Takeout Sushi by Christopher Green - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Takeout Sushi by Christopher Green. It is a pleasure to welcome you to my blog. Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews. I don't often read books of short stories but when I do I often find myself enjoying them. I was really intrigued by the sound of this book so I signed up for the tour. 

I read this book really quickly and really enjoyed all of the stories, which is definitely a rarity for me. I also really liked the illustrations before each story which give a little hint as to what the story will be about. Definitely check them out too.

I particularly liked the stories set in Japan. About two thirds of them are, but a few at the end are set elsewhere. My favourite ones were the one about the robots, the one about the jogger having a run in with a sports car in the car park, the one about the 'creep' in the cafe, and the one about the man who picks things up on Tokyo streets and keeps a collection. A lot of these stories have stuff in common - they're about world weary people living in Tokyo, in a fast paced city, with long commutes, futons to sleep in, neighbours close by. I liked that they seemed so similar - I could imagine that these people were all neighbours of each other, all involved in the same universe, all just living simultaneously. 

Of the stories not set in Japan I liked the one about the renaissance painter the best. 

It's hard to write good short stories but Christopher Green has definitely managed it. I would read something else by him and I'm giving this collection a very good four out of five. Definitely check it out!

Looking for Lucie by Amanda Addison - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the tour for Looking For Lucie by Amanda Addison. It is a pleasure to welcome you here today. Please do have a click around and read some of my other reviews. I haven't read a lot of Young Adult literature recently but I do love it. I was really intrigued by this story of a young girl, on the cusp of adulthood, looking for answers about her heritage and past. 

Lucie is eighteen and on the first day we meet her it's her birthday. Her dad has baked her a cake and she's having a lovely family time, but she's constantly reminded that she is different to the rest of her family. Her dad, Steve, is actually her stepdad. He is white, as are her mother Tori and her sister Maisie. But Lucie is mixed race - but she doesn't know where her dad was from. Her mother has never told her much about her dad, and she's never known him. Lucie got desperate so she has spent some of her savings and gifts from her beloved grandma Nana Pat, Steve's mum, on a DNA test. She's waiting for results on her birthday, in the middle of August. 

She's also waiting for her A level results. She wants to go to art college in London. She is particularly interested in textile design and things like that and she wants to be among people who look like her. She's got darker skin than all her family, and is clearly mixed race, but doesn't know her exact heritage.

She goes to college on A level results day and gets fantastic results - she is in at art school! She also bumps into Nav, literally. He's one of the cleverest kids in school and is really into science and maths. He's headed to Cambridge with five A*s at A level. Lucie's phone is damaged by him and he promises to mend it for her at the shop where he sometimes works. They set off to get a drink together and Lucie ends up telling Nav about the DNA test. 

Nav's family is Muslim, from Pakistan originally, and he is also in the minority as a person of colour in Norfolk, which is skewed extremely white. His mum is a scientist too. He really likes Lucie and wants to get to know her more. 

Please do check out some more of the stops on the tour!

One Of Us Is Back by Karen M McManus - Review

It feels like absolutely forever since I read any Young Adult fiction. I can't quite explain why that is, either. I do feel like it has stagnated a little bit in recent years and like I've read everything that I would be interested in. A lot of current YA seems to be fantasy and it's just not my thing. So I've sort of fallen out of knowing what's new. But I've had this on my radar for a little bit. I've read everything that Karen M McManus has written, so I obviously needed to read this too. It's the third in the Bayview trilogy but it had been so long since I read the second one that I had forgotten most of what happened. But this does explain a lot of what previously happened. And it was nice to be back in Bayview with Nate and Addy and Phoebe. 

The book is told from their points of view, although all the others are too - Cooper, Kris, Knox, Luis, Maeve, Bronwyn... The whole Bayview Crew. I had forgotten Knox, for sure, and I found I kept mixing him up with Kris which annoyed me. I also would have liked more Bronwyn, because I like her, but beggars can't be choosers... 

Bronwyn is off at Yale or something. Nate is working construction and he's also working in the bar of a country club or golf club or something, because he's keeping himself afloat aged nineteen. His relationship with his parents his better - they're both sober now and his dad has a job at Bayview High, where the other books are set. Nate is living with some others around his age, including Reggie, who I had definitely forgotten from book two, and who Nate hates. 

Phoebe is in her last year of high school and she's working at Cafe Contigo which belongs to Luis' family, although I had forgotten him, too. But she's really distracted - in book two she discovered the truth about her sister Emma's and her brother Owen's parts in what happened, and she and Emma have been covering for Owen ever since. He's thirteen now and sullen and removed from the family, and Phoebe is worried sick. She's also kind of got this thing going on with Knox, but it's really complicated. 

