Tag Archives: books

#BookReview ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn @JaneCable #romance

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The Missing Pieces of Us by Eva Glyn is a touching tale of love, self-awareness and how love persists over the years. Izzy and her daughter Claire are shopping. It is just before Christmas. The streets of Winchester are crowded and the air is icy. Izzy bumps into a tramp, a homeless man, and is sure she knows him. But when she turns round, he is gone. Eva GlynThis is the story of Izzy and Robin’s love for each other, their loss, and how they find themselves and each other again. Central to the story is a faerie tree. It is place where children leave gifts and messages for the fairies, and where the fairies leave their replies. It is a story of hope and compassion, of flawed characters, real people, finding their way out from the darkness. Beneath the faerie tree, Izzy and Robin swear eternal love to each other in 1986 but are soon after parted by circumstances. When they finally meet again, their memories of their early time together are so different: why? And whose memory is correct, whose is flawed?
This story combines a love story with suspense and a sprinkle of folklore.
This review was first published here in 2015 as ‘The Faerie Tree’ by Jane Cable. The book has since been republished by One More Chapter as ‘The Missing Pieces of Us’ by Eva Glyn, Jane Cable’s pen name.

Read my reviews of these other books by Eva Glyn:-
THE CROATIAN ISLAND LIBRARY
THE COLLABORATOR’S DAUGHTER

Also by Eva Glyn, writing as Jane Cable:-
ANOTHER YOU
ENDLESS SKIES
THE CHEESEMAKER’S HOUSE

If you like this, try:-
‘Love and Eskimo Snow’ by Sarah Holt
‘The Museum of You’ by Carys Bray
‘Please Release Me’ by Rhoda Baxter

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE MISSING PIECES OF US by Eva Glyn @JaneCable https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6YM via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Eva Glyn

#BookReview ‘A Very English Murder’ by @BrightVerity #cosymystery #crime

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A Very English Murder by Verity Bright is first in the Lady Eleanor Swift series of 1920s historical cozy crime novels. It’s a rollicking mystery that speeds along at a fair clip with lots of red herrings, dastardly villains and multiple glasses of homebrew. Verity BrightLady Swift inherits her title from her uncle, along with his mansion Henley Hall at Little Buckford in the Home Counties. Accustomed to fending for herself she has travelled alone around the world, in jungle, deserts and cities, plotting routes for travel companies. But now Ellie finds herself in foreign territory; an English village. Not only must she become accustomed to being mistress of a house and its staff, a local celebrity, source of fascination, causer of awkward silences, she also witnesses a murder.
When the local police don’t believe her, given the lack of a body or evidence, Ellie sets off on a detective spree. In her search for clues she gets into scrapes, makes all kinds of wrong assumptions, and some correct ones, doesn’t know who to trust and argues with lots of people. The only ‘character’ she trusts to be on her side is gentle bulldog Gladstone. There’s also a rather dashing neighbour with an airplane, who also may be the murderer. Her title fails to elevate her in the eyes of the local mayor or police – who see only a woman so obviously incapable, ill-equipped and unfit for murder detection – so she teams up with one of her suspects, Clifford the butler at Henley Hall. “A mere woman and a mere servant. Two classes undervalued and underestimated for generations joining together to make a formidable team.”
This is a fun historical mystery which, despite a few unlikely plot points and some silliness, is curiously addictive. It is however set in the Twenties with few references to the events of the day though the upstairs/downstairs divisions at Henley Hall are soon broken down. This was a decade of adjustment after the Great War; the men who didn’t come home, the injured men who can’t work, the women who took on men’s jobs during the war have now been pushed back into a pre-war world. None of this seems to impact on Henley Hall or Eleanor’s lifestyle. Nor is there is mention of women’s suffrage, female MPs or the rights of titled women to sit in the House of Lords; all of which would affect Lady Swift when she inherited her title. But of course this is a cozy mystery, an escape from the real world, and A Very English Murder does this job well.
It’s an entertaining read which made me chuckle. Plus there are plenty of unanswered questions to fuel further adventures.
PS. I loved the cover artwork too.

