The Night Bus Hero by Onjali Q Raúf

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought Of It:

Hector is a bully – someone who openly delights in picking on those smaller and weaker than himself. But when he takes on Thomas, a homeless man who likes to sit on a bench in the middle of the local park – pushing his trolley full of belongings down the hill and into the lake – he soon finds out he has bitten off more than he can chew.

Someone else has decided that rough sleepers are easy targets too. A thief is stealing iconic statues from London landmarks, leaving behind marks from the hobos’ secret code to suggest the homeless are to blame.

Could the two enemies possibly turn allies to track down the real thief?

It’s relatively unusual to have a story told from the point of view of a bully – but this is of course a redemption story. Hector is no cardboard cut-out villain – nor does Raúf take the easy road of having him come from a dysfunctional or abusive family. She knows well enough that bullies – like the homeless – can come from all walks of life.

Many years ago, I volunteered at a night shelter; so I know first-hand how complex the stories can be of how someone ends up on the street, and how far from their stereotypes rough sleepers can be. Raúf’s inspiration springs from more-or-less wordless encounters she had as a child with a homeless man she would see on the streets every summer. Her resulting cast of characters – especially Thomas and Catwoman – are full of warmth and humanity.

In her author’s note, Raúf notes how ironic it was to be writing this book in the middle of a global pandemic, when suddenly, for a short time, resources were found to find shelter for all rough sleepers. Even more ironic, then, that in the month it was published, the government announced that it would start deporting foreign nationals who were found to be homeless. Books like this, that allow us to see the anonymous huddles figures figures we too often just try and avoid, are more important than ever.

Raúf has always been a campaigner as well as an author. Here first book, The Boy At the Back of the Class, was a celebration of refugees, and she backed it up with the establishment of O’s Refugee Aid Team, which raises awareness and funds for refugees and delivers emergency aid. This time, she is similarly throwing her weight behind charities supporting homeless people by doating a portion of her royalties to homeless charities.

Whether at home or in school, this book provides the platform for discussing some important and sensitive issues, and the notes at the back of the book contain child-friendly information about homelessness in the UK and tell the stories of some of the charities helping them. 

But The Night Bus Hero is also a page-turning adventure story that children will love. Onjali Raúf is rapidly becoming the Jacqueline Wilson for a new generation.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: Worry Angels by Sita Brahmachari; The Boy At The Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf, The Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson

Avoid If You Dislike: Stories told from a bully’s point of view

Perfect Accompaniment: Homemade chips (skin on) and a donation to a homeless charity

Genre: Children (Middle Reader) , Adventure

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Cresting Waves by F. K. Sewell

Reviewer: Jerome Griffin

What we thought: Cresting Waves, the third and final instalment of the Black Feather Trilogy, completes the tale of orphan pirate, Alex Cavendish, and leaves the reader with something of a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye.

As with the previous two books, it opens as an action-packed, adrenalin-fuelled adventure that ebbs and flows throughout, but very quickly it becomes so much more than just a fun pirate romp.

The long-running feuds with the Vliets and Barnaby continue to play a central role in the story, but Alex also has his mind on other matters, including a safe, secure and peaceful future. He’s had enough of life on the wave and he realises there are alternative lifestyles available to him. He is also determined to find his mother, if she is alive, and Kitty who he still loves dearly.

Sewell is a talented author who can produce diverse fight scenes bursting with excitement and tension, as well as intimate moments full of emotion and tenderness. One episode in particular between Alex and his wife will live with me for a very long time due to Sewell’s delivery and skill. I don’t want to give too much away in terms of spoilers, so I won’t go into detail, but she manages to take an extremely difficult situation for a couple and make it touching and poignant, without being cloying or trite.

On one level Alex is the same character as before. His determination, loyalty and strong moral code – despite being a pirate – remain true. But on another level, something has changed in him. There is a difference in his approach to life and responsibility. Where earlier in the story he was thrown into the deep end and had to learn fast, in retrospect that was his coming of age. In Cresting Waves, he has become a man.

As a trilogy, the Black Feather books provide a wonderful balance of adventure, passion and emotion with a dash of gritty history thrown in for good measure. Cresting Waves is a worthy finale.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: A mixture of high-octane adventure and emotional situations handled delicately.

