This was a truly mesmerising, magical read which drew me into brilliantly imagined worlds with two wonderful protagonists whose relationship felt genuine and realistic.  The sense of wonder, the intricate magical system and the pervading threat of danger enthralled me … I’m already eager to continue the adventure!

Twelve-year-old Flick Hudson has moved to Little Wyverns where it does not take her long to find the rather incredible Strangeworlds Travel Agency which does not have any of the usual accoutrements of a travel agency, but does have a large selection of suitcases … and the utterly, utterly brilliant Jonathan Mercator!  Flick has a natural curiosity and a desire to explore, so it is no surprise that she is drawn to the Agency but, once inside, she makes an incredible discovery … a discovery that leads to her acceptance into The Strangeworlds Society, and the beginning of an adventure that will change her life …

Flick discovers that she has a magical ability that allows her to use the suitcases in the custodianship of Jonathan to travel to other worlds in the multiverse.  Just imagine stepping into a suitcase and arriving in another world.  The world-building is superb, and I absolutely delighted in these richly described magical worlds, each of which is unique from The Crystal Forest to the Coral City to the City of Five Lights. 

Alongside the awe engendered by these worlds, there is also a timely and relevant warning to care for and respect these worlds.  The consequences of not doing so have placed one of the worlds, the City of Five Lights, in grave danger, a danger that may well have disastrous consequences not only for that world but also other worlds in the multiverse, including our own.

Jonathan takes Flick to Five Lights on his own agenda but, once there, they find themselves drawn into a dangerous mission to save the City from collapse… a mission which requires ingenuity, courage and trust.

I adored both Flick and Jonathan, and the development of their friendship which felt really authentic.  Both have to deal with a lot of responsibility:  Flick has lots of housework and looks after her younger brother to help out her busy parents, and Jonathan has had to take on the custodianship of the Travel Agency.  Flick is courageous, kind-hearted and empathetic.  I loved her strong sense of fairness, her directness and her strength in standing up for herself when she needs to.   Jonathan has an acerbic wit, a penchant for detail and is a stickler for rules.  He is also lonely, dealing with loss and in desperate need of a friend. My heart really went out to both of them, and I am so glad they found each other, and that they learn the true value of friendship … I really hope they have more amazing adventures through The StrangeWorlds Travel Agency.      

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy in exchange for my honest opinion.   

This is a meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words.  It asks three questions:

1.       What are you currently reading?

2.       What did you recently finish reading?

3.      What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m just about to start The Pear Affair by Judith Eagle. I’ve heard lots of good things about this, so I’m really looking forward to reading it.

I’ve read three books this week. The Vanishing Trick was just brilliant – a dark, magical tale which fascinated me. I also enjoyed a short historical novella, Black Water which is based on a real smuggling event in Scotland which involved Robert Burns. I also read The Peculiar Peggs of Riddling Woods which was amazing! Another very clever dark tale with some wonderfully eccentric characters and a great fairy tale link.

I have been sent a digital copy of Elsetime by Eve McDonnell to review. This will be released later in the year. It’s a time travel story which I’m really looking forward to as reading the first page has definitely captured my interest!

Have you read any of these? What are you reading?

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

It wasn’t a sin to steal if you only took forgotten things. Leander had been watching the ugly mutton pie in the bakery window for hours. It was lopsided and slightly squashed. All day customers had ignored it in favour of plump loaves, golden apple pies and sugar-sprinkled shortbread. The pie was left alone, unwanted and forgotten. Leander knew how that felt.

Any ideas?

This is my current read, and I’m loving it – think it might be a late reading night!

Goodreads Synopsis:

Madame Augustina Pinchbeck travels the country conjuring the spirits of dearly departed loved ones… for a price. Whilst her ability to contact ghosts is a game of smoke and mirrors, there is real magic behind her tricks too – if you know where to look. Through a magical trade, she persuades children to part with precious objects, promising to use her powers to help them. But Pinchbeck is a deceiver, instead turning their items into enchanted Cabinets that bind the children to her and into which she can vanish and summon them at will. When Pinchbeck captures orphan Leander, events are set into motion that see him and his new friends Charlotte and Felix, in a race against time to break Pinchbeck’s spell, before one of them vanishes forever…

This is the second week for my new weekly feature celebrating amazing middle-grade books. I hope others will enjoy taking part in this too! Thank you to those who have already taken part – I loved reading your posts and appreciate that you took the time to give this a go.

