The Crossover, Kwame Alexander

Pages: 237

Publisher: Andersen Press

Release Date: 8^th October 2015

Edition: UK paperback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: He Said She Said, Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band, Indigo Bloom and the Garden City, Little Boys Soar

“A bolt of lightning on my kicks…

          The court is sizzling.

                   My Sweat is drizzling.

Stop all that quivering.

             Cuz tonight I’m delivering.”

Josh and his twin Jordan have basketball in their blood. They're kings of the court, star players for their school.

But when Jordan meets a girl, the twins’ tight-knit bond is tested – are the rules of the game about to be broken?

The Crossover is a fast-paced, rhythmic verse novel that packs an emotional punch.

Those that even slightly know me with know that sports and me aren’t really even in the same universe so I was a little hesitant about The Crossover as there’s such a focus on Josh and JB’s love of basketball. But it didn’t put me off at all. I loved the passion they feel for the sport, the drive they have to succeed and the way it connects the twins to their former professional basketball player dad. It's in their blood.

For a novel with so few words, there’s a lot going on beside the basketball: the mystery of why their dad stopped playing, the rift forming between the twins when JB gets a girlfriend and Josh gets jealous and fears losing his twin. I’m continuingly surprised by the depths that can be reached through verse novels and even though I had guessed what the novel was building up to put it still packed an emotional punch. There was a moment where I thought there may be tears!

I really enjoyed The Crossover. It’s a quick, engaging and pacy read.

Thanks to Andersen Press for the review copy.

Sophie  

Books I Couldn't Finish (7)

I used to finish every book I started, whether I was enjoying it or not. But life is short. I’ve realised that I don’t have time for books I’m not full involved in any longer so if I don’t like something or don’t connect with it as much as I want to, I’ll put it aside. It still makes me feel guilty though, especially if I received them for review so I still want to talk about them, explain why I didn’t like them. Here are the most recent books I DNF-ed.

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton

I’ve branched out a lot in my reading this year and picking up The Age of Innocence was both for that reason and to fulfil the Pulitzer Prize-winner category of my Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. Even though I was really looking forward to it, I seriously struggled. I listened to the first 32% of the novel on audiobook and I didn’t care about it at all. I would drift off, tune out and when I realised I’d missed a chunk I'd make no effort to go back and listen to what I'd missed. Listen most fiction from this period, it’s a quiet, character-driven novel with lots of characters and not much action. Maybe it was just the format, but I really didn’t care and I felt no desire to carry on listening. I do really want to read Wharton, however, so I’m hoping to give this a go in another format at some point in the future.

House of Windows, Alexia Casale

I was so looking forward to this! I’ve heard wonderful things about Alexia Casale’s books but I was so disappointed. The novel is about Nick who goes to Cambridge aged 15 – but he’s not a genius. He is, however, rude, sarcastic, quite an arse actually. I just couldn’t bring myself to tolerate him, let alone connect to him. I just had no desire to stay in his narration. And aside from Nick, I found that there was far too much about the inner workings of Cambridge. It was rather indulgent and I just wasn’t interested. It’s such as shame as I love Lexi and I’ve heard wonderful things from other bloggers about this. Maybe I’ll give it another go in a few months.

Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

I read what is probably Hardy’s most famous novel, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, for my A-levels, and aside from a few beautiful passages, I didn’t like it at all. But with the new film adaptation of this story and a desire to give Hardy another shot after five years distance, I picked this up. And remembered why I didn’t like Tess. Pastoral is really not for me; sheep, shepherds, farming – ugh, bored. And there’s just something about his prose that doesn’t sit with me properly. I read 10% and I couldn’t bring myself to pick it back up. Sorry Hardy, I gave you a second chance, but we’re done.

Sophie 

A Thousand Nights, EK Johnston

Pages: 259

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books

Release Date: 22^nd October 2015

Edition: UK proof, review copy

Lo-Melkhin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust could on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be the next one.

And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time. But the first sun sets and rises, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Malkhin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

For away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Malkhin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

Ever since I first heard about A Thousand Nights, I’ve been coveting it. And then the lovelies over at Macmillan released how beautiful the finished hardcover would look and sent out equally beautiful proofs and I was beyond sold.

A Thousand Nights is a re-telling of One Thousand and One Nights, or Arabian Nights. I’ve actually never read the original (which is something I’ll be rectifying now), though I did know the basic premise of the story. From what I can tell, Johnston’s retelling is pretty faithful to the primary text. It’s an old Arabic tale of a horrible king who takes a new wife each night following the death of the previous one, until one woman uses her incredible storytelling skills to keep her new husband wanting the next and keeping her alive. Johnston weaves stories within stories throughout the novel in the most enchanting way. The stories of the desert and the customs and traditions as well as the daily life of her people and family were magical and completely fascinating.