Read my review of other books in the Lady Eleanor Swift series:-
DEATH AT THE DANCE #2LADYELEANORSWIFT
A WITNESS TO MURDER #3LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER IN THE SNOW #4LADYELEANORSWIFT
MYSTERY BY THE SEA #5LADYELEANORSWIFT
MURDER AT THE FAIR #6LADYELEANORSWIFT
A LESSON IN MURDER #7LADYELEANORSWIFT
DEATH ON A WINTER’S DAY #8LADYELEANORSWIFT

If you like this, try:-
‘The Vanished Bride’ by Bella Ellis #1BronteMysteries
‘The Mystery of Three Quarters’ by Sophie Hannah #3Poirot
‘A Fatal Crossing’ by Tom Hindle

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A VERY ENGLISH MURDER by @BrightVerity https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Xs via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Eva Glyn

#BookReview ‘World Without End’ by @KMFollett #historical #Kingsbridge

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What a wonderful series this is by Ken Follett. World Without End is second in the Kingsbridge series and is intimidating purely by its size, the 1264-page paperback is like a brick. But oh so worth it. Follet has created a world to lose yourself in. I was sad when it came to an end. Ken FollettThe year is 1327. In a wood near the cathedral city of Kingsbridge, four children witness a murder. The man responsible asks for their silence and the mystery of his secret runs throughout the book. The story is a little slow to get going but throughout World Without End the lives of these four children, soon adults, are woven together, intertwined, separated and combined again. Love and ambition are at the heart of everything; sometimes aided, sometimes thwarted, by money, greed, abuse and theft. There is violence, misogyny and racism. Yes, there may be similarities in plot and character with the first book, Pillars of the Earth, but this story is set two centuries later. The historical settings make both books distinctive, in World Without End it is the coming of Black Death and Edward III’s Battle of Crécy. And of course there are similarities; Kingsbridge is the centrepiece where the cathedral, priory, bridge and annual Fleece Fair are central to everyday life. There are power struggles – between master and apprentice, prior and alderman, father and son, father and daughter, between brothers. Follett’s success with this series is the accessibility of everyday lives; we can identify with these 14th century families, their hopes and desires, jealousies, disappointments and fears.
At the heart of the story are the four children in the woods that day. Quiet, clever Merthin and his younger brother Ralph, strong and always ready for a fight. And two girls, friends; Caris, clever and confident daughter of a wool merchant, and Gwenda, the under-nourished daughter of a thief but who wants so much more from her own life. Through their daily lives, Follett shows the development of Kingsbridge into a different town. Each child faces impossible decisions, each in their own way is determined and strong. Their choices, wrong or right, govern the narrative as, too quickly, these children become adults and face one of the most traumatic times faced by England. As the Black Death creeps closer and finally reaches Kingsbridge, the villagers, monks, nuns, lords, tenant farmers and farm labourers find themselves brought equal in the shared danger.
Two more books in the series await. A Column of Fire about Kingsbridge in the 16th century, followed by The Armour of Light set at the close of the 18th century.

Click the titles to read my reviews of other Follett novels:-
THE EVENING AND THE MORNING #PREQUELKINGSBRIDGE
THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH #1KINGSBRIDGE
A COLUMN OF FIRE #3KINGSBRIDGE
THE ARMOUR OF LIGHT #4KINGSBRIDGE
NEVER

If you like this, try:-
‘The Last Hours’ by Minette Walters [#1 Black Death]
‘The Turn of Midnight’ by Minette Walters #2 Black Death
‘Plague Land’ by SD Sykes [#1OswalddeLacy]

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview WORLD WITHOUT END by @KMFollett https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Vb via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Verity Bright

#BookReview ‘Fortune Favours the Dead’ by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve #crime

