Tag: #Friendship

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon by Safinah Danish Elahi

On By @f33lthesunIn AdultLeave a comment

Blurb

Zohaib, Misha and Nadia believed they would be in each other’s lives forever. As children they played, argued, teased and loved one another. Yet nothing could have prepared them for the tragic turn of events one fateful afternoon in Karachi, Pakistan, when the divisions and differences between them are revealed.

Years later and they are still trying to piece their lives back together, still trying to make sense of what happened. Zohaib is living in London, haunted by the ghosts of the past. Nadia has escaped the household where she first met Misha and Zohaib but finds fate delivering her back to their door…

The Idle Stance of the Tippler Pigeon is a beautifully rendered portrait of love, healing, and long-buried pain, digging deep into the nature of trauma and class division.

Review

I was intrigued by the title of this book, and it engaged me enough to want to read and review it, despite it not being my usual type of read. I am very glad I made that decision. Without spoilers, the title is part of something the father of Misha and Zohaib says to them when they are children, and relates perfectly to the character arcs of both Nadia and Zohaib.

It took me a few chapters to get my head round the format and story, by then I didn’t want to put it down.

Dealing with family, friendship, love, loss, grief and class, this story of the long lasting effects of a childhood trauma, told from multiple perspectives, will stay with me.

The story unfolds mainly via the three main characters, Nadia, Misha and Zohaib, and is set both in the present and 17 years earlier, when Nadia and Misha are about 8. These are interspersed with chapters from the point of view of several other family members which add effectively to the narrative.

We do not find out exactly what happened until the end of the book, but hints are drip fed throughout, whilst we hear about how the event affected those involved as they dealt with it…or not, in some cases.

Despite the themes of poverty vs privilege, domestic violence, mysogyny, grief and mental health issues, there is hope in this story.

The ending (not the reveal of the childhood trauma event, but where the characters are in their lives and relationships) leaves the reader with a lot to contemplate. It is not what I expected but is reflective of reality, in my opinion.

Thank you to Neem Tree Press and @The_WriteReads for a copy of the book for me to review as part of this blog tour.

Wrath of Olympus by E. M. Kkoulla

On By @f33lthesunIn #YALeave a comment

Blurb

The Roman Empire never fell. The Gods are real. Ships are alive.

In the Province of Britannia, ruled by descendants of King Arthur and on the brink of an industrial revolution, young Maia Abella is on the run. 

Something unseen has murdered her cruel mistress and she’s being blamed. The streets and factories of Portus are no place for a friendless girl, trapped in events beyond her control.

The city authorities and the Royal Navy are both desperate to find her – one investigating a killer, the other to recruit her, while the deadly legacy of a tragic past stalks her every step.

Aided by Raven, an ancient, blind Mage with a terrible secret and Milo, Crown Agent and spy, Maia must discover and overcome the fatal consequences of her birth.

Meanwhile, the Gods are making their moves. And not all of them are friendly.

Review

Wow. For the first in a series (Ships of Britannia) this absolutely blew me away. This is steeped in Roman mythology, a steampunk fantasy that has Roman Gods running amok, with Maia, a servant girl who is only trying to earn her freedom from her abusive employer, caught up in their power games.

The job of the first book in a series is to set the scene and introduce us to the characters, build the world and kick off the adventure. This is one of the best first books I have read.

Many first books feel slow as they describe the world and this impacts pace. E.M. Kkoulla has managed to do it in such a way that does not slow down the action or take away from plot development. There is a lot of “show, not tell”, which keeps the pace going and interest piqued. Refreshing.

The multi layering of the story is well executed, and small hints are revisited throughout, with reveals that bring the whole thing together.

The world building is superb and the idea of living ships that communicate with each other in their minds is both intriguing and something that I have not come across before.

I am invested in this series and will definitely be reading the follow up books.

