The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists by Gideon Defoe

Series: The Pirates!, Book One

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: Paperback

Number of Pages: 224

Published: 5^th January 2012

Book: For Review*

Genre: Action-Adventure, Humour, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, YA, YA-Adult Crossover

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Silly Violence, Death, Pirate Grog and Pirate Swearing

No Drug References

Author's Site: Gideon Defoe

It is 1837, and for the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain and his rag-tag pirate crew, life on the high seas has become a little dull.  With nothing to do but twiddle their hooks and lounge aimlessly on tropical beaches, the Captain decides it’s time they had an adventure.

A surprisingly successful boat raid leads them to the young Charles Darwin, in desperate need of their help.  And so the pirates set forth to London in a bid to save the scientist from the evil machinations of a diabolical Bishop.  There they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, the Elephant Man – and have an exciting trip to the zoo.

                                                                   Review:

The pirates are getting bored of lounging about on beaches, choosing between yummy fruits and seeing the native women wandering about topless.  Therefore, the Pirate Captain decides it’s time to set sail… for an adventure! 

But after accidently attacking Charles Darwin’s ship, the pirates agree to help the desperate young scientist, and go to London.  They have to rescue Charles’ brother from a diabolical Bishop and get Mister Bobo, the Man-panzee, accepted in high society.  And once on land, they are distracted by the zoo, Coco Pops and a Pirate – sorry, Pork Convention.  To make their trip worse, there are a series of horrible murders, and disappearing women.  Quite the adventure!

I love pirates, mainly thanks to Pirates of the Caribbean!  But I wasn’t expecting to LOVE this!  And I really did.  It had a totally juvenile yet grown up sense of humour, that I think both young and old could enjoy.  And how can you not fall in love with a bonkers book with bonkers characters and a wonderfully bonkers plot?  It was just laugh-out-loud funny and totally appealed to my somewhat immature sense of humour.  Bring on Book Two please! …  OR walk the plank!

The Pirate Captain (and yes, that is the only name given to him!) was respected by all his pirates, was “married to the sea” (and not because he couldn’t get a girlfriend or was a “gay pirate”) and had a fantastic beard!  Bonkers, dramatic and, well, bonkers, he was just a hilarious character – one who had me constantly laughing.  A dumb genius, if you ask me!

Now, cast from your mind the distinguished Charles Darwin from the science books!  Meet the young, shy Charles, here to present to you the Man-panzee!  No theory of evolution for this Darwin, just a theory that a properly trained money, in the right clothes, is indistinguishable from a human gentleman.  Not the one you remember?  Well, me either.  But it was hilarious!

The Bishop of Oxford: a diabolical man, who was even worse with women than the pirate with a scarf.  Which is saying something!

The writing was brilliant! It was totally addictive and laugh-out-loud funny.  Written in a way both teens and adults can enjoy, it’s a great book for everyone!  And so funny!  Somehow – God know how – Defoe has managed to take what ought to be gruesome and ruthless and turn it into something hilarious and bonkers.  I have no idea how, but it was amazing!  And I just adored the footnotes – some seemed to be real facts, others were just ridiculously funny!  Wonderfully simple, with a not-so-subtle-at-times adult humour, the writing was just perfect! 

The plot was… well, bonkers.  In its insanity, it was impossible to tell where the story was going.  Unpredictable and pure insanity, the plot was as addictive as the sense of humour!  I wanted to know how Darwin’s Man-panzee would work out.  I wanted to see what the diabolical Bishop would get up to.  I wanted to know how the Pirate Caption kept his beard so shiny!  Well, maybe not that last one.  But the story (and the silly pirate fights) were bananas and ever amusing.

Overall, this book was just totally bonkers!  The characters, the writing, the plot… the fact that the pirate with gout somehow managed to survive being “run through” with a sword.  The pirate habits and pastimes and bonkers arguments just had me cracking up.  And the variety of pirates, from “the pirate dressed in green”, “the albino pirate” to the “pirate with a nut allergy”, all of which were hilarious and, well, bonkers. (Are you starting to grasp the general theme of this book?) 

A funny, bonkers, light-hearted read of silliness.  The Pirates was an utterly addictive book, about dim and insane pirates with a passion for ADVENTURE… and ham.  And mermaids who put out.  Overall, this was a fun read that had me laughing out loud and hooked to every page.  (Get it?  Hooked?  Because they’re pirates?  I’ll stop making jokes now.)  A brilliantly bonkers book, I would definitely pick up Book Two!

