ORLA AND THE MAGPIE'S KISS

 by C.J. HASLAM;  

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Cat Princess©

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

Mrs H is away for a few weeks, sorting some family matters. I didnt pry into what, as I know she'll not tell me. The plus side is that for most of the time I get to do what I do best, sleep. For the remainder I somehow manage to force down the 10 meals a day she left me with. Only ten meals I hear you say!? Well, they are small meals, too small for my liking, but the vet says a little often is better than too much all at once. I swear Mrs H applies this principle to her consumption of sherry!

 

So, in her absence, I get to choose what books I review for the next few weeks. This weeks is awesome, and had me up late one night and then early the following morning, desperate to get to the conclusion.

 

So, without further ado, here is my solo selection for you to enjoy. I present, Orla and the Magpie's Kiss, by CJ Haslam.

 

©CJ Haslam, P Donnelly, Walker Books

ORLA AND THE MAGPIE'S KISS, by C.J. HASLAM

 

Cover art by: PADDY DONNALLY

 

Published by: WALKER BOOKS

Publication date: 7 APRIL 2022

Paperback ISBN: 978 - 140 6399 301 

 

Cover price for Paperback £7.99, Kindle currently £7.59

 

Pages 304.

 

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

Any dogs or cats? Yes, Dave the Jack Russell, who is the kids personal security agent, and towards the end of the book, a cat called Vinegar Tom. You can just imagine what sort of a disposition that feline had!

 

 

SPOILER ALERT

No spoilers here. 

 

 

Disclaimer. 

 

We were lucky enough to be approved by Walker Books to review this book for you, via NetGalley.

The plot

When Orla Perry and her two brothers, Tom and Richard, accompanied by Dave the Jack Russell, go to stay with their Great Uncle Valentine at Sicows Creek, Norfolk. It's supposed to be a holiday. No magical witch stuff from Orla, who discovered her inner witch in the preceding first adventure. Just plain old bird watching on the tidal salt-marsh coast, walking along the beach and generally doing the things the kids in Enid Blyton books would do with their dog.

But alas, it wasn't to be. When Orla discovers that Anna's Wood, an ancient wood is due to be bulldozed by GasFrac, who are intent on extracting the gas. Worse still, when Orla goes to the wood, even though she is warned off by her uncle and it's heavily guarded, she finds all the wood's natural magical energy, sprowl, has vanished. Now that is utterly impossible and downright sinister. Whilst there, she saves a magpie from a trap and, for her kindness, gets a gash on her face from the bird. Uncle Valentine tells her the 'kiss' of a magpie will show what fate's in store. And so it seems, as Orla dreams of GasFracs destruction of all the creatures of the wood.

Investigating why the locals care more about GasFrac's promise to build a new shopping centre and country park, she soon finds distrust and downright dislike for herself and Uncle Valentine. It seems everyone has sold out, sold their souls and heritage to the 'big business' devil! Even the local witch, the postmistress, seems to have sold out to GasFrac. All the villagers believe the same, and posters proclaiming 'Believe in the Power of Dreams' occupy every window.

The pace picks up from here on in faster than Orla's out of control bicycle on a downhill slope, and pretty soon, the whole family and Orla's friend, Raven, is the centre of some very unwanted, lethal, house destroying attention.

I'll say no more than that, as the very best and most evil is still to come, and in every shape and form.

 

So, what did we think?

 

Coming to this, Orla's second adventure without having read the first was a minor handicap to me. But that was my fault, and there is enough backstory to guide others in this situation. But if you have the time, do read the first book, Orla and the Serpent's Curse, first.

I was so heartened to see the author had not shied away from bringing Dave the Jack Russell to the fore. He is undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with and provides an excellent foil/support protagonist for Orla. Like so many MG books with strong female leads, there is an element of obstinance on Orla's part. Thankfully this was balanced by other traits, self-doubt, courage, determination, etc., all of which gave her a pleasing, rounded personality. I will definitely seek out the first book to fill in all the gaps and enjoy more of Dave, the Jack Russell.

Top marks for this awesome, down to earth, wry middle-grade adventure and happy to recommend it to children and adults alike.

So . . . . 

Crunch time. 

A pacy, action-packed eco-themed adventure with a hefty dose of wry humour and bite that draws on all the right elements. Magic, mayhem, witches and wizards abound. Aided and abetted by Dave the dog, returned from the dead with the skills of a cat and an aptitude for personal security, this highly addictive, not put downable masterpiece is a surefire winner.