Avoid if you dislike: Difficult relationship scenarios.

Ideal accompaniments: A strong drink, a box of tissues and something that reminds you of your childhood home.

Genre: Historical fiction, adventure

Available on Amazon

The Vermilion Bird by CP Lesley (Legends of the Five Directions Book 4)

Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of The Bone Angel trilogy (Spirit of Lost Angels, Wolfsangel, Blood Rose Angel) and new release, The Silent Kookaburra.

What we thought: An excellent and entertaining addition to CP Lesley’s 16th century Russian historical series, Legends of the Five Directions. I was really looking forward to The Vermilion Bird as I have read and loved the first three in this series, which I have also reviewed: The Golden Lynx, The Winged Horse and The Swan Princess.

Once again, the author brings to life 16th century Russian court and politics through the unlikely couple of the scheming and snappy Maria Koshkina and her Tatar sultan husband. A seemingly mismatched couple, the pair attempt to get along before they are caught up in the clash between their two warring cultures: the Russians and the Tatars.

As in the previous Legends of the Five Directions books, the reader is drawn into sixteenth century Russian life via the author’s attention to detail and the research involved in recreating such a world. Then love, romance, adventure and intrigue render this story a spell-binding page turner. The characters we have come to know and love in previous books, such as Nasan and Daniil, leap off the page once more, interwoven with real characters, to portray this distant nook of sixteenth-century Moscow.

In The Vermilion Bird, I felt I was experiencing sixteenth-century Russia firsthand, and I am now eagerly awaiting the last book in the Legends of the Five Directions series, The Shattered Drum, which will be published shortly, I believe.

The author’s notes explaining the reason why she chose the Vermilion Bird phoenix for Maria are of great interest too.

You’ll like this if you enjoy: tales of romance and adventure that feature strong-willed women.

Avoid if you don’t like: action-packed, fast-paced historical political intrigue.

Ideal accompaniments: Vodka and Russian gingerbread.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Available on Amazon

The Expansion by Christoph Martin

Review by JJ Marsh

What we thought:

A fast-paced thriller set in the world of international politics and big business, this book stands out from its peers for two reasons. One, its complex characters and their choices. Two, its fascinating setting – the eponymous expansion refers to the Panama Canal.

Max Burns, geomatic engineer, gets the opportunity of a lifetime when an old schoolfriend asks him to head a bid for the hugely competitive project of expanding the canal. He’s got his work cut out, not just in outperforming the other countries in the running, but dealing with his employers’ unusual managerial style. With parties, prostitutes and politics, he’s out of his depth.

When he meets Karis Deen, Smithsonian researcher, his feet touch bottom. She’s different, someone he can trust. But Karis is not exactly who she seems.

A crackling global adventure which dives into the murky waters of geopolitics, the business of construction, environmental effects, human greed and weakness. Add to this a colourful supporting cast of not-all-good-or-bad guys who alternately exasperate and delight, and you are onto a winner.
This demands to be read in one heart-thumping go.


You’ll enjoy this if you liked: The Expats by Chris Pavone, Deception Point by Dan Brown or The Fear Index by Robert Harris

Avoid if you don’t like: Complex plots, international finance, surprises

Ideal accompaniments: Gasoline tea, fried plantain and a warm breeze blowing through the curtains

Genre: Thriller



Available on Amazon

My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream by Janine Marsh

Reviewer: Liza Perrat, author of The Bone Angel trilogy (Spirit of Lost Angels, Wolfsangel, Blood Rose Angel) and new release, The Silent Kookaburra.

What we thought: I might not be brave enough to renovate a run-down barn in rural France, but as an ex-pat living in a French village, I can totally relate to Janine Marsh’s book, My Good Life in France.

The author’s new life in France started out quite differently to most ex-pats though: whilst on one of her regular day trips to pick up cheap wine in northern France, she purchased an old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. It seems no one was more surprised at this purchase than the author herself.

Her French adventure began as weekend trips to renovate her new home which lacked mains drainage, heating, proper rooms, and had not the slightest of comforts. It turned into a life-time project requiring far more time, money and energy than she could ever have imagined.

Several years ago, Janine eventually gave up her top corporate banking job in London to move with her husband to their still quite run-down French barn. In My Good Life in France, she narrates the true story of negotiating the local inhabitants, French bureaucracy, tradesmen, culture and etiquette. No easy feat for a born and bred British girl from the city!

I loved reading about all of her adventures: the good, the bad, the ugly. And the incredible, one of which resulted in the neighbours nicknaming her “Madame Merde”. I’ll let you read the story for yourself to find out why!

The author’s joy, frustration, enthusiasm and curiosity for her new homeland shines through as she recounts her experiences with humour, from administrative struggles to homesickness and personal tragedy, to her love for chickens and stray animals. And, finally, love for her life in France.

Towards the end of the book, Janine includes a lot of useful information for adapting to the French lifestyle and negotiating French rules –– both written and unwritten!

Highly recommended for Francophiles and anyone thinking of impulse-buying a run-down property in a region where it rains all the time.

You’ll like this if you enjoy: Humorous ex-pat stories, such as Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence and the sequels: Toujours Provence and Encore Provence.

Avoid if you don’t like: tales of travel and home renovation.

Ideal accompaniments: Gratin de Maroilles aux lardons washed down with a cool glass of Chardonnay.

Genre: memoir, travel book.

Available on Amazon

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Reviewer: Catriona Troth

What We Thought:

Ink and stars - the two most fundamental tools of the cartographer.

Isa is the daughter of a cartographer, and his unofficial apprentice. The two live on their own, following the deaths of both Isa’s mother and her twin, Gabo.

Isa’s world is one that bears some resemblance to ours – it has continents called Afrik, Europa and Amrica, and oceans called the Frozen Circle, the Vanishing Triangle and the Cerulean Sea. But it is also a world where islands like Joya can be float free to sail across the oceans. And fire-breathing creatures at the centre of the earth may be more than just metaphors for a volcano.

For the time being, though, Joya is anchored to the seabed. And ever since the Governor arrived and took up residence in a grand palace above Isa’s village, the villagers have been forbidden access to the sea or the forest and their lives have shrunk to the little space in between. Isa’s Da no longer roams the world to map its continents, but walks heavily supported by a stick. And the only guide to the Forbidden Forest is an ancient cloth map left behind by Isa’s mother.

So when a girl is found dead in the Governor’s orchard and his daughter, Isa’s friend Lupe, disappears into the forest, it is up to Isa to don the mantle of cartographer and guide the search party into the heart of the island, where no one has travelled for years.

Maps have a magic about them. They can say as much about the people who made them as they do about the lands they depict. Kiran Millwood Hargrave has spun that magic into a tale of adventure that is – as all good heroic journeys should be - about friendship and courage, self discovery and self sacrifice. And just look how that magic is captured in the beautiful cover!

It is a book I would have loved reading aloud to my children when they were that age – and one of six shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize.

You’ll Enjoy This If You Loved: Nation by Terry Pratchett, Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, and (for slightly older readers) Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Avoid If You Dislike: Adventure tales set in fantasy worlds

Perfect Accompaniment: A large sheet of paper and a set of coloured inks

Genre: Fantasy Adventure for ~9-12 year olds.

Available on Amazon

Ebbing Tides by F.K. Sewell

Reviewer: Jerome Griffin

What we thought: Ebbing Tides, the second instalment in the Black Feather Trilogy, is much darker and more sinister than the first novel, The Kestrel, and plots a course for Alex and his crewmates into the murky waters of uncharted territory.

The story opens with an unexpected and unwanted surprise: Captain Nathaniel Winters has disappeared and been replaced by the callous, vindictive and largely incompetent Captain Grahams. With nepotism being alive and well, Grahams has hand-picked a number of sycophantic associates to join the officers and crew on board and this motley collection of cretins and thugs see to it that the original crew are kept in check.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, The Kestrel is being hunted by the Vliet brothers looking for revenge, as well as the ghost of a ship that they had previously sunk. As the stakes rise and the new captain’s ineptitude leads to one disastrous decision after another, the original crew begin to plot a mutiny led by the fiery Vesta Calida.

