The Moon Wants To Be Spotless White by Priya Narayanan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This charming children’s tale, from the talented Priya Narayanan, has equally charming illustrations throughout the book. The story of Mitu and her attempts to assist the Moon to clean away his dirty patches reveals to its readers, both young and older, how important friends can be when compared to personal trivial vanities like a “perfect” appearance. At the same time it is full of intriguing new words and interesting behaviour that may reflect some of the cultural differences between India and other countries. Curious myths and traditions are hinted at without too much moralising, while children of primary school age can learn much from the entertaining and often amusing story. I know of at least two children close to me who will read this book with pleasure. I was given a copy of the book in return for an honest review.

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Overlook by Elizabeth Hein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised to find that I enjoyed reading this novel about a cosy, upper middle-class, suburban community in North Carolina of the US; together with all of the accompanying gossip, rumour-mongering, competitive cake-making and minor disputes involving children that achieved or failed through sport or academia. The opening few lines were both shocking and compelling, considering the setting and general context of the story as I described previously but, when I thought of past storylines like Peyton Place etc, then I grew to look forward to more incident and neighbourly intrigue. Kitty, the main character, seems to go along with things in order to maintain a reasonably quiet, if at times tedious, domestic life – notwithstanding her duties within the PTA, attending fund-raising events and acting as taxi driver and supporter for her children’s sporting activities. Meanwhile Seth, her spouse, seems to breeze in and out of the family’s life, due to his money-making ability selling golf equipment. When she discovers her husband’s various extra-marital affairs are about to seriously impact upon her own health and probable social standing within the local community, then her bitter and growing resentment looks like it needs to explode.

This is a community that is tightly controlled by Stacia, Kitty’s friend and arch spinner of schemes – schemes that will not allow scandal to spoil the efficient cosiness and smoothly running affairs that appear on the surface of Overlook-land. Elizabeth Hein has written a wonderful tale full of believable characters with real conversations and situations I found just as frustratingly compelling as the book’s beginning. I thought the relationship between Kitty and her sister, Rose, very realistic, combining love, loyalty and sibling rivalry to a beautifully accurate degree! Even though I kept telling myself that this was “not my kind of book” I had to know what happened to Kitty and Seth. When I read to the end and found out I was just as shocked as at the start, although I found the actual incident slightly incredible. As a British reader I found far too many references to various products by their brand names rather than a familiar generic term, making the book feel like a TV-soap with too much product placement. This is a novel to be enjoyed by those that like to read family mini-sagas with a definite edge. I was given a copy of the book in return for an honest review.


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Plagued, with Guilt by Michael Jason Brandt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel is slow to start and the story begins with a group of students entering a cave. Many of the characters at this point in the story disappear and the reader is left wondering whether they would reappear – they don’t. There were pages and pages of medical and historical information that often seemed to have very little relevance to the rest of the chapter. Although the author did occasionally attempt to link this information to the general plotline it felt too much like padding to me. I even found much of the information interesting enough to read but the book could have lost most of it as it slowed things down too much and parts of it did drag sometimes. It may have been better to have the characters introduce bits of this medicine or history through their conversations but 80 to 90% could be lost without affecting the tale that Brandt wished to tell. And that tale was both intriguing and exciting once the archaeological dig in Iraq gets going. That is not to say that the back story for each character is un-interesting because I found each of them likeable and real, particularly Halfus, Rich and Wendy.

There is suspense and surprise aplenty, with the required twists and turns in a story involving a dangerous virus, in the second half of the book. This could almost have redeemed the novel for me when weighed against the “info-dumped” sections had it not been for too many errors that jumped out at me. At one point the author states that “the deadliest pandemic of today is HIV/AIDS…” but then contradicts this with “terrible as HIV/AIDS is, however, it is not the deadliest pandemic of the modern era…” in the next paragraph! There is a section later when Wendy finds her mother’s curtains closed to be surprising, when on a previous page she finds those same curtains open or closed to be predictive of her mother’s mood. Maybe it was the way it was written but it came across as another contradiction. And there were “gender changes”, often within the same sentence, that should have been edited out. Truman, Wendy’s mother’s cat, was referred to as he, she, him, her and he again all within the same paragraph. Later Wendy states “…my father always blamed herself for…” which was so obvious.

For me such errors almost undo the generally well-written qualities an author strives to achieve in their literary creation and, fortunately, I still ended up liking Plagued With Guilt. It is an exciting, informative, even portentous, book but with the breathless thriller element somewhat diminished. I was given a copy of the book in return for an honest and objective review.


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The Golden Owl by Lana Axe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is definitely a story that will appeal to children and cat-lovers everywhere. The author has gathered together a most interesting collection of ingredients designed to serve up an adventure story that will satisfy the reading appetites of both groups. We have an intelligent cat, Cali, who is owned by a friendly old inventor, Lionel, who has added various implants, gadgets of his own design, to further enhance the many skills and abilities inherent in cats – jumping, stealth, keen vision etc. Then there is an evil villain who hates Lionel and is planning to commit a crime using nasty metal spiders.

Emmit is Cali’s unlikely buddy - very unlikely - and you must read the book to find out why. No spoilers here! And then there is the race against time with Cali and his buddy attempting to thwart the arch-villain’s wicked plans by fighting and outwitting his many mechanical minions, while risking danger and injury to themselves. The Golden Owl is a very well-written story for children in the 9 to 13 age group and deserves to do well. It is full of fast action, humour and excitement – just the thing for youngsters who like cats and have a vivid imagination. I was given a copy of the book in return for an honest and objective review.


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Jessica Lost Her Wobble by J. Schlenker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book slowly drew me in more and more as my curiosity about Jessica grew, and her various life situations became revealed by the well-written prose from J. Schlenker. It is a book full of memories, romance, recriminations and hope. Jessica’s life throughout most of the book is focussed upon her attempts to come to terms with personal tragedies and disappointment by moving to live on an island. It is an island with a friendly community atmosphere that holds fond remembrances for Jessica about times spent there with her children when they were small. She is surprised to find herself making friends with Amy, a young woman of a similar age to her daughter, and to whom Jessica begins to open up tales of hidden pain and joy from her past. There is much more to Jessica Lost Her Wobble than this but I am loathe to reveal too much and spoil the intriguing plot. Suffice it to say that there are several interesting twists to the tale but, after what appeared to be a rather mundane end to the story, this reader was presented with such a surprising twist in the epilogue that I had to read that part again!

This meant that, despite finding much of the very detailed information rather too much and tedious at times, I was glad I persisted and read Ms Schlenker’s book to the end. It completely changed the perspective that I thought I had about the story and left me thinking about it for a while afterwards. Surely, this is one of the signs that indicate a tale well-told.

The characters are well-drawn but I found it difficult to sympathise with any of them; the dialogue was generally believable and I found myself wishing that there was more of the story told through the characters’ conversations rather than in the narrative. When events moved from the USA to England, or from the island to the mainland, I would have liked to learn more about actual place names. This is a novel that will appeal to anyone who likes to read about family sagas with plenty of typical events, surprising incidents, inner secrets and unusual outcomes – plus a shocking end.
I was given a copy of the book in return for an honest and objective review.


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