Addy is still living in Bayview, with her mum this time, who she doesn't get on well with. But her sister Ashton is now married and pregnant, and Addy is excited for that. She kissed her friend Keely and is having complicated feelings about this. I actually really liked this tiny bit of the book; it was a cute development for Addy. But Jake, who was involved in both the previous sets of crimes and who threatened Addy, is about to be released from prison as he's getting a new trial. He's banned from being anywhere where Addy is, but she's still terrified of running into him and so on. I love Addy - she's my favourite across the books and I liked her in the TV show, too, although I've only watched the first season. 

Everything seems to be going fine, except that a billboard in the locality is hacked, and there's a hint that a new game has started. But who would be doing this, and how? And how is it related to Jake's parents? And how is it related to when Jake and Simon were friends six years ago.

The book kept me guessing and I liked the mystery. I loved the ending but I felt it came together slowly at first then a bit too quickly. But I'm giving it five out of five - it's a worthy ending to the series. 

Red Runs the Witch's Thread by Victoria Williamson - Review and Blog Tour

Hello and welcome to my blog for my stop on the blog tour for Red Runs the Witch's Thread. I hope you like my review and I invite you to click around a little bit and read some of my other reviews. I've read a lot of Victoria Williamson's books now and enjoyed all of them so when I saw there was another of her books on tour I grabbed at the chance! I was lucky enough to receive a paper copy of this book and it came with some other goodies too, including a raven necklace, a mini sewing kit, and some sweeties! Amazing, it really brightened up my day so thank you!

First of all I'm not really sure where to put this book in terms of genre. It's kind of got a Young Adult feel to it even though the main characters are adults. I think that's partly because there are flashbacks to when the main character, Christian, was a small child. The book is set around 1720 and I really liked the historical setting. Victoria is good at historical fiction and makes it feel accessible to a modern reader. 

She is now thirty something and she is a widow. She has had to move back into her childhood home, with her mother and her two sisters. She is trying to perfect the art of bleaching thread, so that her thread would be the finest in the land and she can sell a lot and regain her family's fortune. She is a lady, after all, but the family has been on hard times since the death of Christian's father three years previously. Christian is sending herself a bit mad with the soap and the lye and the sun bleaching of the thread, but she is determined to do it. But everyone in the house is a bit wary of Christian because of what happened when she was a child. Christian is aware of this but also thinks she's being stalked by the ravens which come to the window and haunt the house and gardens. She begins to have flashbacks of what happened before and it's clear madness is taking its hold on her. 

The parallel narrative tells us what happened when Christian was little. She fell ill and accused several people in the area of being witches. Eight people were condemned to death and Christian and her father went to watch them being hanged. Since then she has never had a monthly bleed, making her barren, which shortened the list of men who would marry her... And now it is now and she is carrying a lot of guilt around. Christian's youngest sister is desperate to get married but Christian's reputation may stop that. A potential suitor comes to visit, and everything goes really wrong. 

In all I liked the story; I liked the setting and Christian and her sisters (the other one is really mean and spiteful, which is actually quite funny within the story), but I wish we had seen a little more of her mother. Christian's descent into madness is all too real and I really liked it. I did guess the twist around two thirds of the way through, but I thought it was set up really well and done well. 

Thank you for having me along! 

Every Happy Family by Sarah Stovell - Review

I requested this at the library because I had seen it and thought it sounded good. Generally, I'm glad I read it but I did find it weird and a little bit repetitive of other stories I've read before. The front cover also really looks like Spilt Milk which I read only a couple of weeks before this, which is weird! 

So it's Christmas in the book, but it didn't really feel like a festive read so I didn't mind reading it at this point. Minnie is seventy ish and all of her children are returning to the house for Christmas. Her middle child and eldest daughter, Lizzie, lives two hundred miles away from Minnie's Cotswolds home, with her daughter Ruby, and her friend Tamsin, and Tamsin's daughter Daisy. The two women aren't romantically linked but they have made a conscious decision to live together and co parent. Ruby's dad was abusive towards Lizzie and she finally got out; she thinks that Ruby doesn't understand what happened between them but Ruby knows far more than she's let on. Ruby is thirteen now so definitely not a baby. 

Minnie's youngest daughter Jess has just had her second baby (like literally two days before Christmas). She is married to Anna, and they already have a little boy, Rowan, who is three. Jess is much younger than her siblings. Her dad is Minnie's second husband, Bert, who is a bit of a non entity in the book although he is there. Minnie and Bert are both academics and are just very into intellectualism and stuff. Minnie doesn't think that Lizzie is clever enough - she's always been a bit ignored in the family I think.

