Weekend Book Friends #35 – Fraterfest Day 1!

Posted October 14, 2022 by elzaread in Weekend Book Friends / 16 Comments

Greetings you guys! It’s Friday and day 1 of Fraterfest. Whaa haa haaaa haaa!! Yea!

The weather is perfect here with us. Rainy, misty, the wind is howling…. Ooooe we need to get into bed and start reading. We don’t really have a very clear cut reading schedule for this year’s Fraterfest, we’ll just grab the books as we go along. Tonight we will start with this one:

The sun is shining on the golden castle on Rainbow Bay – and change is in the air!

Amelia is a single mother, doing her very best to look after her young son, Charlie – but money is tight and times are tough. When she first hears that she is the last descendent of the Chesterford family and that she has inherited a Real-Life Castle by the sea, Amelia can’t quite believe her ears. But it’s true!

She soon finds that owning a castle isn’t quite the ticket to sorting out her money problems that she’d first hoped: she can’t sell, because the terms of the ancient bequest state that any Chesterford who inherits the castle, must live there and work towards the upkeep and maintenance of the family home. So ever-practical Amelia decides to uproot her little family and move to this magnificent castle by the sea.

Living in a castle on the beautiful Northumberland coast is fun at first, but organising the day-to-day running is a lot more complicated than Amelia first imagined. Luckily she has help from the small band of eccentric and unconventional staff that are already employed there – and a mysterious unseen hand that often gives her a push in the right direction just when she needs it most. It’s only when she meets Tom, a furniture restorer who comes to the castle to help repair some antique furniture, that Amelia realises she might get the fairy-tale ending that she and Charlie truly deserve…

This might appear as a strange choice for Fraterfest, but a friend of my Mommy has read and loved it and apparently there is a ghost or two lurking in the Castle…. as there should be, of course. And it’s dark outside already. Daddy isn’t here. We need a comfy ghost. Tomorrow we will go more hardcore. But let’s see if we are going to enjoy this one!

Let’s quickly go and say hi to @ Reading is my Super Power for First Line Friday and to Gilion @ Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings.  Every Friday you can link up and share the first sentence of your current read (or the one you plan to devour over the weekend), as well as your initial thoughts and impressions.

“Yes, Mrs Greeing, I quite understand; really I do. I’ll certainly speak to Charlie about this. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

I stand up and excuse myself from the room, feeling as though I’ve gone back in time twenty years, and I’m once more the pupil, summoned to the headmistress’s office for misbehaviour that was not always my fault.

“Come on, you,” I say to my nervous-looking son as he waits outside the office on a long wooden bench. “Let’s go home.”

“Exactly how much trouble am I in, Mum?”, Charlie asks as we walk through the school gates and out on the street.

I’d say enough to pack up and leave and go live in an ancient castle where the ghosts can sort him out.

No idea if this might be the case, but let’s see if page 56 can bring us closer to the plotline:

Our next stop will be to Freda’s Voice who hosts the Friday 56. Don’t show up empty handed though!

  • Grab a book (Yes, any book. But it might get you to your other Friday activities a bit quicker if you just grab the book you are currently reading)
  • Turn to page 56 or 56% on your e-reader
  • Find a sentence or two (your other Friday activities might determine this)
  • Post it!
  • Remember to post your link on Freda’s Voice and to visit the other guys in the linky.
  • And  last but not least, don’t forget to list the title of the book and the author as well.

Our book actually don’t have a page 56, but page 54/55 reveals a few chills up your back:

“This way then,” I say,  taking the lead, and we make our way slowly along the dim corridor using Tiffany’ phone for light this time. At regular intervals along the walls there are wrought-iron sconces that must once have held candles to light the way; obviously the electricity never reached this far down.

“I don’t like it down here,” Tiffany says apprehensively. “It’s spooky.”

“Neither do I particularly, bit if Charlie came down here then we have to find him.”

Ooooh yes, something is definitely happening here. The mutt went to puppy school with a Golden Retriever called Charlie. He was as naughty as hell. Perhaps it’s name thing?

We are not going to linger any longer and love and leave you now to go and read our book!

Are you taking part in Fraterfest? Do let us know if you do!

Have a wonderful weekend!

 

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16 responses to “Weekend Book Friends #35 – Fraterfest Day 1!

  1. My family has wronged me because at no point have I inherited a castle! I would settle for a mysterious manor house or even an old farmhouse with a secret diary hidden somewhere in it. This sounds fantastic and even better with a ghost or two!

  2. What a gorgeous cover! I love the sound of this one. Spooky, but maybe nothing too scary. Thanks for sharing! Hope you have a wonderful weekend! 🙂

  3. Paula Shreckhise

    My first line this week comes from a breathtaking book The Lost Melody by Joanna Politano.
    One day in late May of the year 1886, I found myself imprisoned in the Hurstwell Pauper Lunatic Asylum. This was unconscionable—- I had never been a pauper.

  4. I am currently reading The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews. I am loving it!
    “Later that morning, after a brief stop at Doctors’ Commons, Jasper bounded up the steps of the Wychwood townhouse in Belgrave Square.”
    I hope you have a wonderful weekend!