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Colton's Pocket Dragons: Dragonland (Book #1)
Colton's Pocket Dragons: Dragonland (Book #1)
Rebecca Massey | 2013 | Children, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I enjoyed the story of Colton and his first pocket dragon. Is your child or children into dragons or enjoy reading about dragons? This book starts with a little boy and how he feels his life is boring and nothing is exciting.

We get introduced to Colton. He finds an egg and wants to take care of it. How do you take care of an egg, but it is not a bird egg? What kind of egg is it? We meet a little dragon and his name is "Kolta." The adventures start once this little egg hatches.

Dragonland is where most of the adventure takes place once Kolta and Colton go to visit. Will we find Kolta's parents? Colton does not want to see Kolta leave and stay in Dragonland. But will Colton understand and know his friend will be back?

Children will learn about taking care of an egg and raising a dragon. Children will also learn about letting go and know that they need to live with their parents just as dragons need to live with their parents once Colton helps raise his new friend Kolta.

The pictures remain done well. They are bright. What will happen when Colton finds a new egg that is white with red spots? It seems Colton is starting to collect some pocket dragons. Colton and Kolta are in Dragonland, exploring and trying to find Kolta's parents. They run into different situations. Will Kolta help Colton out of some of the problems. What adventures will they get themselves into, and will Kolta's dad save Colton from the most dangerous dragon monster?
  
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ClareR (5955 KP) rated Send For Me in Books

Sep 7, 2021  
Send For Me
Send For Me
Lauren Fox | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Send For Me is an emotionally charged look at the lives of three generations of women: Klara, Annalise and Clare. Annalise is German, a Jew living in Feldenheim at a time when it was dangerous to be Jewish - whether you were a practicing Jew or not. After years of persecution, Annalise, her husband and her toddler daughter, manage to get permission to leave for the USA. But she has to leave her parents behind.

This was a different take on other books set at this time, and I liked that about it very much. I haven’t read many books about those who managed to escape the Nazi regime and immigrate to safe countries before the Holocaust really began. But it’s no less saddening for that. Annalise desperately misses her parents, and life is so utterly different in the US.

The story swaps between Annalise and her granddaughter, Clare, whose life couldn’t have been any more different. Clare has the much more liberated life of an American woman - whether that’s what she really wants, remains to be seen.

I really enjoyed seeing the juxtaposition between a 1930s immigrant and a modern young woman. Annalise’s fear of being in a big city with no English is palpable - I panicked along with her. It must be so scary to move somewhere that’s completely different to your own life experience, and not even have a common language - something that people have always had to endure for their own safety throughout the ages.

This is a really moving novel, made more so when I learnt that the letters between Annalise and her mother Klara were real - just that the names were changed.
  
All He Wants For Christmas is a Fingerling (The Weird & Wacky World of Shifters #1)
All He Wants For Christmas is a Fingerling (The Weird & Wacky World of Shifters #1)
JP Sayle | 2021 | LGBTQ+, Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
weird and wacky but so bloody good!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Did you ever read a book and think "what the actual f88k did I just read?"

Cos let me tell ya, this book is such a book! But I mean this in the BEST way!

Frenchie is a potato shifter. Yes, you read that right, a POTATO. Tala is a wolf. And it makes for quite an interesting read, it really does!

It's quite hard, I think, to come up with a really NEW idea, but Ms Sayle proper nailed it here!

It's proper weird and wacky as the series title suggests, but it's also a lot of fun, with some sass and some smex and some danger and a whole sack full of hints and clues about this world that I want more, and I want it yesterday!

As well as feeling pleasantly buzzed and left warm and fuzzy by this book, I'm also left with a lot of questions (which Ms Sayle will know, for me, is dangerous ground!) I'm hoping they get answered in future books. I can't really voice them, for spoilers, but I know what they are, so that's good!

Frenchie's brother and Tala's twin need their story. There is a lot of hurt between those two right now!

Or maybe a broccoli shifter? Or even a bean cos, apparently, beans are dull!

Please, though, read this. It really is a whole lot of fun, and a great start to what I can see being an fantastic series!

4 weird and wacky stars

*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
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ClareR (5955 KP) rated The Winners in Books

Mar 8, 2023  
The Winners
The Winners
Fredrik Backman | 2022 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Sport & Leisure
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I finished this book in absolute bits. Awkward on a dog walk. But how does Fredrik Backman do this?!

Over the course of this trilogy I have become involved in the lives of everyone in Beartown and Hed. I don’t watch Ice Hockey (my son plays field hockey, and I imagine that’s slightly less dangerous - although he’s had his share of black eyes and sprained ankles!).

This book is about the lives of the people of the two towns. How, despite their animosity towards one another, there is more that joins them together than drives them apart. They just have to learn that.

The novel starts with the storm of a generation: trees are blown over, houses and businesses damaged. In fact, this is something of a sign of things to come for these people.

Life isn’t necessarily easy for any of the characters in this. We read of the trials and tribulations of their lives, their successes and failures. The observations made by Backman are so full of insight , like he has really taken the time to understand these people.

Emotions run high between the towns, especially when it’s discovered that the council want to shut one of the rinks down. They’ve clearly not thought this one through and have no understanding of their constituents!

This novel contains all of the struggles of so many small towns today: addiction, violence, families in trouble, people in need, corruption, criminality, love and loss.

It’s a long book, but it flies by - and that’s all Backman’s writing (and the translator Neil Smith’s translating!). I’m so sorry to see this trilogy come to an end. It’s been quite the ride.
  
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ClareR (5955 KP) rated Soul Sisters in Books

Feb 25, 2022  
Soul Sisters
Soul Sisters
Lesley Lokko | 2021 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Romance
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Soul Sisters by Lesley Lokko is the story of Jen and Kemi. Jen is from a wealthy Sottish family, and Kemi comes to live with them as a child. She is from a political, black South African family, at a time when it was dangerous to be. Kemi has been sent to Edinburgh for her own safety.

Jen and Kemi become ‘soul sisters’, perhaps closer than real sisters would be. Even thought their lives are very different (Kemi becomes a surgeon, Jen works in the art world), they never lose that bond. Until, that is, a man comes between them.

Solam Rhoyi. He’s a black South African financier who wants to go into politics - and he wants to be really successful.

The feelings of Kemi and Solam were conveyed really well, and their need for identity as ‘exile kids’; the political aspect was interesting and it didn’t have too much romance (which is just how I like it: some, but not an overwhelming amount!). Other themes were family, secrets, race and power.

I really enjoyed the background to this story, and the hints as to why Kemi and Jen’s family had such a close bond. I loved the South African setting, and how, as the reader, I got to see a little of what goes on in hospitals and in politics. I wish we’d got to see a little more of the consequences of some of the huge events, both personal and political. There was a bit too much of jumping years ahead for me. Perhaps it would have been better as a duology (as some other reviewers have said). I absolutely would have read it!