I found this book via a post on Facebook. It is a charity book with all proceeds going to help Celyn's hospice respite care, I believe. Celyn is only 8 years old, has Cerebral Palsey and can only communicate via an interface type board.
The book is not long but the story in it is fantastic and very entertaining. The hero is, as you would guess from the title, a mouse who zumms around in a special wheelchair (zumming is much faster than zooming!) The people are under threat from All The Crazy Robots. The robots do poos, they even do poos when they are flying. The robots poo on everything and everyone - and only Wheel-Mouse can save the day.
The story has everything a young reader, or youngster being read to would want (a heroic mouse, robots and poo - what more could you ask for). The book is illustrated by the author's dad and these illustrations are a delight which just add to the loveliness of the story.
After finishing the book I found my thoughts wandering back to it and to the author and when I think back I don't think of Celyn as a poorly little girl, I think of a little lady who would have been laughing her little socks off at the antics of Wheel-Mouse, the robots (and let's not forget all the poo).
If you can see it in your heart to download this book (77p) then thank you very much indeed (and don't worry if you don't have a child to share the story with -I'm 47 and I loved it.
Thursday 24 July 2014
Monday 14 July 2014
Treading On Dreams by Jeff Gardiner - a review
A feel good story of friendship, growing up and unrequited love.
Donny and Hazel are twins, close, as twins often are, but also different characterwise. The story centres around them moving to London to further their educations after A levels. The twins take lodgings with Jaz ( the landlord ) and Selene ( the gorgeous Selene, love of Donnys' life, woman of his dreams etc. etc ).
Jaz is everything Donny isn't. He is the life of the party, he is surrounded by friends, and he sleeps with women.....LOTS of women. Jaz takes Donny under his wing (whether he wants to be there or not) and so starts an eventually quite moving friendship.
But, at the heart of all this is Selene. Donny is in love with her from day one (or possibly before as she seems to be the embodiment of a character from a favourite book from his younger days). Unfortunately Selene is engaged to Melvin.....
This is very much a story built on strong characterisation - even the lesser characters like Hippy and Mule, friends of Jaz, come across well. Donny starts out as a naive and at times slightly Adrian Mole-ish type but grows into more of a maturity thanks to Jaz, who, in turn becomes a more likeable soul.
As I say, this is a story of growing up, friendship etc. I won't promise you happy endings, I won't promise you'll leave without a tear in the eye but what I will promise you is a good read, a good time with characters you would want to be friends with.
I was offered a copy of this story in exchange for a frank and honest review - and I'm glad I accepted it. I read the book on holiday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
5/5 stars
Donny and Hazel are twins, close, as twins often are, but also different characterwise. The story centres around them moving to London to further their educations after A levels. The twins take lodgings with Jaz ( the landlord ) and Selene ( the gorgeous Selene, love of Donnys' life, woman of his dreams etc. etc ).
Jaz is everything Donny isn't. He is the life of the party, he is surrounded by friends, and he sleeps with women.....LOTS of women. Jaz takes Donny under his wing (whether he wants to be there or not) and so starts an eventually quite moving friendship.
But, at the heart of all this is Selene. Donny is in love with her from day one (or possibly before as she seems to be the embodiment of a character from a favourite book from his younger days). Unfortunately Selene is engaged to Melvin.....
This is very much a story built on strong characterisation - even the lesser characters like Hippy and Mule, friends of Jaz, come across well. Donny starts out as a naive and at times slightly Adrian Mole-ish type but grows into more of a maturity thanks to Jaz, who, in turn becomes a more likeable soul.
As I say, this is a story of growing up, friendship etc. I won't promise you happy endings, I won't promise you'll leave without a tear in the eye but what I will promise you is a good read, a good time with characters you would want to be friends with.
I was offered a copy of this story in exchange for a frank and honest review - and I'm glad I accepted it. I read the book on holiday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
5/5 stars
Tuesday 1 July 2014
Blood Guilt by Ben Cheetham - a review
Welcome to the dark side of Sheffield in the first of Ben Cheetham's Steel City Thrillers.
Four years ago Harlan Miller was a Detective Inspector with a lot of promise, but losing his son in an accident sent him into a downward spiral. As we join him at the beginning his marriage is not in a good state, he is drinking and, in a drunken fight he kills a man.
He, serves his time but the Harlan Miller who emerges from his four year incarceration is a changed man - and not in a good way. He is haunted by his crime and tries to make amends to the wife of his victim but she will not forgive him.
Within days of his release a child is abducted, and the child just happens to be the son of the man Miller killed. The police are not getting anywhere and the mother turns to the only man who can possibly do anything to find her son, the man she hates more than any other - Harlan Miller.
This is not a book populated with nice characters. Miller is, at times, a wretched soul. He hates who he is, what he has become, but under the circumstances this makes him a more believable lead. He becomes a kind of vigilante, working outside the law but with the benefits of his time spent in the police force. He is not a nice man but he is not a bad man. He just wants to do what he feels he has to to make his life bearable. There is a lot of miserable despair, loathing and hate here but it adds to the atmosphere
As you would expect, the criminals range from the pathetic to the truly vile and evil. It is not a comfortable read, but it is a good one - I finished it in 3 days. There are red herrings a plenty, several twists (I believed I knew one of the culprits, and was feeling quite smug as Miller drove up to his house, but then he drove straight past it - I was wrong).
At the heart of this book is the Steel City itself, Sheffield (my home town, as well as the authors') in all its' dark, brooding, northern glory. It lends itself well to the story, and, as a reader, it makes a nice change to be spending time with characters in places you know well.
I wouldn't hesitate to give this story 4.1/2 out of 5 stars. There are at least 3 more Steel City Thrillers to come. The first, Angel of Death is out now (and will be reviewed here in the near future) and features a whole new set of characters at the start of a planned trilogy
Four years ago Harlan Miller was a Detective Inspector with a lot of promise, but losing his son in an accident sent him into a downward spiral. As we join him at the beginning his marriage is not in a good state, he is drinking and, in a drunken fight he kills a man.
He, serves his time but the Harlan Miller who emerges from his four year incarceration is a changed man - and not in a good way. He is haunted by his crime and tries to make amends to the wife of his victim but she will not forgive him.
Within days of his release a child is abducted, and the child just happens to be the son of the man Miller killed. The police are not getting anywhere and the mother turns to the only man who can possibly do anything to find her son, the man she hates more than any other - Harlan Miller.
This is not a book populated with nice characters. Miller is, at times, a wretched soul. He hates who he is, what he has become, but under the circumstances this makes him a more believable lead. He becomes a kind of vigilante, working outside the law but with the benefits of his time spent in the police force. He is not a nice man but he is not a bad man. He just wants to do what he feels he has to to make his life bearable. There is a lot of miserable despair, loathing and hate here but it adds to the atmosphere
As you would expect, the criminals range from the pathetic to the truly vile and evil. It is not a comfortable read, but it is a good one - I finished it in 3 days. There are red herrings a plenty, several twists (I believed I knew one of the culprits, and was feeling quite smug as Miller drove up to his house, but then he drove straight past it - I was wrong).
At the heart of this book is the Steel City itself, Sheffield (my home town, as well as the authors') in all its' dark, brooding, northern glory. It lends itself well to the story, and, as a reader, it makes a nice change to be spending time with characters in places you know well.
I wouldn't hesitate to give this story 4.1/2 out of 5 stars. There are at least 3 more Steel City Thrillers to come. The first, Angel of Death is out now (and will be reviewed here in the near future) and features a whole new set of characters at the start of a planned trilogy
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