I posted my review of M.E. Breen’s Darkwood.

The short review is that I loved the characters and the story world, but experienced some confusion at the openings of several scenes. I do recommend it for children who enjoy fantasy/fairytales, and I look forward to more shivery tales from this author.

For the full scoop, read the review.

Every time I review a book to see if I want to put it on the blog tour, I say I’m going write the review right away while the story is fresh. And I never do. Every time the tour comes along I’m stuck trying to remember the book I read ten books ago, and I curse myself for a fool.

Here I sit, again. I read Darkwood, by M.E. Breen a couple of months ago and never did the review. The upside is that I get the read the book over and I’m enjoying it. The downside is that I don’t have a lot to say about the book today.

I will give you a few gems I’ve picked up so far. I’ll add more to this post tomorrow, probably. Molly Breen is a master of description. 

• Aunt Prim slept in the narrow slice of bed between Uncle Jock and the wall.
• The darkness roared over her, a landslide, an avalanche. The black air, heavy as earth, filled her throat and banked in her lungs.
• A hawk screamed overhead, no more than a black dash against the blue sky. Hawks loved to hunt the cutting fields at the forest’s edge, full as they were of little dazed creatures knocked from their nests.

For more on Darkwood, please visit the other bloggers on the tour:

A Patchwork of Books, Abby the Librarian, Becky’s Book Reviews, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Never Jam Today, My Utopia, Through a Child’s Eyes, Through the Looking Glass Reviews

Today is the first day of the KidzBookBuzz.com blog tour for Darkwood, by M.E. Breen.

I am lagging, I’m sorry. Still tired from my dad’s funeral.

I read Darkwood a couple of months ago. I loved the characters and the descriptions of the world. I hope to grab the book and give it another quick read and give you a review on Wednesday.

Look at this cover, though. I love the shadows of the wolves in the trees.

Sorry for neglecting the blog. Dad died a few days ago. He was 90 and tired and ready, so we are fine, but family is in from all over. I’ll be back next week.

Here we are on the third and final day of the Kidz Book Buzz blog tour for Michelle Knudsen’s The Dragon of Trelian.

And once I again, I’m at loose ends about what to write about.

So I think I’ll talk about a couple of things in the book that interested me and that I’m hoping to find out more about in the sequels.

I found it interesting that in The Dragon of Trelian the mages had tattoos put on their faces according to how powerful they were. There is a governing body, the Magistratum, that sets law and tries law-breakers. And one law is that the mages must be marked to show the world who they are. Because what can a normal man do to protect himself from a powerful mage? But to be forewarned is to be forearmed, apparently. I thought this was an interesting thread and I’m anxious to see if, after the world-building of the first book, future volumes will delve more deeply into political/social issues à la Harry Potter.

The second thing I want to see more of is the poor woman who died a hundred years before the story opened. A young woman, all alone in a dark place. I want to know more about her, and I’m hoping the future books will bring that out. I want to see more of Serek, too, because I loved his personality and voice, and I really want to see Calen grow into a noble and powerful young man.

So I’m looking forward to future books in the Trelian series.

Oh, and one little note about my recommendation in my book review, yesterday. I said I’d recommend it for middle grade readers. But my mom (87) is reading the book now and enjoying it. She reads a book a day to keep her brain ticking along at a steady pace, and we often share books. It’s great fun and even more fun now that my teen-aged daughter is in the loop with us (she’ll get The Dragon of Trelian , next).