Star Rating:
4¼ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

The Pirates of the Caribbean Movies

Fifteen Days Without a Head by Dave Cousins

Chocolate S.O.S (Jess Jordan, Book Six) by Sue Limb

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2012 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Happy Reading

British Books Challenge 2012 (Hosted by The Overflowing Library)

Megan

* This book was received from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review

Chocolate S.O.S by Sue Limb

Series: Jess Jordan, Book Six

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: Paperback

Published: 5^th January 2012

Number of Pages: 304

Book: For Review*

Genre: Realistic-Fiction, Humour, Chick-Lit, Contemporary, Romance, Pre-Teen, YA, YA-Child Crossover

Recommended Age: 9+

Contains: Mild Swearing and Dangerously Short Chapters

No Alcohol, Drug References

Author's Site: Sue Limb

Jess has broken up with Fred, though really she is waiting for him to come to her door and beg to get back together again.  But is that the sort of thing Fred would do?  He has said himself that he hads no backbone…  Meanwhile, a gorgeous boy has moved in next door and, to Jess’s mingled horror and delight, is making it very, very obvious that he would like to be a lot closer than next door…  Surely, now, Fred will be driven, in a fit of jealousy, to sweep Jess back off her feet?  Won’t he?

Fans of Jess Jordan will be thrilled to have a new Fred and Jess story, full of Sue Limb’s very funny take on early teenage life and problems.

Review:

A clumsy heroine, a cowardly ex, a bubbly girl chasing said ex and a hot guy next door.  A recipe for disaster?  Definitely where Jess Jordan is concerned!

Jess has just dumped Fred.  Why?  Because he dumped her in the deep end, leaving her to organist a charity dinner all by herself before turning up and stealing the show!  But really, all Jess is waiting for is for Fred to perform a chivalrous act to win her back.  Only, soon, over-enthusiastic Jodie has her eyes set on Fred, and Jess is furious.  But then… hottie Luke moves in next door.  Can getting Fred back really be as easy as making him jealous?  Well, Jess will find out soon, that’s for sure!

I’m not sure how I thought I would find this one.  I guess I was thinking that, being oh-so-mature myself, I wouldn’t find Chocolate S.O.S quite as funny as I did.  But the wonderful and wacky range of characters were ever amusing – even the gloomy, scary Mr Barclay.  Yes: what I got was a book that really did make me laugh myself silly.  With a loveable lead gal, a hot boy-next-door and a “spineless” ex-boyfriend, with a love square like no other, Chocolate S.O.S was really funny!  In other words: an awesome book!

Jess Jordan was funny – and kind of a drama queen!  She was really, hilariously snarky and rather absent-minded.  But I loved that she was also a really quick thinker, because it made her really imaginative and witty.  In social situations, Jess really did have to be the unluckiest person ever, and sometimes her own worst enemy.  I mean, sometimes she believed her own lies!  Clutzy, eccentric, bonkers and melodramatic, Jess Jordan was hilarious!  She absolutely killed me!  But I could also tell that Fred had really hurt her and she still really loved him…  Though, her not-thinking-about-Fred routines were absolutely bananas and really funny!

Flora Barclay was the best friend: sweet, supportive.  I loved Flo: she was such a good friend!  Poor Flo’s family was having a little bit of a crisis, and even though she did have a few minor saying-things-wrong crises, I knew she really loved Jess and that she was, as I said before, really sweet.

I got an outsiders view of Fred Parsons: having not read the books before (except for one before my blogging-days), I was purely judging Fred based of Chocolate S.O.S.  I must admit, he baffled me for a while.  He had the weirdest way of delivering compliments, and he seemed rather spiteful and odd.  I couldn’t figure him out, couldn’t tell what he was thinking.  Did he still love Jess?  Did he just not care?  What I did know what that he was absolutely hilarious – sarcastically and ironically funny.  He was in his own words a coward, but I think, really, he’s just shy and maybe insecure.

Luke Appleton, Jess’ new next-door neighbour, was cute, great at cooking and surfing, plus he had a cute smile…  He was really polite, but also really confident: rather (in Jess’ own words): “daring and unexpected” in his actions.  In my opinion, Luke was wonderfully bonkers and really funny, rather pushy and unpredictable – in a good way.  But I found myself wondering more and more what his past was, ‘cause I’m still not sure about the story he gave us…

Luke and Jess were so cute together.  They really made me laugh!  Dressing up as vamps, chasing each other: they were like little kids!  And they wanted zombie babies on leads…  And now I do too!

