Michaela MacColl

I received Secrets in the Snow through the Early Reviewers program and have received a few of MacColl's other books this way, too. I've always enjoyed MacColl's lighthearted, fun spins on historical figures. While I enjoyed Secrets in the Snow, it fell a little flat for me compared to MacColl's other novels. The mystery seemed a little forced and the take on Jane Austen wasn't very believable and didn't seem very necessary. Other MacColl novels seem built around the historical figure they show more feature - this one felt kind of thrown in last minute. Maybe I'm being extra critical because I love Jane Austen!

All in all, Secrets in the Snow was a fun, quick read, but not a MacColl novel I'll be revisiting. show less

I really enjoyed this book. It was better written than most Austen spinoffs. In this story, Jane is an avid writer, not yet published, who becomes enmeshed in a murder mystery. Tom Lefroy, which whom Jane may have had a romance in real life, is also a character in the story. (This made me remember the movie, Becoming Jane, but the plot of this novel is very different). I would definitely try another book by this author, although it looks like most of her previous books are YA.

Promise the Night by Michaela MacColl is a high-intensity adventure story based on the childhood of pilot Beryl Markham. Although intended for tween readers, it's meaty enough, with its frequent questioning about self and others, to stand up as a YA novel, particularly for readers who enjoy historical fiction.

We meet Beryl Clutterbuck as a ten-year-old girl awakened in a mud hut in Africa. Her watchdog is attacked by a leopard and taken into the night. As Beryl leaps out of bed to pursue the show more leopard, the story assumes its thrilling, almost breathless pace. We watch Beryl race through three years, becoming an honorary member of the Nandi (a local people), racing thoroughbred horses, hunting various wild creatures, and grudgingly attending a boarding school for the sons and daughters of colonials.

As a novel set in early-twentieth-century British Empire, the text must deal with the issue of race. Initially, this topic is treated obliquely, but when Emma (a new colonist abandoned by her anthropologist husband) arrives, racism becomes a more overt theme. Neither Beryl nor the narrator comments explicitly on the racist remarks, leaving readers to work out the situatedness of these attitudes.

Young Beryl's personality is likely to appeal to a range of readers. She is independent to a fault and resists the limitations others try to impose on her because of her sex. Often these qualities mean that Beryl refuses to acknowledge social conventions, whether British or African, and she sometimes comes across as quite mean, particularly in her interactions with other females.

Between chapters we meet an older Beryl, now a daredevil pilot crossing the Atlantic on a dare. These sections — ostensibly excerpts from a logbook — are not uniformly successful, but they do provide some thematic continuity and an opportunity for the author to modulate the novel's pacing.

This is a solidly exciting reading experience. I would recommend this text for upper elementary school and classroom libraries. There is much to engage readers here, particularly in settings where they can discuss the book with other readers (especially a librarian or a teacher). The author's afterword and bibliography are nice additions to the text. show less

Readers already acquainted with the Brontë sisters and their stories will have multiple mini-thrills (and possibly a few snorts) of recognition reading Always Emily, a highly suspenseful cozy mystery featuring Emily and Charlotte as unlikely but determined heroines who put themselves in perilous situations worthy of characters in their juvenilia writing when they join forces to rescue a woman kidnapped and held against her will. The author has done her research about the Brontës and their show more lives, and though the characters are of course simplified they are spot-on recognizable. Charlotte is responsible, bossy, near sighted, and small in stature, while Emily is a tall wild child who loves to run loose on the moors doesn’t trust doctors.

The third sister, Anne Brontë, is mostly offstage visiting friends with their aunt, but their increasingly dissolute brother Branwell is back from London after his Art Academy studies fell apart and he’s getting himself mixed up in all kinds of trouble. Also on hand is their crusading father Rev. Bronte, their long time housekeeper Tabitha Aykroyd, and even an author conceived, very appealing Rochester/Heathcliff character, if you can imagine that combination. Freemasons, striking mill-workers, inheritance laws, greedy relatives, parish politics, and hints of the novels to come all play a part in the plot and help to make this a fun, fast read. I read a review copy of this book supplied by the publisher through LibraryThing. The opinions are mine. show less