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The Swifts by Beth Lincoln – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
On the day they are born, each Swift is brought before the sacred Family Dictionary. They are given a name and a definition, and it is assumed they will grow up to match. Unfortunately, Shenanigan Swift has other ideas.
So what if her relatives all think she’s destined to turn out as a troublemaker, just because of her name? Shenanigan knows she can be whatever she wants – pirate, explorer or even detective.
Which is lucky, really, because when one of the Family tries to murder Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, someone has to work out whodunit.
With the help of her sisters and cousin, Shenanigan grudgingly takes on the case, but more murders, a hidden treasure and an awful lot of suspects make thing seriously complicated.
Can Shenanigan catch the killer before the whole household is picked off? And in a Family where definitions are so important, can she learn to define herself?
About the Author
Beth Lincoln was raised in a former Victorian railway station in the North of England. Her childhood fears included porcelain dolls, the Durham panther, and wardrobes that looked at her funny. She grew neither tall nor wise, and never learned to play an instrument – but she did write stories, a bad habit that has persisted to this day.
When she isn’t writing, Beth is woodcarving, or making a mess of her flat, or talking the nearest ear off about unexplained occurrences. Her favourite things include ghosts, crisps, and weird old words like bumbershoot and zounderkite. The Swifts is Beth’s debut novel. It grew out of her love of words, the gleeful gothic, and classic murder mysteries. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her partner and hopefully, by the time you are reading this, a dog.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bethatintervals
Instagram: http://instagram.com/bethatintervals
What I Thought
I absolutely loved this. It was such a fun read, a cross between Lemony Snicket with the humour and vivid characterisation of Skulduggery Pleasant. The artwork by Claire Powell also brings the characters even more to life and I can totally see this book as a cartoon feature film.
The Swifts are a hodge podge family who all have name bestowed upon them and even more than most of us are then set up to live up to that name. Our protagonist is Shenanigan Swift and she spends the book trying to figure out if her name fits, and if she wants it to. There’s also a tender sub plot of a non binary character choosing their own name and I loved how author Beth never shared their deadname.
The sisterly relationship between Felicity, Phenomena and Shenanigan is also at the core of this and I loved how this developed throughout the story, which takes place just over the course of a few days.
And of course then we have the murder, mystery, mischief and mayhem including the family reunion and hunt for buried treasure. This is cleverly plotted and revealed with some wonderful red herrings sprinkled throughout.
The giant game of Scrabble to the Death was so madcap and something I will consider fondly.
I’m hoping that there might be more Swift tales to be told. After all we don’t get to meet the girl’s parents in this one. Please sign me up for any future blog tours!
But did this book live up to its name? Well, I certainly raced through it and you have to be swift to work out who the culprit is.
Thanks to the publisher Puffin Books and Bee at Kaleidoscopic Book Tours for the gifted copy. This is my honest and personal review. Do check out the rest of the blog tour to see what everyone else thought.
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Witchstorm by Tim Tilley – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Join a hunt for lost witch treasure, in an enchanting adventure story of storms, spells, and the magic of the natural world, from bestselling and award-winning Tim Tilley.
Will believes in witches and the stories he’s grown up with – of mythical storm-lions, disappearing villages, and secret songs. Most of all, he believes the tales of magical treasure hidden in the Fens centuries ago. Treasure that he has to find, to solve the mystery of his Ma’s disappearance.
Then, in the eye of a storm, a witch arrives. She holds the key to finding the lost treasure – a powerful magical object that can summon storms. But someone else is searching for it too. If it falls into the wrong hands, Will’s beloved home could be destroyed, and with it, his chances of ever finding his ma.
Join Will on an epic quest filled with riddles, ruined towers, cloud cities and broomstick chases, on a journey to save everything he loves before time runs out.
About the Author
Tim Tilley studied illustration at Anglia Ruskin University and now teaches children’s book illustration courses at City Lit. He is always watchful of the world around him and loves collecting and drawing beautiful snapshots of nature, relishing the small things people often miss. Tim’s debut children’s book, the bestselling and critically-acclaimed Harklights, is the winner of the Joan Aiken Future Classics Prize and the Junior Design Award.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/timbertilley
Instagram: http://instagram.com/timbertilleytales
What I Thought
To me this was a pacy, Witchy Indiana Jones with Ecological themes. Full of action and adventure this does roll along at breakbroom speed.
Our protagonist Will is distressed by his mother’s disappearance and wonders if, the family legend about ‘that time their ancestor saved a witch’, has anything to do with it. Spending his days searching for her he’s lost touch with one of his friends and Fa never believed in witches anyway.
