Two reviews

 

It's 1983, and Susan Arkshaw has just turned 18. She moves to London, intending to start art college, and look for her father.

However, Susan's life takes a very different turn when she meets Merlin - a left-handed bookseller. From the moment Susan meets Merlin her life goes down a very different - and very magical path.

I can't be articulate about this book. I loved it so much. There's something cosy about it somehow? There's magic, and there's myth and a little bit of romance, and some really excellent worldbuilding. 

It is honestly pure fantasy escapism in the best way.

Twenty year after his sister Tara has disappeared, Peter receives a phone call from his parents. Tara has turned up. The trouble is - she looks exactly the same as she did when she vanished 20 years ago, and she's come back with a wild tale of where she has been.

For Tara, it's only been six months, and she's been living in a very strange kind of fairyland. 

The book weaves together the past, the present and Tara's story of her time in the other land to create a kind of modern myth, almost. There's the mundane of Peter's life with his family, and the wild of Tara's story, and the in-between as well. 

It's an extremely readable book that does make you think "What if?"