Review: The Worst Witch All at Sea

Loveable but accident-prone Mildred Hubble is possibly the worst witch ever to go to Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches… Mildred is in deep water on the school trip. This title is a story of life at a magical boarding school.
Just like the rest of the books in the series, this book flowed well and was quick paced. It was full of fun and I love Mildred, she may be the worst witch at Cackle’s Academy but she doesn’t want to be, she does try her best. I think it’s a good lesson for children reading these books.
I really enjoyed how it was in a different setting this time, it was well written and Mildred has 9 lives. Ethel really needs to give up on trying to ruin Mildred’s life, it’s fun to see her jealous all the time though.
5 out of 5 stars.

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Review: A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch

Mildred’s good intentions in the second year are upset when she finds that Miss Hardbroom is to be her form teacher again. She clashes once again with Ethel who turns her into a frog, whilst later on she rescues an enchanted magician.
What a wonderful book, I loved the storyline, poor Mildred, it wasn’t her fault. I was a really clever idea that I lapped up, once again I read the book in less than half an hour. There really does seem to be a lot of people being changed into creatures at the school. I wonder if Miss Hardbroom, changed classes so she could keep an eye on Mildred? Miss Cackle was not in this one which I missed. Ethel really is an evil girl, wonder how no-one else is noticing? I am glad Enid and Maud are friends now.
I am looking forward to the next one 🙂
5 out of 5 stars.

Review: The Worst Witch Strikes Again

 

Mildred is put in charge of the new girl Enid Nightshade with disastrous results, and Ethel gets up to her mean tricks again at Miss Cackle’s birthday celebration.

 

Jill Murphy does it again, another amazing story. It’s full of fun and things going wrong. The reasons I gave it four stars instead of five was that there was not quite enough magic for me. Also not enough happened, I know it’s a children’s book and it’s less that 100 pages long, but I wanted more, it felt a little too much like a T.V. episode. Saying that it was great I really love the characters and read it in about 20 minutes. I still love the pictures, as an adult it’s not often I read books with pictures and I have to say the really added to the story for me.

If you loved this T.V. series as a kid or just want a fun filled magical story about a witch that’s not very good at magic, then this series is for you.

Four out of Five stars.

ARC Review: Frost Hollow Hall

The gates to Frost Hollow Hall loomed before us. They were great tall things, the ironwork all twisted leaves and queer-looking flowers. And they were very definitely shut.

Tilly’s heart sinks. Will’s at the door of their cottage, daring her to come ice-skating up at Frost Hollow Hall. No one goes near the place these days. Rumour has it that the house is haunted . . . Ten years ago the young heir, Kit Barrington, drowned there in the lake. But Tilly never turns down a dare.

Then it goes horribly wrong. The ice breaks, Tilly falls through and almost drowns. At the point of death, a beautiful angel appears in the water and saves her. Kit Barrington’s ghost.

Kit needs Tilly to solve the mystery of his death, so that his spirit can rest in peace. In order to discover all she can, Tilly gets work as a maid at Frost Hollow Hall. But the place makes her flesh crawl. It’s all about the dead here, she’s told, and in the heart of the house she soon discovers all manner of dark secrets . . .

Frost Hollow Hall is a thrilling historical fiction debut. Told in Tilly’s unique voice, it is a tale of love and loss, and how forgiveness is the key to recovery.

I received a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, it was fun and full of mystery. I like the characters and the setting, the story was enjoyable and flowed well. I enjoyed all the secrets and the brilliantly clever big reveal, but for me the secrets were tame, clever and made sense but tame. Kit seemed like a decent person, the whole story is set around the place of his death, it was a haunting setting with such a sad story but a beautiful ending. I was engrossed from the first page, my attachment did not falter until the last page.

The house was creepy yet beautiful, I was so engaged with the setting that I felt like I was actually there. I liked the idea of a large house with lots of rumours surrounding it and the family that lived there. Even with the ghostly goings on I would love to visit there.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes mystery, books set in the 1800’s, or drama. I would definitely read this book again and I have already given a copy of the book for my mum to read.  If you want a page-turner, pick this book up.

4.5 out 5 stars, the tameness let it down slightly for me.

Netgalley Backlog Shame

So I have been a little lax in my reading of netgalley books. So my aim is to have it back up to 80% by the end of this year. I need to read forty eight books in the next six months. 8 netgalley books a month, I can do this (I hope). I may change which books a read each month, depending on my mood.

The books I plan to read in July are:

Lot’s of great looking books on my list, looking forward to reading them. Have you read any of these, are they good?

Happy reading

Emma

TBR Thursday: Week 2

TBR is where you choose a book that you have had for at least 3 months and read it over the coming weekend (or week if you are busy like me). I still have not read last weeks one but that will change soon. It is hosted by Sarah from Words with Sarah. This week I have chosen a book I have had from Netgalley for a long time, the copy I got from them was not good so I bought the book, hence why I think it’s okay to use here.

