Hi guys,

Today I’m going to be doing another What I’ve Been Reading post. If you would like me to do more of these posts / book reviews, let me know in the comments :)

The first book I read this month was Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell.

Wanted: a mother

Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck, but Sophie is convinced her mother also survived. When no one believes her, Sophie sets out to prove them wrong.

On the run from the authorities, Sophie finds Matteo – a boy who walks tightropes and lives in the sky… in a race across the rooftops of Paris, will they be able to find her mother before it’s too late?

I also really enjoyed this book. It tells the tale of a young orphaned girl’s attempt to find her mother, because, after all, you should never ignore a possible. This book had quite a magical feel to it and was a wonderful read. I loved the story of this book: young children running over the Parisian rooftops trying to find Sophie’s mother. This book was a lovely read and I liked the messages occurring throughout.

The characters in this book were also really fascinating. There was young Sophie, a girl with a possible. Her guardian Charles, a scholar who noticed things. And Matteo, a rooftopper.

I would also really recommend this book as I loved the magical feel it had and it was a wonderful story.

The second book I’ve read is Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead.

‘’Thirteen broken bones and a punctured lung. You must have been put on this Earth for a reason, to have survived it.’

Bridge is an oddball. She is a doodler. She wears black Halloween cat ears every day. And she survived a serious accident when she was younger.

Ever since she missed a year of school to recover, she’s found fitting in with her best friends Emily and Tabitha difficult. They promised never to fight, but that’s hard when they start keeping secrets from each other.

Sherm wants to get to know Bridge better. But he’s also hiding a secret.

And then there is another mystery girl, who is struggling with an even more serious problem.

I could not put this book down. I love Rebecca Stead’s style of writing; I found it very easy to read and as I was enjoying the story line, I whizzed through this.

Something I loved about this was that the chapters of this book kept changing perspective, which was great as you were watching the same story unfold from there different points of view - Bridge (who we read mainly from), Sherm and Mystery girl. I also liked how you weren’t told who one of the characters was until the end and this character’s section was also written all about one day, spread over the novel, rather than a few months, as the events all slowly began to intertwine and you saw how they were part of the bigger picture.

I would definitely recommend this book as I really enjoyed reading it and loved both the characters and story.

Another book I’ve been reading this month is Hell and High Water by Tanya Landman.

It was a man. Drowned. Dead.

Lying on the sand, waves breaking over his back.

The body should be moved, but Caleb couldn’t manage alone.

Yet who in this godforsaken place would help him?

Tanya Landman is the only author here that I have previously read. I really enjoy her style of writing, and both the books I’ve read have been set in the past, which I like. This book started very well - with an initial surprise and still picked up pace throughout. It also didn’t start with the man on the beach so it came as a surprise when I found out whom it was/wasn’t.

There was quite a complex plot, and as it was a bit of a ‘mystery murder’ type story, you were left guessing what had happened to the man on the beach until the end. I loved the plot twists that came throughout this book, there were some tings I really wasn’t expecting – and I think it was part of the reason I couldn’t put it down.

I would definitely recommend this as I really enjoyed it and there were some really dramatic and tense moments throughout.

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this post.

Have you got any books you'd recommend?

Lucy xx