Wednesday 20 February 2013

Kidlit Blog Hop 10# Review Princelings of the East + Giveaway


Hi folks, welcome back to the Kidlit Blog Hop #10. 

Recently I participated in a promo with 14 other Middle Grade Authors. We gathered all our first few chapters into an e-book sampler and you had to find the secret phrase to enter to win a Kindle Fire or a copy of each of our books. It was such a fun experience with a great side benefit. I got to connect with 14 other Indie Middle Grade Authors, all with a unique book that they wanted to showcase.

So, today I want to share with you a review of one of those books. 


Description:
The Princelings of the East is the first of a trilogy telling of the adventures of Fred and George.
When the King's Birthday feast is ruined by an unnatural power drain, our Princeling heroes leave their scientific experiments to set out in search of answers. They encounter the enigmatic businessman Hugo, the impressive Prince of Buckmore, the wise Lady Nimrod, the irrepressible barkeep Victor, but find themselves threatened by those with vested interests. The scene shifts from a rural, feudal setting to the towers and heights of the curious Isle of Hattan, but where, or when, are they? Time is of the essence in solving this puzzle, and our heroes must keep their wits sharp and their heads clear if they are to survive.


We follow Fred and George, Fred who is the thinker or Philosopher and George who is the Engineer, but the totally unique and endearing thing about these two totally lovable characters is that they are in fact Guinea Pigs. But not just your average guinea pigs that eat lettuce and live in a cage, they are Princelings and they live in a castle, contribute to its fine tuning and banter with the humans. 
Fred and George remind me of an English cartoon that is currently showing on Australian television called Country Mouse and City Mouse, which I recently realised is a retelling of Aesops Fable. 
The two mice are intelligent adventurers who travel around, but they have different likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses which help them along in their adventures. 
Similarly, Fred and George are brothers with very different talents and interests but they work together on their adventures, that's until they get separated and have to work apart to solve the mystery of the Energy Drain.

I enjoyed this book very much and I was intrigued the whole way, itching to find out the answer to mysterious energy drain. I won't spoil it but there may be some wibbly wobbly timey wimey shenanigans ( sorry that is a Dr Who quote which I realise if you aren't a super nerd like me, Yes I own a Tardis, you won't have a clue what  I am talking about lol.) I loved the reference to Wozna Cola which sounded an awful lot like a certain dark coloured liquid that has taken the world by storm for about 4 decades

This was a clean read, with no violence at all which I think is such a credit to the author as I feel quite passionate about this very topic when considering if a book is for a Middle Grade audience. I would recommend this to 10+ plus due to the intricacy of the plot and there is quite a cast of characters to follow. I  also feel that this story would be more appealing to boys than girls.
I like the cover, but I do wish that it had pictures of Fred and George as I think that would totally appeal to kids to help them visualise these completely adorable guinea pigs.


The Princelings of the East is the first in the series and I am looking forward to reading Fred and George's further adventures.


http://amzn.com/B00ADJS63G
But wait there's more, hop on over to Amazon today to grab your copy of the Traveler in Black and White as it goes Free today on Amazon 20 February. http://amzn.com/B00ADJS63G

Ms Pett has also kindly donated  two epub copies of The Princelings Of The East via Smashwords. Enter Raffle copter below and Happy Hopping folks.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Welcome to the 10th Kid Lit Blog Hop. Wow!! What a fabulous turnout in the last Hop with 110 links! That was a lot of hopping around but I did manage to visit every link, comment on every link, and tweet something from each participating blog or author. I am so excited for all the wonderful books and articles that were linked in the last Hop and I look forward to hopping around through the links this week. A big thank you to everybody who linked into the last Hop and I hope you will join us all again this week. Enjoy the Hop!
Kid Lit Blog Hop
<div align="center"><a href="http://motherdaughterbookreviews.com/category/kid-lit-blog-hops/" title="Kid Lit Blog Hop"><img src="http://motherdaughterbookreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Kid-Lit-Blog-Hop-Button-Sep-2012-e1349976901756.jpg" alt="Kid Lit Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
 

Suggestions For How to Participate:

1. Although not mandatory, we ask that you kindly follow your hostesses and co-hostesses. You can follow us any way you choose (Email, GFC, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, etc.), butwe've added our preferences below. If you could just give us a quick "follow" or "like" that would be much appreciated! Make sure to leave us a message if you are following us (i.e., on Twitter or Facebook or on our websites) and will be sure to follow you back. Thanks! :-)
Hostesses:
Our Co-Hostesses for This Week:

2. Link up any Kid Lit related post. This can be a link to a children’s book review, a discussion about children’s literature/literacy, or a post on a recently-read children’s book or one that you love from your childhood.
* Don't link directly to your blog, it must be a specific post*
* For Authors, we prefer you to link to your blog if you have one *
* Make sure you include an image relevant to the POST (e.g., book cover), not your blog button or photo of yourself.*
* Feel free to link more than one post.*
3. Check out some other books. Don't be a stranger, go see what books other families are checking out, and leave them some love in the form of a comment. We are trying to build a community of bloggers, readers, parents, authors, and others who are as passionate about children’s literature as we are so please CONNECT and follow any or all of the blogs that interest you! 4. If you like, grab the button above and put it somewhere on your blog, preferably the post you're linking up. If you'd prefer, you can just add a text link back to this Hop so that others can find it and check out all these great book links! 5. It would really help us get the word out about the Kid Lit Blog Hop if you would be so kind as to tweet, share, and spread the word about the Hop!
Interested in co-hosting the Kid Lit Blog Hop? Please email renee @ motherdaughterbookreviews (dot) com and put Co-Hosting Blog Hop in the subject line.
Happy Hopping!

16 comments:

  1. Great review, Julie! I have this on my ipad to read and I may have to bump it up on my "to read" list. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Christine, I think you will enjoy it as another great book discovered in our awesome collaboration.
      Cheers Julie

      Delete
  2. Hi Julie! How fun that you are now one of our permanent hostesses! Yay!! So glad you will be joining us from now on. I'm not looking too closely at the review (sorry). We will be reviewing this one and I don't want to be biased by all of your, what I'm sure are, great observations! lol Tweeting though...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL Thank you so much for the opportunity, I am loving being a hostess and I hope you enjoy The Princelings when you get to it. Cheers Julie

      Delete
  3. So psyched to be on the Hop this week! The titles you reviewed look pretty cool, so I entered to win via Twitter. I'm also your newest follower, and so pleased to have found you! Please swing by and see me at well at http://howtoteachanovel.blogspot.com.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Keith Thanks for joining us on the hop and I will stop by and check out your site.
      Cheers Julie

      Delete
  4. Hi Julie, great review and nice to see you've become a hostess! I blew it--I don't have a kids' book review ready to go this week :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great you could join us anyway Rebecca and we hope you can link in next time, cheers Julie

      Delete
  5. These books sound intriguing. I'm going to have to add them to my TBR list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Laurisa and I saw your book cover reveal, awesome, so happy for you best wishes. Julie

      Delete
  6. This looks like an interesting book, thanks for sharing your review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Katie, I really enjoyed it and I like Ms Pett's writing style very much. Cheers Julie

      Delete
  7. Thanks for sharing the review - great stuff :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by Sibel, love to have you on the hop, cheers Julie

      Delete
  8. Great idea to review one of the other books from the giveaway! That was such a fun idea. I'd be really interesting to hear how you thought it went, along with your sales numbers, etc. You can email me at jaymie.shook@gmail.com, if you wouldn't mind sharing. Thanks for hosting again!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for stopping by Jaymie, I have sent you an email, cheers Julie

    ReplyDelete