Many thanks to the Orion team for inviting me to take part in Laura Kemp’s blog tour for ‘Under A Starry Sky’, and for the review copy. I’m so excited to be reviewing it today!
Wanda Williams has always dreamed of leaving her wellies behind her and travelling the world! Yet every time she comes close to following her heart, life always seems to get in the way.
So, when her mother ends up in hospital and her sister finds out she’s pregnant with twins, Wanda knows that only she can save the crumbling campsite at the family farm.
Together with her friends in the village, she sets about sprucing up the site, mowing the fields, replanting the allotment and baking homemade goodies for the campers.
But when a long-lost face from her past turns up, Wanda’s world is turned upside-down. And under a starry sky, anything can happen…
What does TWG think?
Beautiful cover, beautiful title, and a story that matches. However it didn’t quite match in the way I was expecting, and I’ll tell you why;
As beautiful as the storyline may be, each chapter seemed to remove a layer like a piece of wrapping paper, ready to showcase what truly lay beneath all of the layers, meaning that there was so much more to the book that meets the eye. Wanda has been dreaming of travelling for many years, yet something seemed to always hinder her plans. That said, I think she can be forgiven for a little grief holding her back…oh and the fact that her sister had some rock and roll in her future.
This storyline made me chuckle and made me gasp in equal measures. I wasn’t expecting the novel to have such a deep, dark undertone to it and, to be perfectly honest, I felt a little uncomfortable at times reading Annie’s situation. Now, don’t take that as a negative, because its not. I mean it in the way that nobody should feel comfortable by the thought of abuse in any form, and I felt that Annie’s story was so realistically portrayed that it didn’t feel like fiction. It felt real. It felt like it was happening right there and then, in front of my very eyes.
Wanda was a little bit of complicated personality. She didn’t seem entirely convinced by her choices in life, and I felt like she wasn’t confident in doing what was best for herself, which was a shame yet on the other hand, a lot of readers will be able to relate to the type of person she is.
I loved the sense of empowerment that was laced through the book, as well as the feeling of hope when things go wrong. All of the characters had been through so much in their own individual lives, yet they all still believed in hope and the ability to search for the stars in the sky to help them on their way.
Empowering, inspirational, moving and incredibly relatable; I know that whenever I look up at the sky, like Wanda, Annie and Lew, the sparkling stars in the sky will be there to give me hope.
Laura Kemp, please hold me!
The Writing Garnet 