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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Review: The Interrupted Tale

The Interrupted Tale (Book #4)
Author: Maryrose Wood
Genre: Children Fiction
Age Range: 8 - 12 years
Publisher:  HarperAudio
Release Date: December 17, 2013
Audiobook: 8 hours and 19 minutes
Narrator: Katherine Kellgren

Source: Free from e-library
http://amzn.to/1ldMIeE

Book Description

For fans of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and Trenton Lee Stewart’s Mysterious Benedict Society comes the fourth book in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, the acclaimed and hilarious Victorian mystery series by Maryrose Wood.
In The Interrupted Tale, Miss Penelope Lumley receives an invitation to speak at the annual Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition (or CAKE) at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. Optoomuchstic as ever, Penelope hopes to give her CAKE talk, see some old friends, and show off the Incorrigible children to Miss Mortimer, but instead she finds her beloved school in an uproar.
And when Penelope is asked by the Swanburne Academy board of trustees to demonstrate the academic progress of her three wolfish students so the board can judge the true worth of a Swanburne education, the future of her alma mater—and of her job as governess to the Incorrigibles—hangs in the balance.

Review

***SPOILER FREE ZONE***
I am going to tell you as much as possible about my feeling on this book (#4) without giving away any story or plot details.  Or I am going to try to anyways.
In the fourth (and I think the last book) in The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Series, we pick up with the 3 children who were raised by wolves and their young governess, Miss Penelope Lumley having a small birthday celebration.  As the story starts, Penelope receives an invitation to speak at her Alma Mater The Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females at their C.A.K.E.  C.A.K.E. stands for Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition but once the children hear the word Cake all they can think of is the various eating kinds of cake in the world.  Strawberry Cake, Birthday Cake, Chocolate Cake, pancakes!  The list is endless and they name as many as they can throughout the book. 
Once Penelope and the children arrive at the school they quickly find out things are a bit off and this is where the story takes off into a new direction.  
I have to say, I'm split on this point in the story.  For three books the author brings up several questions that the reader can figure out but would love to have the characters figure out and understand.  Book 4 doesn't really address the mystery and all the loose ends from the previous books.  I was really hoping to find out more about the main character Penelope and the children.  "Where did they come from?"  Can you just answer that question, please?  
The secondary characters got all of their loose ends tied up nice, neat and quickly but the BIGGEST issue is where did the troupe of main characters come from is left..hanging.  Why?  I have to say that really is a star killer right there.
The narrator Katherine Kellgren is AMAZING!  For four whole books she maintained a great, clear and unique voice for all the characters.  She makes this book soar.  The series would be a good read but it is a great listen because of her outstanding work.  BRAVO!!
Overall, this is a great read/ listen and I recommend the series for all the laughter and vocabulary building it offers.

Reviews by Other Bloggers

Recommendations

I recommend this book to older children due to the many plot twists, characters and vocabulary.

Challenges

This book is number 11 in my Audiobook Reading Challenge
This book is number 7 in my Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
This book is number 16 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge
This book goes towards my Sequel Spring Reading Challenge
  4th book out of 4 books in this series   

 

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