Through Lo-Mellkhiin’s wife’s stories, she was able to protect herself by weaving a certain protective magic. I have to admit that even by the end of the book I still wasn’t quite sure how it worked and what it was. I don’t know if I just missed something, or if it was meant to be unexplained as I imagine it would be if it happened in real life! But it did niggle at me a little. I did love the way it allowed her influence and to connect with her sister left behind in the desert and how it grew and changed the longer she spent with Lo-Melkhiin. It was definitely something I'd never come across before and I’m now even more eager to read Renee Adhieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn, which is also a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, to see how she has approached the story.

Considering that the heroine of the story is Lo-Melkhiin’s wife it bothered me that she was never given a name, and neither was any other character apart from the king. I’m sure there was a thematic or author-y reason for this, but I think it could have been taken in an amazing feminist direction and wasn’t. Even in the original story, the heroine has a name, Scheherazade, and according to Wikipedia, it was reputed to have been written in the Middle Ages, the Islamic Golden Age, in a country that has a history of diminishing women to nothing… I think Johnston could really have made a feminist punch with A Thousand Nights.

A Thousand Nights is a magical, beautifully written debut about the power of stories and the love between sisters. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what EK Johnston delivers next.

Thanks to Macmillan for the review copy.

Sophie 

Letterbox Love #108

Letterbox Love is a way to give all of the books I receive for review some exposure. Summaries are taken from the cover, or Amazon/NetGalley/Goodreads in the case of e-books, unless otherwise stated.

Carry On, Rainbow Rowell (hardback)

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right.

Half the time Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, is he were here – it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow is a ghost story, a love story, and a mystery. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell – but far, far more monsters.

YAY! So excited! And this book is so beautiful – the naked hardcover! The endpaper map! The ribbon bookmark!

Beautiful Broken Things, Sara Barnard (signed proof)

I was brave

She was reckless

We were trouble

Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie: confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives – beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious – and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

I am SO looking forward to this! And it was so lovely to find the proof is signed. Thanks Sara and Macmillan!

I was lucky enough to go to a blogger brunch at Walker Books yesterday and here are the lovelies that I received in my goody bag!

Hour of the Bees, Lindsay Eager (proof)

What does it mean to fully alive?

Magic blends with reality in a stunning, coming-of-age novel about a girl, a grandfather, wanderlust, and reclaiming your roots.

While her friends are spending their summers having pool parties and sleepovers, twelve-year-old Carolina – Carol – is spending hers in the middle of the New Mexico desert, helping her parents prepare to move the grandfather she's never met into a home for people with dementia. At first, Carol avoids prickly Grandpa Serge, whose face is covered in strange bumps that catch the shadows and don’t let go and whose eyes are impossibly old. But as the summer wears on and the heat bears down, Carol herself drawn to Serge, fascinated by his crazy stories about an ancient oasis in the desert with a green-grass lake and a tree that gave the villagers the gift of immortality. As the thin line between magic and reality starts to blur, Carol must decide for herself what is possible – and what it means to be true to her roots.

This sounds really interesting!

The Dark Days Club, Alison Goodman (proof)

Jane Austen’s high society and Cassandra Clare’s supernatural underworld collide in the first book in the Lady Helen trilogy, perfect for fans of historical fiction and fantasy.

London, April 1812.

Lady Helen Wrexhall is set to make her curtsy to Queen Charlotte and step into polite Regency Society. Unbeknownst to Helen, that step will also take her from the glittering ballroom of Almacks and the bright lights of Vauxhall Gardens into a shadowy world of demonic creatures, missing housemaids and deadly power.

Standing between those two worlds is Lord Carlston, a man of dubious reputation and infuriating manners. He believes Helen is destined to protect humanity, but all he can offer is danger, savagery and the possibility of madness. Not the kind of destiny suitable for a young lady in her first London Season.

This delightfully dangerous adventure of self-discovery and difficult choices has all the unnerving dark magic of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and the action of classics such as The Scarlet Pimpernel.

This is going to be a crazy lot of fun!

Maladapted, Richard Kurti (proof)

A gripping thriller about survival against all odds

Cillian survives a devastating terror attack on a packed train. How did he escape when everyone else – including his father – was killed?

Desperate for answers, Cillian turns to the mysterious Tess. In a secret hospital far away in the Provinces, they make a shocking discovery about what is really happening in Foundation City?

With his life suddenly in danger, Cillian needs Tess’s help. But who is she and can Cillian actually trust her?

Sometimes truth is the most dangerous thing of all…

I wasn’t sold on this until Richard read an excerpt, but it sounds fast-paced and intriguing.

Twenty Questions for Gloria, Martyn Bedford (proof)

Two go missing.