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I love finding a new series to explore. Fortune Favours the Dead by Stephen Spotswood is first in the late 1940s New York-set Pentecost & Parker detective series. Certainly different from anything else I’ve read in this genre. The post-war city setting is dynamic and refreshing. Stephen SpotswoodWhen circus runaway Willowjean Parker meets her new boss, private detective Lillian Pentecost, it is so nearly their last meeting. Ms Pentecost, whose advice has been sought in the past by Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of the wartime president, recognises Will’s unusual talents – knife-throwing, sharpshooting, bareback horse riding, fire-eating and how to get out of a straitjacket – and recruits her as her private assistant. New York is a swirling mixture of poverty, opportunity, change and excess. The war has ended and everyone is adjusting to the new rules of life. When wealthy widow Abigail Collins is murdered not long after her husband committed suicide, and in the same room of their mansion, the police investigation stalls. So the family calls in Lillian Pentecost to investigate. The Collins family steelworks faces financial trouble as wartime contracts are up for renewal, soldiers are returning from war to the jobs done in their absence by women, and rumours are circulating that Abigail was killed by her dead husband Al.
The Abigail Collins case is told from Will’s viewpoint, a nice mixture of detecting, caring for her fragile boss, and going off track pursuing her own suspicions. Will – newly trained in law, shorthand, car mechanics, bookkeeping and driving – is brave, strong and well-meaning. Sometimes she gets into trouble but she often digs up new evidence. Something that MS-sufferer Ms Pentecost, Ms. P, is less able to do. In a future book I’d like to hear more from Ms. P.
The death of Abigail in a locked room seems impossible to solve but the combination of Ms. P’s razor-sharp mind, memory of past crimes and vast cuttings archive, with Will’s derring-do, leads them to clues the police have failed to spot. There are plenty of suspects and witnesses; a theatrical fortune teller and her slimy assistant, a brawny factory manager, Abigail and Al’s fragile son and daughter, Al’s business partner, a failed journalist turned archivist and an academic sceptical about clairvoyancy.
The setting is special, the relationship between the two lead female characters is special. I’ve read a lot of crime novels of different sub-genres and have an eye for spotting the guilty party, Fortune Favours the Dead kept me guessing until the last pages. And it’s fun.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK

If you like this, try:-
‘The Killing of Polly Carter’ by Robert Thorogood [#2 Death in Paradise]
‘Big Sky’ by Kate Atkinson [Jackson Brodie #5]
‘The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ by Stuart Turton

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD by Stephen Spotswood @playwrightSteve https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6VM via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Ken Follett

#BookReview ‘Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods’ by Suzanne Collins #fantasy #adventure

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A plague is circulating in the Underland and every warm-blooded creature may die. In the third book in the Suzanne Collins series, Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods, hero Gregor returns to Regalia, the land below New York, to find people he loves are dying of the deadly disease. Suzanne CollinsThe world below the streets seems familiar now and it’s great to see Gregor join up again with familiar characters; rats Ripred and Lapblood, cockroach Temp and human Vikus, newcomers Hamnet and his blue-green giant lizard, Frill, and a surprise appearance by someone thought lost. After listening to the Prophecy of Blood – as undecipherable as the previous prophecies – Gregor, without his bonded bat Ares who is desperately ill with the plague, sets off on his quest to find the starshade plant. Thought to be the only cure for the plague, it is said to grow in the dangerous Vineyard of Eyes. The team must survive poisonous plants – it’s a struggle for Gregor to get his little sister Boots to understand she mustn’t touch the pretty flowers – deadly jungle animals and the ferocious cutters, five foot long and two foot tall red ants.
Themes of selflessness, empathy and courage run throughout these books as Gregor is forced to confront wrong assumptions he has made, the danger of rushing to judgement, the hurt caused by making casual ill-thought throwaway statements, and the truth of his own nature. Can he set free his inner ‘rager’ to defend his friends and sister when the cutters attack. And will the Regalians admit how their past behaviour in the Underland has caused some of the hatred and resentment with the other peoples that live there.
The Underland books are about family, siblings, parents and also the extended family of friends and neighbours. As this book draws to a close, the fourth instalment is anticipated as Gregor’s family is once again under threat. But help may come from the most unexpected places.

Here are my reviews of the other books in the series:-
GREGOR THE OVERLANDER #1UNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF BANE #2UNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE MARKS OF SECRET BY SUZANNE COLLINS #4THEUNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE CODE OF CLAW #5UNDERLANDCHRONICLES

And try the first paragraph of THE HUNGER GAMES, also by Suzanne Collins.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Magician King’ by Lev Grossman #2THEMAGICIANS
‘The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden #2WINTERNIGHT
‘The Secret Commonwealth’ by Philip Pullman #2THE BOOK OF DUST

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview GREGOR AND THE CURSE OF THE WARMBLOODS by Suzanne Collins https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6P5 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Stephen Spotswood

