Bel:

Cover

Two faces in profile and an electric-type air between them. Quite telling really.

Characters

Very Twilight-esque with the almost outcast girl being included into the new family to town. However that’s pretty much where it stops being anything like Twilight. Thank bleep.

Favourite

Claire. As with so many best friends of the main character in books I just want her all to myself. Even if she did push her BFF off a roof.

Least Favourite

Is it too clichéd to pick Lucas? Tough. He makes me want to pinch him.

Beginning

There once was a girl from Nantucket… okay I’ll stop there, however this is actually set in Nantucket so it fits. Helen meets the new kids to town and wants to eat their faces on sight.

Storyline

Helen finds out WHY she wanted to eat the faces of the new kids, then discovers everything she has ever known about her life has been a big fat Greek LIE.

Ending

There may or may not be incestuous thoughts.

Thoughts

I screamed through this one in 24 hours. Yep all 514 pages in under a day. So in short I LOOOOVED this book.

Greek mythology, love/hate relationships. Girl having a Rocky Balboa scene and food, lots and lots of food.

Quote

“I’ve known you could fly since we were kids. I even pushed you off your roof once to make sure. Sorry about that by the way,” she said sheepishly. Claire talking to Helen.

Krista:

Cover

The US Cover has a lot of purples and blues. The dress is a nod towards Ancient Greece and the myths this story references. The combination of the stormy air and the ocean waters also ties together the setting. 

Characters

Although Helen is an only child, she has a best friend who’s part of the large Delos family. Although Helen is the main character, we get to learn a lot about each family member individually.

Favourite

This was a hard pick for me but overall I had to choose Claire, Helen’s best friend. She adds a lot of humor to the story, she’s cute, spunky and a good friend.

Least Favourite

Matt. He seemed a little too power hungry and frustrating for me to understand. I forsee his story continuing in depth as the series progresses.

Beginning

Helen is used to her somewhat dull life on Nantucket Island, working for her single father and hanging out with her best friend Claire. When the Delos family moves and transfer to her school, she cannot stop her desire to kill them upon sight.

Storyline

As Helen is just coming to terms with the Delos family and her strange new desires, she discovers that somebody is after her, possibly to kill her. And why she has started seeing visions of three women urging her to commit murder?

Ending

The ending is by far not a conclusion, but at least it’s not a cliffhanger! There are several storylines that are left open and I am personally interested in what happens next.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed the fact that the author was able to incorporate the stories of several different characters without being overwhelming; and how she she used the Greek Myths, Gods and history to tie them all together. There are some complicated family ties brought to the story that helped take some of the pressure off the head over hills romance. It’s very detailed and well researched and adds an interesting perspective on today’s world.

 Quote

“I don’t care how hard being together is, nothing is worse than being apart.”

Lisa:

Cover

One of my favourite covers in the world! I love the way the entire trilogy looks sitting on my white bookshelf. They’re just so shiny and really catch the eye!

Characters

Is it weird that I like, when characters don’t like each other right away? I mean we see insta-love in YA so much. And I always ask myself why do they like each other? How can someone “love” someone else so quickly? In Starcrossed, the two main characters absolutely hate each other, until they are forced to work together, and that’s what brings them so close. Love love love!

Favorite

I think I would have to agree with Bel and Krista when they chose Claire as their favourite character. She’s just funny, and brings a bit of humor to the story. She’s that friend, who is dorky, and goofy, even in the worst situations. But if I wasn’t allowed to copy Krista and Bel, I think I would have to pick Helen. I feel like there is just SO much going on around her, and in her life and she handles it… much better than I would. And even much better than I’ve seen characters handle situations in other books.

Least Favorite

I don’t have a least favourite but I have something to complain about, and it doesn’t really fit in any of our other categorie, so I’m just going to rant right here instead. Helen’s mom! REALLY? I know it’s only the first book, but I feel like we (the readers) deserved to know a little bit more about her mom, and why she left and what happened to her. Hopefully she’ll be mentioned more in the next two books.

