Just as wonderful reading it for the second or third time! In this book, the Swallows are shipwrecked on the far side of the lake and establish their camp at Swallowdale on the moors above the lake. The sailors settle in for some adventures on shore, but the Amazons are being held prisoner by their strict Great-Aunt and have to make many daring escapes in order to join in the fun.

I just love the charming writing style that makes every little scrap of adventure so interesting. The characters are all lovable and with just the right variety of personalities. I adore them every one!

I was delighted with this book about a half-human, half-fox orphan in search of a destiny beyond the four walls of his grim orphanage. Known only as Number 13, the Wonderling is forced to work in the orphanage factory, until a new friend, a tiny bird creature named Trinket, convinces him to escape into the wide world and seek his destiny in the big city.

In this world, there are humans, regular animals, and human/animal hybrids named "groundlings". Groundlings can speak and act like humans, but they have some physical characteristics of animals. They walk upright and wear clothing, but might have a tail, fur, feathers, wings, ears, beak, or snout of an animal. However, groundlings speak like humans, and can't talk to regular animals.

I loved the world-building of this story, but I really wanted to know more about how groundlings were first created, more of the history of the world, and what place rare magic and magical beings have in that world. Hopefully, some more of this will be explained in the second book.

One of the best things about this book is the rich language and beautiful writing. It really evokes a magical mood into the story, and makes even little details seem important and meaningful. Even though some of the elements of the story are not exactly original (the grim orphanage, the tough streets of a Victorian city, the Dickensian tropes), it's the writing style that gives it a fresh feeling and an authentic voice.

The Wonderling, or Number 13, is a deliciously innocent and sensitive little foxboy. He loves music, but music of all kinds is forbidden at the orphanage, so he finds solace in the plink plink of rain falling on the roof. He stops to admire the moonlight flowing through his window into the darkness of his grimy little dorm room. As he stops to delight in the small amount of beauty he can find in his ugly world, the reader pauses with him, and reflects with him on the grand questions of life. "Why am I here? What is my purpose?" These questions are what propel Number 13 out into the world to find his true home, his origins, and his lost family. I loved this main character for his kind little heart, his courage, and his desperate search for anything beautiful or good that his soul can cling to. He is such a tender character, I just want to protect him!

Some of the characters feel like they are pulled straight from Dickens' Oliver Twist, especially the rat groundling Quintus, who is practically Fagin with rat ears. And there are other common trope characters, like the evil headmistress of the orphanage and her bumbling sidekick. Sometimes these feel like they are copy and pasted into the story.
But other characters are admirably original and interesting, like the energetic and inventive Trinket, the funny little boy named Pinecone who dreams of being a knight, and of course, the strange and wondrous Belisha, the Queen of the Night Crows. I loved all these characters!

There are a lot of little ideas, puns, and inside jokes hidden in the book; for instance, there is a ferryman named Norahc, which of course is just Charon spelled backwards. I see what you did there, you clever thing!

One of my favorite things about this book is how there is a bewitching focus on music, songs, and the musical sounds of nature. Since Number 13 has been prohibited from any musical contact for most of his life, once he leaves the orphanage he begins to experience different types of music for the first time, and he is full of awe as his starving heart swells with the sounds. The intimacy of his reactions to music pulls the reader into that appreciation for things we usually take for granted. As a musician, I always love reading stories with music at the center.

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

I actually liked the mystery is this book a great deal, and was fascinated by the characters. I would have given it 3 stars if it were not for one thing...
A young woman character is date-raped, and the man gets away with it. He is never confronted with his crime.

Spoiler

She is so upset and distraught that she can't work and loses her job. A couple of weeks later, she is worried that she might be pregnant, and contemplates accusing him, but decides against it until she can be sure. At the end of the book, it turns out that she's not pregnant after all, and the author seems to think that since she didn't get pregnant, then she's okay. As long as she didn't get pregnant, then date-rape is not so bad apparently.

This made me so angry I could spit!!! The whole subject was handled very badly, and it made me sick to read about it. It also served no purpose whatsoever in the plot. It was just added for extra drama, and was completely unnecessary.
UGH!!! Hateful nasty book!!

This delightful collection of familiar fairy tales is told with a fresh voice and enchanting writing!

Including new versions of Snow White, The Frog Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and several others that are less well-known, this book provides a crisp new look at these old tales while still remaining true to the main stories.

