Pages: 240
Released On: 11/03/2023
An abandoned island. Crowded dungeons. Friendship and betrayal.
When the witches invite Toby on holiday, he’s looking forward to a break from his dilapidated house and leaking roof.
But they arrive on the island of Wildhaven to find a trail of destruction. Discarded boots and ripped cloaks litter the cave floor. Even the seaweed has turned snakelike. What has happened to the wizards? And can a mouse in disguise provide some clues?
The hunt is on and Toby must work with grumpy witch, Flame-Red, to unravel the mystery. In a hidden hill, an old foe is lurking. And this time, magic is under its command.
*****
I read the first book in the series – Toby and the Silver Blood Witches – back in 2021 after coming into contact with Sally on Twitter. Like Toby’s mum in the book, I also have M.E (along with other health problems) and it’s a revelation to have a character in a popular book who has a disability, and I feel it should be the norm of big publishers to publish characters like this, and not just keep them in the self-published bracket. I hope it’s that start in a long list of positive exposure.
So, it’s been two years since I last read book number one, and so I couldn’t remember everything about it when it came to reading this one, but it didn’t matter. And I think that’s why I believe you don’t necessarily have to have read the first one to read this. Yes, it gives more context, you get to know the characters better, and you’re fully invested in this wider family unit. But you can still get a lot out of the sequel without having read the first one.
I was worried that this might have been a bit samey, but I needn’t have. It still has everything I loved from the first one – love, friendship, adventure, magic – but it builds upon the first one, rather than copying it. We still get the magic of the witches, and the wizards this time, and you get the adventure. But the characters are more developed – especially Toby. We grow up with him and we can see how he has grown over the stories, and I am excited to see what happens in further books.
Like the first one, she’s found the right balance between magic and whimsy, and reality. Of course, you have Toby’s mother who is bedbound with this illness, you also have grief over a long-lost father, and bullying. It’s familiar things. But with this undertone of magic. Witches and wizards and spells and potions and adventure. It’s the perfect book for a child or young adult, but at nearly 30, I also think it’s great for adults. We tend to identify more with the adult characters, but it gives us the excuse to be a child again.
I believe this is book two of a planned trilogy, so I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the final offering, although I’m not sure I’m fully ready to leave this magical world Sally has created. She’s put so much heart and soul, and so much of herself into these books. This trilogy will definitely be one that I pass on to the children in my family, as well as the grown-ups, just so they can escape the mundaneness of the real world for a few hours.
Books By Your Bedside 