Category Archives: Kirsty rambles on about life, the universe, tv, and everything!
The Whispers of Wilderwood Hall by Karen McCombie – Blog Tour
Book Synopsis
Ellis is losing track of time…
After leaving her friends to move to a crumbling Scottish mansion, Ellis is overcome by anxiety and loneliness. Then she hears whispers in the walls…and finds herself whisked back in time to 1912.
At first, she feels like she’s finally home. But the past may not be as perfect as it seems – and is there more to hope for in the present than she first thought?
Author
Karen McCombie is from Aberdeen but now lives in North London with her husband, daughter and one big ginger cat.
Before Karen became a full-time writer she worked for several teen magazines such as Just Seventeen, Bliss and Sugar in a variety roles – everything from Fashion Editor to Features Editor – all very exciting and glam!
Karen has sold over one million books in the UK alone and has been translated into 15 languages.
Find out more at http://www.karenmccombie.co.uk and take the opportunity to join Karen’s Club!
What I Thought
This was a quick and easy read and at its heart a touching story – it reminds me of something I wrote when younger which I think was probably inspired by watching Moondial. I wonder if all children being dragged round old houses imagine flitting back to the past and meeting the inhabitants of a past time?
Well for Ellis this really happens.
I like the extended metaphor that the jumps back in time are for Ellis in terms of her feeling out of place and unwanted. Her mother has just remarried and she has a new stepdad and stepsister – and all this has happened in the last few months. In 1912 she befriends Flora, a housemaid who is bullied by those around her, the two of them become each other’s shoulder and Ellis starts to explore how she had been treated by ‘so-called friends’ in the past.
Ellis transforms as the book progresses and begins to assert herself and challenge the secrets that are being kept from her. Her experience of anxiety and other people’s reactions to it were handled well – the whirlwind romance experienced by the adults is for Ellis a ‘Whirl, tilt, shift’. I would add this book to a list of those that deals with mental health in a sensitive way – but as part of a wider story and not the sole focus.
Now, I put the 1912 date together with another little clue before Ellis did but that was part of the fun – when was she going to twig? There was a twist though that I wasn’t expecting. Very clever McCombie!!
I received my review copy from Scholastic via Faye Rogers – opinions as ever are my own.
Please find details of the rest of the stops on the blog tour here:
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Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb – Book Review – Blog Tour
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to host a guest post by Holly Webb on how she approached working with someone else’s characters. Now, I’ve had the opportunity to read Return to the Secret Garden thanks to Faye Rogers PR and Scholastic.
In preparation I re-read my Classic Adventures version of The Secret Garden and really enjoyed rediscovering the garden along with Mary Lennox, Dickon and Colin.
Holly’s sequel Return to the Secret Garden is set in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War. Emmie is our protagonist whisked away from London to Misselthwaite Manor in Yorskshire before the bombs start dropping. She is forced to abandon a stray cat called Lucy, but as an orphan, everyone else she knows comes with her.
Emmie finds a set of diaries in the room she is staying in and through them finds a connection to Mary and sets about following in her footsteps and finding the Secret Garden.
The echoes from the first book don’t stop there, there’s a robin, a grumpy gardener and strange crying noises in the night.
As Holly said, the main character she used was the house and its gardens but we do also get to meet the original characters but not perhaps in the way we’d expect. The presence of war invades and not everyone has a happy ending.
Because the garden hasn’t been abandoned we don’t quite get to see it coming to life in the same way as the original but Holly has done a fantastic job of making connections to the original alongside creating her own story. You won’t need to have read The Secret Garden…but I’d advise that at some point you do.
My ratings were:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – 5*
Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb – 4*
Return… is a fitting follow up that gives us insight into the life of the garden and the characters from the first book whilst introducing us to a new group of children and that cat called Lucy… the magic of the garden is at work again.
This is the last post on the tour but do check out what everyone else thought too. Return to the Secret Garden is out now.
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Not no post on Sundays
You may have noticed that I’ve not really been around here much for a while, just the occasional post here and there. Things have gone on which meant that I’ve been doing stuff other than blogging. I might talk about some of that a little more sometime.
Oddly enough, just as my life is going to get busier (re-starting the PhD) I have decided I want to re-introduce blogging into my schedule, in fact I’m going to start introducing schedule into my life. I’ve read lots of books on my hiatus and I want to share some thoughts about those books. I’ve also done a fair amount of bucket list items so would like to share some experiences too. Books and Occupation is still the blog theme but I’m going to add a bit of a schedule. One proviso I’m not going to apologise if I miss a post because life is too short to spend it apologising.
In Harry Potter, Vernon Dursley says he likes Sundays because there’s no post. Well Vernon I’m flouting your muggle rule and have decided that Sunday is going to be blog post day. I may post more frequently (e.g. I’ll be taking part in a couple of blog tours soon and have lots of reviews to catch up on) but will aim for Sundays as my target.
Hope all of you out there are well.
What’s one thing that you are hoping to pick back up again, or start, this October?
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