While the basic plots remain the same, it's the sparkling dialogue and little inside jokes that make these fairy tales so enjoyable to read and reread.

The lovely illustrations bring the stories to life and give a nod to classic fairy tale illustrators like Arthur Rackham and Walter Crane. I love how elegant the illustrations are!

I especially loved that each fairy tale has some small detail that connects it to the other stories. (For instance, the huntsman who spares Snow White's life is the same huntsman who kills the Big Bad Wolf and cuts Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother out of the wolf's belly. The wood where Hansel and Gretel are lost is the same wood where Snow White meets the seven dwarves.) Although each tale is told in a separate chapter, these little elements make the book feel like a whole, instead of chopped up stories bundled together randomly. I really appreciated that the book flowed beautifully from story to story.

One of the best things about the writing is that it asks some deeper questions of the classic fairy tales and answers them in a new way. (Why did Hansel and Gretel's parents really abandon them in the forest? How could an elegant princess fall in love with a smelly frog? ) The author takes the stories just a little deeper by looking at the roots of the characters' personalities and circumstances, bringing a new light into the fairy tales, but without making them too complex for young readers.

A complete delight to read!

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.

In this book Charles and Kate Sheridan are visiting the Duke of Marlborough, and they start investigating the disappearance of a housemaid. But the other guests are up to all sorts of hijinks, and it's difficult to sort out the clues from the red herrings.

The plot is a little thin and sometimes obvious, and every tiny detail is drawn out and repeated again and again. I do like the characters, and there is some good drama. I mostly enjoy reading about Charles and Kate doing their sleuthing, because they make such a sweet couple and a good team.

What the hay kind of bedtime story is this?!?! The last line reads, "In his rage, misfortune struck. So sad and horrible, that he could never forgive himself."
And that's it! That's the end. Everyone depressed and distraught forever. OMG, what is WRONG with this story?

The artwork is so lovely, so beautiful. Subtle colors and lines, pretty little details of forest flora and fauna. The beginning is whimsical and sweet as a little wolf travels through the forest to take a dead rabbit to his grandmother's house. He follows a butterfly, and explores a little mousey hole, and stops to look at a beetle.

Then it gets gross.

First of all, dead rabbit in every scene, just laying there in the basket, being dead and all. Also, the little wolf gets hungry and decides to eat just one of the rabbit feet as a snack. Oh, yum. Dead bloody rabbit feet. Never mind the bones.

Then he meets a mysterious little girl, who promises to help him, and in his childish innocence he is led away by her charms. And the plot gets very dark, and then it's just killing and murder and the evil past of the little girl's father, the Hunter, is explained. Macabre to the point that it was actually disturbing to read, and I'm an adult! I could never read this to a child!

The worst of it is, that even with this darkness in the story, I can see the potential for a happy resolution and the possibility of a little lesson about forgiving your enemies or something.

But instead, we are left with no real resolution, everybody is hateful and murderous, and the only lesson is that some people are just violent and there's nothing you can do except stay away from them. Which is certainly a good warning that applies to real life, but not what I want to read in a bedtime story.

Such a waste of beautiful illustrations.

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.

A cute little book about a middle-school girl, Griffin, who tries to return stolen wishes to their rightful owners before an evil curse catches up with her.

The plot is okay, but predictable and not exactly mind-blowing. The characters are good, but not really memorable. The writing is adequate, but nothing special.

I did like the theme about fighting off the evil inside of us, and not letting our anger or our circumstances turn us into a bad person. There's some great little lessons about good and evil, light and darkness, as Griffin thinks carefully about what it means to embrace the right and reject the evil in our lives.

One thing that I really liked about this book is that both of Griffin's parents are in the picture, talking to her, giving advice, showing up, and being a family. In so many books, children have no parents or only one parent or an absent parent, because it forces the protagonist to be more independent. It was lovely to see a normal healthy family that all get along, and support and love one another. It added so much depth to the plot and characters!

Valerie's sister is killed by the horrible Wolf. Valerie has to choose to marry the rich young blacksmith, or run away with her childhood friend, Peter, who is an outcast.

I'm DNFing this stupidity. Boring. Instalove of the worst kind. Mediocre writing. Rotten characters. Bleh.
I got to page 88, and had to quit. When they want to run away together, after having only exchanged about twenty words and one moonlit horseback ride, I'm done with this nonsense.

It also annoyed me that the girls run off in the middle of the night to the boys' camp to flirt with them. What was the point of that whole scene?