Fairy Forest School: The Snowflake Charm – Olivia Brook ★★★★

May 9, 2023 bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; A magical fairy school series about helping animals and looking after nature, from the publisher of the best-selling series, Rainbow Magic!

Poppy Merrymoss is going on a school trip to the Magic Mountains with her best friends Ninad Cleardrop and Rose Seedpip. But evil Lady Nightshade (disguised as her teacher Ms Webcap) is coming too, and when the Snow Fairies magical Snowflake Charm is stolen, Poppy knows just who’s taken it. Without the charm, the snowflake fairies can’t use their magic to help the local Artic Foxes and the school trip is ruined!

Can Poppy, Ninad and Rose find the Snowflake Charm and reveal Ms Webcap’s evil identity before it’s too late?

Have you read Poppy Merrymoss’s previous adventures, Fairy Forest The Raindrop Spell and Fairy Forest Baby Bunny Magic?

My Review; An adorable read for any young girls. Fairies. Magic. Fairy school. In this story, the school goes on a trip, and the girls soon have to save the day and find the Snowflake Charm, which Lady Nightshade has stolen and hidden. Surely if they all work together they can save the day? Beautifully illustrated throughout. A great story. A well-deserved four stars from me.

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The First Move – Jenny Ireland ★★★★★

May 9, 2023 bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; Juliet believes girls like her – girls with arthritis – don’t get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends’ social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn’t just ‘the girl with crutches’.

Ronan is the new kid: good looking, smart, a bad boy plagued by guilt over what happened to his brother Ciaran. Chesslife is his escape; there, he’s not just ‘the boy with the brother’.

Juliet thinks Ronan thinks someone like Ronan could never be interested in someone like her – and she wouldn’t want him to be anyway because he always acts like he’s cooler than everyone else. Whereas, Ronan thinks life is already too complicated for dating and just wants to keep his head down at school.

Little do they know they’ve already discovered each other online, and have more in common than they think . . .

My review; This was such a cute, romantic story. It’s a YA/romance. A high school setting, enter Ronin, the new hot, moody guy, and everyone wants him. Meet Juliet, the girl with arthritis… The odd one out who has to use crutches to walk. This story is absolutely perfect in representing a disability at a young age and mixing that in with school, appointments, love, friends, and fake friends. Many characters in this story are battling their own problems at home. It’s an all-around beautiful story with a happy ending for everyone. Does involve a lot of online chess. I devoured this. Highly recommend. A well-deserved five stars from me. It is an easy, uplifting read.

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Bestsellers · Time travel

Before Your Memory Fades – Toshikazu Kawaguchi ★★★★

May 9, 2023 bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; The latest novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, following four new customers in a little Tokyo café where customers can travel back in time.

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafe comes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Café Funiculi Funicula’s time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Kawaguchi’s previous novels, readers will also be introduced to a daughter, a comedian, a sister, and a lover, each with something they wish they had said differently.

With his signature heartwarming characters and immersive storytelling, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?

My Review; I have loved the previous two books, so of course, I had to grab this. I devoured it. I loved it. We get four different stories in one book. All beautiful stories. Coming back to this cafe felt like coming home with all the familiar characters. It is best if they’re read in order but can easily work as standalone reads. Is you could travel back in time who would you visit? Highly recommend. A well-deserved four stars.

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