I couldn’t quite place this originally thinking it was a contemporary urban fantasy but I think it’s more an alternative and older version of our world and one that isn’t as technological.
Humans are referred to by witches as Grounders – which does make sense later on. Not only is there a history of witch trials, grounders are now pillaging the earth. Taking but not giving back. No balance or care. This leads one witch to want to do something about it, except he’s prepared to sacrifice others to achieve this.
Will’s Cool Aunt Hera is the Indiana Jones esque archaeologist and I very much pictured her as an Amelia Earhart lookalike but in a motorcar rather than a plane – oh yeah and she has a sword!
Witch coven leader in training Magda literally crashes into their lives and we barely get a breath as not only do they have to try and save both Will and Magda’s mother but also the witch and grounder communities, the former literally falling to pieces and the latter on the precipice of a severe storm. There’s also a theme around gaining inner confidence in order to focus and control magic and the support the young characters give each other is heartwarming – even when it comes to saving Will’s bully.
I would say that this felt at the younger age of middle grade with the peril being tamer than for a slightly older audience. However, the search for Agatha Crow’s amulet’s Ruby was the most enjoyable part of this and I particularly loved the riddles and booby traps they had to get through. There’s even a touch of the mind control we see in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The ecological message is returned to at the end and I’m not sure if something that happens towards the end hints at a potential sequel.
A huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and Usborne for the gifted ARC copy. As ever all opinions are my own. Follow along with the blogtour by using the hashtag #Witchstorm.
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The Whisperling by Hayley Hoskins – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
When you’re dead, you’re dead. When you’re gone, you’re gone. Unless, of course, you’re not. And that’s where I come in.
The year is 1897, and Peggy Devona can speak with ghosts.
She hides her gift from those afraid of a girl with such powers, terrified of the secrets the dead could reveal through her. But when her best friend is accused of murdering her rich mistress, Peggy knows only she – a whisperling – can save her.
Peggy escapes to her uncle’s psychic emporium in the city, seeking out new ghosts to help her solve Sally’s case.
Yet time is running out, and each step towards uncovering the truth also brings Sally one step closer to the gallows. . .
About the Author
Long listed for the Bath Children’s Novel award, Hayley Hoskins writes in the space between family and work, with much support from her writing group.
Mum to a teenage boy, she spends a disproportionate amount of time hoping that her son’s life is far less complicated than those of the characters in her books, and trying to ensure he becomes a ‘good egg’.
Originally from the Forest of Dean, Hayley lives with her family and hairy breezeblock of a dog in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/HayleyHoskins
What I Thought
Spooky season is upon us and The Whisperling is a great addition to a spooky TBR. Set in Bristol in the Victorian era we start with Peggy (Margaret Devon’s) and her best friend Sally having a disagreement and then Sally goes silent on her. But it’s not just a case of Peggy being sent to Coventry, instead Sally has been charged with murdering her mistress and is set to hang.
Peggy is a Whisperling and she can see and speak to ghosts and witness their burn (where they head to the next plane of existence) but although signs around town suggest that people are to accept any Whisperlings amongst them people still remember when witches roamed and dictating inclusion does not inclusion create. Especially not with judgemental clergy spouting about the devil.
For her own “safety” Peggy joins her estranged uncle in the city and is set to work at his Psychic Emporium with Oti and Cecily. The Victorian fascination with Spiritualism led to a lot of hokey seances but what happens when a real Whisperling is added to the mix?
The thread of mystery runs alongside with the urgency of solving the murder to clear Sally’s name before she hangs. There’s a Q&A with the author at the back of the book that talks about her inspirations and some of the real life cases of young girls receiving a death sentence. Add in the threat of ‘The Righteous’ – Whisperling Finders and there is plenty of peril for a middle grade tale.
The villain of the piece may be who you expect but there’s enough red herrings along the way to keep you guessing. In fact there’s a really early gasp inducing moment that gets twisted (although I think it would have also made an interesting story to go with what I thought had happened).
I really liked the family story alongside this too. With Peggy’s father not having trusted her with the family secrets, mysterious pictures of her uncle and mother and a generational line of whisperlings – not to mention the not quite spectre with raven hair.
This is like a middle grade Ghost Whisperer and it is left open for more stories of whisperlings past, present and future. I’ll definitely check them out when they appear.
A nod must also go to Kristina Kister for the stunning cover design which makes me hope to see this as an animated film.
A huge thanks to Blue at Kaleidoscopic Tours and the publisher Puffin for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Do check out the rest of the tour stops to see what everyone else thought or to read some extracts.
kirstyes 