I am over the moon to be part of the Fire Lines by Cara Thurlbourn, a fab new YA Fantasy, blog tour today with a fab guest post from the lady herself!
Fire Lines was released on the 26th September published by Bewick Press and looks absolutely fab!
So for my stop on the blog tour Cara is sharing her top 10 YA Books…..
When your blood line awakens, how do you choose between family and freedom?
Émi’s father used to weave beautiful tales of life beyond the wall, but she never knew if they were true. Now, her father is gone and Émi has been banished to the Red Quarter, where she toils to support herself and her mother – obeying the rules, hiding secrets and suffering the cruelties of the council’s ruthless Cadets.
But when Émi turns seventeen, sparks fly – literally. Her blood line surges into life and she realises she has a talent for magick… a talent that could get her killed.
Émi makes her escape, beyond the wall and away from everything she’s ever known. In a world of watchers, elephant riders and sorcery, she must discover the truth about who she really is. But can the new Émi live up to her destiny?
Top 10 YA Books
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
One of my most recent reads, recommended by my sister and devoured in a day. Totally unputdownable with a huge twist that I didn’t see coming (and I’m usually great at spotting twists!)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I’m a sucker for an interesting narrator and The Book Thief certainly has that! I also love that against the very serious backdrop of The Second World War, Zusak celebrates books, words and freedom of expression.
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
I was given a copy of this book as a gift when I was perhaps thirteen or fourteen and that infamous first line “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink”, probably sums up all of my dreamy notions of being a writer.
Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
Another relatively recent read of mine, I love the way Sara Barnard tackles the themes of friendship and mental health. It was also really refreshing to read something where the main focus was on the intricacies female friendship and not a romance.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Just adorable. Eleanor reminded me so much of me that it was almost painful at times. Probably my favourite read of the year.
Rebel of The Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
A fierce heroine and a blend of the wild west and fantasy, what’s not to love?! It also gives me severe cover envy with its sparkliness.
My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher
It’s quite a few years since I read this book but it still sticks with me as one of those ones that grabs you and doesn’t let go. I love the narrative and the way Annabel Pitcher cocoons her story in themes that are, sadly, very relevant today.
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
I listened to this on audio on my commute to work and often had to delay getting out of the car because it was just too good! So atmospheric and full of mystery and intrigue.
The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
I love everything about this book, from the story itself to the physicality of it. The cover is stunning, the artwork on the pages is to die for and I can’t wait to get started on her latest The Island at the End of Everything.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Still mid-read but I can tell this will be one of my stand out books of the year. Another recommendation/lend from my sister and she’s rarely wrong with her tastes!
Cara Thurlbourn writes children’s and young adult fiction. ‘Fire Lines’ is her first novel and it’s a story she’s been planning since she was fifteen years old.
Cara has a degree in English from the University of Nottingham and an MA in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University.
She lives in a tiny village in Suffolk and has worked in academic and educational publishing for nearly ten years. Cara blogs about her author journey and in November 2016 she crowdfunded her first children’s book. 10% of its profits are donated to animal rehoming charities.
Cara plans to write at least two more books in the Fire Lines series, as well as a young adult mystery series, and has lots more children’s stories waiting in the wings.
You can sign up for Cara’s newsletter, for giveaways, updates and latest releases, here: www.firelines.co.uk
You can catch up or follow the rest of this fab blog tour at the following stops!
A huge big thank you to Faye Rogers for asking me to host this fab piece and to Cara for writing it.
Have you read Fire Lines? Did you enjoy? What did you love about it? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of the post or tweet me on twitter using @ChelleyToy !
Today I have a guest post from the wonderful Mark Illis with a fab guest post!
The Impossible, illustrated by Bimpe Alliu, was released on the 27th July published by Quercus and is “a comic-book inspired adventure with a graphic novel twist” that is not to be missed!
Today Mark chats about writing for teenagers and writing his first teenage novel, The Impossible in this fab guest post….
When Hector Coleman and his mates genetically mutate overnight, his life changes in impossible ways.
A comic-book inspired adventure with a graphic novel twist for fans of Joe Cowley, Joe Sugg and Charlie Higson.
Hector Coleman. Just your average angst-ridden teenager, living a normal rubbish life in a normal rubbish town with, let’s face it, a rubbish name. Until his mates start genetically mutating … and everything changes. Apart from his name. And his girl trouble. And his embarrassingly low number of Twitter followers. All those things, unfortunately, stay the same. For now …
Teenage Nightmares
Why does a 54 year old man want to write for teenagers? Because his inner teenager is alive and well, slouching on a bean-bag behind a closed door, smelling of stale sweat, in a bad mood about something, with his head in a book. He used to read The Famous Five, then The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Lord of the Rings, then he moved on to The Wizard of Earthsea,Lord of the Flies, To Kill A Mocking Bird and The Catcher in the Rye. That’s a pretty good reading list and I’d recommend it to anyone. It nourished my imagination, played a big part in turning me into whoever (whatever) I am today, but everything’s changed since then. The range of YA fiction has exploded over the last ten years or so, at roughly the rate of a zombie apocalypse.
One of my children is on her way out of teenager-dom, the other is on his way in, so I’ve read a lot of it in recent years, and I’ve discovered a fantastic new world, one which gives me a thrill of excitement and also a sharp slap of recognition. Somewhere along the way, my inner teenager stirred, lifted his head out of his book, blinked and said ‘Wait, what?’ (Because that’s what teenagers say these days.)
So of course, YA and teen fiction was a pool I wanted to dive into. I wanted to write for my children, I wanted to write for my slouchy, smelly teenage self, and I wanted to explore the preoccupations that have never left me. As an adult I read graphic novels, watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Marvel movies, and read novels like Station 11 and The Underground Railroad, both of which play interesting games with reality. All those influences feed into my writing for teenagers.
Since I crawled out of that bean-bag about 35 years ago, I’ve written four novels and a book of connected short stories, all broadly in the genre of literary fiction. That means that I had most of the tools I needed to write YA, because writing for teenagers requires exactly the same attention to character and language as writing for adults, but I also felt liberated, felt able to introduce a fantasy, science-fiction element. Mutations, aliens!
Writing my first teenage novel, The Impossible, was similar to writing a novel for adults, because it was a precarious journey into invented lives, an attempt to find the unique texture of those lives, to summon up something authentic, to imagine an experience that was never actually experienced. But writing The Impossible also surprised me in two ways.
First, I discovered that I like my teenage characters more than most of my adult ones. I like the challenge of trying to find teenage voices without seeming cringey or weird. I like their enthusiasm and their ennui, their humour and their seriousness (often at the same time), that unguarded, jagged quality which makes them vulnerable. The life buzzing and flickering like electricity in their dialogue.
And secondly, I discovered that writing for teenagers feels at least as personal as writing an adult, literary novel. The Impossible is about teenagers coping with change colliding with their lives. To return to that first question – why am I, a 54 year old bloke, writing about that? Because change collided with my life when I was a teenager. The sort of change that you have to integrate into your life and find a way to use, because the only alternative is to be crushed by it. That’s what I wanted to explore, extrapolate from and – kind of – celebrate.
The garish, weird monsters are metaphors. It’s what makes them effective and familiar and even, in a sense, plausible.
You can buy a copy of The Impossible here or from your local bookshop
About Mark Illis
Mark was born in London in 1963. He bought comics, watched Star Trek, went to see The Clash and loved reading and writing. He had some short stories published at university, and went on to do an MA in Creative Writing at UEA, where Malcolm Bradbury and Angela Carter were his tutors. That was a good year.
In his twenties Mark had three novels published by Bloomsbury, A CHINESE SUMMER, THE ALCHEMIST and THE FEATHER REPORT. He was also teaching English GCSE part-time, doing research for a charity called Shape, and then working as a Literature Development Worker, ‘raising the profile of literature in Berkshire.’ Exciting times. In 1992 Mark moved to West Yorkshire to be a Centre Director for the Arvon Foundation, after which he started writing for TV and radio. He has written three radio plays and has written for EastEnders, The Bill and Peak Practice. He wrote for Emmerdale for over a decade. He also wrote the award-winning screenplay for Before Dawn, a relationship drama with zombies.
Mark has taught writing in schools, libraries, universities, Reading Prison and Broadmoor Secure Hospital, and has run workshops in Hong Kong and Norway. He has taught more than 30 Arvon courses, has given readings at festivals from Brighton to Edinburgh, Cheltenham to King’s Lynn, and has reviewed for The Times Literary Supplement, The Spectator and Radio 4’s Kaleidoscope. He has recently been working for the charity First Story and for the Royal Literary Fund. He’s married with two children and a kitten and is still living in West Yorkshire.
His fourth book, TENDER, was published in 2009, and his fifth, THE LAST WORD, (shortlisted for The Portico Prize) in 2011, both by Salt.
In July 2017, his first Young Adult novel, THE IMPOSSIBLE, winner of a Northern Writers’ Award in 2015, will be published by Quercus. When teenagers in Gilpin start suffering from strange mutations, someone needs to find out what’s going on. Enter Hector, who’s suffering maybe the strangest mutation of all.
A huge big thank you to Emily at Quercus for asking me to host this fab piece and to Mark for writing it.
Have you read The Impossible? Did you enjoy? What did you love about it? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of the post or tweet me on twitter using @ChelleyToy !
Today, 7th September 2017, is the publication day of the wonderful Things A Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls and I am over the moon to be kicking of the blog tour for this amazing book with the opening chapter of the book!
Things A Bright Girl Can Do tells the story of three girls, Evelyn, May and Nell, caught up in the Suffragette movement and has had rave reviews already!
So sit back, relax and read this extract from the opening chapter…
Through rallies and marches, in polite drawing rooms and freezing prison cells and the poverty-stricken slums of the East End, three courageous young women join the fight for the vote.
Evelyn is seventeen, and though she is rich and clever, she may never be allowed to follow her older brother to university. Enraged that she is expected to marry her childhood sweetheart rather than be educated, she joins the Suffragettes, and vows to pay the ultimate price for women’s freedom.
May is fifteen, and already sworn to the cause, though she and her fellow Suffragists refuse violence. When she meets Nell, a girl who’s grown up in hardship, she sees a kindred spirit. Together and in love, the two girls start to dream of a world where all kinds of women have their place.
But the fight for freedom will challenge Evelyn, May and Nell more than they ever could believe. As war looms, just how much are they willing to sacrifice?
Extract
You can buy a copy of Things A Bright Girl Can Do here or from your local bookshop!
You can find a previous Q&A with Sally on Tales here
About Sally Nicholls
I was born in Stockton-on-Tees, just after midnight, in a thunderstorm. My father died when I was two, and my brother Ian and I were brought up my mother. I always wanted to write – when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I used to say “I’m going to be a writer” – very definite.
I live in a small house in Oxford with my husband and little boy.
You can follow the rest of this fab blog tour at the following stops!
#ThingsABrightGirlCanDo
A huge big thank you to Harriet at Andersen for asking me to be part of and kick off this fab blog tour and to Sally for such a fab book!
Have you read Things A Bright Girl Can Do? Did you enjoy? What do you love about historical fiction? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of the post or tweet me on twitter using @ChelleyToy !
I am super excited to have been asked to be part of the blog tour for the awesome Editing Emma by the even more awesome Chloe Seager!
Editing Emma was released on the 10th August published by the lovelies at HQ and I have already heard such wonderful things that I cannot wait to jump right in!
So today I wanted to shine the spotlight on this wonderful book and tell you a little but more about it…..
‘According to Netflix, this is NOT how my teenage life is supposed to look.’
When Emma Nash is ghosted by love of her life Leon Naylor, she does what any girl would do – spends the summer avoiding all human contact, surrounded by the Chewit wrappers he left behind.
Seeing Leon suddenly ‘in a relationship’ on Facebook, however, spurs Emma into action. She vows to use the internet for good (instead of stalking Leon’s social media),chronicling her adventures on her new Editing Emma blog.
But life online doesn’t always run smoothly.
From finding her mum’s Tinder profile, to getting catfished and accidentally telling the entire world why Leon Naylor is worth no girl’s virginity… Surely nothing else could go wrong?!
You can buy a copy of Editing Emma here or from your local bookshop!
About Chloe Seager
Chloe Seager grew up in East London with her Mum and much-loved cat, Katie. She studied English Literature and Drama at the University of East Anglia, where she sadly realised she couldn’t act, but did rediscover her love of children’s books.
Children’s Literature was one of her favourite modules, and it made her wonder why grown-ups ever stopped reading them. She now works with YA and kids’ books full-time. Chloe lives back in East London with her boyfriend and pet fish.
You can catch up on the rest of this fab blog tour at the following stops!
A huge thank you to HQ and Chloe for asking me to be part of this fab blog tour!
Have you read Editing Emma? What did you think? Did it make you laugh? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this review or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy!
I am super excited to have the super funny Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison on the blog today to celebrate the release of their new book Freshers.
Freshers was published 3rd August by the lovelies at Chicken House and it set to make you laugh your little socks off!
So today Tom and Lucy are taking another trip down memory lane and telling us where their writing partnership began…..
Uni beckons. Phoebe can’t wait to be a fresher – especially since her crush from school will be there too. She’ll be totally different at Uni: cooler, prettier, smarter … the perfect potential girlfriend. She’ll reinvent herself completely. But Luke’s oblivious, still reeling from the fallout of the break-up with his ex. Thrown head first into a world of new friends, parties and social media disasters – can Phoebe and Luke survive the year, let alone find each other?
Where It All Started…..
It’s not a strictly a university memory, this one, but we thought we’d share a little memory of the origins of our writing partnership. Because this not-very-impressive-looking piece of pink paper marks the first time that we ever did anything creative together.
It was in the sixth form at school – a play called ‘In The Name Of Love’ which was co-written by Tom, and starred Lucy. It was an absolutely shameless rip-off of a very good comedy play called ‘Noises Off’, and it was about the final episode of a trashy American soap opera. Tom played a slightly insane elderly British actor, and Lucy played a high-pitched, screaming Valley Girl.
We had only met a few months back and were just starting to become mates – but we got together, and started going out, at the after-cast party for this play.
During this, and the other plays we were in together at school, we realised how much fun it was working together, coming up with silly, funny stuff. We both went off to York Uni afterwards and we didn’t really do anything particularly creative during our time there, but we always planned to. And then, after graduating, we started trying to come up with ideas for stuff we could write. We first experimented with writing (half a) sitcom script about a boy and a girl in their early twenties, but it was fairly awful. And then Lucy had the idea to try and write a dual narrative YA book, and now, five years and three books later, here we are! But it was this little scrap of pink paper that started it all… There’s actually a DVD of the play somewhere, although I think it would be too excruciatingly embarrassing (for us) to ever watch…
You can buy a copy of Freshers here or from your local bookshop!
You can see a previous post about Tom & Lucy’s favourite funny books here
About Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison
Lucy Ivison, lives in London and is a school librarian who runs an online teen magazine, Whatever After, as well as teaching in girls’ schools across London specialising in building confidence and creativity.
Tom, currently living in Paris, is a journalist and has written for ShortList, Time Out, Vice, talkSPORT, ESPN and Viz.
You can catch up or follow the rest of this fab blog tour at the following stops!
Another huge thank you to Tom & Lucy for a brilliant guest post!
Also a huge thank you to Nina Douglas and Chicken House for asking me to feature this and for sending me the book for review!
Have you read Freshers? What were your thoughts? Are you intrigued to read this book after reading this post? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment by using the reply button at the top of the page or tweet me on twitter using @ChelleyToy
I am over the moon to have been asked by the lovely Nina Douglas to reveal the gorgeous cover for The Last Days Of Archie Maxwell by the brilliant Annabel Pitcher.
Annabel is the International Award Winning Author of My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece, Ketchup Clouds and Silence Is Goldfish and this time she has teamed up with the lovelies at Barrington Stoke to bring us The Last Days Of Archie Maxwell.
I am super excited to read this and of course reveal this truly stunning cover! I also have a little gorgeous intro from the lady herself, Annabel…..
The Blurb
The Last Days Of Archie Maxwell
Dads leave home all the time. It’s not that unusual, really. Leon’s dad walked out. So did Mo’s. But Archie’s? Well, that’s a different story – a story that Archie must keep secret at all cost. Archie knows he should accept Dad for who he is, so he hides his turmoil until he can stand it no longer. With nowhere else to turn, he finds himself at the railway track. The track has been calling to him, promising escape, release. The only problem is, it’s been calling to someone else too…
Particularly suitable for struggling, reluctant and dyslexic readers aged 13+
About Annabel Pitcher
I was born in a small village in West Yorkshire where there were more sheep than people. No traffic, one shop, two pubs and lots of fields to play in – perfect. I love the country and, though I’ve enjoyed living in cities, I am definitely happiest in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hills.
Or why not follow Annabel on twitter – @APitcherAuthor
Cover Reveal
And now the moment you have all been waiting for, but first lets hand you over to Annabel…..
IT’S HERE AT LAST!
I am SO thrilled to share with you the gorgeous, moody cover of my latest novel, The Last Days of Archie Maxwell. This book wrote itself. Well, it didn’t, in that I spent a huge amount of time at my desk, typing away, but the words came very easily (which isn’t always the case!). The idea popped into my head one rainy day in West Yorkshire as I was walking my dog by a railway track. Our path took us across the track itself. It wasn’t fenced off. There wasn’t even a sign telling us to be careful. The track was just…. there. Easily accessible. It ran directly past the gardens of a row of terraces, visible from their kitchens and bedrooms. As I stood on the track, staring down it, a train appeared in the distance. No alarm sounded to tell me to be careful. A guard didn’t appear to shove me off the track. There was just me and the train, the train and me. I stood for a few seconds longer than I should have done, and at that point, the idea for the story came to me. I can’t wait to share it with you.
Annabel
Isn’t it gorgeous!!!
You can buy a copy of The Last Days Of Archie Maxwell here
(Please note that this book is not due for release until 15th November 2017)
A huge thank you to Annabel for the wonderful intro and insight into her new book and to Nina Douglas for asking me to feature this fab cover reveal!
What do you think of the cover for The Last Days Of Archie Maxwell? Are you intrigued? Have you read any of Annabel’s other books? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this post or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy !
Welcome to the British Books Challenge 2017 – July!
#BritishBooksChallenge17
So July has crept up way too fast! Halfway through 2017 already?! Say what now?!
And again so many amazing reviews linked up for the June British Books Challenge! You all did SO amazing! I’m so glad to see you are all enjoying the challenge so much! I heart you all very much!
Also a little apology from me for getting this linky up so late again – I honestly do not know where the time is going?!
66 reviews of books by British Authors were linked up in June!
That makes a grand total of 523 reviews of books by British Authors in total since we all started in January!
*hi five*
And thank you so much for embracing our author and debut of the month for June as well as all of the other amazing books you all read!
Thank you all!
Lets pull out or sun chair and jump to July!
About The British Books Challenge
The British Books Challenge is a reading challenge that will be running here on Tales Of Yesterday between 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017 and the main focus of the challenge is reading and reviewing books by British authors.
I have created a #BritishBooksChallenge17 summary page here which will also keep track of my own progress in the challenge too.
If you have not signed up yet there’s still plenty of time – find out more about the challenge here
Please note you can sign up to the challenge at any time throughout the year but only sign up entries made on or before the 31st December 2016 will be entered to win the sign up prize.
This is the first time I am hosting this particular challenge and I have lots of things planned for us all!
I have been in touch with lots of publishers who have kindly donated lots of lovely prize packs for us throughout the year for the challenge!
Right lets get the ball for June rolling starting with the winner of the June Prize Pack!
With thanks to the lovely people at Walker Books for June’s brilliant bumper prize pack contained the following five books…..
All valid reviews and links by British Authors that were linked up on the June linky here were eligible to be entered to win the June prize pack. With people who read any books by our Author Of The Month, Non Pratt and/or our Debut of the month, Being Miss Nobody by Tamsin Winter, earning extra entries.
Please email me your address so that I can arrange for your prize to be sent out to you!
I hope everyone also enjoyed all the extra giveaways and posts I ran on my blog or via twitter over June too 🙂
July’s prize pack has been kindly donated by the lovely people at Gollanczand contains the following 4 books)……
The republic faces annihilation, despite the vigilance of Galharrow’s Blackwings. When a raven tattoo rips itself from his arm to deliver a desperate message, Galharrow and a mysterious noblewoman must investigate a long dead sorcerer’s legacy. But there is a conspiracy within the citadel: traitors, flesh-eaters and the ghosts of the wastelands seek to destroy them, but if they cannot solve the ancient wizard’s paradox, the Deep Kings will walk the earth again, and all will be lost.
The war with the Eastern Empire ended in stalemate some eighty years ago, thanks to Nall’s ‘Engine’, a wizard-crafted weapon so powerful even the Deep Kings feared it. The strike of the Engine created the Misery – a wasteland full of ghosts and corrupted magic that now forms a No Mans Land along the frontier. But when Galharrow investigates a frontier fortress, he discovers complacency bordering on treason: then the walls are stormed, and the Engine fails to launch. Galharrow only escapes because of the preternatural magical power of the noblewoman he was supposed to be protecting. Together, they race to the capital to unmask the traitors and restore the republic’s defences. Far across the Misery a vast army is on the move, as the Empire prepares to call the republic’s bluff.
Blackwing is a gritty epic fantasy for fans of Mark Lawrence, Scott Lynch and Daniel Polansky.
Toby is a boy who has forgotten how to live. Clara is a girl who was born to die.
Toby’s life was perfectly normal . . . Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House. Isolated from the outside world the inhabitants of are watched for any signs of a mysterious illness . . .
Clara was a girl who had everything. Adored by her friends and her family, her life was destined for greatness. Now, Clara is the newest resident of the Death House and she’s determined not to allow her life to end there.
This is Toby and Clara’s story.
Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother. Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.
But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?
Lynx is a mercenary with a sense of honour; a dying breed in the Riven Kingdom. Failed by the nation he served and weary of the skirmishes that plague the continent’s principalities, he walks the land in search of purpose. He wants for little so bodyguard work keeps his belly full and his mage-gun loaded. It might never bring a man fame or wealth, but he’s not forced to rely on others or kill without cause.
Little could compel Lynx to join a mercenary company, but he won’t turn his back on a kidnapped girl. At least the job seems simple enough; the mercenaries less stupid and vicious than most he’s met over the years.
So long as there are no surprises or hidden agendas along the way, it should work out fine.
A huge thank you to Gollancz for donating this super brilliant Prize Pack for July!
I also have a couple of special post from these authors going up throughout June too!
One winner will be picked at random from the list of valid reviews submitted each month and will be announced in the following month’s review link up post. The winner will then have 1 week to contact me to claim their prize or a new winner will be chosen. Obviously the more reviews you enter the greater your chance of winning and don’t forget you gain extra entries for any reviews by Debut or Author of the Month for July! It doesn’t matter if you only review one book (or even skip a month or two in the challenge!) you’ll still be entered for each review you do write.
Please Remember…..
Only participants with a valid sign up page that has been linked here are eligible for entry to the monthly prize packs mentioned on this monthly link up page – you can still sign up here
When you add your link to the Mr. Linky below please make sure you link directly to your review, not just to your blog/vlog (invalid links will be deleted)
Books must have been read and reviewed in 2017 to count towards the challenge so those books you read last year but reviewed in 2017 don’t count! Only books reviewed in June on your blog will count towards the challenge (you could have read them in earlier in the year though – I’m feeling kind 🙂 )
Also, please make sure that the reviews you link are for books written by British Authors – they can be born in Britain (living here or abroad) or they can be adopted British Authors (who were born elsewhere and now live here) but if they don’t fit into one of those categories then they don’t count. (as above invalid links will be deleted and won’t get you an entry into the prize pack). Please note that Britain includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, I’m afraid authors from Southern Ireland don’t count.
Also see the Author Of The Month and Debut Of The Month section for ways to gain extra entries each month!
And lastly feel free to share your reviews on social media using the #BritishBooksChallenge17hashtag – it’s not compulsory but it would be fun to share any great British Books you have loved with others!
Lets get chatting and celebrating all of the brilliant British books and authors that we have and all of the wonderful British books that we are reading!
Always remember – never tweet an author into a negative review and be constructive.
For more information about the #BritishBooksChallenge17 click here
If you are a publisher who publishes books by British authors or British author who would be interesting in promoting their titles through the British Books Challenge giveaways please contact me by email.
And the #BritishBooksChallenge17 Author Of The Month for July is…….
Lisa Heathfield!
Lisa’s beautiful words and stories will captivate you and break you. The are simply gorgeous and I’m so happy that she is our July Author Of The Month!
Not heard of Lisa and her books? I have you covered!
Look out for a Spotlight post in the next few days about Lisa and her brilliant books!
Don’t Forget…..
If you read, review and link up any books by the author of the month (in the same month that they are author of the month only) then that one review will get you an extra entry into the monthly prize pack draw. So a double entry for one review!
If the author has multiple books and you read them all you will gain a double entry for each review of each book.
I also have a special treat lined up too!
Look out for a post with the lady herself going live at some point in June!
#BritishBooksChallenge17
If you are a publisher who publishes books by British authors or British author who would be interesting in promoting their titles through the British Books Challenge author of the month then please contact me by email.
As always there are so many good debuts coming out this month that it was really hard to decide which to pick….
And the #BritishBooksChallenge17 Debut Of The Month for July is…….
No Filter Book by Orlagh Collins
I am so hugely excited about this wonderful YA book and am so happy that it is our Debut Of The Month!
Not heard of No Filter Book by Orlagh Collins? I have you covered!
Look out for a Spotlight post in the next few days about this book!
Don’t Forget…..
If you read, review and link up a review of No Filter Book by Orlagh Collins (in the same month that they are debut of the month only) then that one review will get you an extra entry into the monthly prize pack draw. So a double entry for one review!
I also have some special treats lined up too!
#BritishBooksChallenge17
If you are a publisher who publishes books by British authors or British author who would be interesting in promoting their debut through the British Books Challenge debut of the month then please contact me by email.
As well as the above I have lots of other exciting posts and giveaways going up throughout the month too which I will run through twitter and share using the hashtag so do look out for those too!
#BritishBooksChallenge17
As well as following the hashtag #BritishBooksChallenge17I would also suggest following my blog using your preferred feed subscription (by email by filling in the subscription box at the top of my blog , BlogLovin’ etc) in order to keep up with the latest news and posts regarding this challenge throughout 2017!
Here’s to a wonderful July!
Now for the important part, make sure you link all of your reviews using the Mr. Linky form below. In the Your Name field please include your blog name, the title of the book and the author. Make sure the link takes me directly to your review or your entry won’t count and will be deleted from the list.
Name – Please add your name and blog / YouTube channel e.g Chelley Toy – Tales Of Yesterday
URL – Please add a direct link to your review post here
I am so so excited to have the wonderful and awesome Chris Russell on the blog today to celebrate the release of his second book in his fab Songs About A Girl Trilogy, Songs About Us.
Songs About Us was released on the 13th July 2017 published by Hodder Children’s Books and is set to be a phenomenal read that will set your heart racing!
A modern love story for fans of Zoella – and for anyone who has ever dreamed of being ‘with the band’.
I’ve met Chris a few times now and I know he is in a brilliant band called The Lightyears so when Chris got in touch about a post I jumped straight in and asked him for his top tips on “Being With The Band”…..
A modern love story for fans of Zoella – and for anyone who has ever dreamed of being ‘with the band’.
Two months on from the explosive finale to book one, Charlie’s life is almost back to normal again: rebuilding her relationship with her father, hanging out with best mate Melissa, and worrying about GCSEs. All the while, Gabe’s revelations about her mother are never far from her mind. And neither is Gabe.
It’s not long before Charlie is pulled back into the world of Fire&Lights – but the band seem different this time. But then again, so is she…
Meanwhile, tensions between Gabe and Olly continue to run high, leading to more turmoil between the band members and press than ever before. But when Gabriel and Charlie stumble upon yet another startling truth that links them together – everything they have stands to implode in front of them.
Chris Russell’s Guide To Being “With The Band”
You can buy both Songs About A Girl and Songs About Us here or from your local bookshop!
About Chris Russell
When I was thirteen, my best friend and I went to a Bon Jovi concert at Wembley Stadium. We thought it looked like fun, so we started our own band – a band that, ten years later, would become The Lightyears. Since then, we’ve been lucky enough to tour all over the world, from Cape Town to South Korea, playing at Glastonbury Festival and O2 Arena and supporting members of legendary rock bands such as Queen, Journey and The Who. And though we never made it anywhere near as big as Bon Jovi, we did get to play Wembley Stadium, four times, to crowds of over 45,000 people.
Music aside, writing was my first love. In 2014, I published a novel called MOCKSTARS, which was inspired by my tour diaries for The Lightyears. Shortly afterwards, following a three-month stint ghostwriting for a One Direction fan club, I came up with the idea of a YA novel that combined an intense teenage romance with the electrifying universe of a chart-topping boyband. That idea became the trilogy SONGS ABOUT A GIRL, which was signed up by Hodder Children’s in 2015, and has sold in multiple territories worldwide.
You can catch up or follow the rest of this fab blog tour at the following stops!
A huge thank you to Chris for asking me to be part of his fab blog tour and for going along with my insane idea for a video! Also a huge thank you to Hachette for sending me a copy of the book.
Have you read Songs About A Girl and/or Songs About Us? What did you think? Do you love Boy Band Lit?? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment by clicking the reply button at the top of this page or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt was one of my favourite books that I read last year. In fact it featured on my Best Books Read in 2016 list here
Published by Andersen Press Orbiting Jupiter completely took me by surprise and simply mived me to tears.
It may be a short contemporary YA read, but it certainly hit me with all the feels all at once which have stayed with me for quite some time. Orbiting Jupiter is a story about love, family and friendship and a message of never giving up on what you believe in no matter what. I smiled, I shed tears and I felt so much love for these characters. In fact thinking about it now is making me emotional all over again. The ending in the book broke me completely. Orbiting Jupiter is just as simplistic and beautiful as it is sad and heart-breaking. Friendship, family, unconditional love and hope. It will make you smile, it will make you angry, it will make you cry, but most of all it will leave you with the feeling that no matter what some things are worth fighting for.
I was over the moon to find out that Orbiting Jupiter has been picked for the Zoella and Friends 2017 book club (#ZoellaBookClub) by the lovely Jennifer Niven!
You can find out why Jennifer picked Orbiting Jupiter for the Book Club here
As you can tell Jennifer and I are huge fans of this book!
I am so honoured today to have the brilliant Gary D. Schmidt on Tales with a brilliant Q&A about Orbiting Jupiter and more….
A heartbreaking story, narrated by twelve-year-old Jack, whose family is caring for fourteen-year-old Joseph. Joseph is misunderstood. He was incarcerated for trying to kill a teacher. Or so the rumours say. But Jack and his family see something others in town don’t want to. What’s more, Joseph has a daughter he’s never seen. The two boys go on a journey through the bitter Maine winter to help Joseph find his baby – no matter the cost.
You can buy the #ZoellaBookClub edition of this book here or from your local WH Smiths
You can find my full review of Orbiting Jupiter here
Hi Gary! Thank you so much for taking the time to be here today to chat about Orbiting Jupiter!
How would you describe Orbiting Jupiter to someone who hasn’t read it?
Orbiting Jupiter is the story of two boys, close to each other in terms of age, but infinitely far apart in terms of experience. Jack’s journey is to understand a kid who has been in prison, who has a daughter, and who has lost the only one he ever loved; Joseph’s journey is to allow Jack to take that journey.
The character of Joseph is so life-like and multi-layered, how did you develop him, was he based on someone you had met?
Though this is not their story, both Joseph and Jack are based on real boys I’ve met in juvenile detention homes. I wanted Joseph to be complex, though he hardly ever speaks in this novel. He’s the kid we judge too quickly, the kid we blame, the kid we don’t think is ever going to amount to anything but trouble, and who we dismiss without even giving him a chance to be his best and largest self. Those are the very kids to whom we need to give more attention–more grace.
The setting feels so much part of the novel, winter on the farm with the dairy cows, what was it that felt like the home for your book?
The setting is based on a real farm in East Sumner, Maine, where I have brought my own students and where the owners take in foster children. It’s an organic dairy farm, and sits in a bowl within the northern Appalachians; it embodies so much of what I love in New England: resourcefulness, independence, an embrace of winter’s beauties and challenges. It does sort of feel like home a bit.
There is a real sense of brotherhood and family in the book – was that based on anything you’d experienced or seen yourself?
I’m glad that sense of brotherhood and family comes through in the book. The two models for Jack and Joseph had been in the facility in which I met them for a year, and neither had seen any family member. Years ago, I also knew a couple that took in foster kids–which I thought was wonderfully noble–until I learned that they mostly did this for the income the state provided. That was thirty-five years ago, but I have never forgotten my distaste for someone who would see these kids as a source of cash–and back then, I imagined the opposite: a noble and altruistic family who would use any income toward a college fund–which of course wouldn’t pay for all of college, but would send a profound message of hope and confidence toward these kids.
Orbiting Jupiter packs such an emotional punch, especially the ending – without spoilers, was that always intentional?
Well, avoiding spoilers: The ending was intentional. I don’t particularly like Hallmark card endings, where everything comes out fine, as neatly tied up as a twenty-one minute sit-com. Those books have their place, of course, but they’re not the books I want to write. It seems to me that we need to offer honesty to young readers, and it is honest to say that sometimes, things don’t always work out all right. Sometimes it’s okay to ask, “Where the hell are the angels?” If we don’t say that, then what happens to a young reader when things really don’t turn out well in life? If we send the message that that’s unusual, we are messaging a lie.
How do you write – do you plan the whole thing meticulously, or is it more free-flowing?
I wish I could say that I plan things out meticulously before I write. Maybe when I grow up, I’ll be that writer. You cannot believe how many times I’ve been in a school auditorium, and a student asks, “Do you use an outline?” and every teacher in the auditorium is looking at me with eyes that are saying, “Tell them you do! Tell them you do!” But in truth, I don’t. Part of writing is discovery, and that means not pre-planning everything to the point that there is nothing left to discover. When I finish a page, I really do not know what is going to happen next, and that feels right to me: it puts me in the same place as the reader, who also doesn’t know what happens on the next page. It helps to be in that same posture.
What books would you recommend to someone who enjoyed this book?
If you enjoyed Orbiting Jupiter, you might also like Gary Paulsen’s The Tent, about a father and son who go on the revival circuit–no kidding.
Others might be Anne Fine’s Flour Babies, Katherine Paterson’s The Great Gilly Hopkins or her Jacob Have I Loved.
In some ways, Jack is modelled a bit upon Simon in The Nargun and the Stars–one of my very favourite books in the world.
If you’re in high school, I’d also recommend Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, though this is a harrowing read, not at all for the faint of heart.
Which authors or writers inspire you?
What author’s inspire me? I always begin with Henry David Thoreau, though he is much out of favor these days–but that voice! By contrast, Giovanni Guareschi’s wit and spare storytelling amazes me; I just the other day bought a first edition of his The Little World of Don Camillo, since the copy I have on my desk is falling apart. For language skills, Robert Frost, followed closely by the poet Jane Kenyon, though they are very, very different. For character, Avi; for plot, Dickens every time; for setting, Jill Paton Walsh; for tonality, Susan Cooper–no one can touch her; for sheer brilliance, M. T. Anderson.
For young people going through something similar to Joseph, or Jack, what advise would you give them?
For those going through what Joseph is going through, advice seems very cheap and easy. It’s hard to believe anyone understands who is not right there. So here’s the advice, set in a Hasidic story: There is a rabbi who lives, who knows where. He has one job to do each day: He must rise, and then pray this prayer: “Lord, let the world go on for one more day.” He must do this every day. If, for whatever reason, the rabbi fails to perform this prayer, then the world will cease to exist–it’s that important. So, here’s the advice: Today, let the world go on for one more day. Tomorrow, let the world go on for one more day. And the next day, and the next, and the next–let the world go on for one more day.
What’s next for you, are you writing more?
I’ve been doing some short stories, since it’s a form I would like to learn to do better. But the next novel will be done soon. It’s about a butler who comes to a suburban American family to teach them about cricket–and about much more.
Thank you so much for answering all my questions Gary. It’s honour to have you on Tales.
You can buy the #ZoellaBookClub edition of this book here or from your local WH Smiths
You can find my full review of Orbiting Jupiter here
About Gary D. Schmidt
Gary Schmidt is a professor of English at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He received both a Newbery Honor and a Printz Honor for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and a Newbery Honor for The Wednesday Wars. He lives with his family on a 150-year-old farm in Alto, Michigan, where he splits wood, plants gardens, writes, and feeds the wild cats that drop by.