#BookReview ‘The War of the Worlds’ by HG Wells #classic #scifi

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A story so well-known but how many of us have read the original HG Wells novel The War of the Worlds? I hadn’t, until now. Tempted in a bookshop to pick up the Penguin paperback, I’m glad I turned away from the 2005 Tom Cruise film, the 2019 BBC series, the 1938 Orson Welles radio drama that cause such a panic, and Jeff Wayne’s musical drama featuring the voice of Richard Burton. HG WellsSet at the end of the 19th century, this is the story of one man’s experience when an alien capsule lands on Horsell Common near Woking in Surrey. The story builds slowly, as information on the ground spreads slowly. No television, no radio, no internet to disseminate the news of invasion and imminent danger from the strange creatures which emerge from metal cylinders sent to earth. While people die and towns burn in Surrey, a few miles north unknowing Londoners party, eat out, go to work, to the theatre, make love. The narrator, an un-named Londoner, whose wife is considered to be safe in Leatherhead, is driven solely by his need to be reunited with her. He witnesses things he can never have imagined, technology beyond the knowledge of man, but longs to find his wife. But events push him in other directions and into the company of strangers; a timid curate who hides his fear in drink and food, a fantasist artilleryman who imagines a post-apocalyptic world. He sees the bravery, and destruction of, small groups of British military. In central London, the narrator’s brother knows nothing of the Martian tripod fighting machines to the south until, reading of the threat in newssheets, he flees the city. Rescuing two ladies in a pony-chaise who are under attack from ruffians, the trio head east towards the coast and evacuation.
The juxtaposition of everyday small details with the monumental aggressive force that has arrived on earth points to man’s inability to look beyond small, personal concerns to the bigger picture. A tendency that Wells would recognise today. Chapter One, The Eve of the War, is through-provoking for this reason. The arrogance of man to assume we know everything about our planet and the wider universe, that we are supreme, that what we do and think is correct.
What an imagination Wells had. This is an amazing depiction of alien invasion. A classic. Read it, if you haven’t already.
The cover shown above is the edition I read, the 2018 Penguin edition, but there are many editions available.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Ship’ by Antonia Honeywell
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing
‘The Choice’ by Claire Wade

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by HG Wells https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Vj via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Suzanne Collins

#BookReview ‘The Shadows of London’ by @AndrewJRTaylor #Historical

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When a body without a face is discovered on the site of Cat Hakesby’s latest building venture, Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate. The Shadows of London by Andrew Taylor is sixth in the Marwood & Lovett series that started on the night of the Great Fire of London. Andrew TaylorCat’s renovation of a city almshouse is delayed for the coroner’s verdict, putting extreme financial pressure on her architecture business. Marwood soon discovers two possible identities for the dead man – a French tutor to the daughter of the almshouse’s owner, or a civil servant at the Council of Foreign Plantations. Both suspects suggest a foreign connection to the affair. This excellent series about Restoration London is a wonderful portrayal of the squalor, smells and grime of daily reality juxtaposed with the corruption of wealth, power and politics. Stink, disguised by a clove-studded orange pomander. Meanwhile the eye of King Charles II is distracted by a young French newcomer to court, Louise de Keroualle. Surrounded by panders, English and French, who see advantage to a dalliance between monarch and maid of honour, Louise longs for a lost love and attempts in vain to stop the inevitable happening.
Set in 1671, this novel is a wonderful mixture of murder mystery, political thriller, seventeenth-century fashion [gorgeous shoes] and romantic suspense, set in the complex Restoration period. Eleven years after the restoration of King Charles to the throne and five years since the Great Fire, London still bears the marks of destruction. As Marwood investigates the murder, pulled this way and that by the demands of his political paymasters, Cat struggles to find skilled workers when all the ruined City of London is being redeveloped. The plot is complex, with modern echoes to pick up, and Taylor pulls the strings of tension this way and that. I stayed up late to finish it.
Cat remains one of my favourite fictional characters; independent, spiky, steadfast, a little solemn with endless determination. Marwood is alternately frustrating, arrogant and impulsive but also loyal, brave and honest. It is this last quality that is most pressed in The Shadows of London as, finding himself in unfamiliar territory, he questions what he is doing and why. Cat and Marwood are a brilliant pairing.
Excellent.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Read my reviews of the first five books in this series:
THE ASHES OF LONDON #FIREOFLONDON1… and read the first paragraph of THE ASHES OF LONDON.
THE FIRE COURT #FIREOFLONDON2
THE KING’S EVIL #FIREOFLONDON3
THE LAST PROTECTOR #FIREOFLONDON4
THE ROYAL SECRET #FIREOFLONDON5