One comes back.

Gloria is tired of her ordinary life. So when a mysterious new boy bent on breaking all the rules strolls into her classroom, Gloria is ready to fall under his spell. By the time she learns the truth about him, Gloria is a long way from home…

A powerful new psychological thriller from the award-winning author of Flip, shortlisted for the Costa Award.

Sophie 

Spotlight: DC Origami Super Heroes, Demons of the Hellmouth, Secret Garden Artist's Edition and Harry Potter: The Character Vault

DC Origami Super Heroes, John Montroll

448|10^th September 2015| Curious Fox

Synopsis

Heroes aren’t born. They're folded!

What happens when you combine Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League?

You get the most incredible collection of paper-folding projects ever assembled. This book contains 46 original origami designs, devised by internationally renowned origami master John Montroll that are guaranteed to amaze. With clear, step by step diagrams and instructions, simple squares of paper transform into Batarangs, S-Shields, Batcycles and your DC Super Heroes and Villains! Includes 96 sheets of specially illustrated folding papers to enhance the finished look of the models.  

Mini-Review

As soon as I heard about this, I was sold. Superheroes? Origami? What more could you want? But sadly it wasn’t as cool as I was hoping.

I loved the designs, the printed sheets and the fact that there’s two of each so when I inevitably messed up, I could do it again! Or, as what happened when I first gave it a go, me and a friend both had a go and had an origami battle. It kept us occupied for hours.

I did have a few issues with the functionality of DC Super Heroes Origami though. Where the tear line was so far into the spine, it was hard to pull them out without ripping them and ripped sheets meant nothing went right! I have to say that I also didn’t think that it was for children like it was promoted for. I’m 23 and I struggled with most of them, and they were some that just didn’t work, no matter how many times I followed the instructions to the t.

Demons of the Hellmouth: A Guide for Slayers, Nancy Holder

151|4^th September 2015|Titan

Synopsis

After the fall of the Watchers Council, and the defeat of The First, Rupert Giles was determined to use his experiences from his seven years in Sunnydale to educate the New Slayers. He pulled together various notes and papers, including excerpts from his Watcher’s Diary, to form a new handbook and field guide: Demons of the Hellmouth.

This is Giles’ original copy and contains pages annotated by Buffy, Willow, and Xander. It has passed through many hands since the Battle of the Hellmouth. And now, Slayer, you hold it in yours. Are you ready to be strong?

Mini-Review

With a foreward by Anthony Stewart Head and annotations by Giles, Buffy, Willow and Xander, this felt like a really nostalgic dip back into a familiar world.

All of the annotations felt authentic and genuinely like the characters and the comments referenced events in episodes and seasons. The whole thing is an encyclopaedia of vampires, demons and other icky creatures that featured in the series, in either one episode appearances or part of a whole arc. I have to admit that I haven’t actually seen all of Buffy yet so I did actually get spoiled on a death which was upsetting, so I’d say be careful if you’re one of the few strange ones like me that hasn’t finished Buffy yet!

This is a perfect, nostalgia-fuelled fest for Buffy fans.

Secret Garden: Artist’s Edition, Johanna Basford

20|14^th September 2015|Laurence King

Synopsis

From the artist and publisher that brought you the hugely successful Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest – this special artist’s edition features 20 beautiful, pull-out art prints for colouring in. colouring fans of all ages will enjoy immersing themselves in a selection of the most popular artworks from the original book, now presented in a new, large-scale format for maximum colouring enjoyment. Each detailed illustration is printed on high-quality card and can be removed easily for framing or craft projects.

Mini-review

The 20 selected pictures are beautiful on large, single-sided card that I could colour in with my pens and not fear them bleeding through. They were really easy to tear out and I loved that the book is A3.

A brilliant gift for evert fan of adult colouring books.

Harry Potter: The Character Vault, Jody Revenson

207|25^th September 2015|Titan

Synopsis

Unlock new information about your favourite characters from the Harry Potter movies with this definitive coffee table book profiling the good, the bad, and everything in between. Concept art, behind-the-scenes imagery, and film stills track everyone from Harry, Hermione and Ron to Dobby, Mad-Eye Moody and Dolores Umbridge, telling their complete stories as they evolve throughout the film series. The ultimate Harry Potter character overview.

Mini-Review

It was so lovely to be back in the world of Harry Potter, even though I finished The Character Vault wanting to re-read and re-watch everything…

For every character in the book we have a mini character profile, original sketches, a portrait, details on their wand and, mostly, the details on constructing and designing the costumes, make-up, hair and extras that go from turning an actor into a character. It was a fascinating process.

The Character Vault is a must-have for every Harry Potter fan. I know it’s one I’ll be going back to. 

Sophie