How to take part:

• Post a picture of the front cover of a middle-grade book which you have read and would recommend to others with details of the author, illustrator and publisher.
• Open the book to page 11 and share your favourite sentence. 
• Write three words to describe the book.
• Either share why you would recommend this book, or link to your review.

This week, I’m celebrating …

Favourite Sentence from Page 11:

I press my face to the glass again, so hot it almost burns my skin, at the same time as a bloody hand thumps against the window from the other side.

This book in three words:

CREEPY, FUNNY, ACTION-PACKED

I had pre-ordered a copy of Crater Lake from the publisher Firefly Press who are an independent children’s and YA publisher based in Wales whose books I am loving! I absolutely devoured the fantastic Crater Lake when it arrived! I will definitely be getting copies of this for our school library as I think it will be a huge hit with the children.

The Year 6 children of Montmorency School are the first students to stay at the newly opened Crater Lake Activity Centre.  Even before arriving at the Centre, events take a sinister turn as their bus is stopped by the figure of a bloodstained man and, on arrival, Digger, the Centre Manager, does not provide them with the welcome they were expecting.  From this point on, the creepiness and fright levels keep on escalating as Lance and his friends find themselves on a daring mission to save themselves and their classmates from a frightening enemy.

Crater Lake is a perfect blend of jump-inducing scariness, brilliant characters and fast-paced action laced with a good dollop of humour and warmth!  It kept me gripped and on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

Here’s a link to my full review: Crater Lake.

I’d love if anyone who wants to give this meme a go would comment in the comments box and include a link to your post so I can visit, comment and find some great middle-grade recommendations. If you do create a post and are on Twitter, and would like to share your post, please use the hashtag  #MGTakesOnThursday so I can find it, read it and share it!

This is a meme hosted by Taking on a World of Words.  It asks three questions:

1.       What are you currently reading?

2.       What did you recently finish reading?

3.      What do you think you’ll read next?

I’m just about to start The Vanishing Trick which I have been approved to read by the publisher via NetGalley. This sounds like it will be a darker read, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Any attempt at planning my reading seems to have gone out the window! I decided to read a couple of books that I’be had on my TBR pile for a while. The Star Outside my Window is such a powerful, beautiful and sensitively written story that tore at my heart, but I just couldn’t put it down. I also read Dragon Daughter which I enjoyed, but I didn’t love as much as I thought I would. I took part in the Blog Tour for Brittle’s Academy for the Magically Unstable which was a very short, but fun magical read. Finally, I’ve just finished Gargantis which I devoured in a day – the first book I’ve read via PDF as Walker Books approved me to read it via NetGalley but there was no Kindle option! I absolutely loved it – a wonderful return to Eerie-on-Sea for another edge-of-the-seat adventure with the brilliant Herbert Lemon and Violet Parma.

I’m hoping to read The Peculiar Peggs of Riddling Woods next. This one has been on my TBR for far too, long. I’ve just looked at the blurb again – it sounds exactly my kind of book.

Have you read any of these? What are you reading?

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me on this Blog Tour and for providing me with an e-book in exchange for my honest opinion.

It’s Charlie’s first day at high school, his blazer is too big and his shoes are too small, but that’s the least of his worries. He’s been missed off the class lists and is now enrolled in a new school called Brittle’s Academy with a magical and mysterious head teacher. But to stay at Brittle’s Charlie must pass one of the tests…otherwise he’ll be sent to Oblivion!

This is the first book in the series of Brittle’s Academy for the Magically Unstable.  The books can be read and enjoyed in any order as long as you’ve read Charlie Makes a Discovery first, which introduces us to the magical world of Professor Brittle, his pupils, the teachers and, of course, the school.

My Review:

This is the first book in a new series which introduces a wonderful, magical new world as children attend Brittle’s Academy for the Magically Unstable, a school for magicians.  I found this a really delightful and enchanting story with plenty of action, adventure and a brilliant magical system which is perfect for younger middle-grade readers who enjoy magical adventures.

The story opens with Charlie’s natural trepidation at starting secondary school.  On arrival, he is confused when he sees two entrance gates and doesn’t know which to choose, especially as his brother can only see one!  Things get even stranger when most of the children are sorted into form tutor groups, but Charlie and some others are left out – until they meet their new teacher, Professor Brittle, the Headteacher of Brittle Academy which is most certainly not the school they have enrolled in.  

