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Dandelion

Gabbie Hanna

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In this visually thrilling installment of the inner-workings of Gabbie’s mind, we’re taken on a...

Wild Blood

Games and Entertainment

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Optimized for the 4-inch Retina display on iPhone 5. Gameloft has harnessed the power of the...

Dan sellwood (1 KP) rated Dreams and Shadows in Books

Feb 2, 2018

Dreams and Shadows

C. Robert Cargill | 2014 | Fiction & Poetry

9.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Fantastic debut

Contains spoilers, click to show

A wonderful debut from C. Robert Cargill. The novel follows the lives of two boys, Ewan and Colby. Both boys have a fantastical journey ahead of them, Ewan is stolen by fairies from his parents at an early age by a specialist child stealing fairy (Dithers) and Colby meets a djinn (Yashar) who agrees to grant him wishes which leads him to see the world.

While sounding at first like a magical fairy story you soon realise the story does carry a certain sadness and darkness. The djinn for example is cursed to only ever grant wishes that end in turmoil. You learn this through small chapters that centre around telling stories about the characters in the book, which I found to be a wonderful way to build chacterisation.

Despite being quite dark the book does well to build on characters enough so that you do find yourself getting attached to them. So not only are the characters well thought through but they bring enough personality and emotion to evoke lots of feeling in the reader.

While I don't promise this book will bring you a happy ending, its hard to put down and will certainly have you wanting to move on to the sequel.

Kudos

Japan Jukebox

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Podcast

Exploration of the new, old and experimental music of the Island nation, and how they rock the world...

A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections

Marianne Williamson

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In A Year of Miracles, Marianne Williamson, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the classic...

A Life Everlasting: The Extraordinary Story of One Boy's Gift to Medical Science

Sarah Gray

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A donor mother's powerful memoir of grief and rebirth that is also a fascinating medical science...

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2357 KP) rated Billy Boyle in Books

Jun 19, 2020

Billy Boyle

James R. Benn | 2007 | Mystery

8.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Search for the Spy

Summer of 1942 finds Billy Boyle traveling to England to begin working for his distant uncle, Dwight Eisenhower, as a investigator during World War II. Billy had just become a detective for the Boston PD before the war hit American shores, and Billy isn’t sure he is up to the task. However, he has to jump in immediate when he is asked to help find a spy that might impede Operation Jupiter, the plans to invade Norway and drive out the Germans. His investigation is only hampered when a Norwegian official dies under mysterious circumstances. Is Billy now looking for a killer and a spy?

I’ve heard about this series several times over the years, but it was a friend recommending it to me recently that pushed me to finally start the series. I’m glad I did. I’ve always loved World War II, and I already learned something I didn’t know about it thanks to this book. The author has obviously done his research; unfortunately, sometimes that slows down the story. I’m torn on that because I did love the characters, and I loved seeing how everything from this time was impacting them. Most of the characters are fictional, but they feel like they could be real. Billy was especially wonderful, and I hope we see more of several of the characters as the series progresses. While not a cozy, the book does keep the language and violence to a minimum, which I appreciated. I also loved Billy’s restraint with the women he met – I found that very refreshing. The tone mixes some humor with more serious themes for a richer book. Now that I’ve met Billy, I have a long way to go to catch up, and I’m looking forward to the journey.