomes far more deadly than any 12-year-old and her newfound friend, Jan, should be involved in. You see, the Time Tider, Gabriel, harvests unused time from the dead. It can also be taken from the living, which is something that he should never do but does to make money. The bad people want what only her father can give – extra life. They want the bottled life he has stashed away, all of it, and to take his skill. To get it, they'll seemingly stop at nothing. They will risk everything, including the collapse of time and the world's destruction.

So, what did we think?

 

The premise of the Time Tider is that time itself needs to be balanced and the extra time from those that die too early collected and stored safely and never used. The more time left uncollected and allowed to merge together, the greater the risk of cataclysmic results. This is not an idea I have read before, nor for that matter, seen in the movies. So like so many great books, it instantly appealed, and I needed to know more.

How would the writer deal with such a potentially complex Sci-Fi style subject? Would it be another out-of-this-world, and sadly, beyond-belief Marvel-Esque adventure? The only way was to ask to do a review. And I am so pleased Dannie obliged me with the copy. 

Over a few nights, we became engrossed in Sinéad's storytelling and this intelligent, pacy adventure. 

The story is delightfully grounded in the here and now, atmospheric, plausible, at times heartfelt, never short on pace and utterly engaging. 

The cast grows with the adventure, never pushy or unlikely for the plot. Nothing is ever too much for the reader, which reflects some clearly serious story plotting. The final chapters were addictive and demanding to be read. The conclusion, well, I can't spoil that, though it wasn't what I expected, which is always lovely.  

 

Sat here now, Mrs H says it is an adventure that lingers in the mind and poses some ethical dilemmas that are not easy to answer. This adds so well to the story's credibility. 

So . . . . 

 

Crunch time.

A perfect middle-grade read with a delightful cover that I think will appeal. Mara is a Brilliant young protagonist with hard decisions to make and a van full of trouble chasing and snapping at her heels. What's not to love!

 

Want to buy a copy?

 To get a copy, please choose your local independent bookshop. There are plenty out there, and each shop just waits to serve up whatever kind of mystery, fun and adventure you desire. The acquisition of real-time is, however, most unlikely, though transportation to other realms is a given ;)

Sinéad O'Hart web page can be found HERE or type this: https://sjohart.wordpress.com/



Abigail L. Dela Cruz can be found on Tumblr via this LINK or type this: https://abbydraws.tumblr.com/



Little Tiger web page can be found HERE or type this: https://littletiger.co.uk/




I shall leave you with my entry for the Sunday Selfies, hosted by Janet Blue from the Cat on My Head Blog, featuring the Kitties Blue.

 

 

A very nearly spotless selfie 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

Till laters!

ERin

The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott

by SHARON GOSLING;  

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Cat Princess©

 

Hello, and welcome to A Saturday Book Review featuring Adventures in Middle-Grade Fiction! 

 

Mrs H and I have been basking in the shade this last fortnight, enjoying a bit of downtime now that summer is here. As UK summers go quickly, we decided to let the grass get longer. Fear not, dear readers and fellow haymakers, I have Mrs H and the electric Flymo scheduled to mow the 14-acre field next weekend. The only problem is finding all the extension leads?

 

Anyways, it was just yesterday that we finished our latest HOT read. A sea and land based adventure that had us on the edge of our deckchairs right up to the very last pages. It was the perfect way to round off a lazy afternoon, and what now seems to be the last day of summer.

The author of this HOT read is Sharon Gosling, and she has a new kitten, called NEWT, who is utterly adorable! Follow Sharon and NEWT on TWITTER using the the twitter tag: @sharongosling

 

So, without further ado, I ask you to join me in The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott.

 

Image subject to © copyright.

The essential info:

The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott, by SHARON GOSLING

 

Cover art and ship illustration by: Kristina Kiser 

 

Published by: LITTLE TIGER GROUP

Publication date: 7 JULY 22

Paperback ISBN: 9781788954181

Cover price for Paperback: £7.99 

 

Pages 288.

 

Age range: Middle Grade (9-12 AND upwards)

Any dogs or cats? Yes, a fantastic and sleek black cat called Shadow.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

The bare minimum to lay the plot and introduce characters. 

 

 

Disclaimer. 

 

We were lucky enough to be approved by Little Tiger Group to review this book for you. 

The plot

The year is 1879. 

The place, victorian London, England.

