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Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. I am bringing you my book review for The Three Dog Problem by S J Bennett, the sequel to The Windsor Knot.

In this book review I will be giving star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will do my best to not include any spoilers.

The Three Dog Problem Plot:

This series is sold as a mystery story where the Queen is the one investigating and solving the crime, this isn’t exactly true. It’s the Queen and a few other people so as long as you don’t go in thinking it is only the Queen on her own solving the crime you won’t be disappointed. I quite enjoy how this book series stands out from other books in the mystery genre. I personally enjoyed this second book in the series more than the first book, I think the first book had too many elements and the twists were like sharp corners whereas in this book they were set up a bit more throughout the book which gave you the chance to try and guess what was going to happen.

The Three Dog Problem Characters:

Obviously The Queen is one of the main characters in this series and she is presented very well, the right balance between regal and mischievous. She is the brains of the whole thing even though she doesn’t let everyone in on that secret.

The Three Dog Problem Writing and Dialogue:

I like the writing in this series because it carries a light tone for half of the book and then you feel the tone get darker as you get closer to the reveal and that is something I enjoy in a book, also, the pace changes perfectly in accordance to the plot.

The Three Dog Problem Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because I really enjoy the difference from other books in the genre and how the mystery unfolds in each book.

Blurb/Synopsis

In the wake of a referendum which has divided the nation, the last thing the Queen needs is any more problems to worry about. But when an oil painting of the Royal Yacht Britannia – first given to the Queen in the 1960s – shows up unexpectedly in a Royal Navy exhibition, she begins to realise that something is up.

When a body is found in the Palace swimming pool, she finds herself once again in the middle of an investigation which has more twists and turns than she could ever have suspected. With her trusted secretary Rozie by her side, the Queen is determined to solve the case. But will she be able to do it before the murderer strikes again?

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah

August 15, 2022August 2, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. I am bringing you my review of The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah, one of the books in her new Poirot book series.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will do my best to not include any spoilers.

The Mystery of Three Quarters Plot:

This was the third of Sophie Hannah’s Poirot books that I have read and in this one Poirot finds out that someone has sent seemingly unconnected people letters accusing them of being a murderer and they have been signed as if by Poirot himself. I found this premise very interesting, it throws the reader into the suspense from the first page and that is one thing I really enjoy in mystery books, I like to feel apart of the mystery from early on.

The Mystery of Three Quarters Characters:

Of course the main character in this book is Poirot. I have always loved anything to do with Poirot, since I was a child and I used to watch all the David Suchet episodes on TV on a Sunday while eating my lunch and of course I have read many of the Agatha Christie books. I think it’s where my love of crime fiction started.

The Mystery of Three Quarters Writing and Dialogue:

It must have taken a lot of research for Sophie Hannah to begin writing these books because there have been a lot of adaptations of Poirot but I think that she captures his mannerisms and speech very well.

The Mystery of Three Quarters Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because I enjoyed this one just as much as the rest of the other two in the series I have read.

Blurb/Synopsis:

The world’s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot, the legendary star of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and most recently The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket, returns in a stylish, diabolically clever mystery set in the London of 1930.

Hercule Poirot returns home after an agreeable luncheon to find an angry woman waiting to berate him outside his front door. Her name is Sylvia Rule, and she demands to know why Poirot has accused her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy, a man she has neither heard of nor ever met. She is furious to be so accused, and deeply shocked. Poirot is equally shocked, because he too has never heard of any Barnabas Pandy, and he certainly did not send the letter in question. He cannot convince Sylvia Rule of his innocence, however, and she marches away in a rage.

Shaken, Poirot goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him — a man called John McCrodden who also claims also to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy…

Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered? And can Poirot find out the answers without putting more lives in danger?

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan

July 11, 2022June 27, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. Today I am bringing you a book review for my last June read which was Hot Dog Girl by Jennifer Dugan.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.

Hot Dog Girl Plot:

I was really excited to first get into this book. It had been on my wishlist for a long time until a friend sent me it and I was excited because, although it was a romance novel which isn’t my usual genre, it was set at a fun fair type location in a small town and I mean the cover showed a girl dressed up as a hot dog. I thought there would be some great comedy elements to it. There were a few of these and I was surprised how there were also serious topics running through the story too which balanced it out nicely. Honestly I wanted to see more of the setting, it was mentioned in passing but it never seemed to be as big a feature as it felt like it should have been. That is something I felt the book was overall, the story was okay but each of the elements could have been explored more. For me, if I read romance I like a good build up, this book didn’t allow for that.