Want to buy a copy?

 

To get a copy, please do think of 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.

 

C.J. HASLAMS is the chief travel writer for the Times and Sunday Times Newspaper, and author of both adult and children's literature. His twitter page can be found HERE or look up @dromomaniac

 

WALKER BOOK's web page can be found HERE.   https://www.walker.co.uk/about-walker.aspx

 

 

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

 

I shall leave you with the news that on Saturday we will be reviewing:

 

The Good Turn, by Sharna Jackson. 

 

©S Jackson & Penguin Random House

 

Till laters!

ERin

 

A STORM OF SISTERS

© Michelle Harrison, Simon & Schuster,

 by Michelle Harrison;  

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Cat Princess©

 

 

 

 

Hello, and welcome to an impromptu MIDWEEK Book Review featuring Adventures in Middle-Grade Fiction!

 

We are delighted to bring you the SOON TO BE PUBLISHED (3/2/22) fourth adventure in the Pinch of Magic series, titled 'A Storm of Sisters'. 

 

This book, like the preceding three, was an absolute pleasure. We received a digital copy of this through NetGalley, courtesy of Simon and Schuster Children's Books. A big thank you to both those fine folk.

 

But enough of the preamble, let's get on with the review. 

 

©Michelle Harrison, Simon & Scuster

 

 

A STORM OF SISTERS, by MICHELLE HARRISON

 

Published by: SIMON AND SCHUSTER CHILDREN'S BOOKS.

Paperback ISBN: 978 - 1 - 4711 - 9765 - 9

Cover price for Paperback £7.99 

Pages 339.

Age range: 9 and upwards

The Plot:

The Widdershins sisters, Fliss, Betty and Charlie, live with their father and granny in the village of Pendlewick. It is their first winter in the quaint and slightly crooked, 200-year-old 'Blackbird Cottage'. They moved there the previous year, from the damp, fog and drear island of Crowstone,  near the marshes and a rather severe island prison. 

 

Pendlewick is very different from life at the Poachers Pocket Inn they lived at in Crowstone. Not least because it is warm and sunny. However, one thing hasn't changed, and that is the pinch of magic that the sisters share. The magic seems, if not directly, to draw them into many adventures and to help them out. 

When an unexpected letter arrives from their father's cousin, Clarissa, granny and the girls head to the decidedly remote and frozen town of WILDERNESS, to the aptly named 'Frostbite Cottage' to help her recover from her broken ankle.

Wilderness lives up to its name, and the cold journey by horse and carriage takes them to a snow globe-like place worthy of wolves, evil snow queens and all manner of cold, fantasy creatures. It also leads them to a long cold walk through the snow to reach Clarissa's cottage, where the thundering sounds of a ghostly steed haunt the wind and snow-swept woods all around. But a welcome and warm fire awaits. Sadly no beds as the cottage is too small for five. Much to their joy, the girls get to stay at Echo Hall, a large hotel overlooking the town, its Winter Market, and its ice-covered lake.

The girls soon learn of the dark side of Wilderness. The legend of Jack Frost the highwayman, and his lover, Elora, who worked at Echo Hall. Both losing their lives to the lake forty years past. There is the story of the ill-fated, humbled fortune-teller who lost her livelihood, and of a lost treasure. Then, there is Elora's curse. If you see Elora, the maid, at your hotel room window, then death will take a relative.

The girls know all too well that there is always some truth to legends. And that ghosts, like magic, do exist. Those thoughts wane beside the pleasures of the market and the prospect of skating on the lake. Until that is, they discover a body and then see Elora at their window, and the prophecy of a fortune teller at the market begins to ring true.

 

So, what did we think?

For want of an expression, this is a delightful spellbinding adventure. Spine tinglingly and atmospheric thanks to Michelle's commitment to defining so well the world we are immersed into. A plot that is woven as beautifully and naturally as the patterns of frost on glass. The Widdershins are shown in all their glory, as good and as bad as any family is. From granny, the grumpy ex-landlady, to incorrigible young Charlie and lovely romantic Fliss. In humour or sadness, good or bad, the family shines, arguably strongest when the chips are down. But isn't that just like life? 

So . . . . 

Crunch time. 

