Another busy week here! We've had a national day of mourning for the Queen, which meant The Big and The Little were home from school/daycare, and I had my first few shifts this week. It's been a big change, working again for the first time in a long time, and I'm really enjoying the challenge.
It does mean, however, that I'm having to choose my books with a little more care as I don't have nearly as much time for reading, and I definitely stumbled on another winner here!
The Dark Alchemist is the first in a YA series, following 13 year old Oz as he unravels the mysteries left behind after his father's sudden death, aided by his two best friends and some unlikely associates.
The setting is in an alternate dystopian England, with a vaguely steampunk feel to it. There's a lot of similar technology to now, with some quite clever acronyms/names that didn't take me out of the story.
Oz was quite a sympathetic character, and I felt for him as we found out (in a very organic way) about his mother's depression, his father's death, and how these affected him. I couldn't help but feel a little cross at his mother, who was at times somewhat dismissive of him, but it all served to make the ending a bigger impact.
The action was well paced, and the mystery was very tantalising! There are obviously still further threads to unravel - this is a series - but the opening part was satisfactorily concluded. Sometimes, the first book can feel like a giant set up for the remaining books and so feels a little boring or uneven, but this was a really great read in its own right.
I don't tend to read a huge amount of middle grade/young YA, but books like this are why I'm branching out. There are content warnings if your child is a little more sensitive - suicide is mentioned (off page), there's a couple of scenes where people get hurt, and a couple of scary scenes - but it's a book I would be happy for my 7 year old to read in a few years when he's at that level.
Check below to read the book blurb, author bio, buy links, or follow the tour. The Dark Alchemist is also available on Kindle Unlimited!
Massive thanks to Zooloo Book Tours and Rhys A Jones for providing me with a copy of The Dark Alchemist. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Book Blurb
The difference between sorcery and science is only a matter of knowledge.
After hearing ghostly footsteps in the creaky old househe shares with his widowed mother, 13-year-old Oscar (Oz) Chambers sets out to investigate the strange historical artefacts his dad was so obsessed with.
Oz juggles his unhappy school life with his mother's paralysing grief, but when accusations reveal a murky secret surrounding his dad's death, Oz, supported by his loyal friends, becomes ever more determined to learn why so many people are keen to get the Chambers out of the house.
Caught between a desperate need to clear his father's name and not upset his fragile mother, Oz quickly learns that there are those who will stop at nothing to get what they want. He must trust in himself and all that he believes in to survive the dark forces intent on his destruction, convinced that the answer lies somewhere within the house. A truth that could change him, and the world he lives in, for ever.
Author Bio
Rhys A Jones grew up in a mining village in South Wales with his nose in a book and his head in the clouds. He managed to subdue his imagination long enough to carve out a career in medicine, writing whenever the chance arose.
In 1994, writing as Dylan Jones, he published his first scary book for adults, a thriller, which was subsequently made into a two-part film by the BBC called Thicker than Water.
But his love of children’s stories never left him ever since he read Ronald Welch’s Gauntlet as a young boy. Inspired by fantasy, Rhys has gone on to write The Merryweather mysteries featuring a boy and his more-than-meets-the-eye Granny Merryweather. The Curse of Wihtlea Barrows (previously the Dreables) and The Curse of Borage Doone have now been completed with the third in the series entitled The Curse of Ragman’s Hollow.
For slightly older readers, The Dark Alchemist is the first in the Wonderworking quintet from Spellbound Books about 12-year-old Oz Chambers whose family inherits a ‘haunted’ house. His mother wants to leave, but Oz wants to unlock the house’s mysteries and uncovers a secret that will change his life forever.
Rhys also writes fantasy books for adults as DC Farmer and thrillers as Dylan Young and. More recently, Rhys Dylan.
When not writing he walks the dog on the mountains of darkest West Wales with his understanding (very) wife.
Buy Links – https://geni.us/Y0ZfMQ
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