Waiting On Wednesday: And the Mountains Echoed

I am Waiting again on Wednesday! This meme is hosted at Breaking the Spine and is based on a book you can’t wait to read that hasn’t been published yet.

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So my book for this week is: AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED

The blurb: So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one…

Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search of work and they struggle together through poverty and brutal winters. To Abdullah, Pari – as beautiful and sweet-natured as the fairy for which she was named – is everything. More like a parent than a brother, Abdullah will do anything for her, even trading his only pair of shoes for a feather for her treasured collection. Each night they sleep together in their cot, their heads touching, their limbs tangled.

One day the siblings journey across the desert to Kabul with their father. Pari and Abdullah have no sense of the fate that awaits them there, for the event which unfolds will tear their lives apart; sometimes a finger must be cut to save the hand.

Crossing generations and continents, moving from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos, with profound wisdom, depth, insight and compassion, Khaled Hosseini writes about the bonds that define us and shape our lives, the ways in which we help our loved ones in need, how the choices we make resonate through history and how we are often surprised by the people closest to us.

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I’ve been recommended Khaled Hosseini by the OH for the last two years and I’ve still not read A Thousand Splendid Suns or The Kite Runner. I’ve promised him (OH) and myself that I’ll read the new one, it will be my first!

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Published: 21st May 2013, Bloomsbury

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Book Review: The Night Rainbow

The Night Rainbow by Claire King

The blurb: During one long, hot summer, five-year-old Pea and her little sister Margot play alone in the meadow behind their house, on the edge of a small village in Southern France. Her mother is too sad to take care of them; she left her happiness in the hospital, along with the baby. Pea’s father has died in an accident and Maman, burdened by her double grief and isolated from the village by her Englishness, has retreated to a place where Pea cannot reach her – although she tries desperately to do so.

Then Pea meets Claude, a man who seems to love the meadow as she does and who always has time to play. Pea believes that she and Margot have found a friend, and maybe even a new papa. But why do the villagers view Claude with suspicion? And what secret is he keeping in his strange, empty house?

Elegantly written, haunting and gripping, The Night Rainbow is a novel about innocence and experience, grief and compassion and the dangers of an overactive imagination.

My review: This is such a charming and sweet book. Claire King’s tale is told through the eyes of Pea or Pivoine (Peony), an enchanting five year old living with her Maman in the South of France. Pea spends her days running around the landscape with her sister Margot, running up to windy hill and playing in the low meadow with the donkeys. It’s here she meets Claude and his dog Merlin, neighbours who increasingly play an influential role in Pea’s life.

The landscape and the nature that King creates is evocative and creates an emotional response in the reader. The heady days of Summer in France, the bustling marketplace, the prickly neighbours all hinting back to an unspoken back story that is too tragic and heart-breaking for the ears of a little girl. This is a very clever device of King’s as the history of Pea and her Maman is dripped down to the reader through snatches of conversations and Pea’s interpretations and memories of her Mother’s actions.

This is a joyful little book despite the tragedies that seem to touch every character in different ways. I finished it feeling sad to be leaving the little French idyll where relationships could blossom in the most barren of soil. Pea’s imagination is excellent. I have already given my copy to a friend, so definitely one that I’m recommending.

8 out of 10 stars! ********

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Waiting On Wednesday: The Night Rainbow

I am Waiting again on Wednesday! This meme is hosted at Breaking the Spine and is based on a book you can’t wait to read that hasn’t been published yet.

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So my book for this week is: THE NIGHT RAINBOW

The blurb: During one long, hot summer, five-year-old Pea and her little sister Margot play alone in the meadow behind their house, on the edge of a small village in Southern France. Her mother is too sad to take care of them; she left her happiness in the hospital, along with the baby. Pea’s father has died in an accident and Maman, burdened by her double grief and isolated from the village by her Englishness, has retreated to a place where Pea cannot reach her – although she tries desperately to do so.

