Archive | September 2025

The White Giraffe by Lauren St John

Sep7

A Beautiful Friendship

The White Giraffe by Lauren St John is a fabulous contemporary children’s novel and perfect for ages eight years and over. It is the first book in The White Giraffe series which promises to be fabulous.

The reader travels from London to South Africa after a terrible tragedy. The landscape really comes alive for the reader due to comprehensive descriptions. We can ‘feel’ the African sun beating down on us, and ‘see’ by the light of the moon. Living on Sawubona game reserve brings freedom for eleven-year-old Martine.

It is here that Martine meets a grandmother whose existence she never knew. Martine wonders why her grandmother had been hidden from her. All will be revealed in due course. You need to read the book!

We witness the bond that Martine has with animals, particularly the white giraffe called Jemmy. She will do whatever she can in order to protect the animals from poachers.

Africa is a land of contrasts. We hear how the native Africans were persecuted and forced to live in the shanty town of Soweto near Johannesburg. The reader’s heart breaks as we read: “Only a man can crush you inside, in your heart, for no reason other than the colour of your skin.”

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Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks

Sep4

Slaying Dragons

Our Beautiful Mess by Adele Parks is a marvellous contemporary suspense that gripped me from the start.

The novel opens with the ending before going backwards eleven days, and then working forwards. The reader knows what is coming and wonders what led up to that point, and how it is all going to end?

I thought the actual ending was superb – it came out of the blue and was serenely beautiful as the love radiated from the pages.

All the characters were well drawn and believable. We see the action through several alternating points of view enabling the reader to get to know the characters intimately.

This is a book about family. Family can be messy and complicated – but family is ultimately about love.

Life is tiring when children are small – but so much harder as they grow. Parents have to give their children wings to fly. “It was up to them to fall and flounder or fly and flourish. She was powerless… all they [parents] could do was stand back and trust that they’d given their kids enough guidance, resilience and basic common sense to get through.” We see that however old our children are, a mother will fiercely protect her offspring. “Her focus was on protecting Fran.”

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The Blackout Book Club by Amy Lynn Green

Sep4

The Power Of The Story

The Blackout Book Club by Amy Lynn Green is a powerful historical novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The action is set on the American home front in Maine in 1942. It is seen through the eyes of four women, each with different life experiences and united by a book club. We see that there is power in stories. They bring people together, provoking discussion, out of which, friendships are formed.

You are never too old to begin to read. We see that whereas some have enjoyed books from childhood, others have been reluctant readers, well into adulthood. Books will open hearts, minds and imaginations, uniting the old and the young.

There is power in our stories too. We ‘hear’ of a character’s backstory from 1918. It helps us to understand why a character behaves as she does. We also see that her nursing skills never leave her.

Part of the book is set out in the form of minutes from the book club. This helps to involve the reader in the story as we feel included.

At times of war there are prejudices against those of foreign descent. “Spaniards, Portuguese, and especially Italians, all tarred with the same racial slur. Marked as something different, distasteful, un-American.” A family of Italian origin has to work hard in order to earn trust and to fit in.

Characters long to trust God. “Martina prayed as she ran, but it had been months since she’d attended Mass. What if no-one was listening?” God hears all our prayers. There is no tally of attendance or non-attendance in heaven.

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