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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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With Fire in Their Blood by Kat Delacorte – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
‘Startingly original… Readers will be lured into this tumultuous world of warring families, forbidden power, and heart-searing romance’ – Lyndall Clipstone (Lakesedge, Forestfall)
From the word-of-mouth fantasy sensation Kat Delacorte – the standout debut star of 2022 YA Lit Con (YALC) – comes the first instalment in a new YA fantasy duology.
Packed to the brim with bisexual and queer representation, With Fire in Their Blood is a simmering supernatural romance set in the crumbling Italian city of Castello, where mafia clans make the rules, dark magic pulses the streets and the sins of the past threaten to consume the present. . .
When sixteen-year-old Lilly arrives in Castello, she isn’t impressed.
A secluded town in the Italian mountains is not where she saw her last years of high school playing out.
Divided for generations by a brutal clan-family war, the two halves of Castello are kept from destroying each other by the mysterious General, a leader determined to maintain order and ‘purity’. . . whatever the cost.
Lilly falls in with the rebellious Liza, brooding Nico and sensitive Christian, and sparks begin to fly. But in a city where love can lead to ruin, Lilly isn’t sure she can trust anyone — not even herself.
And then she accidentally breaks Castello’s most important rule: when the General’s men come to test your blood, you’d better not be anything more than human…
Perfect for lovers of Chloe Gong, Renée Ahdieh and V.E. Schwab, With Fire in Their Blood is quality YA storytelling at its best by an exciting new voice in YA fantasy.
About the Author
Kat Delacorte was eleven years old when her family moved from the United States to a small town in central Italy. She soon began writing stories about her new friends developing superpowers, and she hasn’t looked back since. She graduated with a BA in History from Columbia University, and lives in Venice, Italy.
What I Thought
This was such an enjoyable read. Super pacy and broodingly atmospheric. Think fantasy dysptopia – West Side Story meets The Wicker Man meets Carrie.
When they say make your setting a character, this book is exactly what they mean. The dilapidated Italian city of Castello is spooky, claustrophobic (no wifi!) and decidedly menacing. With its skulls and roses emblems, a secret key, clan wars and untold power built into its brick and marble.
The history of bloody clan wars has been overtaken by the focus on a new combined enemy – The Saints – and literal witch hunts against them including monthly blood tests to weed out the impure. The divided city and the pious general all gives echoes of Nazi Germany and the truce is tenuous.
The characters are all murky. Morally grey, conflicted and damaged in one way or another. This book is also filled with teenage angst and sexual tension.
Protagonist Lilly is an intriguing heroine. Her complex history with both of her parents form a large part of the plot and despite their absence on the page and the absence of their love in her heart their influence is a huge driver in this story and I’m intrigued to find out even more next time.
Liza, Christian, Nico – and Alex (who sadly doesn’t get a mention on the blurb) are all generally engaged with separately by Lilly with her almost acting as a catalyst in their complex relationships. I’d be interested in seeing more of them interacting with each other in the follow up.
We see more of the Marconi clan in book one than of the Paradisos but in the glimpses we see of the latter they are dripping with riches and cruelty. Chrissy (wake up – I don’t like you) is a girl in a red dress – think Cha Cha from Grease out for bloody vengeance. The love stories included aren’t across clan divides so it’s not quite West Side Story/Romeo and Juliet in this aspect.
This is the first in a Duology and I’m super intrigued to read book 2 which is set up perfectly at the end of this one (with this book rounding out it’s own story well too).
Huge thanks to The Write Reads and the publisher for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review.
Do see what everyone else thought by following the hashtag #WithFireInTheirBlood.
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Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble: Magical Poems – Paul Cookson Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Can you hear the distant dragon’s rumble of thunder? And smell the sweet swampy aroma of the ogre? Can you taste the tangy tarantula tarts? And see the girl who’s really a wizard? From magic carpets and wands to unicorns, potions, creams and lotions, Paul Cookson’s brewing a spell of fantastically magic poems. On this tattered magic carpet You can choose your destination For nothings quite as magical As your imagination
Beautifully illustrated, this enchanting anthology brings together work from a range of classic, established and rising poets including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard, Valerie Bloom, Matt Goodfellow, Joshua Seigal and A.F. Harrold. Whether you’re in the mood for a haunting or a spell gone wrong, this collection of mesmerising poems will have you bewitched from beginning to end!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54968419-fire-burn-cauldron-bubble
About the Author
The poems were chosen and compiled by Paul Cookson who also appears as an author.
Paul Cookson lives in Retford with his wife, two children, a dog and several ukuleles. He has worked as a poet since 1989 and has visited thousands of schools and performed to hundreds of thousands of pupils and staff. Paul is the official Poet in Residence for the National Football Museum, the Poetry Ambassador for United Learning and Poet Laureate for Slade. He worked as the Poet for Everton Collection at Liverpool Library, was Poet in Residence for Literacy Times Plus and, as part of the National Year of Reading, was nominated a National Reading Hero and received his award at 10 Downing Street. Paul has 60 titles to his name and poems that appear in over 200 other books. His work has taken him all over the world from Argentina, Uganda and Malaysia to France, Germany and Switzerland.
About the Illustrator
The illustrations are by Eilidh Muldoon a freelance illustrator based in Scotland who gained her MFA from Edinburgh College of Art where she now teaches.
What I Thought
From the silly to the spooky, to the sinister this collection of poems is perfect for the witching season. As with any collection of poems some speak to you more than others but there is an excellent mix included between classic and new poems.
The book itself is stunningly bought to life by the illustrations from Eilidh Muldoon. From its striking pumpkin orange, with black block print, cover to the endpapers and the whimsical illustrations such as this one to illustrate ‘A Cold Spell’.
A few of my favourite poems were:
The silly – I once asked a wizard to make me a sandwich by Graham Denton
The sinister – Ooshus Magooshus by Jason Seigal which warns of Stranger danger
The artistic – Magic Love Potion by Liz Brownlee Shaped like a potion bottle
The cute – The Cool Dragon by Jo Mularczyk reminds me of that John Lewis ad
The classic and the pastiche – Song of the Witches by Shakespeare, and the homage which adds the subtitle (when the internet wasn’t working) by Stan Cullimore
The rhyme and atmosphere made by Witchy Magic by Mary Serenc
If you are at all squeamish you might not like Oh How I Love a Unicorn by Paul Cookson!! So follow it up with How to Cast a Spell if you are Vegetarian by Roger Stevens
The Magic Kitchen Carpet by Paul Cookson that speaks of the immense joy and adventure that our imagination brings.
But I think my top two are This is my Library by Angela Topping and Somewhere in the Library by Stewart Henderson which espouse the magic of books and the cast the librarian as a bewitching creature who is ‘a gatherer of magic and a confidante of elves’.
Thank you to Bloomsbury and Blue at Kaleidoscopic Tours for the copy for the purposes of this honest review. Do check out the rest of the stops on the tour.
kirstyes 