Showing posts with label middle grade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label middle grade. Show all posts

15 Jan 2019

Review - A Murder of Crows by Annie Kirke

Title: The Murder of Crows (The Ravenscourt Tragedies #1)

Author: Annie Kirke

Release Date: 1 November, 2018

Synopsis:

A dead father.

A missing Spirit.

An ancient manor with way too many locked doors.

But Abigail Crowe won't let locked doors, corsets, or the straight-laced rules of Victorian society get in the way of finding the truth behind her father's death. Of course, where illegal magic is involved, things are rarely as simple as they appear. Screams in the night, an insane gardener, and a murder blamed on her late father are only the beginning. Could her father actually be a murderer? What is Uncle Edward hiding in the attic? And perhaps most importantly—which family secrets are worth keeping locked up?


I received a free ebook copy of this book from Dying Arts Press in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts:

I was a lucky girl; 2018 went out with a bang for me reading-wise. A Murder of Crows by Annie Kirke was the last book I read in 2018 and to tell the truth I'm grateful I could finish the year with such a delightful novel.

Abigail Crowe's father died and his spirit disappeared. Not long after, Abigail's mother brought her and her brother to this strange mansion where screams pierce through the walls at night. The uncle they haven't seen since she and William were little, most probably tampers with forbidden magic. The grounds around the house are off limits after sunset. There are closed doors wherever they go and Abigail keeps thinking about how her father couldn't deliver a probably important last message to his family. She suspects foul play. The living members of her family might be in danger too...

I was pleasantly surprised by this lovely gothic detective story

Abigail, the young protagonist is hell-bent on finding out who murdered her father. It seems like he passed because of natural causes but she thinks she knows better. His spirit never showed during his resting (where the departing usually say their final goodbyes) and it was enough to raise her suspicion.

I enjoyed the pacing and how the tale was put together – there is real detective work; Abigail and her brother William are fiercely looking for answers and with the help of memorable side-characters (Emily, who Abigail keeps calling "Keeper of the Dead" and Beatrice the gardener who acts crazy most of the time) they soon start getting glimpses at the bigger picture.

The environment in which they investigate is dark and menacing, the mansion holds secrects just like the people who inhabit it. The fantasy/paranormal bits that colour the story (like the magic and the presence of spirits, fey creatures and even zombies) are all nice touches, they definitely make the world of the book engaging. There were quite a few scenes that were playing out in cemeteries and.. well yeah... you can imagine, the mood was set. Loved them!

I kind of knew where the author was leading me (which was not a problem at all, I bore in mind that the book is marketed for a younger audience), but still, the ride was so worth it! A Murder of Crows is a clever execution of a series of clever ideas, and it's only the beginning of a series. I have to say the bar is high, however I'm sure the author can work her magic in the second instalment too. I'm more than willing to join Abigail on another adventure.



20 Mar 2018

Tell Me Something Tuesday #2 Books I can't wait to share

 

'Tell Me Something Tuesday' is a weekly discussion post at Rainy Day Ramblings.

The question of the week is:

What books are you excited to share with your kids or younger readers in your life? 

I don't have kids yet, but I'm lucky enough to have a brother who was born when I was 18. Basically I'm like a second mum to him, I've been there since the moment he was born. 

He has only recently started to become interested in reading but to this day he rather reads together with someone than alone. I sit down with him quite often to read a few pages of a book out loud, then he takes over and we take turns like this until we read our fill. We have so much fun with this method!

He is ten, so he's reached the 'ripe' age when he can be intorduced to middle grade books. So far we have read the first three instalments in the Harry Potter series and we have started the first book in the Percy Jackson series a couple of weeks ago. I'm new to the Percy Jackson stories, the plot fascinates me as much as it does him. 


Books I can't wait to share with my kids one day:


Winnie The Pooh 
by A. A. Milne

I remember reading many adventures featuring Winnie the Pooh, sitting in a comfy chair in my grandmother's flat but of course the original was the best. That was around the time when I got my first library card and I think the first books I borrowed from the library included Winnie the Pooh tales. I would like to intorduce this sweet bear to my kids one day and vice versa.



by P. L. Travers

The one and only. I read the sequel too, devoured both books and liked to pretend I can fly with an umbrella in my hand. I'd like to believe that if I'll have a daughter she'll be as in love with this story as I was once.





by Meg Cabot

This is such a funny and witty series... I remember I wished for a cat like Mia's when I was knee-deep in these books. That cute creature on the cover is so precious.





by Henryk Sienkiewicz

This is a lesser known children's classic that is set in Africa. I will probably not give it to my children until they are a bit older (10-12 perhaps) because I remember I started to read it twice first I couldn't get into it, I needed to mature a bit. Later I LOVED it though. It's about a pair of children who get lost in Africa; they get abducted, then they escape and try to find their way home. They make friends with animals and African children during their journey.


What would be your picks? Leave a comment and let me know!

18 Feb 2017

Stacking the Shelves #3


Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews that makes it possible to share with other bookworms what books you added to your shelves physical or virtual during the week.

This week I received two physical copies through the post, both of them I ordered online:

Title: El Príncipe de la Niebla (The Prince of Mist)

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Synopsis:

In 1943, Max Carver's father a watchmaker and inventor decides to move his family to a small town on the coast, to an abandoned house that holds many secrets and stories of its own. Behind the house Max discovers an overgrown garden surrounded by a metal fence topped with a six-pointed star. In the centre is a large statue of a clown set in another six-pointed star.

As the family settles in they grow increasingly uneasy: Max’s sister Alicia has disturbing dreams while his other sister, Irina, hears voices whispering to her from an old wardrobe. With his new friend Roland, Max also discovers the wreck of a boat that sank many years ago in a terrible storm. Everyone on board perished except for one man - an engineer who built the lighthouse at the end of the beach.

As they learn more about the wreck, the chilling story of a legendary figure called the Prince of Mist begins to emerge...

The Prince of Mist is the first book in Carlos Ruiz Zafón's middle grade series called Niebla (means fog or mist in Spanish). I've decided to start this series because I absolutely adored The Shadow of the Wind find my review here and I think it's time for me to start reading in Spanish as well (I've done a language exam but I've still got a lot to learn).

The three books in the series:

Title: Joseph Severn A Life: The Rewards of Friendship

Author: Sue Brown



Joseph Severn was a painter and a very dear friend of John Keats. I have a personal little project in progress that is about discovering those people's life and work that gathered around Leigh Hunt in the 1810s and thus were part of the literary/art circle of the era. I have mentioned before on this blog before that I love the Romantics and this purchase is just another proof of that.






This is my haul for now. What books did you put your hands on this week?
And another question for today:
Have you ever read a book in a language that is not English and not your mother tongue?