The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix by Kate Saunders
| The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix by Kate Saunders | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Gina Garnett
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| Summary: A fun adventure and quite entertaining. Definitely draws you along for the ride. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 257 | Date: August 2013 |
| Publisher: Marion Lloyd Books | |
| ISBN: 978-1-407129-87-7 | |
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So I’ve jumped right into the world of Skittle Lane, going straight to the sequel, The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix. One of the great things about this book is that while going straight to number two makes you want to find and read the first one because you know it’ll be a good book, you’re not lost. It stands easily by itself as a fairly awesome magical adventure.
Twins Oz (Oscar) and Lily along with their best mate Caydon are magical. They have inherited the genes from their Grandparents’ generation. Oz and Lily live in the house attached to the workshop of the Whizz Pop Chocolate Shop, where magical chocolate was made. This time, the confection in question is time travel chocolate and the three with their talking pets Demerara (a cat) and Spike (a rat) must stop the evil D33 from ruining the present by messing with key events of the past.
Ms Saunders is not afraid to go straight to the high stakes which is brilliant. No fooling around with trivial events. We’re going right to the Great Fire and the Blitz. Lots of danger, lots of excitement. It’s well written, too. Funny, relatable (visions and talking wallpaper notwithstanding) and there are some really smashing ideas. But there are one or two little niggles that seem to stand out all the more because the rest of the book is so good.
Firstly, something that was gearing up to be a real adventure gave the impression that most of the book would be dedicated to it. That was a book I wanted to read, badly. But the event was over in two chapters. This is forgivable as we aren’t deprived of other exciting things and it does keep the pace up and moving. It was just a bit…easier…than the build-up would have you believe. The characters do seem to have it easy with their powers, too, as they seem to keep growing new ones at a rate of Superman. There’s no chance of giving the game away to non-magic types, either, as this seems to be physically impossible, even when you jam a wizard SWAT team up their noses.
The only real problem, however, is that all the girl characters are either irredeemably vain, total wimps or mess things up at the last, most vital moment. It’s Lily in particular. She’s a wet blanket. No problem, some people are and if she started as a scaredy-cat and got braver, it would be fantastic. But there is never any indication of her trying to be brave. She just cries. There are one or two background women that seem to know what they’re doing and all the evil ladies seem to have it together, but the characters that we spend most of the time with are constantly outsmarted or overshadowed by the boys. It’s a bit of a disappointment, really.
Having had my moan, though, I must say I really did enjoy reading the book and will definitely be finding the first one and looking out for any future additions. Great fun.
If this book appeals then we can also recommend Beswitched by Kate Saunders and Lump Lump and the Blanket of Dreams: Inspired by Navajo Culture and Folklore by Gwen Jackson and Lissa Calvert.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix by Kate Saunders at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix by Kate Saunders at Amazon.com.
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