Mini Book Reviews #5

I've been sent so many gorgeous arcs (advance reader copy) recently either directly via the publisher or through BookBridgr. One of the most beautiful arcs ever arrived a couple of weeks ago and I had to read it asap as it's so beautiful - I'm a sucker for a gorgeous book cover! There are just two short but fantastic books in this post, however I'll have more in the next few weeks.

*The Dollmaker Of Krakow by R. M Romero (288 pages - available on 5th Oct) - ★★★★★, 5/5

This is the beautiful book in question! I absolutely adore the cover, it's one of the most beautifully illustrated books I've ever seen and it's a childrens/middlegrade book. The premise is fantastic and important for children to read as it involves loss, war and friendship as well as Eastern European fairytales and folktales.

We follow an incredibly sweet dollmaker who unknowing brings a doll, Karolina, to life with magic. They form an unusual but endearing friendship in the magical, wonderful city of Krakow (I really want to visit!) as well as with a lovely Jewish family. It's primarily set during the beginning of the second world war and the dollmaker and Karolina need to try and use magic to save their jewish friends. While the nazis are occupying Krakow, there is a parallel war taking place within Karolina's home, the land of the dolls in which an invading force is also taking over.

I loved the cover and the gorgeous illustrations carry on throughout the book which is one of my favourite things about this book as it's just so pretty! I like the writing style, it's quick, easy and simple as you would expect with a childrens/middlegrade book but it's still a very sweet, endearing and wonderfully magical story for all ages. I could have read it on one day, it's a lovely endearing story and I'm glad that it didn't have a 'magic saves the day' ending as most children stories do. Sadly, my friends babies are all too young to read this so I can't pass it on but it would be an amazing, moving and thought provoking childrens read.

*The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat & Other Stories From The North (224 pages - available on 12th Oct) - ★★★☆☆, 3.5/5

I love surprise book mail so when this book arrived from Pushkin Press, I was excited to read it as it features short stories from various Northern European and Scandinavian countries including Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and many others so since I visited Norway in August, I was even more interested in this collection than I would otherwise have been.

Some of the stories are so short, even just a few pages and others are a little longer but most have similar themes and a similar feel to them of desolation, rawness, bleakness and relationships. My favourite stories include: The Man In The Boat, Ice, The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat and Don't Kill Me, I Beg You, This Is My Tree - however, I think my favourite from the collection was San Francisco. All of the stories have some kind of bleakness, dark wit or melancholy with general themes of raw, stark relationships and almost magical realism, the latter is one of my favourite book genres.

It contained extracts from novels as well as short stories from a range of authors I haven't heard of although I did read Dorthe Nors last month. I don't think it will be for everyone on the whole but there's a range of stories, topics and writing styles that you're bound to find a new favourite author among the collection. I'm definitely going to look out for Niviaq Korneliussen, Johan Bargum and Ulla-Lena Lundberg in the future!

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Have you read either of these books? What are you currently reading or planning to read? What are your favourite book genres?