The Isle of Ever by Jen Calonita

I really enjoyed this mysterious story.  Benny is great main character - I was interested in her life, and how things would work out for her.  Although it's a slower paced start, it's helpful to see her beginnings and the life she is coming from.  I had mixed feelings about her mum, but I suspect that's intentional.  I enjoyed the people that Benny makes friends with along the way too.  They're an interesting mix of characters, and seeing her friendships develop is great, knowing how isolated and friendless she was previously.  

The mystery is intriguing, and keeps the pace ramped up through the story, and although there is some jumping back and forth between timelines I found it wasn't confusing, and worked really well for the book.  I liked the people we meet in the previous timeline, and the way that what's happening is slowly revealed.

My only quibble would be the cliffhanger ending...I had obviously fully committed to the book because when I got to the end I was insanely cross that it ended where it did!  I know, it's part of a series, but I don't think I'd appreciated that at the start of reading, so it did leave me feeling incomplete.  But I guess the strength of my feeling goes to show how good the writing was!

With thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for my copy.

Danger at Dead Man's Pass by MG Leonard and Sam Sedgman

Back to the train detectives, and this was another enjoyable, fast-paced ride.  I did miss Uncle Nat a bit in this book as he had less of a role.  But the story was dark and mysterious, and I was so engrossed that when I had arranged to meet someone in town one afternoon I snuck into Waterstones before they arrived and found the book on the shelf so I could carry on reading a bit more!

These are great books for children who are confident readers, and for grown-ups who just enjoy a good story.

The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar

I'm not sure why this is being touted as the author's debut adult novel? Perhaps to make it stand out, and shelve it in a different place, away from his usual children's books. But it didn't read as being particularly adult - there are some sexual jokes, but nothing that stops it from being a story for teens. Perhaps they thought having a middle aged man as the main character would be off-putting for kids? I don't think so. He's interesting, he makes magical potions and falls off things and steps in horse poo and gets into scrapes...

Anyway, children or adult it doesn't really matter. It's an easy to read, and funny fantasy story. I liked Anatole, more than the Princess and her suitor (who annoyed me). I was more interested in Anatole's potions. But the issue I had with the story was, mainly, the resolution. It comes to a funny ending, all of a sudden, and because we have known about present day Anatole the whole way through, there are no surprises or reveals from that point of view. So then you wonder what the point of that aspect was, and if it made an impact on the rest of the story. I'm not sure it did, or not enough to warrant it. I'd thought we'd have some interesting reveal, that Anatole had discovered in present day, that then explained more of the past that we'd just read.
The pace starts to slow once it turns into a journey story, and then it suddenly winds itself up nd you find that there are some threads that are left unresolved (though hinted at). I came away from the book feeling very mixed. Perhaps if you go in knowing it's not really 'adult' fantasy fiction that would help, and there was a lot to like about the story. I just personally would have liked a tidier resolve.
With many thanks to Net Galley and the Publishers for my ARC.