Beginning

So there’s this really hot babe named Helen… JUST kidding. But there really is this beautiful girl named Helen who lives on an island called Nantucket. Besides her immense beauty, Helen is also extremely fast and strong. She runs track (beating everyone by minutes) and helps her dad at the general store (lifting heavy boxes). Life’s been good, and Helen has been trying to keep her powers to herself… that is until a new family moves to town, and the life she’s known is gone forever. Whenever she comes near one of its member, she feels anger and the urge to beat them to pulp.

Middle

Throughout the middle of the book, Helen discovers who she is, who her mother is, and that her life isn’t what she always thought it was. The beauty, speed and strength aren’t something that just happened. It’s something that happens to all people who are descendents of the original players in the Trojan War.

End

AHHH! No! That can’t be happening! Please tell me this isn’t true… Josephine Angelini, how can you do this to us? Do you want to break our hearts?!

Overall Thoughts

Okay, where can I begin? Angelini did an amazing job tying the historical and mythological aspect into this story. When reading YA historical fiction, many times the history is mentioned, or brought up, but not really carried along throughout the entire story. Angelini did a great job sticking to it, but also bringing in the future and her own twist to the characters and story. The book never had a slow moment. Once you started with the first page it was extremely hard to put it down. The characters are lovable and I adored Lucas and Helen. The ending broke my heart into a million shards and I’m still picking them up today. I’ll be reading the rest of the trilogy in January hoping Josephine will mend my heart again.

So, Christmas is done and dusted, and as has been the case for the past couple of years, it was a very quiet and relaxed day for us. All the action happens crazy-early morning when our three boys leap out of bed to discover what Father Christmas has delivered. After that, it’s all about doing as little as possible.

Besides my Beloved and our sons, I only have my sister (and her family) and my Mum left on my side after losing my Dad and both my maternal grandparents in a short space of time. Christmas without them is still a bit weird. We call it ‘the new normal’. We don’t do the whole mega-meal in the middle of the day – and there’s definitely no hot oven making the kitchen an uncomfortable place to be (seriously, our Australian summer is enough to contend with!) So this year, in between splashing around in the pool, we adults munched on some gorgeous antipasto platters while the kids were able to choose whatever they wanted to eat – it is Christmas, after all – and they chose chicken nuggets and hot dogs. Why not, I say!

I did, however whip something special up for dessert. Again, totally non-traditional. Yes, more cake pops! They’re so easy, and suddenly everyone’s favourite – kids and adults alike. They’re easy to eat, don’t require a bowl or crockery, and, they’re FUN. While I served them up over Christmas and Boxing Day, there’s no reason why these can’t make your New Year’s Eve table centrepiece or any other special occasion.

What You Need:

1 packet of chocolate Tim Tams

1 packet of white chocolate Tim Tams

5 malt-style biscuits

2 x 80 grams of cream cheese

White chocolate melts

Dark chocolate melts

Chocolate transfer sheets in various designs. I used two – gold swirls and pink brushstrokes.

Small round cutter, aprox 2cm diameter (for biscuits, scones or icing)

Cake Pop sticks (you could use icy pole sticks)

How it’s Done:

Add the chocolate Tim Tams to your food processor. Blitz for a few moments, just to break them up a little. Add 80 grams of cream cheese and continue blitzing until combined in a doughy ball. Remove and roll teaspoon sized pieces into balls. Place on a tray lined with baking paper, and pop them in the fridge.

For the white chocolate Tim Tams, the process is the same, except you’ll need to add the malt biscuits as well. This is because specialty-flavoured Tim Tams (white, dark, mint etc) are a few biscuits short in the pack. Sneaky, sneaky.

 While your Tim Tam balls are chilling, cut a 10cm strip away from your chocolate transfer sheets. The sheets cost about $8 each and are available from all cake decorating shops, as well as online. There’s a huge variety of colours and designs and available, and I think they’re my new favourite thing!