Hot Dog Girl Characters:

The two main characters in this book were Elouise and Seeley who are best friends. For the first half of this book I loved the characters, they had well thought out distinct personalities but by the time it got to the second half of the book I couldn’t understand their motivations anymore and for me personally there seemed to be a lot of actions that came out of nowhere and I lost any connection I had to the characters.

Hot Dog Girl Writing and Dialogue

This was definitely a high point for this novel. The writing style changed depending on the tone it was creating and that really helped me as a reader sense the emotions that would be felt.

Hot Dog Girl Overall

I gave this book three stars overall because it was an okay story but I wasn’t as invested in it as I think I could have been.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Elouise (Lou) Parker is determined to have the absolute best, most impossibly epic summer of her life. There are just a few things standing in her way:

* She’s landed a job at Magic Castle Playland . . . as a giant dancing hot dog.
* Her crush, the dreamy Diving Pirate Nick, already has a girlfriend, who is literally the Princess of the park. But Lou’s never liked anyone, guy or otherwise, this much before, and now she wants a chance at her own happily ever after.
* Her best friend, Seeley, the carousel operator, who’s always been up for anything, suddenly isn’t when it comes to Lou’s quest to set her up with the perfect girl or Lou’s scheme to get close to Nick.
* And it turns out that this will be their last summer at Magic Castle Playland–ever–unless she can find a way to stop it from closing.

Jennifer Dugan’s sparkling debut coming-of-age queer romance stars a princess, a pirate, a hot dog, and a carousel operator who find love–and themselves–in unexpected people and unforgettable places.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

June 20, 2022June 2, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you my book review of The Final Girl Support group by Grady Hendrix.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will do my best to not include spoilers. I hope you enjoy my book review.

The Final Girl Support Group Plot:

I picked this book up after seeing Gavin from How to train your gavin on youtube read it and then I finally got to read it for the 48 hour readathon I took part in during May. The prompt was a spooky book so I chose this one thinking it sounded like it would scare me quite a bit, and although I was hoping it wouldn’t scare me much I did hope it had that tense atmosphere that good mystery/thriller books have, and it did for the most part. Although I think the tension was lacking at the end, instead of building as the plot builds the tension seemed to be much less at the end than at the beginning.

I did enjoy the mystery aspect of the book although at times I struggled to connect the mystery to the girls and their events that caused them to be final girls.

The Final Girl Support Group Characters:

I’ll be honest, I have to give characters four stars because while I was reading the book I felt the character aspect was the strongest part, there were some characters I was rooting for, some I wanted to die in satisfying ways and some that were complete surprises. However, writing up this review now I don’t remember much about them or my thoughts of them so perhaps they aren’t as memorable as I thought they were.

The Final Girl Support Group Writing and Dialogue:

I thought the writing was good because it felt like it kept up with the pace of the story mostly and also it did keep me quite engaged. Sometimes I felt that the writing was a bit younger than the story but it didn’t detract from it too much.

The Final Girl Support Group Overall:

I gave this book three stars overall because I felt that it was okay but maybe it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Blurb/Synopsis:

A fast-paced, thrilling horror novel that follows a group of heroines to die for, from the brilliant New York Times bestselling author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized–someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it! Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it?

Book Reviews

Book Review: A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz

June 6, 2022June 2, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you a book review for A Line To Kill by Anthony Horowitz. I got to read this book in May while I was travelling to Cardiff for a concert.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each of them. I will do my best to not include any spoilers. I hope you enjoy this book review.

A Line To Kill Plot:

Last year I read Moonflower Murders by this same author, it was the first book I had ever read by Anthony Horowitz and I thought it was a brilliant mystery novel, my review for this is already up, and so when I saw A Line To Kill I wanted it immediately. Especially when I read that the novel is set at a literary festival on a secluded island, it sounded perfect. Now, I enjoyed the overall plot, it was a fast paced plot with a wide range of characters all with their own motive which is the type of novels I enjoy the most for the mystery genre. However, I had some issues with it – one of these being (SLIGHT SPOILER) that I got excited because it looked to have some representation for visual impairments, which I rarely see in books, but towards the end this changed as part of one of the plot twists and that just left me feeling very uncomfortable with both the book and the author. One of the other issues is one I will talk about in the character section. I suppose my greatest issue was that this book just wasn’t as good as Moonflower Murders, the twists weren’t as elaborate and I had guessed the ending a long time before it happened.

