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Wednesday, May 22, 2019

My review of THE TINKERS GIRL by Catherine Cookson

THE TINKERS GIRL
BY
Catherine Cookson

When young Jinnie Howlett’s widowed father, a tinker man, died a pauper, she was already a reluctant inmate of a northern workhouse. But she thought herself fortunate – the alternative might have meant she ended up on the streets.

When close to her fifteenth birthday and after years of toil and drudgery, she was at last offered a position as a maid-of-all-work. Jinnie’s employers were the Shalemans and her place of work Tollet’s Ridge Farm, a bleakly isolated and run-down sheep farm way out beyond Allendale and towards the Cumbrian border. Before long, she discovered she had exchanged one kind of drudgery for another, this time for the Shaleman family. 

Rose, invalid wife of Pug and mother to Bruce and Hal, demanded every hour of the day and night of her. Fortunately Bruce soon recognized that there was more to this seemingly vulnerable girl and it was he who would defend her against the taunts and harassment of the brutish Pug and Hal. 

She became acquainted with Richard Baxton-Powell, who owed his life to Bruce, but when the persistent attention Richard paid her became too obtrusive, she was to understand that her growing confidence and maturity owed more to her life with the Shalemans than to any outside influence. It was then that Jinnie Howlett was suddenly thrust into womanhood, and the path to her own destiny became clear.

MY THOUGHTS...

This book is one of the best books that I have read for a long time.

There were several characters in this book that I hated and several that I wanted only good things to happen to. Bruce, Jinnie and Max were my favourite characters, but the list of characters I didn't like goes on a bit longer.

I didn't like Mrs or Mr Shaleman. They treated Jinnie appallingly, although she put up with it, most of the time. Richard seemed nice at first, but he soon joined Mrs and Mr Shaleman on the list of characters I hated. But the one character who tops this list is Hal. For those who have read this book, you'll know why I feel this way about Hal, but for those of you who haven't read this book; read it. Right now.

This book is one of my absolute favourites, and I will be reading this one over and over again until I know it off by heart.

I Highly Recommend this book to EVERYONE!

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

My review of THE NEXT TOGETHER (The Next Together #1) By Lauren James

THE NEXT TOGETHER
(The Next Together #1)
By Lauren James

A powerful and epic debut novel about fate and the timelessness of first love. Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again. Each time their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated. How many times can you lose the person you love? For Matthew and Katherine it is again and again, over and over, century after century. But why do they keep coming back? How many times must they die to save the world? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace? Maybe the next together will be different.

MY THOUGHTS 

This book confused me. It is no spoiler that Katherine and Mathew time travel to be with one another, but they have no idea how they do it. Was it anything to do with Clove? This book, although was entertaining to read and was like reading three books in one, due to the different time settings, wasn't very explanative on the matter of how the time travel works.

My favourite time setting was 1754. I thought that, for a lady of the era, Katherine was brave to stick up for what she believed in. The Matthew in 1754 was my favourite version of Matthew and I cried when his fate caught up with him. I felt sorry for Katherine, for her Mathew was so suddenly changed and the Mathew in his place wasn’t the same.

I Highly Recommend this book to Historical Fiction/Time Travel/Romance loving teens!