Tag: aoibhe toft

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Rhubarb Lemonade by Oskar Kroon: Review

Rhubarb Lemonade
Oskar Kroon
Translated by A. A. Prime
Hot Key Books, June 2023
Paperback £7.99
ISBN 9781471413124

13-year-old Vinga is navigating life amid her parents’ split, and the island her grandfather lives on is the ideal escape from it all. Here, she can forget her parents’ problems and be with the only person who understands her: her grandfather. They drink homemade rhubarb lemonade and play chess under the lilac tree in his garden, far away from the city Vinga hates so much. On the island she can sit by her cliff near the lighthouse, work on her sailboat and be herself – that is, until Ruth arrives.

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Review: So, This Is Christmas by Tracy Andreen

So, This Is Christmas
Tracy Andreen
Viking Books, October 2021
Hardback, £18.99
ISBN 9780593353127

When Finley Brown decides to leave her fancy boarding school for Christmas and go to her hometown of Christmas, Oklahoma, she expected everything to be just as she left it. Finley could never have been prepared for what met her — separated parents, her best friend with her ex-boyfriend and worst of all, her classmate Arthur Chakrabarti Watercress and his aunt staying at her grandmother Jo’s inn. To add to the confusion, Finley’s hometown has some expectations to live up to after she embellished their website to win over her snooty classmates. This means that the irritating Arthur and his aunt are expecting a perfect American Christmas! However, through their festive activities and not so festive escapades, Finley discovers Arthur may not be as annoying as she first thought…

Tracy Andreen perfectly appeals to teenagers today with her understanding of the frenemy dynamic. Everyone can relate to the frustration Finley experiences throughout the novel, for example, when she knows someone isn’t telling her everything. I think it helped that Andreen had previously written nine Hallmark movies, as she has written the perfect holiday romance — you might cringe at times but oh-so worth it to watch the characters fall in love. I would recommend So, This Is Christmas to anyone seeking a cosy tale of unexpected affection with exciting plot twists.

Aoibhe Toft, 15

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Again Again

Again Again
E. Lockhart
Hot Key Books, June 2020
Paperback, 320 pages, £7.99
ISBN 9781471407291

After saving her brother from a drug overdose, Adelaide Buchman and her family agree that they all need a fresh start. So, Adelaide and her father Levi move to a new city – six hours away from her mother and brother – to Adelaide’s new school, where her father takes a job teaching. Adelaide is thrown into a summer of falling in and out of love all the while presenting a sophisticated and charming personality, which can sometimes expose how vulnerable she can be.

In a beautifully structured novel by E. Lockhart, Again Again is full of heart-wrenching storylines. Almost every situation has a few alternative endings before you actually read the real one and I loved this because I had never read
anything like it. It was a very refreshing way of reading, where you think you can see which outcomes the author considers using.

Adelaide and Toby Buchman’s brother-sister relationship really appealed to me as well because, although they keep things from each other, they are always there for when the other is in need. I loved this book! I would recommend it to anyone who likes romantic fiction that includes real-life situations. Again Again is a wonderful story that shows us the reality of loving and losing the right and wrong people.
Aoibhe Toft, teen reviewer