Review of Valentine Joe by Rebecca Stevens

Format: Paperback
Genres: History, Romance, Time Travel,
Pages: 160
Publisher: Chicken House
Release Date: 01/05/2014

Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads
UK Readers: Check if this book is on RISI

Rose's granddad takes her on a trip to Ypres, Belgium to visit the graves of those who died in the Great War. It's the day before Valentine's Day, but Rose can sense the shattered old city beneath the chocolate-box new. And it seems that it can sense her too. When she goes up to her room that night, she hears the sound of marching feet and glimpses from her window a young soldier on his way to the front line...


I think we've all had ancestors that we've lost in the wars, and Valentine Joe really made me sit back of think of them. I have a great, great uncle who came back from the second war but later died, we didn't even know of him until I researched my family history. And I likely had family in the first too.As the poem says, 'We will remember them.'

There are many characters in Valentine Joe, but the most memorable are easily Rose, Joe and the little dog that follows them around everywhere. I really felt for Rose, who has recently lost her father. As for Joe, I loved him as soon as I met him, he's a cheeky guy and a bit of a flirt, but very determined and brave, something that I knew would break my heart later. It was even sadder to know that he was a real person, killed in action at the age of just 15.

 The concept of time travel is used very well. It's a short book so I was grateful to the author for not making me wade through pages of explanations about how it worked, and just let it happen. The effect of Rose leaving the modern day behind and finding herself in a town in the grip of the First World War was wonderfully executed and very creepy too, I was very worried that she would be hurt or worse. The time travel is not explained but I like to think that our furry friend had something to do with it.

Valentine Joe was such a cute, heartbreaking story that I'm sure will stick with me for a very long time. The characters and the settings were so beautifully described I really did feel as if I was there. This is a remarkable debut and I'm looking forward to seeing what the author has to offer next! 

Comments

  1. Missie11:48 am BST

    This sounds like a book I would definitely enjoy, thanks for bring it to my attention! Great review!
    Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:56 pm BST

    I've been getting into war related novels more and more so I'll definitely be reading this.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love comments! Spam comments will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Many Covers Monday - ALL THE HARRY POTTER SERIES

Image
After it was not so recently revealed that the classic, original covers were to go out of print and replaced with new, shiny covers, I thought I'd do something crazy this Monday. Harry Potter. But not the first book, no! This Monday I'm showcasing... entire sets of the books. Cool, but a lot of work. And a lot of tabs. These won't just be the covers you know and love, I've included international sets of the books too, which I've never seen before. Not all of the covers are here, but most of them are. (Ignore the random pattern for the last image. I wanted to tile them right) (This post was originally posted back in 2014 and since I'm re-reading the whole series I thought I might as well go for a full Harry Potter week on my blog by sharing my most popular post with new cover sets added. UK - these are the new covers revealed by Bloomsbury recently. These are my favourite covers, I wasn't impressed initially but the amazing covers won ...
Read more

Many Covers Monday: One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Image
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.   Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.    UK/US I really love the US cover. It keeps the air of mystery by covering t...
Read more

Many Covers Monday: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Image
Today we're looking at the many different covers of Jay Asher 's 13 Reasons Why and choosing a winner! Some are rejackets and others are foreign language covers. Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers. Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK / US ¦ Goodreads This was his freaking debut? Oh man, this book was amazing. I read it at least 5 years ago and still remember it, I'm going to read it again - as soon as I can grab a co...
Read more