The volatile former first mate, who has been demoted to the rank of quartermaster under the command of Grahams, really comes into her own in this book and her strength and courage continually shine through her battle-scarred body. She leads by example and intelligence and uses her expertise as a sailor to protect her crew and get them through many a sticky situation.

In the meantime, Alex and Kitty’s friendship blossoms into something more and adds depth to their characters. Indeed, one of Sewell’s strengths as an author is relationship development and she delicately plucks at the reader’s empathy strings with all the main characters.

In contrast to The Kestrel, Ebbing Tides has less action, but greater tension, which makes for a more gripping read. The plot and drama are still there, and even though it always feels as though it is the middle of the story, it still moves on apace and keeps the wind in its sails. In many ways, it put me in mind of The Empire Strikes Back as the real meat in the Star Wars story, with Ebbing Tides fulfilling a similar role in the Black Feather tale.

If the finale can deliver a Return of the Jedi, F.K. Sewell will have delivered a wonderfully accomplished saga.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Pirate tales and strong female characters.

Avoid if you dislike: Adventure series

Ideal accompaniments: Spiced rum punch and winter warming stew!

Genre: Historical fiction, adventure

Available on Amazon

A Hundred Hands by Dianne Noble

Reviewer: JJ Marsh

What we thought:

A Hundred Hands treads familiar territory to Noble’s previous novel, Outcast. A disturbing incident propels a middle-aged woman to leave a comfortable existence in Britain to engage with India, its children and all the cultural shocks that must entail.

The arc of change is at the heart of both books, but this novel is broader, encompassing Kolkata orphans, a Welsh gran and a whole range of easy prejudices turned on their heads.

Noble’s skill is in sensory description and the increments of change, acceptance, affection and assumption. Relationships develop with a natural feel and her characters are lively and memorable. Kolkata backstreets come to life with startling clarity and the reader is dropped right into the centre of things, as much out of any kind of comfort zone as our protagonist.

Female friendships, associations, love and loyalties are the visible elements of this story, but it is built on the foundations of human empathy.

You’ll enjoy this if you liked: Eat, Pray, Love; Outcast or Heat and Dust

Avoid if you don’t like: Realities of poverty and street life

Ideal accompaniments: Dhal or laverbread, with some cold water

Available on Amazon

The Kestrel by FK Sewell

Reviewer: Jerome Griffin

What we thought: In The Kestrel, FK Sewell has skilfully delivered an adventurous pirate romp bursting with exhilarating battle scenes, a pacy plot and engaging narrative.

The story follows the adventures of Alex, an orphan of pirates, as he returns to the sea on board The Kestrel as a cabin boy. On land, due to his parentage, he found himself shunned by polite society and so he joined a gang of miscreants and vagabonds. Two of the gang, Kitty and Sam, join him “on account” aboard The Kestrel seeking a life of excitement and freedom having outgrown the confines of small town Barretstowe.

Led by their charismatic captain, Nathaniel and his fiery, tempestuous first mate, Vesta, the three new crew mates are plunged into the deep end of pirate life in a heartbeat and learn that they need to adjust quickly in order to survive. They soon realise that the life of a pirate isn’t all pillage, plunder and rum, and that there’s more to their captain than meets the eye.

As well as an entertaining plot, Sewell has created a layered work of historical fiction that picks at numerous unsavoury social themes of the day. The prevalence of prostitution, ubiquity of homeless street urchins and an unforgiving and cruel penal system are just a few of the commonplace and accepted issues she explores.

If I have a criticism of The Kestrel at all, it is that the crew's enemies, particularly the Vliets, could have had a little more depth. Everyone loves a good, well developed bad guy and I just felt that Sewell could have done more here. By the same token, I have a feeling that one of the peripheral characters who was introduced late in the day could prove to be a worthy and despicable nemesis of Nathaniel through the rest of the series.

I guess I'll just have to wait for the next instalment to find out. And I'm looking forward to it already!

You’ll enjoy this if you like: Pirates, Patrick O’Brian and historical fiction.

Avoid if you dislike: Light reading

Ideal accompaniments: Sea breeze, an ocean view and rum, rum and more rum!

Genre: Historical fiction, adventure

Available from Amazon