Letterbox Love #97

Letterbox Love is a way to show you all of the lovely, lovely books I’ve gotten in the post, bought and everything else over the last week. Summaries are taken from the cover, or Amazon/NetGalley/Goodreads in the case of e-books, unless otherwise stated.

For review:

Storm Horse, Nick Garlick (paperback)

With his mother missing and his father dead, twelve-year-old Flip’s new home is a remote Dutch island. Menaced by the local bullies and followed everywhere by a mysterious girl, he wonders how he’ll ever adapt to life on his uncle’s farm.

But everything changes the day a sinking ship leaves a drowning horse floundering in the waves. Risking his life to rescue it, Flip is told the horse may stay with him only if he can teach it how to work for its keep. From that moment on a friendship grows. But can a boy and a horse really save each other? And what other dark storms threaten their hard-won happiness?

I’m not really a fan of horse stories so I’ll be passing this on to someone who is. Thanks though Chicken House!

Dara Palmer’s Major Drama, Emma Shevah (proof)

Dara is a born actress, or so she thinks – but when she doesn’t get any part in the school play, she begins to think it’s because she doesn’t look like the other girls in her class. She was adopted as a baby from Cambodia. So irrepressible Dara comes up with a plan, and is determined to change not just the school, but the whole world too.

This sounds really interesting. Woo, diversity! Thanks again to Chicken House.

Bought:

The Royal We, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (e-book)

Rebecca Porter was never one for fairy tales. Her twin sister, Lacey, has always been the romantic who fantasised about glamour and royalty, fame and fortune. Yet it’s Bex who seeks adventure at Oxford and finds herself living down the hall from Prince Nicholas, Britain’s future king. And when Bex can’t resist falling for Nick, it propels her into a world she did not expect to inhabit.

Dating Nick immerses Bex in ritzy society, dazzling ski trips, and dinners at Kensington Palace with him and his charming, troublesome brother, Freddie. But the relationship also comes with unimaginable baggage: hysterical tabloids, Nick’s far more suitable ex-girlfriends, and a royal family whose private life is far more tragic than anyone on the outside knows. The pressures are almost too much to bear, as Bex struggles to reconcile the man she loves with the monarch he’s fated to become.

Now, on the eve of the wedding of the century, Bex is faced with whether everything she’s sacrificed for her love – her career, her home, her family, maybe even herself – will have been for nothing.

This sounds like a lot of fun and it’s had lots of my favourite US authors raving about it on Twitter.

Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee (hardback)

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year old Jean Louise Finch – ‘Scout’ – returns home from New York City to visit her ageing father, Atticus. Set against the political backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past – a journey that can be guided only be one’s own conscience.

Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humour and effortless precision – a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the brilliant of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to a classic.

I don’t think this one needs any introduction.

Counting Stars, Keris Stainton (signed paperback)

Anna’s finally ready to be a ‘proper’ grown-up. She couldn’t be more excited about her big move to Liverpool, and she’s determined to bring more of her super-confident online alter-ego, Anna Sparks, with her.

But when her job falls through, following her dreams proves harder than she’d thought…

So instead Anna throws herself into busy city life. Hanging out with her new housemates provides lots of drama and scandal for her vlog – but when a real-life celebrity gets involved, suddenly the consequences of Anna’s online gossiping are all too real.

Yay! My first YALC purchase – and way early. This isn’t out until September!

The Princess Diaries: A Royal Disaster, Meg Cabot (paperback)

‘Seriously, Lilly,’ I said. ‘I have to guard diligently against falling in love with somebody like your brother, because in the end I might have to marry a prince.’

Not that that would be such a great sacrifice.

The Princess Diaries: Princess in the Middle, Meg Cabot (paperback)

Nervous? Me? About going on TV and promising 50,000 people that I won’t let their country down?

Nah. Not me.

I just want to throw up every time I think about it, that’s all.

I recently read book one for the first time so I couldn’t resist picking up the next two reissues at YALC. So gorgeous!

Sophie