Jodie was a bit of a drama queen, as well as being really loud mouthed and energetic.   Almost annoyingly so.  She was occasionally sweet – ok, normally, always sweet, but as she’s after Fred and Jess doesn’t like her for that, I don’t like her either. 

I love the family dynamics in this, the range.  You have Jess’ close-knit, cosy family.  The relaxed librarian mother, the sweet, funny, totally loveable gay father and the homicidal-obsessed grandmother (on TV, not in real life!  She was hilarious, slightly inappropriate and really sweet!).  The ideal family, all of whom felt so, so real to me: I just loved them!  You also have Flora’s more privileged family, with her stern father and graceful mother.  Luke’s family was also really lovely: just him and his dad, both of them really close.  Still not sure about his Mum… something makes me think the story he gave isn’t the truth…

I really do not read enough funny books.  Chocolate S.O.S made me realise that I can’t remember the last book I read that can be classed under comedy.  Shocking, seeing as I do love a good laugh!

And I found Chocolate S.O.S hilarious!  Jess was brilliant, Fred was snarky-funny, and all the other characters were funny in one way or another. But the scene that killed me most was one between Luke and Jess, when they were discussing how a fictional guy would kill his fictional girlfriend.  I was almost crying by the time that scene had finished!  Somehow Sue managed to portray various dramas in a way that cracked me up – even when I probably shouldn’t be laughing!  I found myself laughing at the silliest little every-day chore: Jess was just so bonkers and funny!

The writing was stunning!  Normally, I’m not keen on the 3^rd person, but I loved the way this was written!  I totally got to know Jess and quickly fell in love with her wacky personality.  I felt what she did, although my sympathy and cringing were usually accompanied by rather a lot of giggling.  I love Sue’s writing: simple, teen and completely hilarious!  As for Jess’ tips on getting over your ex… they were absolutely hilarious!  And so original!  (Lots of choccie involved, of course!)

Now, the chapters are dangerously short: be warned!  The kind of short where you go: ‘oh, five pages…  It’s only midnight!’  And you end up reading the whole book!  I read the book in one day, one day only, with many breaks to do your everyday stuff.  It was addictive, hilarious and pure awesome!  I loved every moment: even the cringey bits!  The bonkers-ness is just irresistible!  I can’t wait for Jess’ next book!

And if you want to learn how to write laugh-out-loud literature, pop over tomorrow - Sue's giving us a guest post as part of her blog tour!  I can't wait!

Star Rating:
4 Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Jess Jordan Series by Sue Limb
Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison

Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter

Or Anything by Sarah Dessen, Meg Cabot or Jacqueline Wilson

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

Happy Reading

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2012 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

YA Contemporary Challenge 2012 (Hosted by Reading Angel & Katie's Book Blog)

British Books Challenge 2012 (Hosted by The Overflowing Library)

Megan

* This book was received from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review

Marshmallow Skye by Cathy Cassidy

Series: The Chocolate Box Girls, Book Two

Publisher: Puffin

Format: Hardcover

Published: 1^st September 2011

Number of Pages: 256

Book: For Review From Penguin*

Genre: Realistic-Fiction, Chick-Lit, Humour, Coming-of-Age, Ghosty, Children’s-YA-Crossover, YA

Recommended Age: 9+

Contains: Nothing Unsuitable

No Alcohol, Drug References

Author's Website: Cathy Cassidy

The Chocolate Box Girls

Each sister has a different story to tell, which one will be your favourite?

Skye

Wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, smiley, individual, eccentric, kind…

Skye and Summer Tanberry are identical twins, and Skye loves her sister Summer more than anyone else in the world.  They do everything together, but lately Skye’s been feeling like second-best – it’s the story of her life.  And when her friend Alfie confesses he’s fallen for Summer, not her, it hurts.

Skye wants to be her own person, but with an effortlessly cool twin, how can she?  Will Skye ever step out of Summer’s shadow and find her own chance to shine?

