Category: Reviews

Book Review: The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop

On By cherylmahoneyIn Juvenile, Reviews2 Comments

The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop by Kate Saunders is a middle grade novel about magical chocolate—but it reminded me more of cotton candy, light and fluffy and insubstantial,

When Oz and Lily, eleven-year-old twins, and their family move into an abandoned chocolate factory, Lily is delighted to meet Demerara, a magical cat. Demerara tells them about the history of the chocolate factory, founded by three brothers who combined chocolate and magic. One of the brothers, by virtue of an immortality chocolate, is still alive and intent on stealing secrets his brothers left behind, to sell to a terrorist group. Demerara also happens to be a secret agent for the MI6, the British secret service, and needs Oz, Lily and their neighbor Caydon to use their latent magical ability to help on a secret mission.

This really is a cotton candy book, fun and entertaining with no real substance or depth. I don’t think it would have wide appeal for adults, but I can easily imagine middle grade readers loving it. Continue reading “Book Review: The Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop” →

Movie Review: Sleeping with the Enemy

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews2 Comments

Sleeping with the EnemyI have a regular movie night with some friends, and have encountered a lot wonderful movies that way. The most recent is Sleeping with the Enemy, an excellent but intense 1991 movie starring Julia Roberts.

Roberts plays Laura, a young woman trapped in an abusive marriage. She manages to escape and begin a new life—but it becomes quickly apparent that her husband Martin (Patrick Burgen) is on her trail.

Short plot summary, because I don’t want to give too much away! But also because it really is a simple plot, though a powerful one. This movie reminds me very much of Hitchcock, in that much of it is ordinary life…but with a deeply dangerous undertone. There’s brief violence and brief sex that are more overt than you’d be likely to see in Hitchcock, but the overall feel of the movie is very Hitchcockian. Continue reading “Movie Review: Sleeping with the Enemy” →

Book Review: Peril at End House by Agatha Christie

On By cherylmahoneyIn Historical Fiction, Reviews2 Comments

I seem to have fallen into a habit of listening to British audiobooks (it’s the accent, I admit it!) and my most recent was no exception: Peril at End House by Agatha Christie, which besides giving me a nice accent to listen to, played into my general goal to “read” more of Dame Agatha.

This is a Hercule Poirot mystery, narrated by his friend Captain Hastings. The two encounter Miss Nick Barkley, owner of End House and recent survivor of several strange accidents. Poirot puts the pieces together, convinces Nick that someone is trying to kill her, and sets to work to prevent the murder, investigating all the people around Nick.

This is, I think, Christie in the classical style, with a big cast of suspects, frequent misdirection and re-direction, a final confrontation scene bringing all the suspects together and, of course, a final twist that I must admit I didn’t see coming. I’m going to have to try this one again one day, and watch how the clues fit together now that I know the ending! Continue reading “Book Review: Peril at End House by Agatha Christie” →

Book Review: Blackfin Sky

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young AdultLeave a comment

I didn’t plan to do a “dead heroine returned to life” theme this week…but I seem to have stumbled into one! Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis begins with just that premise.

Sky Rousseau hurries in late one morning to her high school, to be greeted by staring faces and the news that she died three months earlier. Sky remembers the last three months as perfectly ordinary—but her family, friends, the cute boy she’s been flirting with, and everyone else in town remembers that she drowned at Blackfin pier the night of her sixteenth birthday. Blackfin, a tiny secluded town, has never been quite normal, and now Sky has to unravel some of Blackfin’s and her family’s secrets to find out what happened, and how to defeat the danger still threatening her.

I’m debating how much I should reveal of this story—because I thought the novel got much better once a few of the mysteries were cleared up. To hit a middle ground, suffice to say that Sky discovers she has special abilities, and using them leads her to answers and gives her power to fight the villain those answers reveal. Continue reading “Book Review: Blackfin Sky” →

Book Review: The Castle Behind Thorns

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews4 Comments

I enjoyed The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell, which seemed like a good reason to explore what else she’s written—which brought me to The Castle Behind Thorns. Not as close a fairy tale retelling as I had hoped, but still an engaging fantasy.

The Sundered Castle has stood abandoned and surrounded by a wall of thorns for thirty years, and Sand (Alexandre) has never given it much thought. No one in the village ever has. But one day Sand awakes to find himself inside the castle, inside the thorns, with no way to get out and evidence all around of a bigger mystery than the local story can explain. The earthquake that supposedly damaged the castle can’t account for shredded pillows or anvils wrenched in half. Using his wits and his blacksmith skills, Sand begins repairing items he needs—and some of the repairs work strangely, perhaps magically, well. Most significantly, Sand replaces a fallen corpse on its shelf in the crypt; a few days later, Perrotte emerges, restored to life and anxious to learn what became of her family and her castle. Continue reading “Book Review: The Castle Behind Thorns” →