The Chestnut Roaster by Eve McDonnell ~ Blog Tour

My Review:

The Chestnut Roaster is a uniquely captivating story – atmospheric Parisian history mixed with a healthy dose of fantasy runs through the mysterious catacombs of this engaging city. The villain is truly evil and the children who are determined to stop him are clever, creative and feisty. The adults are unable to help so 12 year-old Piaf and her twin brother, Luc, must rely on the power of their memories and their love for each other to escape with their lives and protect the rest of the city.

The concept of playing with time is intriguing. Dr. Le Chandelier will stop at nothing to achieve the greatness he dreams of – even if that means stealing time from everyone else. It seems only Piaf is immune to his poison. Her gift is the ability to remember EVERYTHING from the day she was born to the present. Her clarity and wit give her everything she needs to make her way through the majestic buildings of Paris to find clues and put things right.

Ewa Beniak-Haremska’s detailed illustrations add to the dark mystery of the story. There is so much to explore in their depths – details about the characters and clues to the shadowy mystery.

Fans of The Unexpected Tale of Bastien Bonlivre by Clare Povey will enjoy The Chestnut Roaster as they are whisked away to Paris for another adventure.

I’m thrilled to welcome author Eve McDonnell with a special guest post!

Fascinating Facts about 1880s Paris

Being an author is such fun – we have the freedom to dig deep into our history books, stirring up tantalising facts and events, before adding a dash of magic, a splash of mayhem, and buckets of make-believe. The resulting fictional story might have a mere spoonful of truth or be held together by a lattice of real historical events and their heroes. Egyptian pyramids might be time machines, Iron-age boys might craft a magical sword, Christopher Columbus might explore the moon and dinosaurs might sing and dance. So, what about The Chestnut Roaster? What part does history play in it?

There are several spoonfuls of history in there, and there is one I would like to share with you today. Piaf’s story is set in Paris in 1888, one year before Paris hosted a spectacular world fair known as the Exposition Universelle. Great minds of the world gathered in Paris to marvel at the fair’s mind-blowing exhibits, and visitors feasted their eyes on the intriguing inventions of the day. The fashionable and forward-thinking Parisians knew how to dazzle, so on arrival at the Exposition, visitors were greeted by something extraordinary – their newly built grand entrance to the fair was no garden gate, in fact it was a tower – the Eiffel Tower!

When I found a series of photographs showing the growing Eiffel Tower, I tried to imagine how everyone felt on seeing such a giant rise slowly before their eyes. And that is where I added fiction to fact – how would the people of Paris have reacted if they went to sleep one day in 1888 when the tower was only small, and woke up forgetting the whole of the last year? To them, the tower would have grown into a monster overnight, from the first image in the below row of towers, to the fifth!

Of course, in reality, the tower was built steadily over the course of two years and two months and, as it rose so too did the disappointment and anger of many Parisians. They were not happy with their new ‘gateway’, some describing it has ‘obnoxious’ and ‘ungainly’, and it was agreed that the tower would be fully dismantled within twenty years.

As these years passed, the Parisians began to admire their new tower, realising its potential for the advancement of technology and science – the 3^rd floor held a state-of-the-art weather station and the tower itself became the perfect antenna for the latest invention of the time – the radio. The tower would remain and forever be a part of the glorious city.