                                                                   Review:

Skye Tanberry feels like she’s constantly living in her identical twin’s shadow.  Skye loves Summer more than anything… But she’s tired of feeling second best, like a mirror girl.  So when Skye finds a trunk full of beautiful old clothes, belonging to a long-dead relative, she sees an opportunity to be different.  Only, when she tries the dresses on, she has dreams.  Dreams that feel real.  Dreams in which she doesn’t feel herself…  Dreams in which she is Clara Travers, her dead relative, dead by suicide….  And then she finds herself falling in love with an equally long-dead gypsy boy – a boy who probably is just a figment of her imagination…  But is he?  After all, Clara did love a young gypsy boy…

Marshmallow Skye was a beautiful, heart-warming, chocolate-filled story about finding yourself – with a scrummy side of an impossible romance, a tragic death, finding freedom – whether from a cage or your family – and a wonderful supernatural twist.  And I was lift feeling all warm and squidgy inside – much like the namesake sweeties, marshmallows.  I loved this book.  I’m now desperate for Cherry Crush and Book Three.  Whoever’s story it may be, I know – I know – it will be fantastic.  (Fingers crossed for Honey, by-the-way.)  Plus… Too Cute!

Skye Tanberry was wonderful, rather mature and really sweet.  I just instantly fell in love with her voice, her kindness, how devoted she was to her twin.  She was addicted to history, something I loved – plus her fashion sense was awesome: history inspired!  She was kind of a realist, but she was so supportive and caring.  But poor Skye felt like she was living in Summer’s shadow, like she was second best and always would be.  How wonderful she thought her twin was just ate away her confidence.  She was sometimes jealous of Summer – I mean, she felt like the “shadow twin”, useless and dull compared to Summer.  I felt so sorry for her.  Because she wasn’t.  She was wonderful.  I loved Skye! 

Her twin Summer was quiet, confident and addicted to ballet.  She was also a real feminist – woman power means that boys and romance equals trouble.  But she wasn’t nearly as supportive of Skye as Skye was for her.  She just didn’t understand that some things were as important to Skye as ballet was to her.  I think she thought that identical twins were identical in all ways, and she struggled when she realises that wasn’t true.  At one point, I wanted to just yell at Summer and shake her, like: “can’t you see how much you are hurting Skye?!”  But then, she just changed in my eyes.  I love characters that do that – that become so strong you just can never tell where they’re going. 

Skye and Summer were identical twins.  The first thing they did when they were born was hold hands (how cute?).  They finished one another’s sentences, felt what the other felt.  But recently, everything had changed.  It had always been “we”; now there was “you” and “me”.  It was so interesting seeing how the twin whole twin-thing works and how their relationship developed,

The rest of the sisters were vastly different from one another – each felt like they had their own distinct personality.  Fourteen-year-old Honey, who used to be the “coolest sister” ever, but since the whole Cherry-Shay and Dad-moving-to-Australia, had been “off the rails”.  Even though she wasn’t always ‘likeable’, I really liked how she said what she thought.  Cherry Costello, the new sister, was really sweet and really worried about fitting it.  Cherry was super smart and wise and cool.  I loved her!  Eleven-year-old Coco was cute: all hyper and rather funny.  She was really excitable, bouncy, cheerful, and full of life.  Plus: animal mad – I like this kid!

Finally, Alfie Anderso: the class clown – cheerful, a joker, who played – bad – practical jokes.  Gotta give it to the boy: he was darn determined.  Stubborn bordering on stupidity.  And he was so, so cute – and hilarious!  Love him! 

The whole story was just wonderfully writing.  It really felt like a teen – I could feel Skye, if that makes any sense.  Sometimes it did feel a little formal.  But, in my opinion, that was Skye.  She wasn’t your average teen.  She’s special and unique and the writing was her.  It was so beautiful.  And I just loved the supernatural aspects to the story.  The dreams of Skye’s: ghostly memories or the imaginings of an overactive imagination?  Either way, so cool and really interesting.  Personally?  Leanin’ towards the paranormal.  Call me a Mulder but… some of the things?  Real spooky and way too coincidental…

I have no clue what it was, but I was addicted to Marshmallow Skye.  I didn’t want to put it down.  It was heart-warming, sad, hauntingly beautiful, perfect and super moreish.  It didn’t have me on the edge of my seat; I wasn’t scared out of my mind.  It was a sweet, 100% addictive story, with some pretty great psychological suspense woven in there, that had just left me wanting more Cathy, more Skye, Summer, Cherry…  I can see why Cassidy is a “Queen of Teen”.

P.S. I loved the little pictures at the start of each chapter.  So cute, and really pretty!