Takeout Sushi by Christopher Green

On By @f33lthesunIn AdultLeave a comment

Blurb

Takeout Sushi is a collection of 17 illustrated short stories set mostly in contemporary Japan that explore feelings of belonging, displacement, and the strangeness of everyday human interaction.

In an innovative, fast-paced company, a man’s job comes under threat when a team of robots are brought in to replace the HR department. A husband’s search for shortcuts to his domestic tasks goes painfully wrong. Overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, a foreigner takes a weekend break and discovers something other than solitude in the mountains.

Marking Christopher Green’s debut adult fiction and inspired by his own experiences, these whimsical slice-of-life tales are full of heart and humour—perfect for fans of Convenience Store Woman and Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Review

This is a collection of short stories, most set in Japan, with a few set elsewhere.

There are a range of themes across the stories, with family relationships at the heart of many, as well as moral dilemmas that make the reader wonder if they would make the same decisions if it were them.

A couple of the stories left me thinking deeply about revenge. Not planned revenge but the feeling when something bad happens to someone and their significant other decides, on reflection, that they got what was coming to them after all, now they think about it. A sort of unintended consequence revenge.

Thanks to Neem Tree Press and @The_WriteReads for the eARC for this review.

The Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani, translated by Sawad Hussain

On By @f33lthesunIn Young AdultLeave a comment

Blurb

Historical fiction meets crime fiction in The Djinn’s Apple, an award-winning YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid period—the golden age of Baghdad.

A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript.

When Nardeen’s home is stormed by angry men frantically in search of something—or someone—she is the only one who manages to escape. And after the rest of her family is left behind and murdered, Nardeen sets out on an unyielding mission to bring her family’s killers to justice, regardless of the cost…

Full of mystery and mayhem, The Djinn’s Apple is perfect for fans of Arabian Nights, City of Brass, and The Wrath and the Dawn.

Review

Set in 9th century Baghdad, the story follows Nardeen, first as she escapes the political, violent murder of her family and then as a teenager mentored by an eminent doctor. Both her father and her mentor see her potential in what is culturally a male dominated field, which grates with most others.

The story is a well told, and superbly translated, blend of politics, medicine and magic, with Nardeen trying to find answers to her why her family were massacred and look forward to growing into adulthood. She is taken in by her mentor and only after a message from someone else does she question his motives. It is difficult for her to view him as anything other than a trusted mentor until she uncovers more about the politics and reasons behind her family’s murder and his duplicitous behaviour.

I have not read anything set in this time period before and enjoyed finding out more.

The themes of political turmoil, trust, feminism, grief and family secrets are well handled and will promote a lot of discussion and debate.

Thanks to Neem Tree Press and The Write Reads for an ARC for the purposes of this blog tour review.

Birth of the Storm by Valerie Storm

On By @f33lthesunIn Fantasy, Young AdultLeave a comment
Cover by Ginka Jack (@Ginkahederling)

Blurb

A bolt of lightning. And a dream of vengeance.

For wolf-demon Kari, these define her every waking moment. Her parents are dead, slaughtered by human hands, forcing their only daughter to masquerade among their killers to save her own skin. Now she dwells among them, hiding her lightning-based abilities and plotting a terrible revenge, believing her schemes are all she’s good for now. But when she discovers unexpected solace among a group of humans who look past her monstrous nature, Kari finds herself questioning everything. Her mission. Her dreams. Even the hatred festering in her heart.

Is it possible for a creature like Kari to find happiness in a world that despises her?

Or will the spectres of her past force her down the path of vengeance in the end?

Review

As I started reading this I did not expect it to affect me as much as it did. It is to the author’s credit that I was pulled into Kari’s world and didn’t want to leave.

Valerie Storm has created an imaginative, dangerous world in which Kari has so much thrown at her from such a young age. This book does not shy away from violence and death, those Kari builds relationships with put in danger because of the power Kari was born with, despite her trying to keep it hidden, and those who are hunting her.

