Review: The Starlight Watchmaker

The Starlight Watchmaker by Lauren James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An abandoned android scrapes a living as a watchmaker on an intergalactic campus. He's lonely but content until the day a fast paced duke comes to his door, demanding help. Everything will change if they succeed in their mission.


I've read several Lauren James novels, but I think I'm most impressed by this one. The others were all amazing reads, but this is so imaginative; butterflies riding bicycles, living (but mini) planets and underwater species living on algae are just a few of the delights here. Lauren has been on my instabuy list since The Loneliest Girl in the Universe but she is now firmly ensconced there. The characters are fantastic and the whole story rattles along at a wonderful speed; not so fast we're lost, not so slow we're bored. This is going to be a great one to add to her portfolio.



I received a proof copy and chose to write an honest review.

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Review: Arctic Zoo

Arctic Zoo by Robert Muchamore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Muchamore is an excellent writer. There's no denying that. This book has adventure, politics, lessons about drone racing and young offender's institutes. But it just wasn't riveting, at least for me. It took the two storylines far too long to come together, so it was more like reading two different books, and they didn't really affect each other much in the end.

There was nothing wrong with it. The prose is brilliant, the characters were good. As always in Muchamore's stories, the violence happens often and is well described, and he'd clearly put a lot of thought into the politics of his little slice of Nigeria. But it's a long way from the highs of the CHERUB series. I'll keep reading him, but I'm not sure we'll ever get that high again.

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Review: Heartstream

Heartstream by Tom Pollock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cat's dating a member of the hottest boyband around...maybe. And Amy's the hottest streamer on Heartstream, the app that lets other people literally feel your emotions. Both think they've experienced the dark side of fandom. But they haven't seen anything yet.


Where to start with this one? First of all, it does not have the tear your hair out ending that White Rabbit, Red Wolf had, so rest easy on that. Not everything is tied up by the end, but it's enough.

Second, I like this view of fandom; that it can be the best place ever, an amazingly supportive family who will bear you up and support you...so long as you follow the rules. I've been on the edge of some of those fandoms, and they can be hideous or wonderful. Often both at once. It's beautifully portrayed here.

Third, I kind of started to get an inkling about what was going on about halfway through, but I had to keep adjusting my thoughts and shifting things around. Tom is amazing at giving you enough information to keep you guessing but not enough to figure things out, but not so little you get bored. I've no idea how he does it.

Fourth, a small amount of violence and gore, be careful.

Fifth, read it. Get two copies and give one to someone else.



I received an ARC and chose to review it honestly.


Panic and despair welled up in me. I suddenly remembered being tony, maybe four or five, and losing Mum in the bustle of a supermarket, and running up and down the aisles of cereal and vegetables and frozen meat frantically searching for her and not finding her and battling against the growing conviction she was gone, gone, and I was never getting her back, and tears springing up hot in my throat because it was my fault, because she told me to keep hold of her hand.

This felt exactly like that, only edged in a leaden despair, because I knew it would never end, because there was no bored girl with a supermarket PA system who could call her to the customer information desk from where she'd gone now. And then I was back watching the burning house, and then...

And then I sort of lost touch with myself.

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