Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefuater

‘Scorpio Races’ by Maggie Stiefuater 

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

REVIEW

This book was my first audiobook I have listened to, and I think it was prefect for me as it was while I was in hospital having my first operation. I enjoyed listening to it before and as soon as I was awake I wanted to carry on listening to the story. It is a young adult book and one which I was given from my church bookclub group. I found the concept of the story very interesting and I really enjoyed the relationship between Corr and Sean, Sean’s unconditional love that he has for this strange being, a water horse that might kill him in the blink of an eye. It is a story based on the friendship between a man and a monster; and a girl who will race to save her family. I loved their romance as well. They are total opposites but they both love the island and these strange magical creatures.

I’m not sure if I enjoyed it more because it was an audiobook or I was still under the influence of a sleeping drug (!) but I did enjoy it and would recommend. 

The Poisoned Island by Lloyd Shepherd

'The Poisoned Island' by Lloyd Shepherd

LONDON 1812: For forty years Britain has dreamed of the Pacific island of Tahiti, a dark paradise of bloody cults and beautiful natives. Now, decades after the first voyage of Captain Cook, a new ship returns to London, crammed with botanical specimens and, it seems, the mysteries of Tahiti. When, days after the Solander's arrival, some of its crew are found dead and their sea-chests ransacked - their throats slashed, faces frozen into terrible smiles - John Harriott, magistrate of the Thames river police, puts constable Charles Horton in charge of the investigation. But what connects the crewmen's dying dreams with the ambitions of the ship's principal backer, Sir Joseph Banks of the Royal Society? And how can Britain's new science possibly explain the strangeness of Tahiti's floral riches now growing at Kew? Horton must employ his singular methods to uncover a chain of conspiracy stretching all the way back to the foot of the great dead volcano Tahiti Nui, beneath the hungry eyes of ancient gods.

REVIEW

I was really looking forward to reading this, as from the description it sounded like a really good story, but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it at all. I wanted to put it down many times and not pick it back up but I did as it was a bookclub book and I still found that I needed to know what happened and I did hope it might capture me at some point. I didn’t like how it jumped around from past to present and I found I had to keep turning back to remember who was who and from where and from what time!!

Would not recommend