We are so excited about catching up on the adventures of 11 year old Riley O'Chanter, or Rye as most call her. After reviewing the first Luck Uglies book last year, we couldn't wait to find out what life held in store for Rye, her three year old sister Lottie, and her mum Abby O'Chanter.
Here we start in Mud Puddle Lane in the village of Drowning where the O'Chanters live in their cottage with their pet Shady. We got an uneasy feeling right at the very start when The Luck Uglies, a notorious band of outlaws, arrive at the cottage with a message for Rye.
Rye's father, known to Rye by the name of 'Harmless', is the high chieftain of The Luck Uglies and has sent message for her to come to him at the time of Silvermas, a Christmas-like celebration complete with its own Santa-like character called Good Harper.
Soon things start to get stranger as Rye realises she has been used as bait and she and her father Harmless retreat to a secret hideaway - A castle-like house known as Grabstone. Finding they are no longer safe in the village of Drowning ruled by the wicked Earl Longchance and his new evil sidekick, Constable Valant, Rye and her family need to escape.
This time The Luck Uglies aren't in a position to come to the rescue as they have troubles of their own with grave divisions within their brotherhood. So the O'Chanters are left with no choice but to head to Abby's birthplace, the Isle of Pest.
Upon arrival in Pest, the whole mood of the book lifts and I felt a sense of freedom away from the oppression and dark streets of Drowning. Rye's closest friends Quinn and Folly join her on her adventure in Pest and for a while it seems things are going well as she gets to know her grandfather better and makes friends with some of the other residents of the Isle of Pest.
But it isn't long until the wicked Earl sends his constable in search of Rye and her family and the plot starts to take some interesting twists and turns. And just when you think they've won (I won't say who), the pace picks up even more in a nail biting finale featuring some of the other characters we met in the first Luck Uglies book.
Once again this book had the potential to be too scary but thankfully wasn't - it was jam packed with adventures that tweenagers and teenagers would enjoy and so I felt very happy for both J (age 10) and D (age 9) to read it. It's a book that appeals equally to girls and boys.
Well done to Paul Durham for a fantastic second book in the Luck Uglies trilogy. It reads brilliantly alone and is also great if you have read the first Luck Uglies book too. Can't wait for the third one!
1000 copies of Luck Uglies to giveaway!!!!
Harper Collins are offering a copy of the original Luck Uglies book to the first 1,000 people who sign up to their mailing list here. Good luck!We were sent a copy of Luck Uglies: Dishonour among Thieves for the purposes of review. You can purchase it from on Amazon here. Giveaway is by Harper Collins and not The Beesley Buzz so please see the full Terms and Conditions on their website. Book cover image courtesy of Harper Collins.
OOh that sounds like the perfect book for GG!
ReplyDeleteyes it's brill! x
Deleteson1 reviewed the first book last year but he was taking months to read it, so I had to read out loud to him in the end. He did enjoy listening though, but I doubt we'll get invited to review this one after how long it took last time
ReplyDeletethey're are quite long to read and a few tricky words - i read with J just because i loved the story otherwise i think he would have sped through it way quicker than me. x
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