BLOG TOUR: My Heart Went Walking - Sally Hanan

 

The only man she's ever loved is seeing her sister.

And now they have to save her together.

Sally Hanan's sublime debut mixes the prose of Sue Monk Kidd with the dialogue of Maeve Binchy. With captivating warmth, she pulls us in to how it felt to live and love in Ireland's changing culture of the '80s, and how it often made a woman's decisions for her.

"I can't bear to keep walking. But you can't keep a secret in this town unless you leave with it."

Kept apart by their love for one man, two sisters embark on their own paths towards survival, love, and understanding, until all three finally meet again in the worst of circumstances. And the reality might break them all.

My Heart Went Walking is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that sweeps from the small Irish town of Donegal to the "big smoke" of Dublin City; a book that celebrates the pull of family and the chance of redemption. It is a novel for everyone who feels connected to the Irish approach to life-that of grit and laughter-and also for everyone who loves an overriding message of hope and restoration in all things.

What did I think?

One of the best things about book blogging is finding new authors you may not have otherwise discovered and it would be a travesty to miss Sally Hanan's fabulous debut novel.  I simply adored it and I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did.

Una and Cullen are the best of friends and they tell each other everything...that is until Una has a secret that she can't share with him.  Una runs away from her family and a potential future with Cullen because staying in Donegal would break her heart.  Making a new life for herself in Dublin shows Una's strength of character and I can totally understand why she ran away but there are so many heartbreaking sliding door moments when her life could have changed.  

Sally Hanan's stunning fiction debut is so heartwarming and achingly poignant that I felt completely bereft when I turned the final page.  As with real life, there are so many 'what ifs' and 'if onlys' but what if everything turns out just the way it's supposed to.  Told from the points of view of Una, her sister Ellie and Cullen, the boy they both love, I devoured every single beautiful word in this delightful novel.

Filled with Irish charm and lyrical prose, My Heart Went Walking is a truly gorgeous novel of family life and unconditional love.  It's an absolute pleasure to read and a true hidden gem from the Emerald Isle.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

Many thanks to Hannah from Hargrave PR for sending me an ARC to read and review; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

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BLOG TOUR: The Toymakers - Robert Dinsdale

I am delighted to be the final stop on The Toymakers blog tour and I am re-posting my review of this imaginative and enchanting book.

Do you remember when you believed in magic?

It is 1917, and while war wages across Europe, in the heart of London, there is a place of hope and enchantment.

The Emporium sells toys that capture the imagination of children and adults alike: patchwork dogs that seem alive, toy boxes that are bigger on the inside, soldiers that can fight battles of their own. Into this family business comes young Cathy Wray, running away from a shameful past. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own.

But Cathy is about to discover that the Emporium has secrets of its own…

What did I think?

I was immediately drawn to the striking cover of The Toymakers and decided to read this on the run up to Christmas to inject a little magic into my life.  I didn't expect to feel so emotional at the end but the power of Robert Dinsdale's writing clearly worked its way into my heart like a toy soldier scaling a battlement.  Don't be mistaken: this is not solely a magical feel-good story, it is mainly set during World War I so be prepared for loss and devastation but you can forget about it for a while when you enter Papa Jack's Emporium.

The Emporium is hidden away down a side street in London and you could easily walk past it, if you didn't know it was there.  This magical toy shop opens at first frost and closes as the first snowdrop flowers but in the short time it is open you can find every toy imaginable in its four walls, but even more toys that you could never have imagined.  Papa Jack and his sons, Kaspar and Emil, create all the toys themselves and there's quite a rivalry between the boys as to whose toys are the best.  

Cathy Wray is drawn to the Emporium after she sees an advert in the newspaper, just when she thought she could not escape her predicament.  So she runs away from home and starts a job in the Emporium, but when the first snowdrop flowers she has nowhere to go and hides in the wendy house in the Emporium.  Both brothers find her at different times and keep it a secret from each other as their rivalry extends to who will win Cathy's heart.  After the war, this intense rivalry threatens to be the downfall of the Emporium when Kaspar meddles with Emil's precious toy soldiers...the toy soldiers don't want to fight anymore and seem to have minds of their own.  Can the Emporium ever survive when Kaspar, Emil and thousands of toy soldiers are at loggerheads and Hitler's bombs are flying overhead? 

Let your imagination run wild and expect the unexpected in The Toymakers.  My imagination went into overdrive and I thought of those horrific Chucky movies as the toy soldiers were scuttling about all over the place.  I found it terribly heartbreaking as the horrors of the First World War were touched on and hoped the soldiers had somebody like Kaspar in the trenches with them to give them some comfort.

The Toymakers is so magical but slightly scary that I think of it as a fairytale for adults.  The Emporium is painted in such glorious colour through the magical prose that I felt as if I was visiting it myself.  I think The Toymakers is a little like the Emporium itself, it's only going to be enjoyable to those who believe in magic but know that the big bad world is right outside the door.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon



Follow the tour:

The Toymakers - Robert Dinsdale

Do you remember when you believed in magic?

It is 1917, and while war wages across Europe, in the heart of London, there is a place of hope and enchantment.

The Emporium sells toys that capture the imagination of children and adults alike: patchwork dogs that seem alive, toy boxes that are bigger on the inside, soldiers that can fight battles of their own. Into this family business comes young Cathy Wray, running away from a shameful past. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own.