A Line To Kill Characters:

For the most part this book had some very good characters, all fleshed out with their own independent qualities and the ‘victim’ was created as a very unlikeable character on purpose so that all the other characters had reasons to murder them. However, the detective character for me was also very unlikeable, he almost made me dislike the whole book because he felt incredibly creepy and not to be trusted yet you were meant to trust him. Also, the ‘main character’ was named Anthony Horowitz, the author put himself in the book as a character, I really did not like this at all, it felt jarring and mixed reality with the fiction and honestly this also made me feel uncomfortable about the author because it made it seem as if the thoughts of the characters were in fact the thoughts of the author.

A Line To Kill Writing and dialogue:

The same as with Moonflower Murders the actual writing of the novel was very good, fast paced, intriguing characters and dialogue that knows how to keep some information a mystery from the reader.

A Line To Kill Overall:

Overall, I gave this book three stars because some of the elements made it an uncomfortable reading experience for me and I found the ending predictable.

Blurb/Synopsis:

The New York Times bestselling author of the brilliantly inventive The Word Is Murder and The Sentence Is Death returns with his third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz.

When Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation—or to be trapped with a cold-blooded killer in a remote place with a murky, haunted past.

Arriving on Alderney, Hawthorne and Horowitz soon meet the festival’s other guests—an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic, and a war historian—along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line.

When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?

Both a brilliant satire on the world of books and writers and an immensely enjoyable locked-room mystery, A Line to Kill is a triumph—a riddle of a story full of brilliant misdirection, beautifully set-out clues, and diabolically clever denouements.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it. Have you read this book? If you have what did you think of it?

Book Reviews

Book Review: Lily by Rose Tremain

May 23, 2022May 1, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you a book review for Lily by Rose Tremain. This is a mystery/historical fiction book with a beautiful cover that sounded so good to me, I read the blurb and I was desperate to read it and I have to say I was disappointed.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little about each of them. Now, usually I say here I will try not to include spoilers but that’s not easy for this book so I will be giving spoilers to this book in this book review. If you don’t want to be spoiled I would recommend reading the book before you read this review.

*SPOILERS*

Lily Plot:

The blurb of this book sold it to me as a story of a young woman who gets into a romance with a policeman, after having murdered someone in her troubled past. I thought it would be an exciting cat and mouse style chase while she tries to not be discovered. Instead what I got was 150 pages before I even found out what the murder was and where it happened and soon after the reader learns that although the policeman believes it was murder, he wasn’t even investigating it. It took all the (already very limited) suspense out of the novel. For me there was too much description in this book, it details almost every aspect of Lily’s life, all throughout her childhood at the children’s orphanage and the treatment she suffered there and then her employment at the wig emporium. As a reader I didn’t need most of this, some of the chapters about Bridget her friend and her fate, and the abuse she suffered were relevant especially because it shows the reader why the murder happened. But the rest was too much unnecessary information. There was also a plot point about her trying to find out who her mother was and why she was left in the park in the snow, this is never completed. It seems to just get forgotten about in the book.

Lily Character:

Lily is the main character, and I didn’t feel anything for her. I understood that you were meant to have an emotional connection to her because of her backstory but I didn’t get that from the story. I wanted to see more of the policeman, Sam Trench, he barely featured and definitely not in the ways the synopsis suggested he would be.

Lily Writing and Dialogue:

This book did manage to get the feel of a Victorian novel, dark and sensory and this was put across in the writing, which was good but the dialogue wasn’t as good as I expected.

Lily Overall:

I gave this book two stars because, as I am sure my review shows, this book wasn’t what I thought it would be and I was very disappointed.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Nobody knows yet that she is a murderer…

Abandoned at the gates of a London park one winter’s night in 1850, baby Lily Mortimer is saved by a young police constable and taken to the London Foundling Hospital. Lily is fostered by an affectionate farming family in rural Suffolk, enjoying a brief childhood idyll before she is returned to the Hospital, where she is punished for her rebellious spirit. Released into the harsh world of Victorian London, Lily becomes a favoured employee at Belle Prettywood’s Wig Emporium, but all the while she is hiding a dreadful secret…

Across the years, policeman Sam Trench keeps watch over the young woman he once saved. When Sam meets Lily again, there is an instant attraction between them and Lily is convinced that Sam holds the key to her happiness – but might he also be the one to uncover her crime and so condemn her to death?

