‘The Other Side of Whale Road’ by K.A. Hayton is a fabulous tale of time travel that is aimed at Young Adults but everyone of all ages can enjoy this story of Joss taking a tumble and ending up somewhere no-one would dream of!
HOW DARK WERE THE DARK AGES? JOSS IS ABOUT TO FIND OUT…
‘The Vikings are better armed than we are. They have long, heavy axes that can take a man’s head from his shoulder.
‘I know this because I see it happen.’
When his mum burns down their house on the Whitehorse estate, sixteen-year-old Joss is sent to live in a sleepy Suffolk village.
The place is steeped in history, as Joss learns when a bike accident pitches him back more than 1,000 years to an Anglo-Saxon village. That history also tells him his new friends are in mortal peril from bloodthirsty invaders. Can he warn their ruler, King Edmund, in time? And will he ever get home?
A book that enveloped me as soon as I began reading. I am a history nerd for sure and have watched and read a lot about the Vikings coming to raid our country. So I was immersed straight away. Joss ends up in care due to his mum’s erratic ways, along with his twin sisters. His foster carers live in an old village, Hoxne and are called Cressida and Tim …even their names feel different to him. He feels out of place as he first arrives in this village steeped in history and even gets in trouble on his first day at his new school. He is a lad that, despite his upbringing doesn’t want to end up going down a route a lot of teens do. His strength of character is clear to see. He is out on Tim’s bike and finds himself, not dead as he first thinks, but in Haegelisdun in the year 869.
A captivating read with great characters in the past and present. How it is written really keeps you connected to Joss and his adventures in the past and the present. I had to smile when Joss realised potatoes hadn’t even been discovered yet in the year he ‘landed’. The book is so well written I felt like I was really experiencing the same things as Joss and it felt like I could have been there. Joss is a good example of a teen that knows his mum has not really done well with her kids, but he does love her still. I had a chuckle as Joss first went back in time, the descriptions of the food and his reactions had me howling at one point. Then his thoughts on potatoes topped it off!
For me, this was such a great read and it even taught me things from the time he was in. So, again, another book that entertained me as well.
Massive thanks to Dave of The Write Reads for including me on this blog tour, the author and the publisher for the gifted copy of the book as well.
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