Skip to main content

Featured

July Doughnut Review (part one?)

 July Doughnut Review (part one?) After excitedly browsing the new menu online, 🐰 and I headed down to Proven Goods in Hoult's Yard last Friday hoping to try the Hazelnut 'Bueno' glaze doughnut. We got there fairly early but there was a reasonable queue. As we joined it, a new tray of the hazelnut Buenos glaze doughnuts was put in the window, but it was clearly a popular choice and they began disappearing immediately. We were starting to make back up choices just in case, as doughnut after doughnut disappeared before our eyes! Luckily, by the time we got to the counter there were just two left, and they were ours! First thing, they've introduced new doughnut trays that are a fantastic addition. The boxes are grand if you're getting a lot of doughnuts but putting one of these in a paper bag would have ruined it. The trays work perfectly. The Hazelnut 'Bueno' Glaze is definitely the messiest doughnut I've had from Proven Goods. The glaze is soft and stick...
Post a Comment
Read more
Labels

Review - The Castle of Tangled Magic by Sophie Anderson

The Castle of Tangled Magic by Sophie Anderson

Magic awaits, all you have to do is believe... When thirteen-year-old Olia steps through a magical doorway, she discovers another land. A land tangled by magic, where hope is lost, and a scheming wizard holds all the power. Soon Olia learns that she is destined to save this land, but with time running out and her new friends and family in danger, she must search for the magic within herself - to save everything and everyone she loves.



 

With The Castle of Tangled Magic, Sophie Anderson has woven Russian folklore together with modern fantasy and a lovely family and created something special and unique. 

It is a superb story about magic, family, bravery and home, and I absolutely adored it.

Unlike Sophie's first two novels, this one is a "portal" story, where Olia, who already lives in a wondrous and probably magical castle, travels through a portal with a household spirit into a land of pure magic. A land where everything is starting to fall apart, where she needs to find allies and find her way and find a solution before everything unravels completely. There's such an overwhelming sense of peril, that kept me absolutely gripped. The fairy tale creatures she meets are fascinating too, drawn from a Russian folklore that I'm really not familiar with, to give the whole thing a sense of being different and intriguing. And as with all the best fairy tales, things are never quite what they first seem. 

It's a story about family too, and the depiction of Olia's family is really nicely done. Unlike some other portal stories, I always felt that she had something to succeed for and someone to go home too, and that increased the tension. She never had the chance to just wander around and explore the land she found herself in because of her family and home calling her back.

It's another magical story from a magical writer at the top of her game.

A definite five moon read!

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕


The Castle of Tangled Magic is out now, from Usborne. I was given an eproof in return for an honest review.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts