Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

First of all let me preface this review with the simple fact, I chose to review this book based on the upcoming movie coming soon, and the new trend I see coming to young adult novels geared to our teens and young adults. As a Christian parent and book reviewer, no book rating system exists so parents might be surprised at what their teens are being drawn to and how it relates to what lies buried beneath the covers.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is geared for young teens and adults. If you have seen the trailer for the movie due out in the fall, you can see it is a bit darker than most seeing as Tim Burton produced it, and adds in the premise of a woman, Miss Peregrine, who is the headmistress for a home of peculiar children. These children used to be employed by some circus groups or side shows in order to help hide them from those who would seek to destroy them in an effort to learn how to stay immortal and never die. They each have their own gifts, from being able to float, to creating sculptures from plants, to controlling air or fire. No child is the same and thus the need to keep them away from the prying eyes of the world who can not understand their unique gifts and would see to exploit them.

Each of these groups of children is led by a headmistress who is a ymrynes, one able to change into the shape of a bird, and all women. In this case, Miss Peregrine is a Peregrine Falcon who can change her shape at will but when attempting to change back into a women, is left naked, so she must be careful where she shape shifts. On September 3, 1940, during the height of the great war, the home of the children was about to be bombed when Germany dropped bombs over the small island. Miss Peregrine was able to stop time and loop it back on itself so that now the home sits in what is called a time loop, where every day is the same 24 hours up to just when the bomb was about to destroy the home and all the children in it. The children are content there because they don't age and are safe from those who would seek to do them harm called Hollowcasts.

Hollowcasts were a group of peculiar's who tried to find a way to exist outside the time loop and made themselves into a bit of what you might call monsters that can exist outside of time loops but can't enter them without the aid of a wight, a human-like accomplice who aids Hollowcasts in seeing to find and kidnap peculiars and their headmistresses for a second try at their failed experiments in immortality.

Jacob Portman has heard these stories of a magical life and children from his grandfather, but didn't believe they existed even though his grandfather had a set of odd black and white photos showing they did exist. Jacob believed they were simply photoshopped to help spur grandpa's fantasies into some form of reality for him. Being a survivor from the war, the Portman family chalked Grandpa's stories off to aging and stopped listening to them despite his warning that he wasn't safe any longer. When Grandpa Portman frantically calls Jacob at work trying to find the key to the gun cabinet, Jacob returns home in time to find his grandpa brutally murdered by what police believe was a animal attack. But Jacob knows differently because he saw what killed his grandpa and he doesn't want to believe what he saw is real.

I reviewed Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs after my own personal purchase and did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review. This is my own unbiased and personal opinion of the novel. Based on the trailer, it appears there will be discrepancies between the book and the movie in some varying story line but that waits to be seen how it all plays out in the end. I for one, would have liked to see it stick more along the lines of the novel. It does contain quite a few photographs that inspired the author to write this series of novels about peculiar children and that makes the novel more enjoyable because you don't have to imagine what something looks like, because he shows you. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and could see how someone who is different might be judged by society on the basis of outward appearances and therefore ostracized by those who considered themselves normal. This opens up the dialogue for some great conversations between parents and teens. I would rate this novel a 4.5 out of 5 stars and readers even get a sneak peek into the first chapter of the sequel Hollow City as well as an exclusive Q and A with the novels author Ransom Riggs.

For more information about Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs or where you can pick up a copy of the novel today, please click on the links below:

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

I believe this is the book so many have waited for, but it is something different. I have read the reviews on this book and it is hard to understand why so many wanted this to be just like J.K. Rowling's other novels but it is clearly not meant to be that way. It is a theatrical play and this is that script, so story lines won't be as developed as readers might want. As a play, the scenes would move forward rather quickly in order to garner the entire premise behind this book. Unlike the previous Harry Potter novels, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a screen play that is based on a theatrical production that began on June 30, 2016. Now readers who don't have the opportunity to view the play can at least read the script and gain a sense of what this latest book in the Harry Potter series entails. For me, it was well worth the wait, and one that I can't wait to add to my Potter Collection.

It took me a few pages to get past the idea that I was reading a script and soon it flowed so well, once again I was back into J.K. Rowling's mystical world of witches and wizards. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child picks up exactly where the Deathly Hallows ends, 19 years later we see our familiar characters Harry, Ron and Hermoine who have started their own families. Now they next generations is being sent off for their first year at Hogwarts. For Albus Severus Potter, it must be hard to be the son of Harry Potter and have such expectations placed on your shoulders for all the others who will be at Hogwarts. He struggles to come to terms with this and finds a true friend among Scorpius, Draco Malfoy's son. His first shock comes when the sorting hat does not place him among the Gryffindors and instead is in Slytherin.

Yet despite the best intentions of Scorpius, who is desperate for a friend in Hogwarts based on a rumor that he is the child of Voldermort since Draco and Astoria couldn't have a child of their own and thus Scorpius is struggling to find a way to fit in. Albus finds his own struggle with trying to be his own person without the label of being Harry Potter's son. He begins to rebel and isolate himself from his other friends like Rose Granger-Weasley and his own brother James. It eventually affects his relationship with his own father, who fails to grasp how difficult it must be for Albus. Harry meanwhile is dealing the the rumors of Voldemort having a child when nightmares begin to haunt him and that infamous scar begins to burn again. When he is confronted by Amos Diggory who believes Potter holds the key to restoring the life of Cedric who should have never died, now having a time turner in his possession, begs Harry to use it to change the events from the Tri-Wizard Tournament and give him back his son. Harry refuses and argues that he doesn't even possess such an object.

But Albus overhears the conversation and vows to make good on something his father flat out refuses to do. He convinces Scorpius to join him when they leave on the train to Hogwarts but never make it there. Now the search is on for the families to figure out just where in time the boys are before they make an adjustment in the time continuum that will adversely affect the events surrounding Voldemort and forever alter their own lives.

I purchased my own copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany and received no monetary compensation for a favorable review. This is my own unbiased and personal review of the book. If you are expecting this to be like the other seven novels, then you might be disappointed. This is a theatrical script of 320 pages that gives readers what happened when we were left on Platform 9 3/4 at the end of the Deathly Hallows. How the life of Albus is forever changed as he ventures off to Hogwarts with the expectations of being the son of the Boy Who Lived. I especially loved the twists in time and how things we know were changed and the outcomes would have been different versions of the novels in the Harry Potter series. For me, this is easily a 5 out of 5 stars. It definitely gives J.K. Rowling another place to begin to elaborate on this story if she decides to pick it up again, and one can only hope, this will be the case.

For more information about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, J. K. Rowling or where you can pick up a copy of this book, please click on the links below:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne

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This book is available at your favorite retailers in both Hardcover and eBook formats. 

The Fire

What would you do if you found yourself with the unique ability to travel back through time? Would you take a risk and do it? That is just where Kevin Johnson finds himself after joining his family to go through his grandparents house in Wallace, Idaho. Kevin just recently graduated from college with two majors in Earth Science and Physics. Now while attempting to kill a spider in his room, he spills an ice tea and discovers the tell-tale marks of a hidden storage space beneath the wooden floor. What he uncovers is a stash of diamonds, double-eagle gold coins, and more along with his great great grandfather's leather journal. In it he discovers that the rock shed in the back yard can be accessed through a solstice sun or a full moon and when using the gold coins to spell out the year you want to travel back to, the shed becomes a time travel portal.

Since following his great great grandfather, Asa Johnson's journal he discovers that Asa himself has been time traveling quite a bit and thus the need for money that can be spent in 1910 as well as 2013. Kevin decides to take his own journey back to 1910 as life in the current year hasn't brought him much in the way of love and believes an adventure is just the thing to get his mind off things, especially being left alone in the house while his family takes a weekend side trip. What Kevin uncovers is that while he is in 1910, his place in the current year of 2013 is just as he left it. As though he hadn't been gone at all. So he takes another journey and this time finds there is quite a bit to uncover in the town his great great grandfather was a part of. Now if he can only convince others there, that he truly belongs in the year 1910. However Kevin knows that on August 20, 1910, a great fire will come to the town and virtually wipe out most of the town as well as left 85 people dead due to multiple fires caused by months of drought and high winds.

What he doesn't expect to find is not only a love of becoming a teacher in the high school, but also in falling head over heels in love with not one lovely young lady, but two. There is quite a difference in the standards of courting women in the 1910's from the fast paced romance of 2013 and all Kevin knows is that as much as he wants to go back to the present time, his heart won't let him go. Will he be able to convince Sarah Thompson, the woman he first laid eyes on when he arrived in town that he really is who he claims to be, a time traveler from the future?

I received The Fire from John A. Heldt compliments of the author himself and I've been delighted to read John's previous novels in the Northwest Passage Series, with this one being Book 4 in the series. Each one of them feels so historically rich in detail I can not only vividly picture the events and people but also feel like I am truly there. This is such a great series for readers who enjoy a novel on time travel and historical fiction with some amazing romance thrown in for good measure. I'd rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars in my opinion. This was a well-researched novel that showcases the 1910 Great Fire which you can read about through the many references he includes in this novel.

For more information about The Fire, John A. Heldt or where you can pick up a copy of this exceptional novel today, please click on the links below:

The Fire by John A. Heldt

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Overbite

The legend of Dracula has been stated the Vlad The Impaler was so grief stricken by the death of his wife's suicide that he lashed out at the people he felt were responsible and randomly killing people as a way of seeking revenge. Now his son has been struggling with the internal conflict within himself between good and evil and has become the most wanted man by the Palatine, a secret police of the Vatican responsible for ridding the world of evil wherever it is found.

Meena Harper on the other hand has her own conflict, one being in love with Lucien Antonescu, the son of Dracula and working for the Palatine, hunting him down. She has a unique gift that allows her to predict how everyone she meets will die. Using it, she has helped people save their lives instead and has altered their future in a positive way. Her rival at the Palatine is Alaric Wulf who has vowed to personally kill Lucien if he can find him, however Meena believes that he still possesses a goodness within himself that should be protected and used to fight evil in the world. But Alaric isn't the slightest bit convinced and will stop at nothing to drive his sword into Lucien's heart.

When a new breed of vampires begins attacking New York's tourists, the hunt for the head vampire begins with a vengeance. Meena is still struggling to deal with the love she feels for Lucien and that a dream she is being plagued with is the answer that she needs to share with him. It is a dream of him as a small boy with his mother just before she commits suicide and one which holds the key to unlock a deep secret that will change all their lives.

I received Overbite by Meg Cabot compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers for my honest review. Being a fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer series on television, this book definitely took me back to the relationship shared between Buffy and Angel in regards to Meena and Lucien. The story is well written, filled with action and suspense and one whose ending was great and unexpected. I rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to fans of vampire novels with a love story twist! This was an unexpected change for me, since this is the same author of The Princess Diaries, but I loved her ability to tell a great story and keep the reader entertained.

For more information about this book, the author and where to pick up a copy of this book, please click on the link below:

Overbite by Meg Cabot

Under a Fairy Moon

Every garden has the possibility for a child with an imagination. For Addy Marten, her garden belonged to the neighbor Mrs. Tavish, who rumor has it was a reported witch. Yet whenever Addy saw her, she was just an old woman, in a brightly colored flowered dress with a large hat who loved working in her garden and talking to her flowers.

Whenever Mrs. Tavish wasn't in the garden was when Addy would sneak in, to the deepest part, beneath the thick overgrown shrubs, next to the bubbling creek to the center where the statues stood. This is the place where her imagination came to life and where the garden would become more than just a make believe place for young girls to play.

In the novel, Under A Fairy Moon by T. M. Wallace, the reader is immersed in a magical world of a little girl who has just moved into a new home in Windy Falls and discovering all kinds of wonder locked within the garden of her neighbor Mrs. Tavish. She takes part in an adventure with a young boy in a yellow raincoat named Conner, when they both become separated in the world and must reunite before the Mid Summer. A perfect blend of A Secret Garden meets Narnia, the reader is in for a delightful surprise from the very first page. For anyone who dreams of Wonderland and becoming their own Alice, then this is truly the book for you. Just the kind of magic that makes us all children once more.

I received this book compliments of Pump Up Your Book Tours for my honest review, and can't wait to read this one with my 13 year old daughter who is bound to make this one a personal favorite. Filled with the delights of any child, in a secret world that adults don't know about, this feels like The Bridge to Terabithia meets Alice in Wonderland. You aren't quite sure if she is imagining it all or if this is really happening. I would rate this one a 5 out of 5 stars and great for middle school readers who love fantasy adventure books. This one will not want to be one that is missed.

For more information about this book, the author and where to get a copy of this enchanting book, please click on the links below:

Under A Fairy Moon by T. M. Wallace

The Luckless Prince

Every boy dreams of adventures as a child and Roland Fredrick is no different except that he happens to be a prince. He'd rather be off on a journey to some distant land, rescuing fair maidens and battling enemies with a sword as his book of legends has been sharing these stories of adventure with him.

However his father the King, Fredrick, is ill and it won't be long before Roland will be asked to assume the throne. For now, he is stuck with history lessons which bore him and sword lessons which appeal to the adventurer within. Even his squire, Stefan can't seem to educate him on the importance of studying. Roland would rather read and daydream about things he can't have.

Then opportunity presents itself to Roland when his father asks a local fur trader Jarome to sell some furs along a river town in Woodwatch Ferry. Seeing his chance for freedom, Roland is able to convince his father to let him journey down the river before it's too late and he won't be able to leave the castle. Fredrick relents and Roland is more than excited to go. Taking along Stefan for companionship and the voice of reason, their adventure begins.

However when dark forces learn that the kings only son is traveling along a river virtually unprotected, marauders launch an attack and soon only Stefan, Roland and Collyn Silverbrook are the only survivors. While their raft burns, they are left wounded and in need of medical care. With no supplies and in the dark of the forest, they are at a crossroads in their journey. Do they turn back to the castle or will they press on to the nearest city? What will Roland's father think when he hears news of the attack? Will this news push the king into an earlier grave? Or will this adventure turn out to be more than any of them ever imagined?

In the novel, The Luckless Prince, by Rie Sheridan Rose, Roland will get more than he ever bargained for when setting out on what he had hoped would be a simple expedition. Now lives will be placed in his young hands and decisions that will be costly will be his alone to make. This is a true coming of age story for a young man who still has to keep control of his emotions and is prone to anger easily. His companionship with his friend and squire Stefan will be placed to the ultimate test while the forces of the dark magic seek to destroy and control the land and kingdom.

I received this book compliments of Pump Up Your Book Tours and Zumaya Otherworlds Publishers for my honest review. I was so drawn to this story of adventure because I believe within us all is our childlike sense of adventure. This book is similar to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy where we began our adventure with Frodo and Sam. Here the adventure begins with Roland and Stefan. In the end, the friends will need to work together using their strengths and weaknesses to overcome their greatest challenges. For those of you that love The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then you will LOVE this one! This book rates a stellar 5 out of 5 stars and can't wait to see what she writes next!

For more information on this book, the author and where to purchase a copy of this book, please click on the links below:

The Luckless Prince by Rie Sheridan Rose

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Zumaya Otherworlds; large type edition edition (June 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 161271014X
• ISBN-13: 978-1612710143
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Price: $13.25 Large Print Paperback / $ 6.99 Kindle Edition

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