And a World War Two novel by the same author:-
THE SECOND MIDNIGHT

If you like this, try:-
‘The Lady of the Ravens’ by Joanna Hickson #1QueensoftheTower
‘The Drowned City’ by KJ Maitland #1 Daniel Pursglove
‘Wakenhyrst’ by Michelle Paver

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SHADOWS OF LONDON by @AndrewJRTaylor https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6Qd via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- HG Wells

#BookReview ‘Bad Actors’ by Mick Herron #spy #thriller

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I’ve loved every one of the Slough House books by Mick Herron. In Bad Actors, eighth in the series about the reject spies, the Prime Minister’s special advisor has plans to reform the intelligence service. Break it and re-make it is his motto. But this threatens First Desk Diana Taverner, who has a few things to hide, as well as Jackson Lamb and his eccentric failures in the anonymous office in East London. Mick HerronA ‘superspreading’ specialist working for Downing Street has disappeared, Russia’s First Desk has flown into London and gone off radar and Shirley Dander is banished to ‘The San,’ a retreat in the West Country for spies who’ve gone off the rails. Meanwhile SPAD disruptor Anthony Sparrow – who calls anything ‘fake news’ if it doesn’t suit his storyline – is seen eating at an anonymous pizza restaurant in London which is odd as he does nothing without a scheme.
It takes a while for the details to connect, for the full impact of what is happening, to sink in. The certainty is that what is expected to go well will always be a car crash. Devious, selfish, deluded politicians, each with their own plan for advancement, cause problems for the slow horses who are sent by Jackson Lamb on missions that sound safe, innocuous and boring but turn out to be anything but. Roddy Ho’s computer wizardry takes centre stage and it’s good to see a full storyline given to Shirley Dander.
There is an element of predictability in the plot structure, perhaps inevitable in what is becoming a long series. Threat, Slough House endangered, Lamb’s unlikely spies save the day. But this doesn’t negate the enjoyment and Herron is so good at surprises. The wit is laugh-out-loud.
Twisty, turny, loopy, always surprising. Never disappoints. For true appreciation, start with Book One.

Click the title to read my reviews of the previous books in the Slough House series:-
SLOW HORSES #1SLOUGHHOUSE
DEAD LIONS #2SLOUGHHOUSE
REAL TIGERS #3SLOUGHHOUSE
SPOOK STREET #4SLOUGHHOUSE
LONDON RULES #5SLOUGHHOUSE
JOE COUNTRY #6SLOUGHHOUSE
SLOUGH HOUSE #7SLOUGHHOUSE

If you like this, try:-
‘Five Days of Fog’ by Anna Freeman
‘I Found You’ by Lisa Jewell
‘The Second Midnight’ by Andrew Taylor

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BAD ACTORS by Mick Herron https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6K4 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Joanna Trollope

#BookReview ‘A Gift of Poison’ by Bella Ellis #historical #crime

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A Gift of Poison, fourth in the Brönte Mysteries series by Bella Ellis, does not disappoint. It is a fast-moving, threatening and spooky tale of a murderer who may be innocent. Or not. Charlotte, Emily and Anne must investigate. Bella EllisBased on a real poisoning case, The Haworth Poisoner, is a tale of innocent until proven guilty, of poison, of ghosts, of revenants returning from the grave to demand retribution. Abner Lowood – the choice of surname, echoing Lowood School, is pertinent as Charlotte is writing Jane Eyre throughout A Gift of Poison – appears at the parsonage in Haworth. He has heard that the sisters are detectors and he demands they clear his name. If they refuse to help him he will disclose their secret detecting to their father. Disgusted by Lowood but desperate to protect their father from more anguish given the rapid deterioration of Branwell’s health, they agree.
Proven innocent in court of murdering his wife, Lowood claims the continued gossip and rumour that he is guilty is ruining his life. The sisters, Branwell is now so lost and ill that he plays no role in detecting, detest and distrust Lowood. But, following the example set throughout their lives by their father, they give him the benefit of the doubt. If he has been wronged, they will prove it. But, they warn him, if they find proof that he is a murderer they will not hesitate to report their evidence to the police.
The sisters are ably assisted by Charlotte’s friend Ellen Nussey, who is staying at the parsonage when the action takes place, and by author Mrs Catherine Crowe. The latter arrives with her scientific equipment to prove that the revenant – Lowood’s wife Barbara, said to have risen from her grave to identify her murderer – is in fact a hallucination. The balance of science versus emotion, logic rather than emotion, is the first instinct of the ladies. Their search for the truth leads them to Scarborough – where a year later the real Anne Brönte was to die, and is buried – where the decision of one man holds the key.
This is a case of double bluff and triple bluff with added cruelty, deprivation and gothic hauntings. The story is set in 1847, a time when superstition was widespread. Woven into the fictional crime case are glimpses of real life. Bramwell really did set his bed on fire, while Charlotte watched Emily and Anne correct the proofs of their first novels – Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey – soon to be published though her own The Professor was rejected.
This is the last book in the series. In an Author’s Note, Rowan Coleman, aka Bella Ellis, says farewell to her detectors. “I chose to leave them here, for now, at the moment Charlotte is sending off the manuscript for Jane Eyre and before the great waves of tragedy that were to follow all too soon, because although their lives have often been defined by sorrow, I want to celebrate the amazing victories and achievements they carved out for themselves.”
Quickly read and hugely enjoyed.