Then Pea meets Claude, a man who seems to love the meadow as she does and who always has time to play. Pea believes that she and Margot have found a friend, and maybe even a new papa. But why do the villagers view Claude with suspicion? And what secret is he keeping in his strange, empty house?

Elegantly written, haunting and gripping, The Night Rainbow is a novel about innocence and experience, grief and compassion and the dangers of an overactive imagination.

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Another Wednesday and another Bloomsbury book, I promise they’re not paying me! They seem to produce such beautiful books. This is gorgeous! I love that the main character is called Pea, that sold it to me, I’ll be reading this soon!

The Night Rainbow by Claire King

Published: 14th February 2013, Bloomsbury

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Book Review: Dance Of Shadows

Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black

The blurb: Dancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you’re close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner’s heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .

Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister’s shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . .

Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Justin, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashed . . .

My review: I was immediately drawn to this book because of the cover, it’s beautiful and striking, it seems a pretty cover will always be enough to turn my eye!

The premise was an interesting one, Vanessa, our heroine, joins the New York Ballet Academy to find her sister who went missing several years before. She’s an excellent dancer but dance isn’t her only passion in life, so she’s not as dedicated as the other students but has a natural ability. It turns out that many ballerina’s have gone missing over the decades and a mystery unravels for Vanessa and her friends to try and solve.

Dance of Shadows has a unique take on the mysterious, I loved all the dancing references and could picture them preparing for classes and rehearsing, the rigours and strict routines of a dance school are the perfect backdrop to the inordinary. The characters were good, it was nice that Vanessa wasn’t a complete loner which is a route I was expecting the book to take. My main critiscism with it is that it took an awfully long time to get started. Now it states Dance of Shadows #1 on Goodreads so inevitably this is a series/trilogy so I understand that taking a long time to set the scene is sometimes necessary. However the action in this book really only took place in the last couple of chapters. For example there’s  a force for good – the Lyric Elite that are fleetingly mentioned and not really explained. I feel with a supernatural/occult mystery this big that further clues could have been dropped earlier on in the narrative. There were some, but the reader could’ve been rewarded earlier.

I didn’t warm to any of the leading men mentioned in the blurb, Zep (name was frankly a bit ridiculous) Justin or Josef, I think the romantic angles are played up in the blurb more than they are in the book! the frenzy and passion of dancing is conveyed beautifully however!

Saying that, it’s only a minor critiscism and I finished the book (my first of 2013!) having thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll definitely look out for book two!

7 out of 10 stars! *******

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Waiting On Wednesday: Lucy Robinson

I am Waiting again on Wednesday! This meme is hosted at Breaking the Spine and is based on a book you can’t wait to read that hasn’t been published yet.

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So my book for this week is: A Passionate Love Affair with a Total Stranger

The blurb: Charley Lambert has worked hard at creating a perfect life. She has an aspirational flat, a job of international significance and a very good pair of legs, thanks to a rigorous health and fitness regime. Best of all, her boss has asked her out after seven years’ hard flirting and a covert fumble in a mop cupboard.

Then she breaks her leg in three places, watches her boss propose to someone else and – horror – is forced to hand over her job to her nasty deputy. Charley, a certified workaholic, fears that she will go mad.

Dangerously bored, she starts helping people who are talentless at internet dating. Then William arrives in her inbox and rocks her world. Helpless, she watches herself fall in love with him and discovers she’s not who she thought she was.

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I absolutely adored The Greatest Love Story of All Time, I thought it was the perfect and most hilarious book I read last year so I can’t wait to see what magic Robinson has created here, a good one to counter-act those post-Christmas blues!

A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger by Lucy Robinson

Published: 31st January 2013, Penguin

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Waiting On Wednesday: Dance of Shadows

I am Waiting again on Wednesday! This meme is hosted at Breaking the Spine and is based on a book you can’t wait to read that hasn’t been published yet.

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So my book for this week is: DANCE OF SHADOWS

The blurb: Dancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you’re close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner’s heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .

Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister’s shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . .

Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Justin, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashed

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This looks beautiful and sounds fantastic. I used to do ballet but weak ankles got the better of me, but you never lose your love of dance. Going straight onto my To Be Read pile when it’s published in February!

Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black

Published: 12th February 2013, Bloomsbury

PRE-ORDER ME! Dance of Shadows

Jacket Musings: Gemma Malley

I find this quite interesting. I reviewed The Declaration back in 2011 when I thought it had a pretty awesome cover, I picked it up at random at the airport based on it’s cover which was original and interesting.

Now the team at Bloomsbury Childrens have redesigned the covers making them look extremely similar to another dystopian fantasy that I’m a big fan of.

I have no problem with this, the new books look beautiful, but the old ones did too. I’m pointing this out because I know a lot of publishers want to make books look like the popular titles (hello – everything looks like Fifty Shades of Grey at the moment which is great because it lets me know which books to avoid) when sometimes I can’t help but think they should strike out and take a risk, make books look striking in their own way. The Gemma Malley series is great, I thoroughly recommend it and if you like The Hunger Games you’ll like this one too!

 

Book Review: The Declaration

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

The blurb: Anna Covey is a ‘Surplus’. She should not have been born. In a society in which ageing is no longer feared, and death is no longer an inevitability, children are an abomination. Like all Surpluses, Anna is living in a Surplus Hall and learning how to make amends for the selfish act her parents committed in having her. She is quietly accepting of her fate until, one day, a new inmate arrives. Anna’s life is thrown into chaos. But is she brave enough to believe this mysterious boy? This is a tense and utterly compelling story about a society behind a wall, and the way in which two young people seize the chance to break free.

My review: I grabbed this book at Gatwick airport and I’m really glad I did. There was limited time to get to my gate (don’t you hate how it takes hours to get to gates at Gatwick!) so I went for the quote on the front and the cover art which is really striking.

And I didnt look back, I read this book in a day. It’s a really interesting take on the green/resources/future generations books that there seem to be a lot of at the moment. In Gemma Malley’s future, longevity drugs have been created using stem cell technology which eradicates death and disease, leading to an over-population crisis. The resulting Declaration means you sign up for everlasting life but you are no longer allowed to procreate. Any parents caught having kids get locked up and the children are taken to surplus halls where they are brainwashed into being the perfect servants, without the longevity drugs. The only way to have a child is to ‘opt out’ of the declaration and you’re allowed one child, a life for a life.

This book covers many topics that are controversial without being ‘preachy’. Much food for thought.

The Declaration is the story of Anna Covey, a surplus for much of her life and her exploration into who she is and her place in the world. It’s a great book, I think the beginning could be tighter, there’s an awful long time spent in the surplus hall and all the other action feels like it flashed by far too quickly. However it’s a fantastic set up and one Malley revisits, I believe, in future books. A great little Ya find that I would recommend.

7.5 out of 10 stars *******.5!

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Book Review: The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The blurb: When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard?

Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him – after all, he is the last remaining member of the family.

A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod’s life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?

My review: This book has been on my list of books to read since it came out in hardback – and since the paperback has been around since October that is some time. I don’t know why I kept putting it off, it was an absolute pleasure.

The Graveyard Book has a motley collection of characters, eccentric ghosts, reclusive vampires, deadly assassins and Bod, formely Nobody Owens the only ‘living’ person to reside in a graveyard, having the freedom of the graveyard he gets along just fine and this book is packed full of his adventures.

I loved every page of this book – it reminded me strongly of Steward & Riddell’s The Edge Chronicles but that may be because the illustrious illustrator has put his mark on this book too (and both have impulsive, young hero’s). Hugely inventive, Gaiman’s imagination has no bounds and takes the reader to the depths of possibility and beyond. A must read for anyone who loves fairytales, the peculiar or just a really gripping story.

Buy it now and read it immediately!

8.5 stars out of 10! ********.5

BUY ME! The Graveyard Book

Oooo The Graveyard Book on YouTube!!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

A book trailer – how exciting!! Is this a new phenomenon? More I say!