View source for Mimosa Fortune by Echo Freer

{{infobox1
|title=Mimosa Fortune
|author=Echo Freer
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The start of an interesting series sees a young girl turn out to be a medium, and finds a hunky spectre with a mission to resolve. Fine for eight to eleven year olds, but very much one for the girls.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=256
|publisher=Hodder Children's Books
|date=October 2007
|isbn=978-0340894767
|cover=0340894768
|aznuk=0340894768
|aznus=0340894768
}}
Mimosa Fortune, whose unusual name comes down to her mother being a bit of a hippyish scrier and tarot reader on the side, is used to being thrown around by fate. Wherever the pair has lived, her mother's talents at fortune-telling have always resulted in them being drummed out of town. And I don't mean they just move down the A14 or anything - no, Mimosa might be a fan of Star Wars, just she only saw it badly dubbed into Romanian. Wherever in the world you think she might have lived, she has not only resided (briefly) but had to flirt with fate, earthquakes, gangsters, you name it... 

Hence a big sigh of relief when she starts to fall for the charms of Whitby, where the small family washes up. Finding new friends at school - itself a very alien environment to this young, free spirit - she also finds a lot more. Namely, a real talent (as possibly opposed to that used by her mother) for talking to the dead, and a very gorgey young ghost.

What follows is the mystery of what he has to resolve in order to find peace - following the unwritten rule that that is what ghosts have to do. However, this mystery is a lot deeper than you might at first imagine, and is told in a very interesting way - there is a finesse to the disarming surprises and reveals that show a good writer to be at work here.

The whole is very nicely plotted, rounding off perfectly, but with the usual sign-off that there will be more books to feature Mimosa coming your way soon, which from the evidence of this volume will not be a bad thing.

I have only reservations given me by being someone too jaded, old and male to fit in with the target audience. For me, the way the subplot that means this girl with the weight of centuries of secrets and curses on her shoulders is shown up for not seeing what's in front of her when it comes to romance, is too clunky and unsubtle, too unnecessary, and would put many a willing boy reader off. The plot deserves a wider, gender non-specific audience.

The very chatty first person style gives a great edge to the spooky elements, where the ghost of Quill Newton takes Mimosa on a time-travelling journey to show her what needs to be done, which are the main features of the story. There's also humour where she so often has to back-track about not liking to lie, but when she declares she is not judgemental you wonder why all her teachers, fug of smoke and girth, or bad wig, are given such unkind descriptions.

However by the end of the story there has been much subtler elements of life-lessons being dropped in - the line "You can only think one thought at a time, why make it a negative one?" I especially liked.

Add to all that the running gag of Quill speaking in impenetrable Yorkshire accent, which is done very well on t'page, and you have quite a jolly, and clever ghost adventure story. The past, changes in location and thrill of the climax are all told very well, and a well-produced book such as this should go down a hit with its target market.

I would like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag to sample.

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