I melted a teacup full of chocolate buds in the microwave before pouring the liquid chocolate over the rough side of the transfer sheet. This bit is a little tricky, mainly because you need to smooth the chocolate to a thin layer with a spatula, but not too thin – about 2 or 3 mm is good.

Now, wait a couple of minutes – don’t walk away! – until the chocolate is beginning to set, but is still pliable on the sheet. With your round cutter (mine is about 2cm in diameter), cut out circles just as you would for biscuits. If you wait until the chocolate has set too much, it will crack. If it’s still too wet, it just won’t work. Trial and error, folks. As you lift the remaining circles, you’ll find the transfer has done its job and err…transferred the edible design onto your chocolate disk.

Remove your Tim Tam balls from the fridge, melt a little more chocolate, dip the end of each stick in it before pushing gently into the ball. Place back on the lined tray upside down, not minding if a flat spot is created on the top on the ball. Give a few minutes to set before melting more chocolate (I use a deep mug) and dipping the whole ball inside. This isn’t the time to be stingy! Let the excess drip off, and while the chocolate is still wet, attach the decorated disk. Replace on the tray upside down to help the disk stay in place while setting.

These quantities made 32 cake pops, and I was able to make them a day ahead of time. I served them in plain old household jars, in the middle of the table. Get creative! Try colouring your chocolate, and who says you need to stick with circles for your transfers? I’d love to hear your ideas. For me, I think I’ll try stars next time…

Belinda Hamilton’s had a busy year but she flies by to share her Top 5 reads for 2013

1. Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

2. This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E Smith

3. Written in Red by Anne Bishop

4. Fragments by Dan Wells

5. Hidden by Marianne Curley

Most anticipated books for 2014

1. Secret by Brigid Kemmerer (January 2014)

2. Murder Of Crows by Anne Bishop (January 2014)

3. Hunting the Dark by Karen Mahoney (February 2014)

4. Ruins by Dan Wells (March 2014)

5. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E Smith (April 2014)

We’re excited here at the Escape Club to see the first reviews for Serious Sas and Messy Magda.

Over at Chic Peak, Katie Friedmann reviews the book and describes it as “beyond adorable!”

And then there are these comments on Amazon UK:

“Eye catching illustrations and a beautiful story.” Nicole W

“We have already read the story a few times, and my daughter is asking if I can buy her some more stories with Sas and Magda in- so hopefully there will be more stories soon.” Becster73

And Diana Pinguicha has this to say on GoodReads:

I have a soft spot for picture books. They’re short, pretty and often very, very sweet. So when I learned that Marianne was going to write a picture book, I was more than thrilled. Marianne should be synonym for versatility and I was eager to say what she’d come up with.

Serious Sas and Messy Magda is about a very tidy girl whose mother is, as the title says, messy. They’re polar opposites in all ways, with Sas reading advanced science books while her mother performs magic tricks. Sas is embarrassed of her mother as children often are because they’re so different from their parents. Then comes the ending that will leave a smile on your face.

The art is quirky and fun. I found myself lingering on the pages to look for tiny little details — namely how the family pets acted when they were with Sas or Magda. It’s a pretty book with an even prettier story.

As an adult, I loved it. I think children will too.

This “dough” is really easy to make! And extremely delicious! I didn’t add any sugar to the recipe, since the milk and the coconut flakes were already sweetened.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 ½ cups sweetened coconut flakes
• ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Whole pecans

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cookie sheets (make sure to grease these well!!).
2. In a large bowl combine the condensed milk, almond extract and coconut flakes. Make sure that this is well mixed. Your “dough” should be pretty sticky, it shouldn’t be watery. If you can take a piece and roll it into a small ball, you’re good.
3. Continue rolling out balls, or just create small piles. Allow them to bake for about 12-15 minutes. Let them cool. Then take them off of the sheet.
4. Once they are completely cool, melt your chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Either dip your macaroon in the chocolate to cover it, or just drizzle the chocolate over top.
5. Finish off each cookie with a whole almond and enjoy!