Book info

• Title Rosie Frost and the Falcon Queen
• Author Geri Halliwell-Horner
• Year 2023
• Genre Childrens

Suddenly orphaned and alone, Rosie Frost is sent to the mysterious Bloodstone Island - home not only to a school for extraordinary teens, but also a sanctuary for endangered species. There, Rosie confronts a menacing deputy headmaster, a group of mean girls bent on destroying her, and shocking family secrets. She also discovers that history can come to life in ways she never could have imagined. When the island itself comes under threat, Rosie knows she must enter and win the Falcon Queen Games in a desperate bid to save it. But Rosie can't do it alone. She finds that believing in herself - and her friends - is the first step to finding the power she never knew she had.

Thoughts

I didn’t know that Geri had written a book but had access to a copy through a family member and picked it up out of interest. It immediately struck me as trying just a bit too hard to be like Harry Potter but I was intrigued and kept on reading. It’s well written and the characters are well rounded, if a little stereotypical, it’s not an overall bad read.

The problem I have with it, though, is there’s just too much going on. There’s a mystery around Rosie’s mum’s death, there’s a bizarre island school, there’s a competition not unlike the Triwizard Tournament, there’s an ecology project on the island subject to a conspiracy that needs investigating, and, of course, the ghost of Anne Boleyn. Add on top of that your usual young adult issues and relationship dramas, there’s just a bit too much going on to really get a grip on any one of the threads.

Inventive and full of ideas, but just a bit too much. I sort of hope it’s the start of a series so that future books can take these threads and smooth them out a bit rather than the hustle that this book turned out to be.

Rating: 2 / 5