Gronk: A Monster's Story Volume 1 - a comic by Katie Cook

Synopsis

Gronk is a monster... and not a very good one. 

Gronk tells the tale of a young monster who has turned her back on monsterdom (mostly because no one found her scary) and has become fascinated with humans. 

She moves in with her human friend Dale and her pets Kitty and Harli, a 160 lb. Newfoundland Dale wants to declare as a dependent to the IRS. 

Enjoy the first installment from this popular kids webcomic in a wonderful, full-color collection!

Review

Lovely, sweet and amusing, Gronk is an inventive comic and the art and words depict a great sense of humour and fun. Gronk is a lovely monster who isn't interested in scaring anyone; instead she enjoys company, friendship and adventure, and she finds all this when she meets Dale and accepts her kind invitation to move in with her and her pets Kitty the cat and Harli the dog. 

One of my favourite pages was the one where Gronk gets in the cardboard box with Kitty the cat, and her imagination conjures up some great scenes that are sketched out. I love Harli the dog. It's sixty pages, I enjoyed reading the whole book in one sitting - it collates the episodes shared via the original webcomic. The original wonderful black and white illustrations have been coloured for this book by Kevin Minor. 

Gronk features likeable characters, and includes references to Harry Potter and other popular culture. I'm sure children will love it, and adults too - I did.

The website for the original webcomic is here: Gronk Comic

Digital review copy via netgalley.

Jamie Baywood - Author Guest Post - Getting Rooted in New Zealand

Today I am very pleased to welcome author Jamie Baywood to the blog with a guest post. Jamie is the author of Getting Rooted in New Zealand.

Guest post by Jamie Baywood

It was always my dream to live abroad when I was growing up in California. I had bad dating experiences in California and read in a New Zealand tour book that the country’s population has 100,000 fewer men than women. I wanted to have some me time and an adventure. New Zealand seemed like a good place to do so. Although I intended to have a solo adventure I ended up meeting my husband a Scottish man in New Zealand.

I consider myself an accidental author. I didn’t go to New Zealand with the intentions of writing a book about my experiences there. I had funny experiences that I had trouble believing were true. I wrote the stories down to stay sane. I wrote situations down that were happening around me and shared them with friends. The stories made people laugh so I decided to organize the stories into a book and publish in the hope of making others laugh too.

One of the first people I met was Colin Mathura-Jeffree from New Zealand’s Next Top Model. I had no idea who he was or that he was on TV when I meet him. He is friends with my former flatmate. We had a steep staircase that I kept falling down. Colin taught me to walk like a model so I wouldn’t fall down the stairs.

In New Zealand, I had a lot of culture shock.  One of the most memorable moments was learning the meaning of the Kiwi slang word “rooted.” One night I was brushing my teeth with my flatmate and I said, ‘I’m really excited to live in this house because I have been travelling a lot and I just need to settle down, stop traveling and get rooted’. He was choking on his toothbrush and asked me if I knew what that meant because it had a completely different meaning in New Zealand than it does in the States.

I had the opportunity to write and perform for Thomas Sainsbury, the most prolific playwright in New Zealand. I performed a monologue about my jobs in the Basement Theatre in Auckland.  The funny thing about that experience was Tom kept me separated from the other performers until it was time to perform. I was under the impression that all the performers were foreigners giving their experiences in New Zealand.  All of the other performers were professional actors telling stories that weren’t their own. At first I was mortified, but the audience seemed to enjoy my “performance,” laughing their way through my monologue. After the shows we would go out and mingle with the audience. People would ask me how long I had been acting. I would tell them, “I wasn’t acting; I have to go to work tomorrow and sit next to the girl wearing her dead dog’s collar around her neck.”

I love making people laugh more than anything else. I feel very grateful when readers understand my sense of humour. I plan to divide my books by the countries I’ve lived in. My next book will be about attempting to settle in Scotland. 

Getting Rooted in New Zealand book description:

Craving change and lacking logic, at 26, Jamie, a cute and quirky Californian, impulsively moves to New Zealand to avoid dating after reading that the country's population has 100,000 fewer men. In her journal, she captures a hysterically honest look at herself, her past and her new wonderfully weird world filled with curious characters and slapstick situations in unbelievably bizarre jobs. It takes a zany jaunt to the end of the Earth and a serendipitous meeting with a fellow traveler before Jamie learns what it really means to get rooted.

About the author Jamie Baywood:

Jamie Baywood grew up in Petaluma, California. In 2010, she made the most impulsive decision of her life by moving to New Zealand. Getting Rooted in New Zealand is her first book, about her experiences living there. Jamie is now married and living happily ever after in the United Kingdom. She is working on her second book.

Getting Rooted in New Zealand is available in paperback and ebook on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482601907

Jamie Baywood can be followed on the following sites:

Facebook.com/jamiebaywood

Twitter.com/jamiebaywood

Pinterest.com/jamiebaywood

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7069448.Jamie_Baywood

Amazon.co.uk

Fire and Brimstone - Colin Bateman

I have read, and really enjoyed, many of this author's previous novels over the years, I love his writing and storytelling style. I think most if not all of them I read before I started book blogging/reviewing so I can only say that I enjoyed them so much and recommended them here there and everywhere by word of mouth. The first ones I read were Cycle of Violence and Divorcing Jack. You might have seen or heard of the film version of the latter novel too, featuring David Thewlis. As well as the novels featuring Dan Starkey, of which this (Fire and Brimstone) is one, I've  read and enjoyed some of the novels in the 'Mystery Man', bookshop-based series as well as others by this author.

Anyway, getting on to Fire and Brimstone properly, this is another entertaining and bumpy ride along with Dan Starkey. Dark, at times bleak and sad, at times very funny and witty indeed, sometimes violent, occasionally possibly near the knuckle to some (topics include drug wars, religion, and abortion), but the story is always very very readable and the author always keeps you wanting to turn the pages. 

This time around, Dan, now a private investigator, takes on the job of tracking a missing person, the daughter of a billionaire. Alison Wolff was last seen at a party, where terrible tragedy occurred. Has she been kidnapped, is she still alive? It's up to Dan to find out, and inevitably as per usual he gets up to his neck in it all, finding fresh and deeper trouble at each turn, this time getting mixed up in religious cults and drug gangs. Amazingly, for those who have been with them throughout the series of novels, Trish is still around despite everything. 

I love the dark humour, the writing style, the intrigue and twists in the story,  the close calls and near misses, the sharp, witty dialogue, and I'm always curious to find out what Dan Starkey will get involved with next. Do give one of his books a try if you've never read one before, ideally I'd recommend starting with an earlier novel, if for example you wanted to follow Dan's path from the start, though it's not a prerequisite for reading this one, but I think it does add to the enjoyment if you know the background. I think this is an author whose books you can get addicted to, and I'm always pleased to see a new one appear.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this novel via bookbridgr for an honest review. 

Author links - twitter @ColinBateman | website

Published by Headline

Rory's Boys - Alan Clark

‘My story was more complex than I had known it to be...'

Rory Blaine is a very successful advertising executive in London who discovers the grandmother he has been estranged from for many years is now close to death. He reluctantly visits her and whilst there meets Vic d'Orsay, a popular singer now in his seventies but still going strong. When his grandmother passes away, Rory is surprised to inherit his grand familial home, Mount Royal in Hampstead, a place that holds many memories for him, but which he has also not seen for many years. When he takes possession, Vic appears again and suggests an idea for the future role of the place, and a brilliant plan is born; 'Mount Royal was about to become Britain’s first residential home for gay men.’

Rory has turned 45 and when he experiences unexpected rejection in his personal life he begins to think about his life, what happened in the past, where he is now and what might lay ahead. Openly gay, he wonders if there will ever be a man who he can spend his life with, whether he can move beyond promiscuity and brief affairs and short-lived (albeit very pleasurable) gratification, on to finding something lasting.

This novel has a first person narrative from Rory throughout, in the form of a record of thoughts and events as suggested by his therapist. This allows the reader a very intimate look at his life, his innermost thoughts and fears, and his relationships, throughout the story, and has the feel of a very personal tale. 

I enjoyed this novel a lot; I thought the writing was very honest and moving at times, and also funny, entertaining and witty; some bits really made me laugh and reading other parts I felt very sad. It is frank and open about sex, casual encounters and gay relationships.

This story felt so real, at times Rory's pain was strong, the loneliness after being disowned at a young age by his grandmother, the only family he really had left, and his difficulties in coming to terms with himself, as well as with getting older, finding his place in the world, and accepting his past if he is to move onwards. Vic offers him valuable advice about forgiveness that was based on his own very difficult experiences, which are revealed in the novel through a very well written encounter that exposes the awful bigotry and ignorance of some in society.

                                  

Vic is a charismatic, affable and layered character. Rory observes of him that ‘he certainly wasn’t like elderly men were supposed to be. It had obviously never occurred to him to disengage with the world, to step back and leave life to the younger generation. He never stood on his dignity either so somehow, however he behaved, he kept it.’

There are some very touching friendships that grow and evolve over the course of the novel, with some characters, especially Elspeth, coming into their own as the story progressed. In fact, when I had finished reading the book, I realised I really would miss some of these characters, so vividly had they been drawn by the author.

Some of the elderly gay characters have evidently had to hide their sexuality from most of those around them for much of their lives, indeed, as mentioned in the novel, for some of them, they could remember when their love was considered a crime. I had never thought about the lack of places for older gay people to be able to live where they would be accepted and cherished rather than judged and questioned, and I thought it was brilliant to see this idea being discussed in fiction. 

The wealthy older men who come to reside at Mount Royal in its new life as a residential home are the 'Rory's Boys' of the novel's title. There are some fascinating, entertaining and endearing characters amongst them. One of the larger-than-life residents remarks that ‘we are each of us surprising and fascinating till our last breath', a line that I loved.

There are plenty of twists and turns within the plot too, some that I guessed at and some that certainly took me by surprise.

This is a really good first novel; the author imbues his prose with honesty, compassion, poignancy and humour, and has crafted an entertaining plot and some great characters.

Source - I was kindly sent a copy of this novel to read and review.

Publisher - Bliss, an imprint of Arcadia Books
Visit the author's website here

Merivel: A Man of His Time - Rose Tremain - Guest review

Sir Robert Merivel is a deeply-flawed but loveable character, whose early life was chronicled in Tremain’s Booker short-listed novel Restoration. Born to an honest, God-fearing haberdasher, Merivel trains as a medic before becoming a favourite in the court of  King Charles. A life of debauchery and sexual excess is funded by the crown, Merivel’s reward for being a paper-groom to the king’s youngest mistress. But he makes a big mistake, and pays dearly for it; destitute, he is cast out of his beloved home Bidnold and is forced to beg his Quaker friend Pearce for shelter. And there is worse to come…

By the time we meet Merivel at the beginning of this sequel, his fortunes have once again changed. Restored to the King’s favour and to Bidnold, he is cared for by his devoted staff and adored by his beautiful daughter. Happy, but restless, he undertakes a journey to Versailles and the court of Louis, the Sun King.

I have had a copy of Restoration on my shelf for some years and it was only the arrival of a review copy of Merivel that made me lift it down. Although Merivel can be read as a stand-alone novel, it helps to have an understanding of the relationships that have evolved in the earlier novel. Although I’ve read a range of historical novels from Phillipa Gregory to Elizabeth Chadwick, from Georgette Heyer to Anya Seton, I’m not a great connoisseur of the genre. I enjoy some, but very often I find an author’s need to adhere to historical accuracy results in lacklustre storytelling and unimaginative characterisation.

Not so with Tremain. Sir Robert Merivel is a gem. His story is told in first person in a journal that he calls The Wedge. His observations on life are suffused with self-deprecating humour; even at his most debauched and reckless he maintains a comic and painful self-awareness. For all his faults, he is loyal to both his monarch and his staff, cares for his patients with tenderness and insight, and constantly strives to be a better man. It is easy to feel a certain fondness for Merivel, especially having followed his changing fortunes as a young man.

The settings are richly detailed, whether Tremain is describing the excesses of the English and French courts, the poverty of the Whittlesea Asylum or the steamy (in all senses!) laundry owned by the voluptuous Rosie Pierpoint. The language is sufficiently archaic to be credible as a Restoration text without being inaccessible to a modern reader. The supporting cast of characters is diverse and interesting: the lovers, the courtiers, the servants, the craftsmen, the Quakers and their insane patients – each has his or her own story, contributing to a densely textured evocation of the Restoration period.

Highly recommended – but if, like me, you have a copy of Restoration on a dusty shelf, do yourself a favour and read that first. 

Published by Chatto & Windus

Reviewed by Angi Holden - guest reviewer.

Many thanks to Angi for kindly reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library.

The Senior Moment - Eva Hudson

Degrees of Separation Book 2

'What's a woman got to do to get some attention around here?'

What an opening to this crime story! Jean Henderson has no sooner arrived on her first visit to New York City from London, suitcase still in hand, than she is witness to a fatality at a grocery store robbery, and what's more, she catches sight of the face of one of the two criminals as they remove their mask when they are about to speed away on their motorbike. Jean tries to inform the police of what she has just witnessed moments before, but those on the scene pay little heed to her; she feels like she is invisible to them all, so she ventures to the nearest police station, where she meets a fellow senior, Stanley Rozello, who is on the cusp of retirement from the force.

'Less than four hours in New York and it seemed she had become transparent, dissolving into the background wherever she went. Could it be her age? Surely sixty-five was no age at all. Ever since her last birthday she'd told everyone who'd listen it was the new fifty.'

Jean is there in NYC to visit her son and his partner who is due to give birth. But when she reaches their home, she finds neither of them there and a strange message left for her from her son. It becomes clear that he is in deep financial trouble.

This is a compelling read by Eva Hudson, an enjoyable and entertaining crime story that turns accepted notions about ageing on their head and has something to say about the financial crisis to boot. She has created a strong, determined and unconventional heroine in Jean; a mature, older lady who certainly won't stand for being ignored and being made to feel like she is invisible because others may consider her as less significant in society now, somehow, just because of her age. 

'Getting older had never bothered her, she actually quite enjoyed the licence it gave her to behave badly and get more of her own way, but this new invisibility thing was becoming tiresome.'

She embarks upon a plan with others who feel the same to make their voices heard, using the very thing that has irked her - the way she has been treated as if she is invisible and unimportant - to her advantage, whilst at the same time aiming to help her son out of the deep trouble he has found himself in. 

The story skips along at a good pace throughout, with drama, tension and humour, and the lead characters are engaging; as well as Jean, I particularly liked the dogged Detective Luisa Rodriguez and her former partner in the NYPD, the aforementioned Rozello. Both find themselves involved in Jean's activities as she sets about righting the wrongs she encounters in NYC. There's a point made here about alienating a section of society at our peril - if they were to rally around like Jean, who knows what might happen. I haven't read the first novel by Eva Hudson yet but it is on my kindle and after reading this one I am looking forward to it.

This is an independently published novel.

Thanks to the author for kindly sending me an ebook copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.

You can follow the author on twitter @Eva_Hudson and visit her website here.