I am not a huge fan of fantasy books. The odd one I am okay with but it certainly isn’t my “go-to” genre. However, there is one author who always manages to seamlessly weave the fantasy element into her stories that you don’t even question any of the out of the ordinary moments. That author is Alice Hoffman.

In her book Nightbird we meet Twig. Twig is lonely. She has never really had any friends. She has been told not to get close to people because her family have a dark secret. However, when her new next door neighbour persists in forming a friendship Twig realises that it may come at a cost.

Nightbird is magical. I loved Twig. I loved the story. I loved the setting. I loved the element of magic and mystery. I just loved everything about it. Alice Hoffman has written a winner of a story.

Nightbird by Alice Hoffman is available now.

For more information regarding Alice Hoffman (@ahoffmanwriter) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Simon and Schuster (@simonschusterUK) please visit www.simonandschuster.co.uk.

Lets just begin by stated that i dont read a lot of middle grade books, there ive said it. Now thats out of the way...

This just doesn't work for me.

Her chosen subject material is a little dark and would be better suited to something that at least acknowledges that darkness instead of being overly sickly sweet. That's not to say that she shouldn't have a happy ending, etc, but none of the darker aspects really felt meaningful and with those plot elements not feeling real, I mostly lost interest about 2/3 of the way through.

The intended Middle Grade audience would probably like it a bit better than me, but I think Hoffman's really underestimating kids with this one.

This was a lovely, whimsical read. The plot and some of the characters (especially a boy with wings!) make it fairy-tale like, but Hoffman manages to make the story realistic without ever making the reader think they have to completely believe the magical/supernatural elements.