I had to keep reminding myself that Kari was a teenager to explain some of her reactions but she copes extremely well given her limited knowledge of her gift, the way most people treat her and the trauma of loss and separation she suffers. Her feelings of isolation, indecision and need for revenge drive her.

This is not a cosy fantasy story, it is hard hitting and powerful, better for it. It also ends on a twist and cliffhanger like no other.

I thought I was going to have to wait for the next book in the series so was very happy to realise that this was published in 2022 so others in the series are already out. Off to buy them.

Thank you to @The_WriteReads and Shadow Spark Publishing for the review copy.

I am resharing this blog to celebrate the release of the latest and final book in the series.

The Demon Storm series follows Kari Kasente, the wolf demon destined to destroy the world. While battling an innately crueler self, a Shadow Witch intent on controlling her, and a series of other enemies, Kari must learn to trust herself and those around her. Only then can she find her light and save the world.

The final book in the series, Fate of the Storm was released on May 13, 2025.

About the Author

Valerie Storm was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Growing up, she fell in love with everything fantasy. When she wasn’t playing video games, she was writing. By age ten, she began to write her own stories as a way to escape reality. When these stories became a full-length series, she considered the path to sharing with other children & children-at/heart looking for a place to call home.

She can be found on Twitter @Valerie_Storm

Secrets of the Snakestone by Piu DasGupta

On By @f33lthesunIn Upper KS2+Leave a comment
Cover art by Helen Crawford-White

Blurb

Meet Zélie Dutta. She has beaten her own father five times at chess (the last time he cheated). She has crushed the head of a poisonous cobra with her naked heel AND she can lick her elbow.

There’s nothing that she can’t handle… or at least that’s what she thinks. But when her father goes missing and a sinister secret society seems to be to blame, she’s forced to look for help in the most unlikely of places…

Swept up in a slew of crimes that stretch from the jungles of Calcutta to the sewers of Paris, Zélie and her new friend Jules begin a desperate hunt for the magical Snakestone at the heart of the conspiracy. Can they solve the ancient riddles and mysteries concealed in the miles of murky tunnels that twist beneath the ancient city above?

Review

It has a book map (said in the same voice as “It has pockets.”).

I thoroughly enjoyed joining Zélie and Jules on their adventures and derring do. Although Jules is more reluctant than Zélie to place himself in danger, he is a good friend and wants to help. He tries to warn her that not everyone should be taken at their word but she ignores his pleas, which puts her in mortal danger more than once. I particularly enjoyed the internal, motivational speeches Zélie gives herself when in need of a bit of extra bravery.

Set in the underbelly of Paris near the end of the 19th century and based on a colonial tale of a healing stone (with severe small print warnings), the story involves family separation and loss, subterfuge, circus acts, a secret society up to no good and a cast of diverse and often dastardly characters.

The main themes are friendship, trust, making the right choice, greed and power.

Thank you to the author for pointing out the absolute truth about pockets (severe lack of) in women’s clothes and the huge issue of back and front fastenings on clothing…how many items of men’s clothing need contortionist skills to fasten them? Exactly!

Thanks to NetGalley and Nosy Crow for the eARC in exchange for this review. The book will be published on March 14th 2024.

The Secret of the Moonshard by Struan Murray

On By @f33lthesunIn Fantasy, Upper KS2+Leave a comment
Cover and art by Vivienne To

Blurb

Domino is an eleven-year-old girl with a strange affliction: if she goes anywhere near magic, it will kill her.

All her life she’s been trapped in a floating laboratory, safe from magic but not from the cruel children and the crueler Science Barons who live there. Domino believes the Barons are trying to invent a cure for her magic allergy, but when a mysterious wizard arrives and unleashes total chaos, she discovers that everything she’s been told is a lie.

Domino escapes to the wondrous city of Abzalaymon, its streets filled with marvels she’s never seen, from automobiles to televisions to hulking thunder lizards. But the Science Barons are on her trail, and Domino must brave a hidden realm of magic if she is to defeat their sinister plot, and uncover a secret that might just save the world: the Secret of the Moonshard.