Book Reviews

Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

May 16, 2022May 1, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! As you can see by the title of this post – I finally read Throne of Glass! It’s taken me years, it has been on multiple TBRs but I never actually picked it up and read it. I actually read A Court of thorns and roses (only the first one) and House of Earth and Blood (the first Crescent City book) before I got around to reading this one. I took it to london with me and started reading it on the train journey up there. I finished it in the hotel room the next night.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible. I hope you all enjoy my book review.

Throne of Glass Plot:

This plot had me hooked from the very beginning, what would a Prince want with an assassin? and it just kept getting better from there. I really love competitions in books – I have a lot of fantasy books with this trope – and this one was good, it took a backseat to the building of relationships and the other mysteries that were going on but it still made the book enjoyable for me. What I especially liked about this plot was that there was one, a lot of first books in series sort of forget about having a well thought-out and complete plot, but this one didn’t. There was a good balance between plot strands that were sorted out in this book and the ones that are going to be underlying mysteries throughout the series.

Throne of Glass Characters:

Caelena is a great lead character. She’s a fighter and it is obvious in every action, and she has been through a lot which means she finds it hard to trust other people. I liked the inner turmoil the character was struggling with throughout and I hope that will be there in different ways throughout the series. Also in the book is Prince Dorian, who I did like but I thought there was room to expand his character, which might happen in the coming books, because he seemed charming and a good friend but there was also some jealousy.

Throne of Glass Writing and Dialogue:

I already knew going into this book that I like Sarah J Maas’ writing style and especially her dialogue. If you’ve been reading my reviews a while you will know that dialogue is one of my favourite parts of a book and I enjoyed that aspect a lot in this book.

Throne of Glass Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because I enjoyed the book, as I knew I would, and I am excited to see where the rest of the series goes.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Meet Celaena Sardothien.

Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, Celaena, an assassin, is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.

That’s it for this review, I hope you all enjoyed it! If you have read this book let me know what you thought of it in the comments.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Bringing Down The Duke by Evie Dunmore

May 9, 2022May 1, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! Today I am bringing you the book review for Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore. I read this book on the train while on the way home from Londond.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.

Bringing Down The Duke Plot:

This story is about a woman who is not only a women at Oxford in a period when women weren’t accepted as intelligent, free-thinking people, but she also becomes part of the suffragist movement. First of all, I loved this take on historical fiction, it gave me a lovely sense of conflict and tension from the very beginning. Because of this involvement she gets mixed up with the Duke of Montgomery. So, this plot is a bit too far on the romance side for me, I enjoyed it don’t get me wrong but I thought the plot itself lacked a little and was used as a catalyst to bring the romance in as the main element. I would have liked more of an overall story but it was okay for a quick, calm read on the train home.

Bringing Down the Duke Characters:

I have to say the characters were what made this book enjoyable for me. Annabelle is such a strong female lead character and although she does some things in the book I didn’t agree with her personality makes up for it, I liked her and I cared about whether or not she was going to get the life she deserved.

Then there’s the Duke of Montgomery and I also liked his character, up to a point. To begin with he seems moody and he makes assumptions to quickly but you see this is a miscommunication then a bit later on there is one scene that ruined his character for me, the way he acts towards Annabelle instantly says to me that I would not like this man at all.

Bringing Down the Duke Writing and Dialogue:

I think the writing in this book is okay, it is smooth and clear and it does paint the picture, especially for the setting but it’s not my favourite style of writing, this could be because of the genre as well.

Bringing Down the Duke Overall:

I gave this book four stars overall because at the time of reading it, I did enjoy it but thinking about it later I am not as sure on my enjoyment of it.

Blurb/Synopsis:

England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women’s suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain’s politics at the Queen’s command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can’t deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn’t be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn’t claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring… or could he?

Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke….

A stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford suffragists in which a fiercely independent vicar’s daughter takes on a powerful duke in a fiery love story that threatens to upend the British social order.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: The Mapmakers by Tamzin Merchant

April 18, 2022April 4, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you are all having a good day today. I am bringing you my review of The Mapmakers by Tamzin Merchant, the second book in the Hatmakers series.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review. If you haven’t read The Hatmakers there is likely to be spoilers for that book here.

