Title: Tilly and the Bookwanderers
Author: Anna James
Series: Pages and Co #1
5 stars
From Goodreads:
Since her mother’s disappearance, eleven-year-old Tilly has found comfort in stories at Pages & Co., her grandparents’ bookshop. But when her favourite characters, Anne of Green Gables and Alice from Wonderland, appear in the shop, Tilly’s adventures become very real. Not only can she follow Anne and Alice into their thrilling worlds, she discovers she can bookwander into any story she chooses.
Tilly’s new ability could even help her solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago. But danger may be lurking on the very next page…
My Thoughts
I picked this up as part of Middle Grade Marvels book of the month in May and I am really please I did. Pages and Co is such a heartwarming and magical bookshop that just gets you excited about reading. Tilly’s journey, exploring new wonders of her grandparents bookshop, finding the Secrets of the British Underlibrary, building new friendships and learning about her own history is just a book worms dream.
It is one of those books that just captures you and pulls you in. The world comes to life in the descriptions. Question: Why are descriptions of food in middle grades so delicious?!? but the characters also hold there own. Even the book characters Tilly encounters have just full personalities that really shine through. The villian had the perfect level of creepiness that crawled across your skin building the perfect amount of suspicion. It was just so perfectly crafted, a joy to read.
I really enjoyed this book! I couldn’t put it down and smiled from cover to cover. I couldnt wait to explore more of the world of Bookwandering.
Title: Tilly and the Lost Fairytales
Author: Anna James
Series: Pages and Co #2
4 stars
From Goodreads:
A magical adventure to delight the imagination. The curl-up-on-the-sofa snuggle of a series from a uniquely talented author.
Tilly Pages is a bookwanderer; she can travel inside books, and even talk to the characters she meets there. But Tilly’s powers are put to the test when fairytales start leaking book magic and causing havoc . . .
On a wintery visit to Paris, Tilly and her best friend Oskar bravely bookwander into the land of fairytales to find that characters are getting lost, stories are all mixed-up, and mysterious plot holes are opening without warning. Can Tilly work out who, or what, is behind the chaos so everyone gets their happily-ever-after?
My Thoughts
Back to Tilly again and just as beautifully constructed as the first. This one got a little more emotional, there were scenes which just made my heart ache with how beautifully sad they were. It was also fun to get to explore Paris and another side to the world of Bookwandering. For me this wasn’t as instantly capturing as the first which is why it has not quite made 5 stars. This was definitely a middle book building the story towards the third, we don’t get the reveal of the big villain and their motivation until the last few chapters of the book and we cliffhanger so a lot of the rest of the story just didn’t have the pace as the previous book.
I still really enjoyed this book, the exploration of fairytales and all the different revellings was fun and creative. The set up for book three sounds amazing and I am so excited to get my hands on it.
For those that have already Bookwandered with Tilly and are looking to fill the time with another read, the Adult Fantasy – The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep also has a similar theme of your favourite characters being pulled from their pages. you can read my review of it here. It has to be one of my favourite reads this year.
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