March’s Re-Read! An Arthurian re-telling!

 

My third book in the Booktube ReReadathon this year and I’m loving taking part in this challenge! I’m getting to rediscover old favourites and with the book below I had completely forgot the majority of it!

The prompt for March was to read a book published or set before the year you were born. I’m a 1996 baby, so this book is definitely set before my time! Set around a young lad who is given a stone through which he can see into the past, by Merlin no less, we follow both him and the previous storyline as his life seems to match up with that of the old King Arthur.

I had forgotten much about this book, the unique chapter layout of very small chapters and even the stone which allowed Arthur to see into the past (it’s in the title for Pete’s sake!), so having an excuse to re-read this book was great! It’s a YA book which I feel teeters on the younger side of YA, and I love finding those books as they’re definitely less hyped online than those aimed at the older YA audience.

There is so much to explore within this book, with the well know and well trodden storyline of King Arthur given a revamp and a heavy twist. I loved the relationships between characters and how this develops, as well as watching Arthur himself understand more of this weird world around him.

Although I couldn’t remember much about this book before I re-read it, I knew I wanted to carry on with the series. I can 100% confirm this now! It’s definitely a series I intend to carry on with and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for Arthur!

Booktube Rereadathon February Edition!

The Princess Plot by Kirsten Boie was a core book of my tweenage years, I loved this book so much with its contemporary disguise masking a deeper and more poignant story so I was happy to pick this book for the “last read at least 10 years ago” prompt for February.

This book follows Jenna who sneakily auditions for a role in a movie despite her strict mother not wanting her to go. She gets the part! And she’s flown off to Scandia to meet the director of the film. But everything is not as it seems. This is such a fun book and I honestly didn’t expect so much from it.

What I mean by that is that I remembered the plot, but I didn’t expect Boie to so clearly make points about politics, classism, racism and to explain terrorist groups so well. She points out things which are present in our own societies (Boie is German but as a Brit, everything registered too) and utilises the made up country of Scandia to demonstrate the issues here without angering any one country.

That’s another point too, I had never known that this was a translated work! A surprising number of my childhood reads were translated from other languages and I love it!

Back to the review 😂

This is the first book in a duology, however, it stands on its own really well too. I think it’s a great book to give a tween/teen and a fun read as an adult too! Of course the nostalgia makes me biased, but I also genuinely believe that this is a great MG/YA book (it’s one of those rare books that targeted at the younger end of YA).

Have you read this book before? Did you know it was translated? Let me know!