Button Box

by Ruth Enright

SYNOPSIS
A young girl finds herself living in two different worlds – the present and a dangerous Victorian past.

When Susan’s dad wants to marry again, she is thrown into a whole new family where she feels excluded. Playing with her much loved old button box for comfort, she discovers a passage to a different time – the busy turmoil of 1850s London. Here, she lives with Baxter, a canny orphan boy who has adopted her as his sister.

With Baxter, Susan is never lonely, but children like them must work and do almost anything to get by. Surviving as best they can on the criminal margins of a colourful city, they are soon drawn into dangerous activities.

Baxter and Susan plunge together into wild adventures in a tangled Victorian underworld. They meet extraordinary people from all walks of life – costermongers, thieves and fences, acrobats and street children, eccentric scientists, a rich explorer, nightmarish villains, and even Queen Victoria herself.

A lively and gripping story full of suspense and atmosphere, ‘Button Box’ will take you into another world!

BLOG TOUR HOSTS

MY REVIEW

This is an action packed adventure set mainly in Victorian London but also in the present.

Susan’s father tells her he is going to marry again following her mother’s death. She is an only child and is excited that she will have three sisters, but sadly that doesn’t work out too well for her as they won’t let her play with them and are mean to her.

Well Susan is a strong little girl and decides she will spend time in her bedroom playing with her very special button box which was once her grandmother’s then her mother’s before it became hers. Her prized possession.

She draws a picture of a boy and pops some of her favourite pearl buttons on his jacket before she goes to sleep.

When she wakes up she finds she is in Baxter’s time, the boy in the picture with a huge smile, in Victorian London. Baxter is just a year or so older than her and they pretend he is her older brother. It appears he knows her very well and she knows him. They are both orphans and have to live on their wits to get by. They make money for their very basic room and food by ‘ratting’ and when they catch an albino pair they sell them to a wealthy man. The same wealthy man they stole some valuable gems from! 

Susan goes back and forth between the two times, having many adventures with Baxter involving stealing precious gems being kidnapped and breaking into Buckingham Palace to return a valuable gem to Queen Victoria herself!

Is she dreaming it all or is she time travelling? 

Susan and Baxter encounter plenty of baddies, including a mad scientist, but also plenty of goodies too, including a very friendly and helpful scientist who is interested in training the rats but also interested in such areas as phrenology and physiognomy (now there are two interesting words for young readers to look up!)

A little bit of secret seven meets Oliver Twist.

I think this will be a great read for young teens.

Thank you Zoé at Zooloos book tours for my Ebook and my place on my first blog tour with you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ruth Enright is from Halifax, West Yorkshire.  She enjoys holidays in Whitby, Scarborough and the surrounding area; with  Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby being the inspiration for her debut novel ‘Seahaven.’  Her second book, ‘Button Box’ is for children and young adults. A young girl finds herself living in two worlds – the modern day and a dangerous Victorian past in 1850s London.

Ruth studied English Language and Literature at Reading University and has always had the ambition to write herself. She lives in Manchester with her family and works for local government, where she has held a number of posts. She  is now an Information Governance Officer. Ruth came to Manchester as a graduate trainee in Librarianship with Manchester Polytechnic before changing career paths and training for a certificate in teaching lipreading to adults with acquired deafness in Adult Education. Ruth then had her daughter and later became a local government officer.

Ruth has always kept on writing and started a blog a few years ago for her poems, stories and other items.  Encouraged by readers, she has recently succeeded in having five short stories published by ‘Yours Fiction’ special short story quarterly magazine.

Ruth loves to read and enjoys writing in both historic and modern settings, experimenting with different genres. Ideas for her writing come from many sources, for instance the name of Robin’s uncle Jorfant in ‘Seahaven’ came from researching her partner’s family tree!

Ruth lives with her partner Jack, and a cat called Margot. Ruth is delighted to be a published author and is looking forward very much to writing more novels.

Follow her at:

Patreon :https://www.patreon.com/ruthenright_writings

Twitter: https://twitter.com/2382a72570c7409

Website : www.r-enright58.co.uk

Buy Link – https://geni.us/qnbDn