Letters From The Lighthouse by Emma Carroll

Hola Lexicans! A few days ago, I came back from my holiday in France (expect a separate blog post with photography and my write-up of the holiday soon!) and when I was on holiday I read quite a few books, finishing most of the books in one day each as I do love reading on the beach. One of the books I read was called Letters From The Lighthouse and was actually a book my sister picked out and recommended to me so thanks to my lil sis Ines for that.

Letters From The Lighthouse is a children's book set in 1940s England during World War II. It follows Olive whose older sister Sukie goes missing after an air raid. But before she has the chance to investigate Olive and her little brother Cliff are evacuated and sent down to Devon. Despite this, Olive sees this as a positive experience and the perfect opportunity to investigate her sister's whereabouts, seeing as Sukie had a regular penpal called Queenie who lived in Devon and would hopefully be able to give Olive some answers. However, as she goes about it she realises that there are way more secrets, than just one coded note, than she could have imagined - all linking back to Sukie.

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Lately, I have been reading mainly contemporary YA + teen fiction (my favourite genre ahah) but when my sister's recommended this children's book, somehow I didn't think twice about it. I typically am not a big fan of books set in the past - I'm not sure why - so I was a little sceptical about the idea of this book being set in 1941 and having the main plot of the story entirely based around that, but honestly as soon as I started reading it, I didn't think twice about the fact it was set in the past.

There were lots of twists in Letters From The Lighthouse, many of which I didn't see coming (which I like!) although a few of them were very predictable and I guessed (although my 11 year old sister - the target market for the book, didn't see them coming so I have to bear that in mind.) Overall I very much loved the concept and plot of the book, it had many heartwarming parts and was put together very carefully by the author.

On the other hand, the characters weren't extremely developed like they normally are in YA fiction but compared to other stories written for 9-11 year olds it did rank well, particularly as they spent more time on the sharpened plot. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to 9-11 year olds and some members of the teen community, if they want a quick, easy, basic but good read.

I'll be back soon with my write-up of my holiday in France! Have a great bank holiday weekend:)
Xxx