The gates to Frost Hollow Hall loomed before us. They were great tall things, the ironwork all twisted leaves and queer-looking flowers. And they were very definitely shut.

Tilly’s heart sinks. Will’s at the door of their cottage, daring her to come ice-skating up at Frost Hollow Hall. No one goes near the place these days. Rumour has it that the house is haunted . . . Ten years ago the young heir, Kit Barrington, drowned there in the lake. But Tilly never turns down a dare.

Then it goes horribly wrong. The ice breaks, Tilly falls through and almost drowns. At the point of death, a beautiful angel appears in the water and saves her. Kit Barrington’s ghost.

Kit needs Tilly to solve the mystery of his death, so that his spirit can rest in peace. In order to discover all she can, Tilly gets work as a maid at Frost Hollow Hall. But the place makes her flesh crawl. It’s all about the dead here, she’s told, and in the heart of the house she soon discovers all manner of dark secrets . . .

Frost Hollow Hall is a thrilling historical fiction debut. Told in Tilly’s unique voice, it is a tale of love and loss, and how forgiveness is the key to recovery.

Really looking forward to this book, what are you reading this week?

R4R: Locks

Rapunzel isn’t the stereotypical Damsel in Distress. Her Bad-Boy Prince Charming is a renowned mercenary, and their Happy Ending plays out like a bad movie. However, she is determined to breakout from her tower prison—love be damned—and do it in a fabulous pair of heels.
***
Gunned down by the Mercenary, the deadliest assassin in The Badass Archives, isn’t exactly Rapunzel’s end-game. Falling for him isn’t either, but his Rated-R demeanor is strangely charming. Even though most girls wouldn’t fall for their captors, Rapunzel isn’t like most dames. Her major girl-boner for the Mercenary is so pathetic it verges on cliché. Yet, in spite of his appeal, Rapunzel must escape before she’s locked away in the Château de Immortelle’s highest tower—forever.

Out 1st July 2014

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, via Lovers of the Paranormal.

It was not bad but I had to force myself to carry on at times. The amount of times people traded allegiances and friends, gave me whiplash. It was a great story-line, but most of the time I felt confused like I was missing something or annoyed at all the switching sides going on. I honestly had no clue which way it was going to go in the end. There was a few grammatical errors that got me annoyed and:
“The way he filled out his pants surely teased everyone with an X-chromosome, ” this really got me annoyed, that means every one, males and females, I probably put way too much thought into that one comment, but since it was near the start it soured the book for me.
The setting was never really made clear, at first I thought it was a fairytale realm, then it seemed like our world yet in the future, I came to the conclusion that it was a mixture of the two, but when a reference to this world came up,it took me back a little.
I thought the name of the book was incredibly clever, when I first started reading it, I thought it was reference to her hair only, but I was proven wrong, it was one of the main reasons I enjoyed this book.

Not sure if I would read it again, but I would try other books from the author, all in all, a nice book although it felt a little rushed.

3 out of 5 stars

20 Books of Summer

I am joining Cathy at 746 Books, in 20 books of Summer. From now until the 6th of September, I will try to read these 20 books. I probably not read them in order, these are ones I have wanted to read for a while, so really looking forward to this 🙂

1. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
2. Toads and Diamonds by Heather Tomlinson
3. My Name is Rapunzel by K.C. Hilton
4. Gossip Girl  by Cecily Von Ziegesar
5. Doon by Lorie Langdon and Carey Coop
6. Athena the Brain Goddess by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
7. Life Eternal by Yvonne Woon
8. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
9. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
10. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
11. Louisiana Longshot by Jana DeLeon
12. Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
13. Taking Flight by Adrian R. Magnuson
14. Allegiant by Veronica Roth
15. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
16. 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce
17. Fissure by Nicole Williams
18. Splintered by A.G. Howard
19. Forbidden by Amy Miles
20. Miss Mabel’s School for Girls by Katie Cross

What books are you reading this summer? Have you read any of these books?

Challenge Update: April and May

April was not a good month for this but May was. Click the pictures to take you to my reviews.

11 to be read books out 21-30 overall, so not too bad, on track 🙂

16 books out 50 is okay but not great, I can do better. Really need to get moving this month if I want to manage this.

So 1 out of 20, really not good. It is my favourite genre, so I should manage to get back on track.

0 out of 3, still got plenty of time.

How are all your challenges going?

TBR Thursday week 1

Okay so I know it’s Friday already, I am little late in seeing this, but I have decided to join on TBR Thursday, where you choose a book that you have had for over 3months and read it over the weekend, well the coming week in my case, I am a busy girl after all. This brilliant meme is hosted by Sarah from Words with Sarah. This week I am choosing;

I cannot believe I have not yet read this book. It’s about time I did 🙂

 

Happy reading

Emma