Scookie Reviews

OCTAVIA BLOOM AND THE MISSING KEY by Estelle Grace Tudor 5 Stars Verdict : A beautiful book, through and through.  When eccentric Great Aunt Clara comes to stay in the Bloom's family castle, Octavia learns she's the keeper of the key for a magical fairyland. However, her family has a secret, one that involves finding rare flowers in order to break a curse. Although Octavia should protect fairyland and stay in the human world, the last flower to break the curse can only be found through the door.  Octavia is clever and mischievous, so she's the perfect heroine for this tale. Her sister Fliss is protective and caring, making her a great side kick for this first book. I hear from the author that each book will focus on a different character, so this is Octavia's chance to shine.   I loved Great Aunt Clara and Grandma. They're the sisters who were the past keepers of fairyland who have very different ideals about the hidden world, and they bounced off each other well. T...

THE CHILD OF CHAOS by Glen Dahlgren 5 Stars Verdict: A gritty and original fantasy based around Order and Chaos.  Galen has a wild imagination and doesn't want to end up a fisherman like his father. However, he doesn't seem to possess the 'longing' needed to belong to a temple and perform magic. Instead he has a different pull, one that might be responsible for his mother going missing. What's more is his bully, Horace, has the same longing and will go to extreme lengths to be first to find the cause of it.  I really enjoyed reading this book from start to finish.   Galen is a typical hero who's brave and has a good moral compass. He doesn't quite fit in with the labels his world forces on him, and there's something calling him to adventure out into the world, possibly to go missing forever like his mother.  My favourite thing about this book was Horace. He's a young yet ruthless villain, a fast thinker, clever, brutal - and damaged. He's haunted...

This middle grade fantasy tale is just perfect for this time of year, so I decided to make a video review. I'm still getting into the swing of things but hopefully this will cover everything you might want to know before choosing this book, and of course, no spoilers! Watch on YouTube and subscribe!

A PINCH OF MAGIC by Michelle Harrison 5 Stars Verdict: An original witchy tale.  Betty Widershins and her two sisters are cursed never to leave the gloomy island that has always been their home. For an adventurous girl like Betty, that will never do! When each sister receives a magical heirloom, they set out to break the curse, starting with the possibly haunted Crowstone prison.   The book cover might look gorgeous, but the author does a fantastic job of building up a gloomy marshland as the backdrop of this spooky witch tale. It's very atmospheric.  The three ruff and tumble sisters make quite the team as they try to break the Widdershins curse. Each sister has a different personality: Betty the adventurous, Fliss the caring, and Charlie the cheeky. The sisters have a lovely bond which makes this book feel that little bit more special.  It's a fun, magical story that's easy to breeze through, and unlike any story I've read before. It ends in a satisfying...

BRITFIELD AND THE LOST CROWN by C.R. Stewart 4 Stars Verdict: A thrilling adventure across England of all places! Our story begins in Weatherly Orphanage, Yorkshire, a dingy place with strict rule and cruel staff. It quickly turns into an adventure to Oxford, London, Southampton - all across England in a hot air balloon as orphan Tom tries to discover the dangerous truth behind his real name.  The story doesn't waste time getting started, with Tom and his friend Sarah getting into all sort of trouble, discovering secrets and initiating plans within the first couple of chapters. It has a old classic feel without that old classic pace, and I think I would have enjoyed this story a lot as a child. It often reminded me of books read aloud by teachers on a Friday afternoon, so I wasn't surprised to find that's exactly what it is. It's has a good paced too, sneaking in snippets of history, literature, and architecture in a ways that's engaging. It's full of famous la...

UNDERCOVER PRINCESS by Connie Glynn 4 Stars Verdict: A light and colourful read Lottie is a hardworking student at Rosewood boarding school, who loves tiaras, the colour pink, and fairy tales. Ellie is the rebellious princess of Maradova, who joined the school to shirk her royal duties and listen to heavy metal. When a misunderstanding has all of Rosewood believing that Lottie is the princess of Maradova, the girls use this as an opportunity to swap lives, one gaining freedom, and the other gaining her fairy tale wish. This was just what I needed after a dry spell of reading - something light and imaginative, with vivid descriptions and a fast moving plot. It's a happy book about friendship, princesses, and protecting others, and the many references to fairy tales woven into the plot make it a very charming book. Even when the princess begins receiving anonymous threats, the events never feel too dark and serious. Instead they feel more like a mystery to solve. The thr...

SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT by Derek Landy 5 Stars Verdict : Fun, weird, and magical - what's not to like? In short, it’s a fun MG book. It has humour and a jovial spirit running through its pages, getting serious at times when it needs to, but never feeling like a heavy weight of despair and angst that comes with YA. A welcome change from my normal genre! I love how there's a quirky spin on the story. A thirteen year old girl inherits her strange uncle's house, bumps into a walking talking skeleton with magical powers, and the two team up to beat the bad guys from acquiring ultimate power. They both have a good sense of humour, which made it a fantastic read. Fun, weird, and magical sums it up the best. At times I felt the high amounts of action would be better placed in a film than a book, and the description tended to be at a minimal, but I liked this book a lot. I like how it’s different, standing out from the large heap of books I’ve swept my eyes through lately....

FAIRY KEEPER by Amy Bearce 4 stars Verdict: Young girls will love this one! Shorten blurb: Forget cute fairies in pretty dresses. In the world of Aluvia, most fairies are more like irritable, moody insects. Almost everyone in the world of Aluvia views the fairy keeper mark as a gift, but not fourteen-year-old Sierra. She hates being a fairy keeper. Fairy nectar can heal people, but it is also a key ingredient in synthesizing Flight, an illegal elixir that produces dreaminess, apathy and hallucinations. She’s forced to care for a whole hive of the bee-like beasties by her Flight-dealing, dark alchemist father. Then one day, Sierra discovers the fairies of her hatch are mysteriously dead. The fairy queen is missing. Her father’s Flight operation is halted, and he plans to make up for the lost income by trading her little sister to be an elixir runner for another dark alchemist, a dangerous thug. Desperate to protect her sister, Sierra convinces her father she can retrieve the...

A WHISPER OF WOLVES by Kris Humphrey 3 Stars Verdict: Quick and cheerful middle grade read. Easy on the eyes. When a raven drops a white feather at the doorstep on the day of your birth, it is a symbol of your destiny. You are a Whisperer – a guardian of the wild. After many years of peace in the kingdom of Meridina, rumours are spreading of a planned invasion – could the demonic Narlaw be returning from the darklands? It is up to the Whisperers and their animal companions to defend Meridina, protect Princess Ona and stop the Narlaw from destroying their world. When hunters from her village disappear without a trace, Alice suspects that something sinister is at work. With the help of Storm, her wolf companion, Alice fights to save her village. The Narlaw are on the attack and it’s up to the Whisperers to stop them… ~*~ This is a very high three stars from me, especially towards the end, but I just couldn’t bring myself to give it four. The main problem for the both of...

NIGHTBIRD by Alice Hoffman 4 Stars Verdict : For a smooth Sunday afternoon. Twig lives in a remote area of town with her mysterious brother and her mother, baker of irresistible apple pies. A new girl in town might just be Twig's first true friend, and ally in vanquishing an ancient family curse. A spellbinding tale of modern folklore set in the Berkshires, where rumours of a winged beast draw in as much tourism as the town's famed apple orchards. The reason why I thought Sunday afternoon is because it’s a light and nice way to end your week before Monday comes and drags you from your bed. It’s a book that made me feel happy, and that’s not what I’m  usually drawn to in a novel... And isn’t it refreshing to read a story mainly about friendship and sibling love, rather than romance? While it’s middle grade, I found it akin to Peace and Conflict by Irene Sabatini – a book anyone could enjoy. A child narrator doesn’t necessarily limit the novel to a child audience, a...

A Grimm Legacy by Janna Jennings Verdict : 2 stars Verdict : Middle grade, imaginative, but I’d recommend other novels. Enchanted castles and charming princes thought to exist only in stories come to life in this classically twisted fairy tale that combines the timeless quality of folktales with the challenges of the modern world.  The woods of Elorium appear ordinary to Andi… until the birds start to talk and elves answer doors. Whisked out of her world along with three strangers, Andi finds herself the reluctant guest of Mr. Jackson, a perplexing millionaire who claims to be able to help them get home. The secrets he harbors, however, make it difficult to know just who to trust. When the group of teenagers discover that in this new world, fiction is anything but, and that they all have unexpected family ties to this fairy tale land, they must learn to rely on each other. The only way to survive evil fairies and giants intent on keeping them in Elorium is to rely on each ...