The Thief on the Winged Horse by Kate Mascarenhas

At one point near the start of this book I thought that it was going to read like a children's book. Thankfully the bit that made me think that (Larkin skipped up the central steps) was a one off and the story continued on a better footing. 

Larkin has crossed to the eyot on which the Kendricks Workshop is placed and where its magical dolls are made; his intention is to become a sorcerer and make such dolls himself. However, Larkin is not the only one with such a desire. In order to gain employment at the Workshop, Larkin must either be a family member or marry into the family. He believes his claim that he is a family member will gain him his employment.

There is a rare doll in the home of the current owner of Kendricks, made by Lucy Kendrick, one of the founders of the doll Workshop, "The Paid Mourner”. It is extremely valuable and, during an annual celebration, it is stolen. This theft is an unlikely event due to the protections surrounding the doll, but nonetheless it is gone. 

As the only people who live on the eyot are family or married into the family, suspicions are spread thin. The twin of the owner is suspected and all family members have police searches to endure.

Plots twist and people turn about as they worm their way to the top. Dolls are made and hexes writ on mannequins to change the fortune of sorcerers. Kendrick's, Jackson's and Botham's wait to discover the whereabouts of 'The Paid Mourner'.

Larkin dances through it all, but Persephone is by his side.

I like the way that the characters were tetchy and behaved as a normal person would. But, the thing that did annoy me was the way that bits were left out in certain areas, bits that will lead to another follow-up book I expect.

"Larkin explored an orchard. The bark of one tree was engraved with the image of a man on a winged horse, and beneath it, a single word: THIEF. Undeterred Larkin scrumped four quince and hid them in his bag."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.

4/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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A dazzling mixture of crime, romance, magic and myth from the acclaimed author of The Psychology of Time Travel.

The Kendrick family have been making world-famous dolls for over 200 years. But their dolls aren't coveted for the craftmanship alone. Each one has a specific emotion laid on it by its creator. A magic that can make you feel bucolic bliss or consuming paranoia at a single touch. Though founded by sisters, now only men may know the secrets of the workshop.

Persephone Kendrick longs to break tradition and learn the family craft, and when a handsome stranger arrives claiming doll-making talent and a blood tie to the Kendricks, she sees a chance to grasp all she desires. But then, one night, the family's most valuable doll is stolen. Only someone with knowledge of magic could have taken her. Only a Kendrick could have committed this crime...

Reviews for Kate Mascarenhas:

'Witty, inventive and unflashily wise about human hearts; Mascarenhas's future promises to be an exciting one' GUARDIAN. 

'Breathtakingly tender and wryly understated' NEW YORK TIMES. 

'Captivating, delightful and thoroughly original' JENNIE MELAMED.

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The Assistant by S. K. Tremayne

The story is one of a solo woman in a flat with smart devices that control the systems in the property. The woman (Jo Ferguson) believes that the smart devices are speaking to her, threatening her. Those she trusts enough to tell, don't believe her. Then things start to get weirder and Jo gets very scared. Is she imagining it all, or is she going mad?

I felt that I was reading a book that I had read before, but different. This is not the first book to have a single woman on a property and have her experience 'things' that make her think she is losing her mind. Yes in this instance the catalyst is the smart devices and in others it was probably something else.

However, the notion of a shady event in the woman's past, several suspects who 'could' be the ugly party, but that you just know they can't be, or maybe they could. And then more back history and links comes out about the people that the woman interacts with during the story.

There obviously differences, some seriously sad happenings, cruel beyond words, make Jo Ferguson's experience so twisted and crushing.

I think that I would really have liked this book a whole lot more if it had been the first of its kind that I had read. It was very well written and it did pull me in some of the time. There was just too much deja vu to keep totally enthralled. Nonetheless, I think that it will be extremely well received by many people fresh to this type of story.

"‘I know your secret. I know what you did to that boy. How his eyes rolled white. I know everything.’ And then all is quiet."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews. 

 
3/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully) 

 
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She’s in your house. She controls your life. Now she’s going to destroy it. 

A terrifying and timely new psychological thriller, from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Twins. 

She watches you constantly. Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous Home Assistant, called Electra, that takes care of the heating, the lights – and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company.
She knows all your secrets. Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two: ‘I know what you did.’ And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable. 

 
Now she wants to destroy you. Only two other people in the whole world know Jo’s secret. And they would never tell anyone. Would they? As a fierce winter brings London to a standstill, Jo begins to understand that the Assistant on the shelf doesn’t just want to control Jo; it wants to destroy her.  

 

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Q by Christina Dalcher

This book held me right to the end and didn't end as expected. In fact I filled up at the last few paragraphs.

Children have to achieve certain standards or they get demoted to a lower school. The lowest schools are those where the children have to leave the family home and go to a state school somewhere else in the country.

Some unexpected transfers occur in the street where El lives, two girls in the neighbourhood get dropped from Silver to Yellow, unheard of before. And there was no sign of the girls failing before that.

Then El's daughter Freddie is transferred. El cannot stand the idea of Freddie in a yellow state school on her own. She asks her husband Malcolm to intervene, as he is in the top level of the management team for the Fitter Family Programme, but he refuses.

So El deliberately flunks her own teacher assessment to be transferred too.

What she expects and what she gets are so far apart as to be unbelievable.

"Freddie’s in a boarding school, and I’m going to take her out of it. It will be two short days before I realize how absolutely wrong I am."

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.   

3/5 Stars (What this means...five-stars-applied-carefully)

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Official description: 

PERFECTION IS EVERYTHING

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s new elite schools. Her daughters are exactly like her: beautiful, ambitious, and perfect. A good thing, since the recent mandate that’s swept the country is all about perfection.

Now everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any children who don’t measure up are placed into new government schools. Instead, teachers can focus on the gifted.

Elena tells herself it’s not about eugenics, not really, but when one of her daughters scores lower than expected and is taken away, she intentionally fails her own test to go with her.

But what Elena discovers is far more terrifying than she ever imagined…

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