I haven’t done a blog tour for RaRa in a long time, or I just spaced it out super far because I got to sign up way in advanced. Yay Leelynn for planning that out! 😎 Thank you of course to Rachel for hosting this blog tour. Be sure to click on the banner for the rest of the schedule and to see more of the upcoming tours that Rachel is hosting!

Budding writer Lorna Bryson is struggling to come to terms with the recent death of her father when she meets Monkey Arkwright, the boy who loves to climb. The two strike up an immediate rapport, and Monkey challenges her to write about him, claiming that he can show her things that are worth writing about.

True to his word, Lorna is catapulted into Monkey’s world of climbing and other adventures in the churches, woodlands and abandoned places in and around their home town of Culverton Beck.

When the two teenagers find an ancient coin in the woods, claims from potential owners soon flood in, including the mysterious Charles Gooch, who is adamant that the coin is his. But this is only the opening act in a much larger mystery that has its roots in some dark deeds that took place more than a century earlier.​

Combining their talents, Lorna and Monkey set about fitting the pieces together in a tale of budding friendship, train-obsessed simpletons, the shadow of Napoleon and falling pianos.

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Rob Campbell was born in the blue half of Manchester.

He studied Electrical & Electronic Engineering at Manchester Polytechnic, gaining an honours degree, but the fact that he got a U in his Chemistry O-Level helps to keep him grounded.

Having had a belly full of capacitors and banana plugs, on graduation he transferred his skills to software engineering. He still writes code by day, but now he writes novels by night. Listing his pastimes in no particular order, he loves music, reading and holidays, but he is partial to the words and music of Bruce Springsteen.

His favourite authors are David Morrell, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch & Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

He lives in Manchester with his wife and two daughters.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and Amazon Digital Services for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

I’m sorry that this is going to be pretty short. I’ve been having major headaches still and I just want to make sure that this gets out at least sometime today.

This book was interesting for a YA mystery novel. Nothing to take lightly, since one of the book’s main characters has to learn how to deal with the grief that comes with a parent of dying of cancer. That is not a fun topic at all, and honestly I don’t even know how some kids can even handle that, you know? It always kills me to see kids having to deal with the death of a parent because that is one of the main people that you would want to have in your life forever and ever, you know? And they are supposed to be your main source of comfort and security.

But yeah, that part broke my heart from the beginning I will have to say, and stuck with me while I was reading this novel. The name Monkey Arkwright was interesting for a character name, and it makes me wonder if the fact that he’s a climbing extraordinaire is the reason for the “Monkey” part, you know? I mean, I know but do you know? Do you?