Review: A Place For Us by Harriet Evans

The FIRST of four exclusive part-serialisations of a A Place for Us by Harriet Evans - you'll be desperate to read on ...

The day Martha Winter decided to tear apart her family began like any other day. So opens A Place for Us by Sunday Times bestselling author Harriet Evans, a book you'll dive into, featuring a family you'll fall in love with ... and never want to leave. If you devour Rosamund Pilcher and Maeve Binchy and have discovered Jojo Moyes, you'll be thrilled to add Harriet Evans to your collection of favourite authors.

The house has soft, purple wisteria twining around the door. You step inside.

The hall is cool after the hot summer's day. The welcome is kind, and always warm.

Yet something makes you suspect life here can't be as perfect as it seems.
After all, the brightest smile can hide the darkest secret.

But wouldn't you pay any price to have a glorious place like this?

Welcome to Winterfold.
Martha Winter's family is finally coming home.

Review: wow, this really packs a punch for the first part of a novel. The characters, the setting, the storyline-you get just as much from this little snippet as you would do from the whole thing! You are dumped right into the action with some mysterious goings on in the Winter household. It's not just the heads of the household that are involved though, more and more and more characters keep being introduced, and all of them seems to have some sort of secret to hide or some sort of tragedy loming over them. The novella is cleverly structured that the characters each get a chapter at a time and so all the information about them trickles in bit by bit, like sorting out the pieces of a jigsaw. 

The language in the installment is just beautiful. The words paint a perfect picture of several idyllic settings, each home to a a member of the Winter family, and yet each of those settings in marred by the secret that each of them hides. You are whisked between rural England, Paris and Florence and enter the households of families, couples and single people, all of them living in a state of suspense and a states of loneliness. 

Each of the characters in this novella are strong in their own way, even if the life choices they have made haven't been so strong... The matriarch of the household, Martha, seems to be the one holding them altogether, a pupeteer of sorts, and she is the lynchpin of the storyline too, in inviting them all to her 80th birthday where secrets will all be revealed. Her husband is a minor celebrity within the UK and he plays quite a minor role in this installment, although I am sure that he will really come into his own in future sections of this book. I really liked the younger members of this family and thing that they will play a big part as the story unfolds.

I think that this is another great serialisation. It allows suspense to build between sections and allows you to really think about the events that have happened in one novella before the next installment comes out. It has been cleverly written though because I already feel like I have got to know that characters and got an insight and an inkling into what their secrets might be! I really enjoyed reading this novella, it felt like I'd read a full novel only without the satisfying conclusion and I definitely definitely need to read more! 

Review: Wonder by RJ Palacio

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

Review: wow, I literally could not stop reading this book, unputdownable is a complete understatement. I actually started reading this with a group of children at school and then I made sure we all had a copy so we could all finish it over the holidays. The short chapters, the mystery behind what August really looks like, the situation with him  and his school had us all completely mesmerised and desperate to carry on reading it. 

Firstly, I loved the character development in this book. It's not just August who grows and learns over the course of the novel. This book is written from several points of view and all the other characters grow and change and I love that about the story. The point of view who we don't hear from is the one belonging to any adult. There are no teacher chapters or parent chapters, this is told entirely from the children's perspective, which I think is brave but brilliant! I particularly enjoyed seeing august's sister Via change over the course of the novel, the kids I was reading with agreed that intiallly she seems passive aggressive but that we do feel sorry for her having to deal with all she deals with, she really blossoms in this novel and the way she deals with her own problems in truly admirable! 

I loved the idea that whatever August has is an entirely new thing, it means that no one has the exact condition he has and so there's no risk of offending people with one of the conditions he has because he is completely unique, and indeed the novel teaches that it is completely ok to be unique, this is strong message throughout the whole book. I loved August sense of humour as well, we know that he sees himself as normal and why should no one else, but we see that he copes with the way he looks and the way he is different from everyone else with humour and courage and yet he can completely empathise with others, despite his being so completely unique! 

There are some very funny bits in this novel, it's not all moral lessons, there is a storyline and humour, action which will leave you breathless, and real life. Anyone starting a new school or a new situation will be able to identify with August and his fears, Via too! This also teaches a powerful lesson about friendship and bullying which is why I decided to read it at school, it is beautifully written too which also comes in handy at school but which adds to the fact that this book is completely addictive. Having just finished this book. I know that this is something I will want to reread again and again! 

As you can see from the beautiful picture in this post, I have the special edition copy of the novel which has some bonus material in the back. This includes some interesting discussion questions, information about the author and some fan reactions to the book and to August. It was well worth the extra money for this edition, and let's face it, the cover is lovely too!