Then there's oldest child Owen. He has been living in Australia for years and the family has barely seen him. He's marriedto Sophie and they have a thirteen year old girl too, Layla. Owen and Sophie's marriage is on the rocks and Sophie decides not to come to England for Christmas. Layla, like Ruby, knows that there's something going on between her parents, but doesn't know exactly what. Minnie is so excited to see her son even though she knows there are tensions between them. 

And the tension goes by the name of Nora Skelly. She was a childhood friend of Lizzie's and had a trouble childhood because her mother disappeared when she was around twelve. Similarly, Lizzie and Owen's dad, Minnie's first husband, Jack, was an alcoholic who died when Lizzie was around eleven or twelve. Minnie had spent a lot of time clearing up Jack's mess so when he died she was mostly just relieved. But obviously his kids missed him, and Owen in particular started going off the rails a bit. He and Minnie had a lot of tension between them. But then he started going out with Nora. I did feel a bit sorry for Lizzie here cos she kind of got sidelined, but she seemed okay with it. Owen seemed to settle down and things were okay. But then something happened, and the family fractured, hence why Owen has basically been estranged from his mother and sisters for years. 

Nora is back in the village because her dad has died. His house needs putting up for sale and she needs to sort it out. She has been in touch with Owen, and he wants to invite her for Christmas. I won't say more of the story but I will say that it did feel a bit stereotypical, like I've read similar stuff before. 

I liked Lizzie a lot and felt sorry for her. She had been through a lot and always been a bit sidelined by her brilliant siblings and mum. I genuinely wanted her to be happy! Owen was likeable in parts although sometimes he did stupid things. He mostly just wanted everything to be okay, though. The teenage girls were both good characters, doing the types of things that we all did at thirteen. Jess isn't portrayed very much in the book and although it makes sense to why it was hard to get to know her. 

Minnie though was just very unlikeable and difficult to understand. She makes selfish decisions and although the main one is something I won't spoil, I felt like I did understand WHY she made that decision but feel she could have been kinder about it? She was sort of just really into herself and no one else. Everything has to go her way, and it emmerges at the end of the book that she manipulated a lot of happenings in ways I just found ridiculous. I didn't like her.

In all I'm giving this three out of five. I am glad I read it, but I did find it odd. 

The Girl From the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag - Review

This was also one of the books that I borrowed from my friend Chloe. I had heard of it before and really wanted to read it, and I'm really glad I did because it's lovely. It's set on an island which I think is in Canada somewhere, and there are four girls who are friends. Morgan is our protagonist. She lives with her brother and her mum, and life has been hard since her dad left. (I think, maybe he died). Her brother is antagonistic towards her and her mum, and life just isn't like it was. Morgan has lots of secrets now, including the one where she thinks she might want to kiss girls. 

Morgan slips into the sea one day and almost drowns, but is saved by a mysterious girl called Keltie. Keltie then comes ashore and woos Morgan - with some really outlandish phrasing that was very endearing and which makes total sense in context - and the two girls start a secret relationship.

But Keltie doesn't want to stay a secret, and Morgan's friends are suspicious. Plus her friend Serena's birthday is coming up and the party is going to be on her parents' boat. The boat is also going to do tours round the island, and that is something that is worrying for Keltie... 

I loved the mysticism in this book and I loved Keltie and how adorable she was. I loved Morgan and really sympathised with her. All of the illustrations in this book are just so beautiful - full colour and in gorgeous sea shades. The artwork is just beautiful. 

I really liked this and am giving it five out of five. 

Queerbook by Malcolm Mackenzie - Review

I got this book from Amazon recently because I had a goft voucher from my work for Christmas and hadn't spent it yet. I had seen the book while spending a different voucher in Waterstones, and was highly tempted, but went for other stuff instead. So I got this off Amazon and picked it up really soon after it arrived.

It's a book about LGBTQIA+ people, and is aimed at teenagers and young adults. It's all written in an accessible and fun way, with little boxes and diagrams and fun illustrations. I liked this because it made it really easy to read. There are many parts to the book, including sections on identity andterms, queer spaces, queer history, queer culture, and some helplines and so on. Each sup chapter within these sections are just a few pages long at most, meaning this is a brilliant book to dip in and out of. 

There's a lot of stuff about the 'first' queer people to do X, which was really interesting and which places us firmly in the culture which has borne us. There are mentions about historical people who may have been queer, and those who definitely were. I'm way past the intended audience of this book but it still taught me a lot of things about history, and it gave me some new to me media to check out, like films, TV programmes, and books. I need to write some lists actually to remind myself about some of these things!

I would recommend this to any teenager, queer or not, just so they can learn some things and hopefully make some connections. I'm giving this five out of five, it's a very good little book. 

Plus. who can resist an endorsement from Gillian Anderson?!