Welcome! I’m mystery writer Steph Broadribb, author of the bestselling The Retired Detectives Club series and an avid reader of all books crime, mystery and thriller. You’ll find all my latest news, information on my books, and how to get in touch for writing coaching and mentoring here. Enjoy!
Dive into the delightful world of “Brunch in London,” the iconic cookbook that brings together over 100 mouth-watering recipes from London’s best! Featuring culinary legends like Jamie Oliver & Yotam Ottolenghi, every sale supports OnePlate’s sustainable food projects for children and farms in Africa and Asia to nourish and enrich the lives of children in great need.
A stunning hardcover filled with inspiration, it’s the perfect gift for any food lover.
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Thank You very much to the publisher – Pushkin Children’s Books for the review copy.
ISBN13: 978-1782693987
Genre: YA
Release date: 10 10 2024
Price*: Kindle £8.89 (GBP)/ Hardback £12.97 (GBP)
Pages: ~ 320
My rating: I liked it.
You can get this book here:
Amazon UK
Bookshop.org
What I learned from this book: be careful what you wish for.
Description of the book: It’s supposed to be a treat for Kit, a winter holiday by the coast with her sister Libby and their mum. But when Libby vanishes into thin air, and no one else remembers her, Kit is faced with a new reality – one in which her sister never existed.
Then she meets Story, a local boy who remembers Libby perfectly. Together they embark on a journey beyond their wildest imagination into a world steeped in ancient folklore. Can Kit and Story uncover the secret of the Twelve and rescue Libby before Time runs out?
How this book made me feel: I was very intrigued by the cover of this novel. The stone circles always mesmerized me, and I am glad I picked this book.
The protagonist in this book is Kit and the book is told from her perspective. Kit, her sister, and mum visited a caravan park by the beach for Christmas. I never stayed by the sea in winter, but it sounds cold and windy 😀 Due to certain events, Libby, Kit’s sister disappears from this world and everyone talks like she never existed, but Kit knows it is not true, so she goes on a quest to find her sister. I liked Kit, she is sweet, brave and determined. I enjoyed Kit’s and Story’s friendship and the honesty that they both shared. I don’t think the characters opened up enough in this book, I wanted more…
The narrative of this book is shrouded in history, magic and past. I really enjoyed their journey through time, the places they visited and the events that happened to them. I have missed more danger and adventure but liked this story’s folk aspect. The topics discussed in this book were friendships, abandonment, survival, the harm to the world done by humans, kindness, and more.
I loved the setting of this book, I am very keen to spend a weekend in Dover or anywhere by the cliffs, while the ocean is raging a few feet away. The writing style is very lyrical and beautiful. The chapters are not long and it is an easy and enjoyable read. I think the author concluded this story very well and left me very satisfied with the outcome.
So, to conclude, this young adult novel is peaceful, lyrical but entertaining at the same time. The characters are compelling and the narrative had me hooked, I wanted to find out what would happen next. Do give this novel a go and I hope you will like it as much as I did.
Thank you for your time ❤
About the author: Liz Hyder has been making up stories for as long she can remember. Bearmouth, her debut novel for young adults, won the Branford Boase Award and the Waterstones Children’s Book Award for Older Readers. It was also shortlisted for the UKLA Awards and nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Originally from London, she now lives in South Shropshire in a small medieval market town surrounded by hills, books and plants.
Website: https://www.lizhyder.co.uk/ / X: @LondonBessie / Instagram: @londonbessie
*-The price was taken from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com on the current date. The price might change at the time of your purchase. The links used in this post for book purchases are affiliates.
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When I came up with the idea for three collections of short stories set in the three cities I’ve lived in, Paris was always going to be the one that would require most work, after London and Manchester. I only lived there for a year – and it was forty years ago. Was a year long enough? Yes, to allow Paris to qualify for the series, but no, if the question was to do with ideas, research and writing. I would just have to increase the frequency and regularity of my trips to France. It’s a hard life. Living part of the time in London, I was pleased to see that it’s the same distance from St Pancras to Paris as it is from Euston to Manchester, and the trains are better.
Where do you get your ideas from? It’s the question that writers joke about being asked more than any other. In fact, the one I get asked most often is some variation on Would I have read any of your books? Well, I don’t know. You tell me. But there’s also Are you still writing? Which sounds a lot like Are you still banging your head against a brick wall? Or Are you still screaming into the void? Yes and yes.
To answer the question, however, I get my ideas from spending a certain amount of time in whatever place I want to write about, and getting around on foot. Paris is a small city, easy to walk across in a couple of hours. I like the metro and used it a lot when I lived in Paris, but now I generally prefer to walk. Keep your eyes and ears open and the ideas will come. That’s the theory.
I’ve had to write more new stories for this book – which I’m still writing, as I write this – than for London Gothic or Manchester Uncanny, as I’ve published fewer Paris stories over the years that are good enough to reprint. When I look back at the stories I wrote when I was living there in the mid-1980s, I cringe. I thought they were fine then, but they won’t do now. In forty years’ time, will I look back at the stories I’m writing now and cringe? Well, if I’m lucky enough to be alive when I’m 100, I imagine I’ll be mostly cringing, as I attempt to get to my feet, given the state of my knees today.
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I have been asked if I’ll do more books in the series. I spent a month in Brussels towards the end of 2024. Would that count? Maybe the pertinent question is whether I could come up with a better title than Brussels Sprouts and I’m not sure there is one. What I mean is, any title would be better than Brussels Sprouts, but I’m not sure there is one that works. I lived in Whitley Bay from when I was three months old until I was eight, so how about Newcastle Noir? I would have said I was too young in the 1960s to be thinking like a writer, so I’ve got no material from that time and no ideas from now, because I visit the north-east only rarely, but then I came across something I had forgotten about. All About Me must have been written in 1968 or early 1969, and when I think about it, while I would maintain that London Gothic, Manchester Uncanny and Paris Fantastique are all about the cities in which the stories are set, maybe I have to admit that, in fact, they are all about me.
London Gothic and Manchester Uncanny are available from Confingo Publishing. Paris Fantastique will be published later in 2025. White Spines and Shadow Lines, as well as volumes in the Best British Short Stories series, are available from Salt. Nicholas Royle also runs Nightjar Press.
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