You can find out more about Gary D. Schmidt on his website here
A huge thank you to Gary for a fab Q&A and to the wonderful Harriet at Andersen Press for asking me to feature this brilliant Q&A.
Have you read Orbiting Jupiter? What did you think? Has this Q&A convinced you to pick up a copy and read? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment by clicking the reply button at the top of this page or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy
I was super excited to have received a set of the brilliant Young Detective Agency series by Joss Stirling to celebrate the recent release of the final book in the series Scorched.
Scorched was published on the 6th April 2017 by the lovely people at OUP and I literally cannot wait to jump into this series.
So I asked Joss Stirling if she would like to feature on Tales to discuss endings and how it felt to write and ending. Do things ever really end…..
Love is a fire. But who will get burned?
Ember Lord is facing charges for the murder of her father. She was found at the scene of the crime, holding the murder weapon, and refuses to explain herself.
Joe Masters is tasked with getting under Ember’s skin, and breaking through her stony facade; to gain her trust and find out what her plans are now her father’s legally-questionable business is under her control.
But as the two get closer, Joe begins to break down the wall that Ember has built around herself, and gets a glimpse of the truth behind. Is he really falling for a cold-hearted killer? Or is there more to the murder than meets the eye?
The incredible final instalment of Joss Stirling’s Young Detective Agency series, a companion novel to Stung, Shaken, and the award-winning Struck. Romantic thrillers that will make your heart skip a beat.
Check out the other books in this fab series….
End Times
“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”
Frank Herbert
That’s how most writers feel when they get to the end of a series. I’ve just waved off Scorched to your bookshelves, the last in the Struck series. This was always planned as four books (Struck, Stung, Shaken and Scorched) so I knew I was on the last lap. My young detectives had gone undercover in a boarding school, been on a chase from Jakarta to London, rocked New York and now…well they had to break out of prison, naturally!
Yet there was also the matter of the bigger patterns in the story stretching across all the books. I had settled some things, found partners for my young detectives, but I also needed to discover what would be a suitable stopping point. I knew some things in advance:
– I wasn’t going to do a Hamlet (i.e. all the main characters die)
– It was going to be upbeat, a little euphoric. On this I usually side with Bilbo, here talking to Frodo as his nephew sets out on his quest:
“Have you thought of an ending?”
“Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant.”
“Oh, that won’t do! Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?”
There is enough darkness in the world without adding to it in a series that, though it covers serious themes, is mainly there for your reading pleasure.
– There ought to be a sense of what life might be like in the future for the characters, allowing of course for the ups and downs we all experience. Perhaps a little bitterness mixed in with the sweet so that it feels more like the mixed-bag-that-is-life?
– Everyone should be there. In a series, a reader invests time in all the characters so it’s only fair the reader gets to see them all again, something like the curtain call at the end of a show.
So, without giving any more away, that was what I was trying to do for the boys from the YDA, Joe, Damien, Nathan and Kieran.
Yet, as Herbert says, there is no real ending. I know I will get messages from readers wanting more – that is like asking for the film to start up again after the credits role. I’m sure that is why J K Rowling added that scene at the railway station at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She was trying to get ahead of the fans. But, of course, that turns out not to be the end either. She went back to it in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It is so difficult to leave your story alone.
Do you have a favourite ending? Thinking about this blog post, I was wondering if there had ever been a poll on this. I found a list on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/574.Best_Ending) which includes a some of my favourites. The Great Gatsby gets my vote for sheer poetry. 1984 for bleakness. A Tale of Two Cities must be one of the most heroic and poignant. The Lord of the Rings also wins for its message that sometimes the heroes don’t get the reward, but it is left to those that they save. Pride and Prejudice is perhaps the happiest.
I can’t possibly try to match the brilliance of these examples but I hope you enjoy what I did in Scorched with my own sense of things coming to an end. However, I should warn you, I’m going to give my last word to the novelist, Graham Greene, who wrote in a book aptly named The End of the Affair:
‘Chemists tell you matter is never completely destroyed, and mathematicians tell you that if you halve each pace in crossing a room, you will never reach the opposite wall, so what an optimist I would be if I thought that this story ended here.’
You can buy a copy of Scorched or any of the fab Young Detective Agency series here or from your local bookshop!
About Joss Stirling
Joss Stirling is the winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2015 for STRUCK (first published as Storm and Stone) – the first time the award has been given to a teen book. You can find a book trailer on this page, where young detectives take a turn to star. The sequels are called STUNG and SHAKEN.
She is also the author of the internationally successful FINDING SKY, STEALING PHOENIX and SEEKING CRYSTAL, the first three books about the Benedict brothers, a family with extraordinary gifts. The stories combine her love for romance, mystery and travel – oh, yes and some seriously attractive heroes.
Readers demanded to know what happens to the remaining brothers so the next in the savant series, MISTY FALLS. Find out which Benedict brother meets his match! The story continues in ANGEL DARES – meet Joss’ most outrageous heroine yet! The series concludes with SUMMER SHADOWS.
Joss lives in Oxford, UK, is married with three children.
Or why not follow Joss on twitter using – @jossstirling
I previously spotlight Joss Stirling’s Benedict Brothers series here
A huge huge thank you to Joss for such a fab post and to OUP for sending me the books and asking me to host!
Have you read Scorched or any of the Young Detective Agency series ? What did you think? What are you favourite types of endings? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this post or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy!
