Month: July 2014

Guest Post: ‘The Ten Best Books About Libraries’ by Deborah Harkness, author of The Book of Life, The All Souls Trilogy

Posted July 22, 2014 by Charlotte in Blog Tour, Guest Post / 0 Comments

Today I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness with a post about the Ten Best Books about Libraries. Deborah is an author I discovered this year, and it is thanks to book blogging that I was able to read her books – A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night and the epic conclusion in the trilogy The Book of Life. The All Souls Trilogy has become one of my favourite trilogy – it appeals to my love of the historical and reminds me why I love libraries so much. Below, Deborah share her thoughts on the Ten Best Books about Libraries. In each of these novels, a library plays a starring role. Some are places of wonder and delight. Others provide a venue for solving problems, or are the scene of a crime. And in a few cases the libraries in question are far from ordinary. Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader. A delightful tale about what might happen if the Queen turned to her library for solace and inspiration. A. S. Byatt, Possession. Academic […]

Guest Post: Q&A with Anna Caltabianco, author of The Seventh Miss Hatfield

Posted July 21, 2014 by Charlotte in Blog Tour, Guest Post / 0 Comments

Today I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for The Seventh Miss Hatfield by Anna Caltabiano. And today I have a Q&A with Anna Caltabiano. I enjoyed reading The Seventh Miss Hatfield (see my review), the debut novel of seventeen year old Anna Caltabiano and I look forward to future novels by Anna as she progresses. Don’t forget to visit other blog stops along the tour for other great content. Q&A with Anna Caltabiano: Tell us a bit about yourself and your book – The Seventh Miss Hatfield 🙂 I was born in colonial Hong Kong to a Japanese mother and an Italian-American father, before moving to Silicon Valley in California. Due to this, Japanese was my first language. I now live in a multi-national tech culture, which probably influences my writing more than I know. The Seventh Miss Hatfield explores a series of firsts–first love, first loss, and the first realization that memories are fragile. When a drop from the Fountain of Youth turns 11 year-old Cynthia immortal, she is forced to take on a new identity as Miss Rebecca Hatfield—the seventh Miss […]

Review: The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Posted July 20, 2014 by Charlotte in Reviews / 1 Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness Series: All Souls Trilogy #3 Published by Headline on July 15, 2014 Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical, Romance Pages: 592 Format: Arc Source: Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient […]

Review: The Seventh Miss Hatfield by Anna Caltabiano

Posted July 17, 2014 by Charlotte in Reviews / 1 Comment

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The Seventh Miss Hatfield by Anna Caltabiano Series: Seventh Miss Hatfield #1 Published by Gollancz on July 17, 2014 Genres: Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, Romance, Young Adult Pages: 304 Format: Arc Source: Publisher Buy on Amazon Goodreads Cynthia, an 11-year-old American, isn’t entirely happy with her life, comfortable though it is. Still, even she knows that she shouldn’t talk to strangers. So when her mysterious neighbour Miss Hatfield asked her in for a chat and a drink, Cynthia wasn’t entirely sure why she said yes. It was a decision that was to change everything. For Miss Hatfield is immortal. And now, thanks to a drop of water from the Fountain of Youth, Cynthia is as well. But this gift might be more of a curse, and it comes with a price. Rebecca is beginning to lose her personality, to take on the aspects of her neighbour. She is becoming the next Miss Hatfield. […]

Pastime Pleasures #11 – Lady Daisy by Dick King-Smith

Posted July 11, 2014 by Charlotte in Pastime Pleasures / 0 Comments

Welcome to my feature, Pastime Pleasures, posted every other Friday. Today is the turn of Lady Daisy by Dick King-Smith. Here I will look at books that have given me great pleasure in the past. These are books I can read over and over again. The only rule is that the book must have been published five or more years ago. Ned is a nine year-old boy who finds a doll in his Grandmother’s house. Intrigued he takes the doll downstairs. When he lifts her out of the box Lady Daisy, the doll, speaks to him. I’m surprised Ned doesn’t drop Lady Daisy in shock, I know I would. But Ned’s relationship with the doll arises through the shared bond of loneliness. Lady Daisy has been asleep for 100 years and Ned is an only child. Ned is able provide both a tough exterior as he holds his own against the school bully, who also happens to be his football team-mate, and shows a warming tenderness to his charge. By having a male protagonist interacting with a doll, King-Smith suggests […]

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