But Cathy is about to discover that the Emporium has secrets of its own…

What did I think?

I was immediately drawn to the striking cover of The Toymakers and decided to read this on the run up to Christmas to inject a little magic into my life.  I didn't expect to feel so emotional at the end but the power of Robert Dinsdale's writing clearly worked its way into my heart like a toy soldier scaling a battlement.  Don't be mistaken: this is not solely a magical feel-good story, it is mainly set during World War I so be prepared for loss and devastation but you can forget about it for a while when you enter Papa Jack's Emporium.

The Emporium is hidden away down a side street in London and you could easily walk past it, if you didn't know it was there.  This magical toy shop opens at first frost and closes as the first snowdrop flowers but in the short time it is open you can find every toy imaginable in its four walls, but even more toys that you could never have imagined.  Papa Jack and his sons, Kaspar and Emil, create all the toys themselves and there's quite a rivalry between the boys as to whose toys are the best.  

Cathy Wray is drawn to the Emporium after she sees an advert in the newspaper, just when she thought she could not escape her predicament.  So she runs away from home and starts a job in the Emporium, but when the first snowdrop flowers she has nowhere to go and hides in the wendy house in the Emporium.  Both brothers find her at different times and keep it a secret from each other as their rivalry extends to who will win Cathy's heart.  After the war, this intense rivalry threatens to be the downfall of the Emporium when Kaspar meddles with Emil's precious toy soldiers...the toy soldiers don't want to fight anymore and seem to have minds of their own.  Can the Emporium ever survive when Kaspar, Emil and thousands of toy soldiers are at loggerheads and Hitler's bombs are flying overhead? 

Let your imagination run wild and expect the unexpected in The Toymakers.  My imagination went into overdrive and I thought of those horrific Chucky movies as the toy soldiers were scuttling about all over the place.  I found it terribly heartbreaking as the horrors of the First World War were touched on and hoped the soldiers had somebody like Kaspar in the trenches with them to give them some comfort.

The Toymakers wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  The Emporium is painted in such glorious colour through the magical prose that I felt as if I was visiting it myself.  I think The Toymakers is a little like the Emporium itself, it's only going to be enjoyable to those who believe in magic but know that the big bad world is right outside the door.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

The Circus - Olivia Levez

Why would a girl who has everything want to run away and never be found?

Willow has staged runaways ever since she was a little girl. She has everything a young person should want: a rich daddy, clothes, money, a pony and a place at a prestigious boarding school. In reality, she has everything except the thing she really wants: a father who cares enough to find her.

Aged sixteen, on the eve of her father’s wedding, she ruins the bride’s dress and escapes through a window, determined never to return. Her missing mother was a circus performer, and Willow wants to follow in her footsteps. But the performers she meets don’t want her. When her last bit of money is stolen by Suze, another runaway girl she thought she could trust, Willow becomes really homeless. Then Suze comes tumbling back into her life and a desperate Willow has to decide whether to trust her all over again . . .

So begins their frightening, exhilarating odyssey though hunger, performance, desperation and dreams. Will they both survive and will Willow make it to the circus of her imagining?

Olivia Levez takes you into the very heart of a girl who wants so hard to be lost, but saves herself through a powerful friendship and the awakening of a need for home.

What did I think?

Although I don't read a lot of YA novels, I was introduced to Olivia Levez when I read her remarkable debut novel, The Island.  So when faced with the question: 'There's a new Olivia Levez book out - do you want to read it?'  The answer, without hesitation, was 'Yes please!'

The Circus introduces us to Willow Stephens as she snips the buttons off a wedding dress, on the day that 'The Handbag' is due to marry Willow's Dad.  Willow doesn't hang around for the fallout, she already has her bag packed and plans to follow in her mother's footsteps by running away to join the circus.  Willow can't remember her mum, all she has is a dog-eared photograph of her with a snake around her neck and part of a word '...stings'.  With fate lending a hand, Willow completes the word and heads to the place where she feels that she is finally getting closer to her mother, and to a place where she belongs.

Willow meets Suz, a street performer, when Suz steals all of Willow's money.  Willow walks the streets looking for Suz but when she finally finds her, her money is gone, leaving Willow penniless and homeless.  Despite this, the unlikely pair forge a strong friendship as they struggle to find food and shelter in order to stay alive.  Willow is fearful of being recognised as her face is all over the news, and her Dad is offering a hefty reward, so she alters her appearance as much as she can and calls herself 'Frog'.  Then one day Willow meets some real circus performers who ask her to join them, but they don't have any room for Suz.  Willow is faced with making a tough decision that ultimately has devastating consequences, but one which forces Willow to finally see how much she is loved.

Olivia Levez has not only raised the bar with The Circus, but has swung from it in a glittering gold costume; whereas The Island was unusual with some chapters containing only one powerful word, The Circus really stands out as the star attraction.  It was heartbreaking as Willow searched for somewhere to belong and we learned more of her past - she has run away several times before, trying to get her Dad to notice her.  She had everything she could ever want in her privileged life, everything except the only thing she wanted - her Dad's attention.

The Circus is a wonderful story of family, belonging and unlikely friendships that had me captivated from the tempestuous start to the emotive and uplifting finale.  I felt like I was on Willow's journey with her and I was surprised to find how emotionally invested in the story I was.  A powerful, uplifting story that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone who has ever felt lost and ached to be found.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon