Book Review: Beyond the Heather Hills by Melissa Wiley

Beyond the Heather Hills by Melissa Wiley
Little House: The Martha Years Book 4
Paperback, 208 pages, Unabridged
Harper Trophy
February 4, 2003
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, YA

Source: Personal collection

In this fourth book in the Martha Years series, ten-year-old Martha journeys to the bustling city of Perth to visit her newly married sister Grisie.

This is Martha′s first time beyond the familiar heather hills and this city on the River Tay is more exciting than she could have ever imagined!

If you have read Beyond the Heather Hills as the 4^th and final book in this series (you should read them in order, but it’s not required) you will be able to fully appreciate the evolution of Martha from a young girl of about 6 or 7 in the first book to a young adult at the age of 10. In this book she is still at that age where she wants to play, but is becoming more aware of the adult world around her and how she fits in it. She definitely encounters situations that are more significant than when she was a child – there is birth, and illness, death, and family growing up and moving away. There is also the difference between life in the city and life in the rural community that she had grown up in. So much for Martha changes in this book and it was beautifully done, as always, by Melissa Wiley.

This is a series that young readers can certainly grow with and the events that Martha encounters throughout are perfectly appropriate for what young readers may encounter in the world. I love the way in which tough issues are presented, such as illness and death; it is handled directly, without a lot of frills or extra in-depth information, but in a way that younger audiences can understand. So many elements of the Scottish culture are included in this series, but it never feels over-explained. I have read other historical fiction aimed at younger audiences that seem to go into extraneous depth about cultural elements which results in the narrative feeling to slow and heavy; that is not the case here. Wiley presents enough information for the audience to understand and wraps in seamlessly into the narrative and it never feels out of place. It was something that I immediately noticed in this book after having read another young adult novel recently that handled it much different.

I just adore this series and can’t wait to find time to start the 2^nd series, The Charlotte Years, also written by Wiley.

Please be aware that this series is currently out of print but can often be found on Ebay or Half.com - but you have to look often because they can be exorbitantly priced.  There was also an abridged version of many of these books released.  I would advise trying to check your local libraries for these books.  There was apparently some discussion at some point about bringing them back as e-books, so let the publisher know you are interested! Email, tweet, Facebook, etc!

Also in the Little House Series:

There are 5 series of books within the Little House Series each focusing on a different family member of Laura’s.  They are not all written by the same author.

Little House in the Highlands (Martha #1)
[My Review]

The Far Side of the Loch (Martha #2)
[My Review]

Down to the Bonny Glen (Martha #3)
[My Review]

Little House by Boston Bay (Charlotte #1)

On Tide Mill Lane (Charlotte #2)

The Road from Roxbury (Charlotte #3)

Across the Puddingstone Dam (Charlotte #4)

Little House in Brookfield (Caroline #1)

Little Town at the Crossroads (Caroline #2)

Little Clearing in the Woods (Caroline #3)

On Top of Concord Hill (Caroline #4)

Across the Rolling River (Caroline #5)

Little City by the Lake (Caroline #6)

A Little House of Their Own (Caroline #7)

Little House in the Big Woods (Laura #1)

Little House on the Prairie (Laura #2)

Farmer Boy (Laura #3)

On the Banks of Plum Creek (Laura #4)

By the Shores of Silver Lake (Laura #5)

The Long Winter (Laura #6)

Little Town on the Prairie (Laura #7)

These Happy Golden Years (Laura #8)

The First Four Years (Laura #9)

On the Way Home (Laura #10)

West from Home (Laura #11)

Little House on Rocky Ridge (Rose #1)

Little Farm in the Ozarks (Rose #2)

In the Land of the Big Red Apple (Rose #3)

On the Other Side of the Hill (Rose #4)

Little Town in the Ozarks (Rose #5)

New Dawn on Rocky Ridge (Rose #6)

On the Banks of the Bayou (Rose #7)

Bachelor Girl (Rose #8)

Find Melissa Wiley: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest

Copyright © 2017by The Maiden’s Court

Audiobook Review: Leonardo the Florentine by Catherine McGrew Jaime

Leonardo the Florentine by Catherine McGrew Jaime
Book 1 in The Life and Travels of Leonardo da Vinci
Unabridged, 2 hr. 55 min.
Catherine Jaime
David Winograd (Narrator)
May 3, 2017
★★★½☆☆

Genre: Historical Fiction; Young Adult

Source: Received audio download via Audible from author for review

Who are the Medici brothers? And who is trying to assassinate them? Why was the Pitti Palace never completed? And what part did Leonardo play in all of this? Leonardo da Vinci is remembered as an artist and inventor. But who was he before anyone knew his name? This family-friendly novel explores the history and the legends of his early years in Florence. It also weaves a mystery of politics and power. This novel is the first in the series of historically based novels

I love that this book introduces a younger audience to the world of Renaissance Italy and a younger Leonardo da Vinci when he was apprenticed to the great Verrocchio. First of all, this is not a da Vinci that many adult novels even explore and novels that explore the life of an apprentice in an art studio are few and far between. Jaime does a fabulous job of creating a breathing world of Florence that feels real. Young Leonardo in his role as an apprentice to Verrocchio is able to be all over Florence and explore so many different areas of the world it is believable that he could experience all these different areas of Renaissance life. The novel touches on politics, humanism, art, architecture, and more in ways that are accessible to a younger audience, but also adults that are not familiar with that time and place. It can certainly be enjoyed by both age audiences. There were times where the novel occasionally felt dense. There was a lot of information that the author offers and it sometimes slowed down the pace of the plot. I do think that this will make a fascinating series for young readers, I just hope that the plot moves a little faster and doesn’t get weighed down by the details.

★★★☆☆

It took a lot of getting used to this narrator to become comfortable with him. He has a sort of strange cadence to his speech. That being said, however, he has a very steady pacing to his narration. For an adult it might feel a touch on the slower side, but as this is aimed at a younger audience, the pacing might be proper so that they can digest all the information presented. I am unsure if this pacing might contribute to my feeling of the text being slightly dense.

You can check out a sample of the audiobook below:

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Carol Baldwin’s Blog
• Lomeraniel Audiobook Reviews

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Find Catherine McGrew Jaime: Website | Blog

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Audiobook Review: Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
Book 3 of Anne of Green Gables series
Unabridged; 8 hr. 15 min.
Post Hypnotic Press Inc.
Colleen Winton (narrator)
June 4, 2014
★★★★☆

Genre: Classic; Historical Fiction

Source: Received download from publisher for review as part of Audiobookworm Tour

Anne of the Island was published in 1915, seven years after the best-selling Anne of Green Gables, partly because of the continuing clamor for more Anne from her fans - a fan base that continues to grow today!

In this continuation of the story of Anne Shirley, Anne leaves Green Gables and her work as a teacher in Avonlea to pursue her original dream (which she gave up in Anne of Green Gables) of taking further education at Redmond College in Nova Scotia. Gilbert Blythe and Charlie Sloane enroll as well, as does Anne's friend from Queen's Academy, Priscilla Grant. During her first week of school, Anne befriends Philippa Gordon, a beautiful girl whose frivolous ways charm her. Philippa (Phil for short) also happens to be from Anne's birthplace of Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. Anne, always the good scholar, studies hard, but she also has many life lessons. This book sees Anne leave behind girlhood to blossom into a mature young woman.

I’ve always shied away from outright classifying these books as young adult, despite seeing that in many other locations. While I would say Anne of Green Gables does securely fall into that category, the next two books that I have read so far begin to move out of that classification. While the writing style still remains simpler to understand and comprehend, and there are by far no mature content, the characters are aging, falling in love, going to work and college, getting married, which I would say takes it out of that category in my opinion.

Throughout much of Anne of the Island we see Anne away from the place she grew up and the majority of the people she (and we) know. While we see her spend some time away during Anne of Avonlea, the majority of Island is spent at Redmond College. Here we see Anne grow a little more into her own person as she is in a whole new world with many new people. There is comfort in the familiar faces of Gilbert, Charlie, and Philippa (who I really didn’t remember that well, so she felt new to me) and she does return home for short breaks and we get the treat of hearing from home in letters that various friends send her. I’m really not sure why Anne pushes back so hard against the idea of falling in love with anyone (or her friends falling in love for that matter either); it’s not like she has negative representations of love/marriage in her past, so that would often grate at me.

There is one scene in particular that stood out in my mind in a terrible way and the inclusion of the scene in the book sort of changed the whole tone of the story for me hence forward – this would be the killing of the cat scene. It’s not a major event in the story or any kind of plot spoiler, but it really bothered me. A cat that just won’t leave their house and the girls just have this frank discussion about how you kill the cat and everyone takes part in this endeavor. Mind you, it all turns out ok in the end, but the scene was just very dark and not at all of the same tone as the rest of the book or prior books in the series. If I was editing this book I would have axed the whole scene because it just differs so tremendously from the rest of the series.

Overall the book is a strong outing in the series and doesn’t feel like it loses momentum at all.

★★★★☆

As this is the same narrator and the same series, my thoughts are essentially the same as in book 1 and 2, with a couple additional notes. I continue to love Colleen Winton’s approach to the narration of the cast of characters from Anne’s world. There are a bunch of new characters in this book and each continues to be unique, which must be difficult as there have been so many characters in this series. I forgot to mention this in my review of Anne of Avonlea when the character first appears, but it is also appropriate now, I love her characterization of Davy, one of the twins that she is helping Marilla to raise. He ends every question with, “I want to know!” which just cracks me up the way she presents it. I have now listened to all of the Anne books that Post Hypnotic Press has released and I’m sure I will finish this series someday because it is great fun, but I would be happy to listen to Winton any day.