Review

Struan Murray has done it again. A superbly crafted story in a fantastically created world. The Scientarium floats above the city, tormenting Domino, who dreams of visiting it one day, who has known nothing else but the bullying / prankster revenge and testing cycles her life consists of, thanks to the Science Barons who raise her there “to protect her from magic”. Does she really need protecting?

Once again, following the highly original and exciting Orphans of the Tide trilogy, the author has delivered with a variety of well defined characters, twists and turns, magic and mayhem, chases that have you on the edge your seat and even some dinosaurs.

Creating characters with depth and believability is a special skill and Murray has this down to a fine art. The ones that I’m particularly drawn to are those who bring indecision to my mind…which side will these characters fall on when push comes to shove? Abzalaymon, the spirit, is a deliciously contrasting character, which puts you, as the reader, on edge. Will they help Domino, Calvin and Raphael…or eat them?

A book map is always a bonus.

Thanks to NetGalley and Puffin for the eARC in exchange for this review. The book will be published on March 7th 2024

The Siren, the Song and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

On By @f33lthesunIn #YA, FantasyLeave a comment
Cover by Victo Ngai (@victongai)

Blurb

A diverse resistance force fights to topple an empire in this vibrant fantasy about freedom, identity and decolonization.

By sinking a fleet of Imperial Warships, the Pirate Supreme and their resistance fighters have struck a massive blow against the Emperor. Now allies from across the empire are readying themselves, hoping against hope to bring about the end of the conquerors’ rule and the rebirth of the Sea. But trust and truth are hard to come by in this complex world of mermaids, spies, warriors, and aristocrats. Who will Genevieve – lavishly dressed but washed up, half dead, on the Wariuta island shore – turn out to be? Is warrior Koa’s kindness towards her admirable, or is his sister Kaia’s sharp suspicion wiser? And back in the capital, will pirate-spy Alfie really betray the Imperials who have shown him affection, especially when a duplicitous senator reveals xe would like nothing better?

Meanwhile, the Sea is losing more and more of herself as her daughters continue to be brutally hunted, and the Empire continues to expand through profits made from their blood. The threads of time, a web of schemes, shifting loyalties, and blossoming identities converge in this story of unlikely young allies trying to forge a new and better world.

Review

I only realise after reading this that it is the second book set in this world, however I was able to read it without having read the first. Not giving anything away by saying I will be reading the first one, The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea.

The author’s world building is excellent, as are the characters she has created and developed. They are well formed and deep. I think the use of chapters giving us multi viewpoints throughout helps us to bond with them. I particularly loved that the sea had her own chapters, which provided a link between a lot of the others.

The big themes of identity (individual and group), freedom, decolonisation, war and resistance are covered well and the friction between wanting freedom but having to inflict violence to achieve it is palpable, especially in Koa, one of the suppressed nation’s warriors.

If you enjoyed series like Utterly Dark by Philip Reeve or Orphans of the Tide by Struan Murray you will enjoy this. Note that this is definitely Young Adult, not for KS2 like those mentioned.

Thank to NetGalley and Walker for the eARC in exchange for this review. It will be published on 1st February 2024.

Arvia: Wings of the Wild by D.H. Willison

On By @f33lthesunIn Fantasy, Young Adult3 Comments

Blurb

It’s easy to stand up for your friends. What about for anonymous creatures nobody else cares about?

With their homes apparently safe from the magical storms, Darin and Rinloh venture to an isolated elven village and another ancient mystery: ruins of an imperial city whose entire population vanished centuries ago.

The duo befriend a host of eccentric new characters, from a chipper ogress and hipster troll to a deadpan griffin. Yet the Forest of Nightmares challenges them as never before. Merciless carnivorous trees, subterranean horrors, ethereal creatures no mortal weapon can slay… and most sinister of all, the greed and ambition lurking within the human heart.