 

This is the fourth book in the series. While we have read the other three, I can say hand on heart that these will work as stand-alone stories. But, you will get far more out of the adventures if you start from the beginning with A Pinch of Magic. I will confess that it took me a short while to get into this new world of magic and adventure. Maybe I had put on it expectations of other more staid cliched magical books. But the world is, as I mentioned earlier, so very well set up earthly and atmospheric. I now would not wish to ever see it go. I can but wonder what the following stories will bring for this wonderful human family that seem dogged by misfortune, or is it actually fortune? Undoubtedly it will bring magic, and a pinch of mischief too. Always complex, yet lightened by the style of writing that makes this such a compulsive easy read. Oh, and for those of us that love cats, the Widdershins' have a black cat rather aptly named Oi! I'll leave you to decide why.

A no hesitation recommendation. Buy for yourself, family or friends. Best I think enjoyed on a cold winters evening by a roaring fire with a drink of cocoa. 

 

  

Want to buy a copy?

 

To get a copy, please do consider slipping on your own ice skates and zipping down to your local independent bookshop first, mindful of ghosts, thin ice and treasure on route!

 

Michelle Harrisons's web page can be found HERE. https://www.michelleharrisonbooks.com/

 

Simon and Schuuster UK Children's web page can be found HERE. https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/

 

Once again, thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Books for making this review possible. 

 

If any authors, publishers wish us to review their books, please do get in touch. 

 

Till later!

 

ERin

AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS

 

by B. B. Alston;  

An Adventure Book Review by Erin the Cat Princess©

 

Hello, and welcome to my Saturday Book Review featuring adventures in Middle-Grade Fiction!

This week we thought we'd delve into the world of the supernatural. 

 

Nope, Mrs H hasn't been at the Sanatogen XXX Strong Senior Citizens blend, cut with neat sherry. Instead, she bought home a rather glitzy covered new book for us called 'AMARI and the NIGHT BROTHERS'. 

 

But first, a big thank you to the global readers of our online news last week, who expressed concern at the mini crimewave hitting our dear and generally ordinary (ish) village of UMM (Upper Much-Mousing).

 

The latest news from PC Beatworn in The Pied Sparrow Inn, is that Sid Warrant of CSI Much Deeping-Hollow has passed the matter of the missing spectacles to East Lambtonshire Zoo. 

 

Why ever did they do that, I hear the First Lady ask? Well, following a lead from a hush-hush American Law Enforcement agency, who would neither confirm nor deny avidly reading the blog each week, the perps were identified. Apparently, and purely accidentally, the satellite had been drawn to the area in recent weeks due to the large amount of soap sudds emanating from Mrs Singh's sheep powered car wash being visible from space! They thought they had been monitoring some ecological disaster. Had they come to me first, I'd have happily pointed them to the remnants of the Great UMM Bake-Off contest, which, months later, remain undecomposed in the local cafe!

 

Anyways, the satellite team spotted two well know villains that had escaped the zoo whilst on a foreign exchange visit. The two, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are Racoon X and Racoon Y.

 

Residents of the village are asked to look out for two strangers with American accents and wearing horn-rim glasses! Seems a bit vague to me, but then, I'm just a cat!

OK, enough of the crime news, let's get on with the fun stuff! 

 

 

AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS, by B. B. ALSTON 

 

Published by VARIOUS IMPRINTS OF Harper Collins Publishers.

 

Cover artwork by Brittany Jackson

 

Pages: 375.

Age group: 8 - 12 and upwards! 

Any cats in the story? Sorry, none that I can recall. 

Paperback ISBN: 978 - 1 - 4052 - 9819 - 3 

Cover price for Paperback £7.99 (or cheaper)

 

 

 

The Plot: 

 

Amari Peters is an early teen girl who has won a scholarship to a great school. The trouble is, she is from the wrong side of the tracks. But she is following on in the footsteps of her elder brother, Quinton, who was brilliant and won the same scholarship and made good. He landed a fantastic job that took him away a lot travelling. Amari thought he was some sort of spy. Quinton would smirk and say, "Your wrong, but you're not totally wrong".

 

Amari had lived with her mother and brother since their father effectively disowned them and left. He even denied being Amari's father. That isn't an easy thing to deal with for a kid, especially when it is overheard coming straight from the dad's mouth. 

 

Things take a turn for the worse when Quinton vanishes. He said he had a job and was paid well, and always sent money home from wherever he was working. But the police can't find any record of him ever being employed or having paid any tax, anywhere. After some time, they call a halt to the investigation. What more can they do but suspect he had been into something terrible, mixed with the wrong kind and paid the price. After all, that's what happens to many kids, right? 

 

Wrong! Not Quinton, and Amari knows that. And she knows he's out there somewhere.

 

The kids at the new school only see Amari as a kid from a poor home, and they make life rough. Amari is tough, she had to be, but she gets suspended when she gets pushed too far and pushes another student over. The result is Amari loses her scholarship and any chance to get anywhere else......

 

But then, a suitcase from Quinton is delivered by a mysterious courier. Well, he'd already been into Amari's home and left it in Quinton's wardrobe but just wanted a signature. The case contains a "Broaden Your Horizons." kit. When the designated opening hour arrives, midnight after the last day of term, Amari opens the case. Donning the spectacles she finds within, she hears and sees Quinton. But her mother cant, which is rather handy as what happens next, takes Amari on a unique sailing ship that flies out over the ocean. Here her brother, who isn't really there but in what they call a waking dream, shows her the worlds and activity beneath the waves – the International Railways of Atlantis. It transpires Quinton worked for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, and went on missions worldwide. He was one of their top two agents. That is until the two went missing. The case, it turns out, was to be passed on to Amari if he was declared missing . . . or dead. 

 

Also, in this case, is an invite for Amari to try out to be a Junior Agent at the Bureau. The thing is, can she stand the shame of wearing the horrendously weird suit of clothes that is in the case as she travels to the Bureau's secret headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

 

All of what I have just described is the warm-up to a rather fun new world that opens up when Amari steps in the Bureau's elevator and presses the Basement button 26 times . . . 

 

 

So, what did we think?

 

We finished this book quite quickly, under a week. It isn't short either, or large print. This is a great sign for us as it means two things. 1) we liked it a lot. It is different. If we didn't like it, we wouldn't be reviewing it as we'd have stopped reading. 2) The book's pace is good and engages us to read on and on.  We did however struggle with some of the dialogue, but I'm guessing this is just down to local dialect/lingo used for the characters. Mrs H isn't exactly hip and down with the kids, well, not unless she's playing marbles!

 

I would love to have seen more pictures in this. A brilliant cover but sparse chapter title images seem to be the way with these longer books. But don't let that put you off, as the reading was the thing in this case.

 

Think of this book as discovering that the sum of three flavours of ice cream/candy can create something as good, and in its own way, better than the individual parts. 

 

Mrs H and I both said that this adventure was reminiscent of elements of Men in Black (the first movie, which is our favourite), Nevermore (the brilliant book series of the adventures of Morrigan Crow), and Harry Potter. 

 

The flavour of this adventure is: the essence of sweet friendship found, the sourness of betrayal, a dark raspberry ripple of the evil magical villains and monsters (provided by the Night Brothers in the title), and the tongue tingle of sharpness is the battling the odds. 

 

All of which is a long, but I think justified, way of saying this was a refreshing feast of imaginative writing.

I shall say no more. There are a veritable plethora of things to enjoy as the adventure takes off, and descends, and to say more would spoil it. I will add, though, that this would make a great film, just like Men In Black. 

 

So . . . . 

Crunch time. 

 

Given the pros and cons, would we recommend Amari? I'd say yes. It is a safe and good buy for adults or younger readers. Indeed it works well for elderly housekeepers who may, or may not, have had too much sherry whilst making the Christmas pudding! 

The great news is, if you enjoy this book, and there is a lot to enjoy, there is another book in the series heading our way in hardback in April 2022. 

 

Unfortunately, for the paperback, we will have to wait until 5 January 2023. I do think nearly a year gap between the two is unnecessary. For those who are necessarily cost-conscious, including ourselves, this is a bit mean. It does, however, seem to be the way the industry works these days. But if someone sends us a copy, we will, of course, review it for you, then forward the copy to a local school.

 

 

Want to buy a copy?

 

To add some Supernatural Detection to your own briefcase, you don't need to take an elevator, just head to your local independent bookshop. 

 

B.B. Alston's web page can be found HERE. https://www.bbalston.com/

 

Harper Collins Chidrens web page can be found HERE. https://www.harpercollins.com/blogs/authors/b-b-alston

 

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

 

 

Till later!

 

ERin