Blue Salt ... Wait, What?

Story time: I was meant to be writing a review for Joanne Harris's Blue Salt Road. It was meant to be for a blog tour (I know, I said I would never do a review for a blog tour but I wanted to read this badly). Expect... I haven't got the novella. The publisher has sent a copy to me TWICE over the past few weeks and it's not turned up. No idea if it's gone to my old address by accident (even though gave them my new address both times), if there's a problem with them being sent out at warehouse/depot or if postman has stolen them (which is funny as they sent me two books last week so can't be that!).

But I wanted to do something for today and for Blue Salt Road. Bear with me, let me explain the novella (as I wanted to go into this without knowing much so RESEARCHING as I type!). The Blue Salt Road is a fable about a nameless, wild man who has no memories. With passion pulling him into his new, unknown world and trickery keeping him there, separated from his people, he has to learn a new way of life and change his notion of home... 

Now, like I said, I wanted to do something to tie to celebrate this novella and thought, one morning when I was panicking about this and feeling not 100% , "What music would I listen to while reading this?". The first answer that jumped to mind was "Music linked to water" and so, I want to share some watery music (not sure how many... 5, maybe?) that I might be listening to while reading this... I hope you like my weird choices...

Audiobook Review - Chocolat

• Title And Author: Chocolat by Joanne Harris
• Publisher: Transworld/Orion Audio
• Physical, eBook or Audiobook: Audiobook
• Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought
• Length: 320 Pages or 9 Hours 48 Minutes

Joanne Harris is one of those authors. You know the one I mean. An author you admire and respect from a distance, but never read any of their books. Joanne was one of mine - I do have a eProof of A Pocketful of Crows on my kindle, waiting patiently for its turn. But I always have been curious over Chocolat. But whenever I try to start and read the sampler, I never clicked with the voice. But I knew I wanted to read this. 

So, when I discovered that this was on audiobook, unabridged and read by the author herself, I knew I had to listen to this. It’s always a special treat when you listen to audiobook when it’s read by the author themselves. 

The quiet life of small French village, Lansquenet, is thrown up in the air when an exotic and mysterious stranger, Vianne Rocher, and her young daughter arrive and open a chocolate boutique. Just before Lent, the traditional season of self-denial. Father Reynaud denounces her and her shop as a serious moral threat to the faith. 

As the community takes sides, passions and conflict flare. How can you balance the solemnity of the Church against the sinfulness of chocolate…?

Where do I start with this audiobook? 

GoodRead - The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller

So much for my "NetGalley Ban".

In this short novella, written by Chocolat's Joanne Harris (as part of the Doctor Who: Time Trips series), the Doctor is dying. His body slowly being destroyed by radiation, all he wants is to return to UNIT and to arah Jane Smith before his body regenerates.

But he finds himself in the Village, the most perfect English village he has ever seen. Where everyone is happy - as long as you don't ask questions, make wishes or say the "D" word... whatever that is...

Now, I'm not much of a past Doctor Who fan but, from a quick Google, I know this story sets place just before the Third Doctor's regenerates (near the end of the Planet of the Spiders story arc, I believe) so it was interesting to read a "past" Doctor and see how different he was to the Doctors I know.

And as someone who only knows the basic of the Whonverise, I got a bit excited when I saw the famous words "reverse the polarity".

Ok, the story. I must stress this is a novella so the story isn't as "meaty" as I expect everyone, but it was fun and fast. I know someone who read it within an hour (I took longer as real life is a pain in the neck!) so it's fast. You'll gallop through it.

And the story was fun. It might not be as dark as some Steven Moffat scripts, but I sense that this story would fit perfectly with the Third Doctor and the way his stories were told. And with Joanne Harris writing it (a new author [well, to me] to research), I sense fans of her and Doctor Who will come and read this.

I think this would fit perfectly for those who are exploring the world of Doctor Who and his previous lives. I might have to get my hands on another Time Trip eNovellas or maybe some Joanne Harris novels *begins to eye up Chocolat, Jigs & Reels and/or A Cat, A Hat & A Piece of String).

I shall leave you with this wonderful quote that was in this story that I just love! "But stories are worlds. New worlds for us to visit. In stories, we live forever."