Darin and Rinloh’s empathic connection grows stronger the deeper into the wilderness they go, but will it be enough to stop a dark conspiracy from ravaging the land?

Arvia: Wings of the Wild challenges the harpy-human duo with their grandest adventure yet. They must balance their deepening relationship as they sharpen their skills and work together as never before to unravel a deadly new plot.

Review

A book that has a map is off to a cracking start, in my opinion.

This series, of which this is the fourth book, is mainly character/relationship driven, but the adventurous story is not compromised by this.

Darin has been transported from his mundane earthly existence, via a meeting with an extraterrestrial of questionable character, to a hew life on Arvia, a world full of magic as well as many different species, some friendly, some not so friendly and some downright deadly. On Arvia, humans are the smallest, weakest and generally most vulnerable so he has to use his very limited life skills to stay alive, which causes him problems. He manages to persuade a harpy not to eat him and they become the unlikeliest of friends.

The themes in the story explore friendship, differences, relationships and trust, which becomes more interesting when your life may be in danger at any point. As the characters get to know each other and decide whether their preconceptions were correct or not, we find that many myths about them are blown out the water.

Rinloh (a harpy) has grown up being told about the evils of elves, ogres, trolls and fairies…but is what she has been told the real story?

Despite their differences and preconceptions of each other, each of the different species brings their own skills and knowledge to the group, and this makes them stronger.

In amongst the adventure and peril, there are some side stories. As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know, I have a soft spot for herons so was particularly invested in the small part involving the pet heron one of the conclave visitors had brought with them. It was concerning when it got caught up in one of the attempts on Darin’s life.

My “adopted” local heron, Harold

My favourite character in this story was Maurice, the griffin (definitely not a flying cat). He turned out to be the fount of knowledge where the ruined city was concerned, whilst remaining aloof/grumpy and uncompromising, although could be persuaded to go against his better judgement for a pampering brush.

I also loved the author’s nod to one of my favourite films in some of Darin’s sarcastic responses … inconceivable.

Thank you to D.H. Willison ( @dhwillison ) and @The_WriteReads for an advance copy of this book for the purposes of this review/blog tour.

Pax and the Missing Head by David Barker

On By @f33lthesunIn #Dystopian, #SciFi, Upper KS2+1 Comment

Blurb

In a country beset by civil war, New London defends itself behind a giant wall. Inside the city, children are forced to work from am early age, except for the lucky few who train to be leaders in the re-purposed Palace of Westminster. 12-year-old orphaned Pax is brilliant at recycling old tech. He enjoys working on the verti-farms and just wants a bit of peace and quiet. But when that is taken away from him, his only hope is to pass a near impossible exam and join the other students in Scholastic Parliament. There he’ll make new friends and new enemies. He’ll get tested like never before. And he’ll discover that not everything is quite what it seems under the mayor’s harsh leadership.

Review

David Barker has created a dystopian future of walled cities where the young, poor live, either working or, for a select few who pass an exam, being educated to be future leaders. Outside those walls are the Countryside Alliance, where all the rich, older residents live. The two groups are at war and will stop at nothing to win.

Pax is a seedling, created as a worker, so has no parents. Alderman, the AI overseer, spots his intelligence and potential, especially in engineering and encourages him to apply for the school exam. Pax has no family to ground him or build up his self belief which means he constantly questions his own abilities.

How will he get on when a powerful someone does not want him to pass? If he does pass, will he make friends and fulfil his dream of becoming an engineer who fixes things to make life easier for others?

There are themes of friendship, bullying, war, dictatorship and doing the right thing.

I really enjoyed this book. There are a few red herrings, a couple of which I fell for, unusually for me, and there was the right amount of tension building. I liked the way Pax went about problem solving, using his skills in building robotic creatures from tech scraps to help him and his friends.

This is David Barker’s first MG book, although he has written for adults previously, and I look forward to his next one.

Thank you to @TinyTreeBooks and @The_WriteReads for the ARC.