They soon arrive at their new school, Brittle’s Academy for the Magically Unstable which is hidden in plain sight from non-magical people.   Excitement replaces fear as the children enter the gates, and see their new school for the first time, although they soon discover that for some, their first day may well be their last.  The detailed description of the sights and sounds helps to immerse the reader in this new and fascinating world which blends the ordinary with the extraordinary for a magical combination. 

The children are set a series of tasks to see if they can become fully-fledged students in this new school which sorts them into different Houses, each with a different attribute.  If they are not sorted into a House, they are sent to oblivion!  I found this magical choosing system really charming and enjoyed reading about each of them, and seeing who got into each House.  This sets the series up perfectly for the next adventure as the children continue their magical education with their rather eccentric teachers!

Charlie is a really likeable character who is braver than he thinks, taking risks to help his friends and standing up for himself when it matters.  I was keen to see which House was his perfect match!

The illustrations are wonderful, full of detail with a magical quality of their own, and really complement the story.

This is a wonderful beginning to a series which will capture the hearts of younger readers of magical fantasy stories.

About the Author:

Lily Mae Walters chose her pen name in honor of her beloved Grandparents who also star in the Josie James series. She is married with two teenage children and two Huskies who are the inspiration behind Murphy and Asher in the books. Lily Mae lives in Nuneaton, England and finds herself using local places and even her old school in her stories. Family and friends mean the world to Lily Mae and many will find themselves popping up throughout the series. Lily Mae also writes for adults under the name of Florence Keeling.

Social Media:

Twitter: @LilyMaeWalters1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josiejames100

Facebook: Brittle’s Academy

Instagram: lilymaewalters

The April theme for Six for Sunday, hosted by A Little But a Lot is Taking on the TBR pile and today’s prompt is for Recent additions to your TBR pile.  I do love having a physical copy of a book, although I have found myself getting more e-books recently. I used to get my books from a book shop, so it is taking them longer to arrive now that they are coming through the post! The last six books I’ve added to my TBR pile include 5 physical copies and one e-book.

I haven’t read any Melinda Salisbury books yet, nor do I read very many adult books but this one interested me so I thought I’d try it to see what I think.

I love the cover of this one and having read and loved The Unadoptables about a group of orphans, I thought I’d read another story centred on a group of orphans – this one sounds like a great mystery.

I love spooky stories and this one sounds like a great mystery – and there’s a talking stag head and bear rug which captured my interest.

This was actually the last book I bought in a bookshop – a signed copy! I adored the first book, and this one was just as wonderful with old friends and new: a truly magical, heart-warming, humorous adventure.

This one sounds like a darker read for older children – might be one to read in daylight as I’m very easily spooked!

I haven’t read Nicola’s book Bloom yet, but I just had to get this one as the premise absolutely captured me – think I will read this one very shortly.

Have you read any of these? What books have you recently added to your TBR pile?

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book!

I’ve always wanted to be a Star Hunter. Everyone else calls them astronomers, but I think ‘Star Hunter’ sounds much better, so that’s what I’m going to call myself. But I’m not going to be the kind of star hunter that looks for old stars. I want to find the brand new ones – the ones that have only just been born and are searching for the people they’ve left behind.

Any ideas?

I absolutely loved Onjali’s first book, The Boy at the Back of the Class. I started reading this one yesterday and I’m really enjoying it. It is a very emotional read and I think there will be lots of tears, but there is also a spark of hope.

Goodreads Synopsis:

My mum is up there somewhere. She’s waiting — I can feel it. I just have to find her in time, that’s all … Because when I do, I’ll know the truth about who stole her. ‘ Told through the innocent voice of a child, this is a story that celebrates the power of hope and resilience, from the author of The Boy at the Back of the Class. On her tenth birthday, Aniyah makes a wish — a wish for her mum. After school that same day, Aniyah and her brother are rushed out of school and driven far, far away. So Aniyah sets out to find out the truth — about the wish and about what happened to her mother. And in doing so she ends up on an adventure she never could have foreseen…one that involves a very clever squirrel, a homeless man named Harry, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and the biggest star in Hollywood… 

Have you read this? What did you think of it?