This Blog Post Will Spontaneous Self-Combust!

Why, hello Internet! No, don't panic. This blog isn't going to spontaneous combust like that character from Bleak House! No, it's a clever pun (well, for me anyway) of a title as I would like to welcome Aaron Starmer onto the Pewter Wolf!

Aaron is the author of Spontaneous, a story which follows Mara who is having a dull senior year at school. Until Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period. That's right. Katelyn spontaneously self-combusts. And she's the first. Teens are exploding left, right and centre. And with no-one knowing what's causing these teens to explode, Mara just wants to know if she's going to make it to graduation. It's going to be one hell of a year, but Mara is going to try and figure out how to stay alive, but also discover that falling in love might be the worse thing she could do...

Doesn't that sound NUTS?! I can't wait to find time to read this! Plus, with this being developed into a movie and John Green (oh The Fault in Our Stars fame) giving this book high praise, I need to find time soon! Because of this, the lovely Claire at Canongate asked if I would like to ask some non-spoiler questions to Aaron and I jumped at the chance!

So, to Aaron, thank you so much for answering these questions and thank you Claire for asking if I wanted to ask these questions and acting as our go-between!

Before I hand you over to past me and Aaron, if you wanna check Aaron out online, you can go to his website at aaronstarmer.com, or check him at on Twitter at @AaronStarmer!

#YAXmasTour - A Boy Called Christmas

And on the ninth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me -

- a review of a Christmas audiobook. ... really?

Ok, before you go all "YOU FAILED US!!!", hear me out. It's Christmas. It's meant to be peaceful, happy, joyful. And after the year we've all had, damnit, I want this last few weeks to have happy, feel-good stories before I go on my Christmas break!

So, before I go any further...!

Ok, happy now I got that out of my system! Now, I can begin...

Do you know the true story of Father Christmas? No...? You don't know the story about snow, kidnapping, flying reindeer, elves, magic and a boy called Nikolas who, one day, went to the north...? No? Well then, let's get comfortable and I will tell you...

I was very lucky to be given the audiobook version from the lovely people of Midas PR and Audible, in exchange for an honest review, of course. That goes without saying. But thanks you guys for the Xmas treat...

This story is bewitched with Christmas magic. I fell under its spell and enjoyed myself immensely. This is a little younger than I usually read (this is middle-grade), but it has a simple lightness in the writing which works.

What works even better is Stephen Fry narrating the audiobook. I remember listening to the first few chapters and getting the same reaction as I did when I first heard Stephen narrating Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Stephen's voice and Matt's writing work beautifully.

There were one or two scenes that did grate on me (this is me. Of course I will find something to be negative on), but these moments are kinda important for Nikolas so I forgive them.

But like I said, filled with Christmas magic and I can't wait to start audiobooking the sequel, The Girl Who Saved Christmas (which I believe is narrated by Carey Mulligan)!