Click the title below to read my reviews of these other Bella Ellis novels:-
THE VANISHED BRIDE #1BRONTEMYSTERIES
THE DIABOLICAL BONES #2BRONTEMYSTERIES
THE RED MONARCH #3BRONTEMYSTERIES

And one by Rowan Coleman:-
THE GIRL AT THE WINDOW 

If you like this, try:-
‘The Secrets of Gaslight Lane’ by MRC Kasasian #4THEGOWERDETECTIVE
‘The Various Haunts of Men’ by Susan Hill #1SIMONSERRAILLER
‘The Lost Ancestor’ by Nathan Dylan Goodwin #2MORTONFARRIER

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview A GIFT OF POISON by Bella Ellis https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6J0 via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Sebastian Barry

#BookReview ‘Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane’ by Suzanne Collins #fantasy #adventure

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A world war is coming to the Underland signified by the appearance of a giant white rat, the Bane. Only one person can kill it. Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane is second in the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins and, at the end of the first book, hero Gregor knew he would one day have to return to Regalia from New York City. He just didn’t expect it to be so quickly. Suzanne CollinsThis inventive series takes Gregor on another death-defying adventure below ground, this time with favourite characters from the previous book unable to accompany him but travelling alongside people his either distrusts, or dislikes. This series is said to be for tweens and teens but the issues tackled will resonate with many families and adults: learn to live together, don’t judge others on appearance, don’t jump to conclusions, don’t patronise, always listen, that because someone looks scary or different or unattractive doesn’t mean they’re not a person in their own right with feelings.
Gregor’s band on this quest includes his newly-bonded bat Ares, an outcast since Gregor’s last trip below ground; two irritating and selfish fireflies, Photos Glow-Glow and Zap; and a quiet rat called Twitchtip, a scent seer who can navigate in total dark by scent alone and even distinguish colour. As always, little sister Boots adds the giggles. Again they follow a cryptic prophecy which says Gregor the ‘warrior’ must kill the white rat Bane or his baby will die; Gregor understands that ‘baby’ means Boots. If Gregor fails, Boots will die, the rats will win the Underland war and all the people and creatures will be killed. Gregor can’t sleep, worrying about how he might have to tell his parents that Boots is dead.
Collins writes in a simple style to be accessible to her younger readers but her plotting and characterisation are adult-level. The threat to characters we learn to love [yes, even the roaches] feels very real and the action is often violent. There are twists and turns, outcomes that make you gasp, characters that defy expectation and new terrifying enemies.
Just as exciting as the first book, Gregor the Overlander.

Here are my reviews of the other books in the series:-
GREGOR THE OVERLANDER #1UNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE CURSE OF THE WARMBLOODS #3UNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE MARKS OF SECRET BY SUZANNE COLLINS #4THEUNDERLANDCHRONICLES
GREGOR AND THE CODE OF CLAW #5UNDERLANDCHRONICLES

Read the first paragraph of THE HUNGER GAMES, also by Suzanne Collins.

If you like this, try:-
‘Beneath the Keep’ by Erika Johansen #PREQUELTEARLING
‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth #2DIVERGENT
‘The Winter of the Witch’ by Katherine Arden #3WINTERNIGHT

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview GREGOR AND THE PROPHECY OF BANE by Suzanne Collins https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-6GZ via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Bella Ellis