As promised, today ‘The Moonstone Legacy’ blog tour is stopping by at Bookbabblers, so we bring you our review and our Q&A with the authors..

Our Review:

“In a sacred cave high in the mountains of northern India, a white-haired hermit sits cross-legged, and signs his final testament: “George Abercrombie, 1874…”

In present-day England, fourteen year old Lizzy Abercrombie’s mother dies in a tragic accident on the full moon. But was it really an accident? Lizzy discovers that her death may be linked to a mysterious family curse. Determined to find the truth, her quest takes her from a splendid Anglo-Indian mansion on the Yorkshire moors to India, where she uncovers her ancestor’s terrible past and a stolen inheritance. But her discoveries put her in mortal danger from a ruthless enemy.”

This book is aimed at young adults and is a really great read. The authors manage to keep you in suspense about the outcome of the book right until the very end and the climax of the book is quite action packed. I found it extremely interesting to try and figure out exactly what happened to the mysterious George Abercrombie and how his past actions are affecting Lizzy in the present day.

The best bit about this book is definitely the end, and the last few paragraphs open up a whole new mystery, which I think is going to be unveiled in a second book, which I now can’t wait to read.

From the Authors:

What was it about Collins’ ‘The Moonstone’ that tempted you to write this book?

It has the perfect ingredients which we could remix for our East / West mystery adventure story.

How does it link in with The Moonstone?

The last line of the original is “What will be the next adventure of the Moonstone? Who can tell?” We start from there!

If you were to use just 3 words to describe The Moonstone Legacy, what would they be?

The Moonstone Legacy!

As the book’s the first in a trilogy, what progress is there on the next 2 and when will they be out?

We’re hoping to get Book Two out within a year as it’s nearly finished. Book Three is under construction.

As you co-write, how do you share the writing?

Plot thoroughly together, then draft, draft and redraft togather on the same laptop.

And finally, who are your favourite authors?

Wilkie Collins, Vikram Seth and Anon (The Bhagavad Gita, the Bible and countless others…!)

All other tour dates are listed on our post 29.05.10.

Launch month is drawing to a close, but there’s still a few days left to get a freebie – check out our posts 01.05.10 and 07.05.10 if you want to know more. Our review panel will shortly be forming, and we already have The Mile Long Bookshelf’s Amber on board, who has sent us this review:

Swapped By A Kiss – Luisa Plaja

I wish I wasn’t myself anymore. I wish I was her.I wish I was Jo. Rachel hates her life. When her on/off boyfriend David goes to a music festival she decides to surprise him – but she gets a shock of her own. Not only does she find David kissing someone else, but it’s their friend Jo! Super-lovely, super-loved, all-round-perfect Jo. Rachel runs away, wishing she could leave her life behind – and she suddenly finds herself in Jo’s body! Can she keep this swap a secret? Can she unravel what’s really going on? Can she get to grips with Jo’s out-of-control curly hair? And if she discovers that being in someone else’s shoes isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, can she ever be herself again? I was very excited when – after reading Split By a Kiss – I was told that there would be another book in the series – Swapped By a Kiss! And I was right to be excited, because I think that this is Luisa’s best book yet.

The cover is brilliant. The cover actually pretty much sums up the story which I think is good, and as I said in one of my past reviews – you can’t go wrong with a purple, shiny cover! I also like the way that all Luisa’s book covers are similar; you can always tell it’s one of her books without having to look for her name on it. The illustrator is Louise Wilkinson, and I have to say – she has done a very good job!

I loved this novel, it’s amazingly fanbrillitastic! My rating for this book? 5/5 – definitely!

Luisa Plaja has written two other novels as well. ‘Extreme Kissing’ which is a book about two best friends who go Extreme Travelling together in London, but with an unexpected secret twist. It can be read alone and isn’t part of a series. ‘Split By a Kiss’ is the first book in the Kiss series, and I think you should read that before reading ‘Swapped By A Kiss.’ Luckily Luisa is writing another book at the moment, which isn’t part of a series. I can’t wait for it to come out!

Thanks, Amber! Remember, you can win this book as part of our freebie month, too.

The Moonstone Legacy’s blog tour has now begun. As we mentioned, it will be coming to Bookbabblers 16th June, where we’ll feature our review and put your questions to the authors. Want to get a question asked? Just post it in our ‘over to you’ forum section or on our Facebook discussion wall and we’ll get it over to them. Perhaps visit the other stops on the tour, get a feel for what they’re doing and what the book’s about, and questions are bound to pop into your heads! The tour is as follows:

25th May – Alma Bloggerel

27th May – Lizzy’s Literary Life

31st May – MarjoleinBookBlog

1st June – Pretty Little YA Books

3rd June – Writing From The Tub

5th June – J’Adore

7th June – The Truth About Lies

8th June – Once Upon A Bookcase

10th June – Narratively Speaking

11th June – So Many Books, So Little Time

14th June – Magic Bean Review

15th June – Nayu’s Reading Corner

16th June – Bookbabblers!!

17th June – Book Reviews by Sarah

And finally, with June just around the corner, thought we’d give you a heads up on what we’ll be reading for the month. It’ll be Michael Morpurgo’s ‘The Butterfly Lion’, Eva Ibbotson’s ‘The Dragonfly Pool’ and ‘The Star Shack’ by Lila Castle. We’ll bring you more information on all three in our next post, and we’ve added them to our shop now.

Happy reading!

How’s everyone doing? Enjoying your book of the month reads? We’ve finished them all now, and loved them! Want to get our hands on the next Bathsheba book, read another Anthony Horowitz and can’t wait for Fallen’s sequel, Torment. Our group is growing, so hope you’re all enjoying it. If this is your first visit to the site, don’t miss out on our launch offers - check out our posts dated 01.05.10 and 07.05.10 for details on our freebies!

We’re pleased to be telling you about a new book, due out at the end of this month. The Moonstone Legacy, by Diana de Gunzburg and Tony Wild, is the first in a trilogy, and the first YA novel to be published by Pushkin Press.

A bit about it:

In a sacred cave high in the mountains of northern India, a white-haired hermit sits cross-legged, and signs his final testament: “George Abercrombie, 1874…”

In present-day England, fourteen year old Lizzy Abercrombie’s mother dies in a tragic accident on the full moon. But was it really an accident? Lizzy discovers that her death may be linked to a mysterious family curse. Determined to find the truth, her quest takes her from a splendid Anglo-Indian mansion on the Yorkshire moors to India, where she uncovers her ancestor’s terrible past and a stolen inheritance. But her discoveries put her in mortal danger from a ruthless enemy.

Find out more about the book by clicking here to go to the website, where you’ll be able to get a taste for it by reading the first four chapters and find out a bit more about the authors. We’ll be posting our own review of it here soon.

Has the taster left you wanting more? Well, you lucky people, we’ve managed to get our hands on a copy for you – we’re spoiling you! How do you get it? Just leave a comment here (go to the little blue speech bubble in the top right corner of this post), FB ‘like’ this post or retweet it – simple as that! It could be you, and it’s just a click of a button..(UK only)

And there’s more. The authors of The Moonstone Legacy will be dropping by at Bookbabblers on 16th June as part of their blog spot tour – full tour details will follow shortly. Wanting to give them a warm Bookbabblers welcome, we thought what could be better than getting you all involved in their visit? We’ve added a topic on our FaceBook discussion board for you to post all comments and questions for them and we’ve added a new area in our forum titled ‘over to you’ for you to put your comments/questions. When they stop by, they’ll be able to give us some answers!!

Until next time, happy reading!