Katy Willacott, our heroine, is Mary's daughter. Mary is a skilled and respected botanical taxonomist at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. It is also where Granpa Ned works as a constable. Her father, Josiah, works as an assistant archaeologist for the British Museum. Together with Grandma Peg and elder brother Stefan, they live rent-free in the quaint but tiny Rose Cottage that belongs to Kew Gardens.

 

Katy helps her mother identify and catalogue new species of plants sent back by explorers from across the globe. It is an age when men do all the fun stuff like explore, and women are considered only suited to minor and apparently less skilled roles and running the home. 

 

It is, however, not a life that Katy wants. She craves the adventures undertaken by daring women of the age. Women who journeyed to foreign lands and up the Amazon. Women like her heroine, adventurer and journalist, Francesca Brocklehurst, whose articles are published in all the newspapers.

 

Katy meets Fran when she comes to Kew Gardens to write about her mother, a notable woman in science. The interview is going swimmingly right up to the point where Sir Thomas Derby appears. He is overseeing the construction of the Natural History Museum. Having mistaken Katy's mum for a cleaner, he then goes on to say how he means to have her work taken out of the hands of amateurs and that standards must have slipped so low as they were employing women. And that the female brain didn't have the capacity for proper scientific reasoning.

 

The obnoxious, loathsome windbag that is Sir Thomas does rather set the scene and tone for things to come.

 

But when Katy learns that Sir Thomas is heading off on an expedition to locate and retrieve some fallen meteorites in Brazil, Katy resolves to join the ship's crew. But not as Katy Willacott, but in disguise as a cabin boy called William Chandler.

 

Now, it would be remiss of me to tell you much more than she does manage to get on board Sir Thomas's ship, the SS Alerte. From this point, the adventure takes a rollercoaster ride across the ocean to Salvador, Brazil, and into the jungle.

 

You will NOT be disappointed in what happens.

 

So, what did we think?

One girl fighting to break away from the ordinary, expected, mundane and perceived feeble-minded victorian woman's role. 

Running away from home and travelling across to Brazil to follow her heart and find a meteorite seems drastic. But that is what it took to be not just noticed as a woman back then but also to feel alive. Determination, bravery, and a sense of right are her tools. She makes mistakes, and we see as she sees the consequences of her actions. But we see also the good that comes from doing the right thing. Good karma is one way of looking at it; the spirit of the jungle is another.

The strength of the villain and supporting characters, from Sir Thomas to the Alerte's captain to the natives in Salvador, is a delight. The tone and atmosphere infuse the pages with that special magic that means we get invested in the story and cry at the end. 

The story has a solid ethical voice that is still relevant to this day, probably more so. Through the eyes of Katy Willacott, we get to explore the gender roles, values, and opportunities of the time. We see as she sees the result of greed, the rape of the land and appropriation of 'specimens' and plundering of resources by a colonial power irrespective of cost to the local peoples or environment. 

This is such an empowering and entertaining story. A feast for the imagination in the same way as Emma Carroll's book: Escape to the River Sea, which we will be reviewing shortly, and thoroughly enjoyed.

In fact, I would recommend them as worthy and happy bookshelf companions for the young reader with an eye on foreign travel and seeing women achieving in a time when women were expected not to. 

As strong as the lessons in this fine book are, they do not overwhelm the story. It is 100% magic and is recommended for all.

So . . . . 

Crunch time. 

Without a doubt, treat someone to this book when it comes out. Sharon Gosling is a skilled writer, and the observant reader will note some of her other MG characters appear in this book. Her first adult novel, The House Beneath the Cliffs was published in 2021. 

Want to buy a copy?

 

To get a copy, and there is absolutely NO need to run away to Brazil, just head to your local independent bookshop. There are plenty out there, and each is just waiting to serve up a treasure of literal magical resource, fun and adventure with a personal touch.

 

 

Sharon Goslings  WEB page can be found HERE  OR type this:- https://www.sharongosling.com/

Little Tiger Groups web page can be found HERE. OR type this:-  https://littletiger.co.uk

 

 

 

 

If any authors or publishers wish us to review their books, please contact us. Details are listed on our book review page.

If anyone has a 1000 meter extension lead, please do leave your contact details in the comments and I'll have Mrs H get back to you after she's washed the dishes!

 

I shall leave you with my customary selfie for the week. Till laters!

 

©Erinthecatprincess