There was one issue that was noticeable to me in this book particularly that I did not notice in either of the other two and this was that there appeared to be noticeable edits. There would be times where practically in the middle of the sentence the narrators voice would become either softer or louder where it wouldn’t have been otherwise based on the speech pattern or it sounded just a little bit off. These moments are something that becomes quite obvious to me and led to the slightly lower rating of the audio production of this book compared to the others.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• To Read or Not to Read
• Macarons and Paperbacks

Buy the Book: Audible | Post Hypnotic Press

You can check out a sample from Anne of the Island below.

Also by L.M. Montgomery:

Anne of Green Gables (Book 1)
[My Review]

Anne of Avonlea (Book 2)
[My Review]

Anne of Windy Poplars (Book 4)

Anne’s House of Dreams (Book 5)

Anne of Ingleside (Book 6)

Rainbow Valley (Book 7)

Rilla of Ingleside (Book 8)

Tour-Wide Giveaway!

As part of the tour, there is a tour-wide giveaway sponsored by the publisher, Post Hypnotic Press, for store credit: $120 (Grand Prize), $90 (Runner-up) & $60 (2nd Runner-up).  Entries are made via the Gleam app and can be made on any of the participating tour pages.  Please if you have questions, contact the tour coordinator as I have no input in the giveaway.  Good luck!!

Anne of Green Gables Giveaway: Three Winners

Tour Schedule

Audiobookworm Promotions

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, BOOK 1

Jul. 30th:
History From A Woman's Perspective (Review)
The Book Slayer (Review)
Spunky 'N Sassy (Review)

Jul. 31st:
CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
A Book and A Latte (Review)
Canadian Book Addict (Review, Giveaway)
Tara's Book Addiction (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 1st:
The Maiden's Court (Review)
Book Reviews By Jasmine (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Lilly's Book World (Review)

Aug. 2nd:
2 Girls and A Book (Review, Teasers)
Macarons and Paperbacks (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Bound 4 Escape (Review, Giveaway)
WTF Are You Reading? (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 3rd:
To Read Or Not To Read (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)
Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Notes From 'Round the Bend (Teasers, Giveaway)
Haddie's Haven (Review, Teasers, Giveaway)
Hall Ways (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 4th:
Lomeraniel (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Joy of Bookworms (Review)
SMADA's Book Smack (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 5th:
Buried Under Books (Review)
Life As Freya (Review)

ANNE OF AVONLEA, BOOK 2

Aug. 6th:
History From A Woman's Perspective (Review)
Spunky 'N Sassy (Review)

Aug. 7th:
The Book Slayer (Review)
A Book and A Latte (Review)
Tara's Book Addiction (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 8th:
CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
2 Girls and A Book (Review, Teasers)
Lilly's Book World (Review)

Aug. 9th:
The Maiden's Court (Review)
Macarons and Paperbacks (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Canadian Book Addict (Review, Giveaway)

Aug. 10th:
Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Notes From 'Round the Bend (Teasers, Giveaway)
Dab of Darkness (Review, Giveaway)
Haddie's Haven (Review, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 11th:
To Read Or Not To Read (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)
Joy of Bookworms (Review)
Hall Ways (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Bound 4 Escape (Review, Giveaway)

Aug. 12th:
Lomeraniel (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Forever Literary (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Life As Freya (Review)
WTF Are You Reading? (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

ANNE OF THE ISLAND, BOOK 3

Aug. 13th:
History From A Woman's Perspective (Review)
Spunky 'N Sassy (Review)

Aug. 14th:
A Lovelorn Virgo (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
2 Girls and A Book (Review, Teasers)
Tara's Book Addiction (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 15th:
Dab of Darkness (Review, Giveaway)
Joy of Bookworms (Review)
Canadian Book Addict (Review, Giveaway)

Aug. 16th:
CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
A Book and A Latte (Review)
Macarons and Paperbacks (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Lilly's Book World (Review)

Aug. 17th:
To Read Or Not To Read (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)
Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Reading for the Stars and Moon (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Notes From 'Round the Bend (Teasers, Giveaway)
Haddie's Haven (Review, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 18th:
The Maiden's Court (Review)
The Book Slayer (Review)
Jorie Loves A Story (Interview)
Hall Ways (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 19th:
Christian Chick's Thoughts (Review)
Lomeraniel (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Life As Freya (Review)
Bound 4 Escape (Review, Giveaway)
WTF Are You Reading? (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court