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Blog Tour Review - Perception Check by Astrid Knight

 Blog Tour Review - Perception Check by Astrid Knight Her favorite tabletop roleplaying game is real, and her kidnapped childhood best friend is trapped in a far off land. Will she be able to save her? Let's roll initiative! Violet Spence wants nothing more than to have a normal life. After witnessing her childhood best friend get abducted by monsters, that’s easier said than done. At twenty-three years old, Violet cannot seem to move past that fateful night ten years ago. Her only solace is Mages of Velmyra, a tabletop roleplaying game filled with goblins, fairies, and all-powerful magicians. But of course, that’s all fantasy. Or, so she thought. As it turns out, the land of Velmyra is very real and the home of the monsters that took her best friend. With the help of her friends (and the creator of the game itself), Violet must navigate the once-fictional creatures and powerful mages of Velmyra to retrieve a set of ancient relics—all in the hopes that the journey will lead her bac
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Review - Hetty and the Battle of the Books by Anna James

Review - Hetty and the Battle of the Books by Anna James 


The library is Hetty’s very favourite place in school, and since falling out with her best friends Ali, Mei and Rocket she’s been spending even more time there. So she’s absolutely horrified when she learns that her head teacher is planning to close it down, claiming there aren’t enough funds to keep the library going.

There’s no way Hetty’s going to sit back and let this happen. But can she repair her broken friendships and build support for her library campaign?

Let the Battle of the Books commence!

Hetty and the Battle of the Books by is a lovely little story about the importance of school libraries, falling out with your best friends by not talking to them and Dungeons and Dragons. I really enjoyed it!

For a relatively short book, so much of this had an impact on me while I was reading it. My daughter helps out in her school library, so I know how important that space is to her and the impact it would have on her school and social life if it was taken away from her.

As a keen Dungeons and Dragons player I really loved how it was handled in this book. Not only was it one of the many activities depending upon the library space, but it was also a memory of a group of friends before things had gone wrong with their friendship, and used as an example of how to approach a problem by working together and having people use their own strengths in harmony. There was a lot of complexity to it, but presented in a really fun and accessible manner, as befits a Barrington Stoke book.

The friendship breakdown was beautifully handled too. It really captured that feeling of being betrayed by the people you are closest to, and the hurt and anger it causes, especially when you keep seeing them around. It can be such a powerful and difficult thing, and I thought it came across really well here.

I also loved spotting little cameos hidden in the book. I'm pretty sure I recognised at least two of the teachers' names, and the author herself.

All in all, a fantastic little story about stories, friendship and the importance of libraries.


🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕


Hetty and the Battle of the Books by Anna James is out on 7th July 2022, published by Barrington Stoke.

I was given a review copy via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

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