Publication Date: 6 January 2022

The Blurb

Nine and her friends have broken the curse on their marvellous, magical House, and are free to travel the worlds once more! Their first stop: The Wizarding Hopscotch Championships.

There’s only one problem: the House is nervous about travelling – and gets the hiccups! Bouncing from world to world with every “HIC!”, they finally land at the championships, only for Flabberghast to have an unfortunate run-in with square number seven, and find himself faced with the terrible Tower at the End of Time.

But maybe here they can find out how to cure the House’s hiccups, and Nine might finally discover who left her the beloved music box, and who she really is…

The Review

The second in The House At The Edge Of Magic series, and once again we are taken on a spellbinding adventure where magic and mayhem rule. Laughing out loud is swiftly followed by nail biting as we twist and turn through this mysterious adventure.

With the House on the move, we see a number of different magical worlds, all with their own peculiarities and dangers. Once again, Amy’s writing brings the settings to life with wit and whimsy.

Nine is starting to settle into her new life, but is struggling to accept her feelings towards the strange family she finds herself part of, and as she learns more about the House and magic that surrounds her, she finds herself acting in ways that she never would have before. But, when whisperings from a past beyond her memory begin, she starts wondering if she made the right decision, especially when she is sent on an errand to the conservatory – it’s made me view my house plants in a whole new light.

I can’t tell you my favourite bit of the book because, spoilers, but the pacey plot packed with peril lead up to a huge hug of an ending that has left me desperate for the next book in this wonderful series.

Great for fans of:

• The Accidental Wizard by Kimberly Pauley, illustrated by Jason Cockcroft
• The Train To Impossible Places by P.G. Bell
• Roxy & Jones: The Great Fairytale Cover Up by Angela Wolfe

The Guest Post

Riding the rollercoaster by Amy Sparkes

It’s fun to write funny books, and it’s thrilling to write adventure books, and it’s thought-provoking to write mystery books. But my favourite type of book has got to be something which includes all these elements – even more so when there is a sprinkling of mischief and magic involved.

As a genre, I think I love comedy-drama the best. Maybe it’s because I’m the kind of person who loves spinning multiple plates. I love pure comedy. I love pure drama. But there is something about comedy-drama which is just so rewarding when it works. It feels so true to life, somehow. We’re not always laughing. We’re not always crying. Real life can be a very strange rollercoaster of both extremes on a daily basis, and I love seeing this reflected in stories.

Although I enjoy writing comedy-drama stories, I think they can be so much harder to write well than either pure comedy or pure drama. In addition to being able to make the reader laugh, or escalate the stakes at dramatic moments, you also have this constant fine balancing act to perform.

The timing has to be spot on.

You can’t linger for too long in either camp.

You have to be mindful of tone at every point.

If you’re too silly too close to a dramatic point, you spoil the moment. If you’re too serious for too long, you can end up elbowing out the fun. However, you can successfully have both humour and despair a mere sentence apart – sometimes less. And this constant balancing makes a comedy-drama story an extremely fun and rewarding challenge.

The House At The Edge Of Magic and The Tower At The End Of Time are both intended to be laugh-out-loud books AND edge-of-your-seat books. The unpredictability of what will be next (will you be laughing, or will you be holding your breath?) suits the content well, considering the House At The Edge of Magic itself is about as unpredictable as it comes – even I don’t know what’s coming next and I’m meant to be in charge of the story!

This energetic unpredictability is showcased when in The Tower At The End Of Time, the House gets a bad case of the hiccups. This incident also highlights another fun way to work with comedy-drama: when you have moments when something appears to be silly and ridiculous… until the penny drops and you realise there are darker tones underneath, and in truth, the situation is deadly serious. At first the House’s hiccups are just a comical inconvenience, but steadily things grow worse and worse, and more and more threatening until the residents of the House – Nine, Flabberghast the wizard., Eric the troll and Dr Spoon the alchemist – realise they have an extremely perilous situation on their hands, and they must stop the hiccups at all costs.

In situations like this, the reader is discovering the truth at the same time as the characters. The readers are laughing along, climbing to the top on the rollercoaster ride… when suddenly, a truth is realised and down they plummet, wondering how on earth they are going to get out of this mess.

As a writer, it’s a thrilling ride to be part of. And as challenging as it might be, I think it’ll always be my favourite. I’ll just fasten my seatbelt, ride the rollercoaster and see what comes next.   

© Amy Sparkes 2022

Huge thanks to Walker Books for sending me a copy and inviting me to take part in the blog tour, and extra special thanks go to Amy for her incredible guest post. Do make sure you check out all of the other stops to find out more about how and why Amy has written this brilliant series.