Clowfish by Alan Durant

In this book we meet Dak, who's just lost his dad and his mum has since withdrawn from life and is struggling to come to terms with him being gone.

The best thing for Dak is hanging out at the aquarium where his dad used to take him only as it threatens to be shut down, Dak must work together with Stephen and Violet who work there too only Dak wants to keep the aquarium open for a bigger reason, his dad is a clowfish in there...

So he believes as he doesn't want to move on and withdraws from school and life to stay at the aquarium with his dad and feel comforted by the fact he can stay and help try to save it by campaigning and raising money.

An emotional book detailing how grief can effect you in various ways from not accepting it, depression setting in and finding comfort in any way. A really thoughtful book and very unique.

A Taste Of Blue Light by Lydia Ruffles

This book focuses on the life of Lux and her friends Mei and Olivia. As well as Henry and Cal her two love interests through the book.

The main plot is that she can't recall what happened during the summer after she wakes up one day in hospital unable to remember just what has happened.

She attends an arts school and writes but after the brain injury, struggles to get back to herself.

Overall the main focus is on the sensitivity of the brain and injury whilst also looking into the cause in this case being a major event, a terrorist plot. It was an okay book but I didn't find it relatable in any way and found the first third of the book to be a drag.

I Found You by Lisa Jewell

Alice is in her forties, living up north after moving from her home in Brixton with her children, leaving her parents suffering Alzheimer's in full time care. She is able to run her unique map crafting business in peace by day to keep her family afloat.
Derry is her best friend she met through taking her children to school day in day out and worries for Alice when she takes in the possibly forty year old strange man she has watched sitting on the beach getting soaked by the pouring rain.

Carl is missing and Lily his new Ukranian wife is clueless how to find him when he doesn't exist on police database as reporting him missing.

Carl has no memory of who he is but goes with Alice and so becomes 'Frank', the mystery man.

Rabbit cottage has been Kirsty, Gray, Pam and Tony their mum and dad's holiday home full of happy memories year after year.
That is until stranger Mark starts hanging around Kirsty and Gray becomes suspicious of him.

Throughout the book, the story is unravelled around twenty years apart in actions to consequences to date.

Highly intoxicating reading, mysteries and questioning ahead when you pick this book up, you have to!

The Witch's Kiss & The Witch's Tears by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr

I never usually enjoy fantasy books, yet, these two have won me over!

Merry is a young witch, living with her brother, Leo and her mum. She and her gran have practised magic but her mum and brother don't her mum believes it is dangerous, which it is and can be as we find out.

An ancient love gone wrong between Gwydion who was unrequitedly in love with his childhood friend, Edith. Gwydion made the kingdom same and the reward was to be marriage to Edith, however, the king didn't want to allow the lower class Gwydion into royalty and so Edith marries Aiden and has a baby boy, Jack whom Gwydion places a curse on to be the King Of Hearts.

Merry and the neighbours around them who are magic including Merry's young friends, whom support Merry on what she is facing in that she needs to stop Gwydion and keep them all safe and unharmed.

An ancient parchment reveals to Merry and Leo, they need to go to the lake and retrieve the two puppet hearts which can stop Gwydion and the King Of Hearts from what they are doing which is stabbing people whom believe themselves to be in love.

It is at the Black Lake where Merry and Leo first encounter Jack, though they soon learn he has two sides, the evil killing side which he feels trying to take him over all the time yet he can be normal for bouts of time between it having control of him again. They learn how Gwydion controls Jack to make him obey him and Merry dreams of Jack as well as fancying him!

I'm not spoiling this book further but it was an enticing and gripping read I read in one afternoon and then read the next sequel in the evening!

The Witch's Tears is the sequel and this book focuses on Merry learning and failing still how to manage her magic and finally get it to work right for her.

We also see the arrival of some new male characters, Leo's new love interest, Ronan, whom steps in to stop Simon beating up Leo after he's come out as gay. Then we meet Finn whom ends up trapped in a protective spell cast on Merry and Leo's Grans home after she has disappeared mysteriously and so the main aim of the book is to find their Gran and stop the evil at work quite literally.

We soon learn of enchantment extractors whom steal wizard and witch magic have also killed Flo, Merry's friend so just whom has Merry and Leo's Gran and what are their plans?

The Witch's Tears being set only three months apart, shows how love and loss can be healed and then another form of the same issue can arise. Grief is big in the book and I expect more to come in the next book but I'm not going to spoil anymore of the plot in The Witch's Tears.

Many thanks to the publisher's for sending me The Witch's Tears!

 

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

For eighteen year old Alice, buying a lottery ticket for the first time she was shocked to hear just how much you could win, way, way up in the Millions.
Growing up since age nine with her cousin Leo's family after her parents passed away, Leo is like a brother and she looks out for him through all his boyfriend issues alike he looks out for her back with her college application and her huge crush on Teddy their other friend whom she buys the lottery ticket for as it's his eighteenth birthday.

The next day after the draw all their lives have changed and a kiss between Teddy and Alice keep us rooting for their budding romance.

Teddy does buy a lot and get swept up into the media spotlight and for a start, his gambling father reappears however Alice can spot trouble ahead after all the bad in hers and Teddy's pasts.

The novel was beautifully written and showed the good and bad of a young lottery win but proves that romance can hide itself well until situations reveal the real you to each other and you support each other through huge life changes.

It's heartwarming and a lovely read about the issues of gambling, luck, love and loss.

Many thanks to the publishers allowing me to review it for them!

Paper Butterflies by Lisa Heathfield

At the start of this book, I was curious as to what was happening as our main character June pees herself on the school bus after drinking two cups of water given to her by Kathleen, who forbids her from going to the toilet. It becomes clear soon enough to us that her mum, Loretta drowned in the river by where she used to live with her mum and dad when she was younger.

As I read on through the book I found that the story was set between modern day and the events over the past few years of her life growing up from being ten to an elder teen. In the modern time, she meets Reverend Shaw and Mickey.

As the story continues, June receives a bike, her slip of freedom from Kathleen and her daughter Megan who submit June to a life of torturous abuse as well as force feeding, threatening behaviour most days just because of her race it is implied.

Whilst biking through the woods at a young eleven years old, she meets Blister, as she admires his paper shapes hanging up inside the family caravan, his parents Mr and Mrs Wick's and their array of adopted children. Their child Tom is also a sufferer of cystic fibrosis which comes up throughout the story.

June and Blister grow closer as the years go on and he is the only one who knows what her horrid home life is like. June can pretty much forget about the abuse when she's with Blister, but some events do of course trigger her to panic and have her memories effect her full force. A few brief events that occur are that at age thirteen June is bitten by snake, we witness step sister bully Megan lose best friend Anne. At fourteen June kisses Blister on his cheek as he made her paper butterflies. At fifteen the school bullying she has endured for years is still worsening as she and Blister try to go to a sixteenth birthday party after June gets a random invite which is a set up to embarrass June further in school. Blister and June endure a lot in this book as Blister is June's obvious only confidante in everything. But still a love grows which keeps June going through everything. As she grows up she faces situations at home with more guts and force but still her dad grows further away from her and unaware of the hidden problems poor June has faced.

This book is a great novel on discussing forms of trust, types of abuse, friendship, bullying and of course love.