Book Reviews March 2020

Esio Trot by Roald Dahl - 5 stars
I just finished reading this to my kids at bedtime and we enjoyed reading the magic tortoise words lol.

A Rare Book of Cunning Device by Ben Aaronovitch - 3 stars

Sweethearts of Ilford Lane by Farzana Hakim - 5 stars
Recap: Samina and Hassan, childhood sweethearts when they shouldn't have been, ripped apart by grief and destroyed by family.


Review: Oh. My. Goodness! I read this book in a day because I couldn't put it down. I was equally horrified and transfixed by the abuse Samina endured, endeared by and repulsed at the family love and dynamics. The last part of the book had me sobbing my heart out. Fabulous debut novel.

The Vidents by J.McClean - 5 stars
Recap: Tag starts seeing shadows and they're not happy about it.


Review: An ordinary teenager's life gets turned upside down when he becomes tuned into the supernatural world around him. There's so much life in this book as different characters deal with their grief and teenagers deal with love, loss, school life, family life, bullying and pain in the neck teachers. It fits firmly into it's YA fantasy genre and has an interesting cast of characters. I read the whole thing in one sitting and at times my heart was thumping in my chest! Let's hope McLean returns to the world of the vidents!

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi - 3 stars
Recap: the old emperox has died, there's unrest on End and something's up with the Flow.


Review: it took me a while to get into this book because I didn't really connect with any of the characters and so wasn't that invested in finding out what happened to them. I did enjoy the scientific mix-up and the resulting fallout.

Stone of the Sea by Jeanette O'Hagan - 4 stars 
** spoiler alert ** Recap: Siblings Delvina and Retza have to make difficult choices in order to try and save their people.


Review: Obviously with book three we are well acquainted with our favourite characters and the unrequited love story is a nice touch. It was inevitable that the twins would separate eventually but they didn't seem to get very far with their respective quests/jobs. This does feel a little bit like a filler book story-wise as not much advances but we do learn more about the other races in this fantasy realm.

Claire Buss is a multi-genre author and poet, completely addicted to cake. Find all her books on Amazon. Join the discussion in her Facebook group Buss's Book Stop.