The Mapmakers Plot:

So, in this series we follow Cordelia Hatmaker who is living with her family members in their hat shop and they are one of seven magical families, their hats are created using magic. At the end of the first book Cordelia has just found a map brought to her by a boy who was on the ship with her Father, who she still believes is alive. She thinks that the map will lead her to her Father.
I loved every part of this plot. There are brilliantly created villains, new allies, people who you might not be able to trust and people you might have misjudged in the previous book. One big part of this plot is the quest narrative which I really liked – you as a reader are discovering things along with Cordelia, finding out where the map leads to but the story is filled with intersecting plot points that build up to what happens at the end.

The Mapmakers Characters:

Cordelia Hatmaker is the protagonist of this story and she has to constantly find new levels of bravery to keep pushing forward. I felt like in this book you see Cordelia having to grow up a little bit more, and definitely before the time she should be growing up, because the world is changing and a lot of responsibility gets put on her shoulders.

The Mapmakers Writing and Dialogue:

I already knew I loved the writing style of this author. Her plots are so intricate and absolutely filled with magic.

The Mapmakers Overall:

I had to give this book four stars because I immediately got back into the hatmakers world and I was recruited to Cordelia’s character, I felt for her the whole way through.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Return to the spellbinding world of Cordelia Hatmaker in this soaring magical sequel to The Hatmakers. Perfect for fans of Nevermoor, A Pinch of Magic and Harry Potter.

Ever since Cordelia discovered the hidden map in her father’s precious telescope, she’s been searching the streets of London by starlight and trying to uncover its secrets. She’s sure that her missing father is out there somewhere, and that if she follows his map, she’ll finally discover the truth about his disappearance.

She never expects to stumble upon a secret society of Mapmakers – or to learn that magic isn’t limited to the few Maker families, but is instead is all around, if you just know where to look . . .

But danger is lurking around every corner, and Cordelia must convince the rival Maker families to work together for once – not only to bring her father home, but to save the very essence of magic itself . . .

A gorgeous adventure from exceptional new storytelling talent, Tamzin Merchant, featuring beautiful illustrations by Paola Escobar.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoy it!

Book Reviews

Book Review: Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

April 11, 2022April 4, 2022 theblindscribe

Happy Monday bookish people! I hope you’re all having a good day today. I will be sharing my thoughts on the book Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell.

In this book review I will give star ratings to four categories and I will write a little bit about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy my book review.

Rooftoppers Plot:

This is my first Katherine Rundell book and I was very excited to read it because it is set in Victorian (I think) Paris and and it features rooftoppers which are groups of children that live on the rooftops of Paris and rarely touch the ground.

I loved the atmosphere of this book, the sensory descriptions were engaging to the point that I could almost smell the smoke from the chimneys.

The main thing that I enjoyed about the plot was the focus on family. It wasn’t only biological family either, Sophie (the protagonist) is looking for her Mother, but also found family – the rooftoppers are family to each other and Charles is Sophie’s guardian throughout the book. It’s great to see wonderful children’s books featuring strong family bonds.

Rooftoppers Characters:

Sophie is the protagonist in this book, she lost her Mother as a baby and is being raised by a man called Charles, who raises her with curiosity, imagination and a love of wearing trousers. Sophie believes her mother is still alive. She is adventurous, brave and willful. I enjoyed seeing the development of the character as she found herself and what she would give to find her mother. Mateo is the main rooftopper featured in this book and the relationship between him and Sophie was one of my favourite parts of this book.

Rooftoppers Writing and dialogue:

I definitely want to pick up more books by Katherine Rundell after reading this one. The writing was whimsical and full of meaning. There was the perfect balance between sad tones and joyful tones throughout the novel.

Rooftoppers Overall:

I gave this book four stars because it took me away to a different world, a world where I was living amongst the roofs of Paris and that for me is one of the best things that books can do.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Everyone thinks that Sophie is an orphan. True, there were no other recorded female survivors from the shipwreck which left baby Sophie floating in the English Channel in a cello case, but Sophie remembers seeing her mother wave for help. Her guardian tells her it is almost impossible that her mother is still alive, but that means still possible. You should never ignore a possible. So when the Welfare Agency writes to her guardian threatening to send Sophie to an orphanage, she takes matters into her own hands and flees to Paris to look for her mother, starting with the only clue she has – the address of the cello maker. Evading the French authorities, she meets Matteo and his network of rooftoppers – urchins who live in the sky. Together they scour the city for Sophie’s mother before she is caught and sent back to London, and most importantly before she loses hope.

That’s it for this book review, I hope you all enjoyed it!