Star Rating:
4½ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Cherry Crush by Cassie Cassidy (Or Anything By Cassidy, Really)

Drawing With Light by Julia Green

My Sister Jodie by Jacqueline Wilson

Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)
British Book Challenge (Hosted by The Bookette)

Happy Reading

Megan

* This book was received from Penguin in exchange for an honest review

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Format: Paperback

Published: 9^th August 2011

Number of Pages: 352

Book: For Review From Bloomsbury*

Genre: Realistic-Fiction, Humour, Contempory, Magical-Realism, Family, Romance, YA, YA-Middle Grade Crossover, YA-Adult Crossover

Recommended Age: 12+

Contains: Violence, Death

No Alcohol, Drug References

Author's Blog: Louis Sachar

The summer is looking bleak for Alton Richards.  His girlfriend has dumped him to go out with his best friend, he has no money and no job.  And then his parents insist that he drives Uncle Lester to his bridge tournaments four times a week.

Uncle Lester is old, blind, very sick… and very rich.  Which is why his parents are desperate for Alton to worm his way into his good books.  But they’re in competition with other distant relatives.

Not expecting much from the outings, Alton soon finds himself getting to know a lot about his uncle, his family’s history, and pretty Toni Castaneda, another contender for Uncle Lester’s inheritance.

Review:

From when he was tiny, Alton’s had this drilled into him: Uncle Lester is his favourite uncle.  Lester Trapp is very rich.  Rich enough that he doesn’t have to be nice to anyone.  After years of “I love you” and “you’re my favourite uncle” Alton – who has only met Trapp (as he’s known by his bridge-buddies) once – is forced by his parents to take his uncle to bridge tournaments, to play the cards for Uncle Lester, as his diabetes has left him blind.  As if his summer wasn’t going to be bad enough already.  But, reluctantly, Alton agrees.  Alton thought he’d be bored out of his mind, not that he’d actually grow to like the game.  As he becomes obsessed and tries to memorise as many of the rules and plays as he can, he starts to guess what his uncle will play (never asking “Are you sure”, of course).  In the process, Alton learns more about his uncle and heritage than he ever thought possible.  He even finds love.

I never, not in a million years, thought I’d read a book about bridge, much less love it.  I didn’t really know what to expect from The Cardturner, as far as the main theme was concerned.  However, I’ve read Louis Sachar’s Holes and loved the humour, writing and characters.  The three were just as brilliant in The Cardturner – maybe even better.

Alton was one of those characters that you can fall in love with instantly.  I just adored the way he saw the world, and his unique, believable voice.  The fact that he’s “philosophy bent” helped too.  The way he described bridge and all the plays was in a way that a completely ignorant person like me can understand and enjoy.  You even had the chance to skip the bridge parts, as there was a secret code (I didn’t: I loved it all, but you did have a choice).  But what was truly special was the relationship between Alton and Trapp: it was the driving force behind the story, the part that kept everything together.  And, as for Trapp, he was just as brilliant and loveable, in a rather House-like way, although less arrogant and obnoxious.  His stubbornness and intelligence were clear, and he was most certainly a talented played.  Trapp could remember every single card; his own, his partner’s and all that had been played.  Pretty amazing, huh? 

And, in a very Sachar way, all the background characters were wonderfully thought-out, all having their own distinct personality.  Out of all of them, Alton’s little sister Leslie had to be my favourite.  She was smart, sweet and an ace bridge player (yeah: bad pun, I know). 

My favourite part of the story had to be the talks between Trapp and Alton.  I know I’ve already mentioned their bond, but their talks are just something else.  They challenged human consciousness, whether ideas were living entities that never truly die, and the reality of mental illnesses.  Are those with schizophrenia really ‘ill’ or are they just most open to the voices of the universe: can they just hear the ideas as others can’t?  Let me tell you, these talks really, really got me thinking.

Funny, sad, interesting, intriguing, unpredictable: I loved this book so, so, so much.  I stayed up late to finish it, unable to put it down as I just had to see how it ended.  Sachar has such a unique voice, one that I just love to bits.  I’m thinking about going out and getting as many of his books as I possibly can.  And taking up bridge.  I’ll be useless at it, but it sounds so much fun; way more challenging than chess… 

I shall end on this note, with a quote from Alton himself: “The impossible is more believable than the highly improbable”.  Which is so very true, don’t you think?

Star Rating:
4½ Out of 5

Read this book if you liked:

Holes by Louis Sachar

Skellig by David Almond

Too Small To Fail by Morris Gleitzman

Challenges It's Taking Part In:

100 Books in a Year Reading Challenge 2011 (Hosted by Book Chick City)

Happy Reading

Megan

* This book was received from Bloomsbury in exchange for an honest review