Wednesday 8 October 2014

Sweet Honey by Cathy Cassidy (Children's, 11 years +, 10E/10E)

Don't the chocolates look tasty? I adore all the covers in this series!
June 2014, Puffin, 320 pages, Hardback, Review copy 

Themes: family life, divorced parents, living abroad, finding where you belong

Content: some teen romance, arguments, loneliness, some humour, tissues needed

Summary from Puffin
The chocolate box girls.
Each sister has a different story to tell, which one will be your favourite? 

Honey is going to live with her dad in Australia. Determined to make a fresh start, she couldn't be further away from the tough times at Tanglewood. 

Her new life is a dream come true - until school begins. The girls are different from Honey's friends in England and the only person who seems to understand her is the cute boy from the beach she's chatting to online. 


But when he, the girls at school and even her dad start breaking promises, who can she trust? All alone on the other side of the world, Honey's past is about to catch up with her . . .

Nayu's thoughts
Ever since I read the first book in this series with each book focusing on a different sister I've wanted to get inside rebellious Honey's head. She is quite a madam. She is bad-tempered, rude, she hates her new step-family and lets everyone know it. Yet, she is sweet in her heart, just like the title. I now know the reason she acts up is because she is so hurt and scared of all the life changes that's she's faced. It doesn't excuse her behaviour, some of which is dangerous, but it makes sense to me now more than it ever did. 

Watching her get what she want was brilliant to see - until she realised that it wasn't what she wanted after all. That things won't ever be as they were, before the divorce. There are some surprising revelations about her father which shocked me, and gave more back story in general to his situation. There were too many occasions where I wanted to hug Honey tightly, comfort her for all the pain she'd coped with on her own since she didn't confide in anyone. I have a lot of hope for Honey's future, even though she's stuffed things up somewhat, and with the major plot revelation by the end of the book I'm looking forward to the next book in the series - got a cover reveal here!

Find out more on Cathy's website

Suggested read
Be sure to read more in The Chocolate Box Girls series including Coco Caramel (Children's, 11 years +, 10/10E)

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