Mr Fennelly’s Book Reviews

  🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🔅  9/10 My daughters received a signed copy of this book via Toppsta.com along with a copy of the first book in the Cursebreaker series. After reading and thoroughly enjoying the first book,  A Curse So Dark and Lonely , I was really looking forward to reading this book and intrigued as to how Brigid Kemmerer would continue the story. After an initially slow start, mainly due to the introduction of some new characters and the new kingdom of Syhl Shallow, it soon recreates the fantastic storytelling of the first book. The stakes are different and the characters adapt greatly due to various circumstances throughout the book, at times you want to hate some that you previously admired and vice versa. I would definitely recommend this book for children and adult alike.

  🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🔅🔅 8/10 My daughters received a copy of this book via Toppsta.com along with a signed copy of the second book in the Cursebreaker series. I chose to read it too as the blurb sounded intriguing. It is essentially a twist on the tale of Beauty and the Beast set partially in the ‘real world’ but mostly in Brigid Kemmerer’s intriguing fantastical setting, the kingdom of Emberfall. The chapters are all titled with the name of the character whose narrative is used. This cleverly removes any potential confusion as the story switches between the perspectives of the two main characters, Harper and Rhen, enabling them both to show their own point of view in their respective chapters. A fantastic story which I thoroughly enjoyed with a few unexpected twists and an ending that leaves the reader wanting more.

🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲 10/10 (Although I am biased with this one) My 8yr old twin daughters Isabelle & Alana ‘launched’ a choose your own adventure story book. They wrote most of it themselves (with a few chapters completed by slightly bigger people to keep the magic of the story for them to enjoy too). You can experience the adventure yourself at the link below: Search for the Dragon’s Realm We hope you enjoy!

  🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🔅 9/10 I wasn’t too sure what to expect initially, would a story about a horse during the First World War keep me wanting to read? Definitely! I found it to be fantastically written and surprisingly fast-paced and captivating with many twists and turns throughout. It is an emotional story from the beginning. As to be expected with a war story, there is a great deal of loss along the way with Morpurgo’s writing connecting you instantly to his likeable characters, making some of these losses that much more personal and real. Overall an amazing, thought provoking novel that I would gladly revisit in the future.

🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🐲🔅🔅🔅   7/10 I listened to the audiobook version of Clare Weze’s The Lightning Thief, narrated by Oseloka Obi, for free courtesy of NetGalley. I initially chose this to read as the cover artwork by Paddy Donnelly really caught my attention. There are many interesting aspects to this story, ranging from the mysterious weather and equally mysterious Whizzy to entertain, whilst also having serious undertones involving racism, eating disorders, bullying, the justice system and various ways that people are viewed simply for being different. During the story, Alfie’s friendships and familial relationships are tested due to secrets being kept and despite him wanting to do the right thing. I have seen this novel compared to Skellig, which I believe to be an apt comparison, updated for the modern age. A thoroughly enjoyable read and definitely one I’d like to use within my teacher training.