Today I have a tour spotlight for you! In this post I’ll take you through the blurb, about the author, and a few tour excerpts. If you’d like to follow along with the tour, you can find the full tour schedule here.
Premise
An amazing and captivating, curl-up-on-the-sofa debut about a magical frost fair and the lasting power of friendship.
It’s a cold winter during the Great Frost of 1683. Thomasina and Anne are the best of friends, one running her father’s sweet shop and the other the apprentice at the family apothecary – together they sell their goods on the frozen River Thames. When a family tragedy turns Thomasina’s world upside down, she is drawn to a mysterious conjuror and the enchanted frost fair. But soon the world of Father Winter threatens to claim everything she holds dear. Will they be able to solve the magical mysteries that surround them…?
About the Author
Natasha Hastings started developing The Miraculous Sweetmakers: The Frost Fair while studying history at Cambridge University, where she focused on gender and mental illness. While exploring these topics, she became determined to have the lives of working women, as well as their experiences of mental illness in this period, form the heartbeat of her debut book, The Frost Fair.
What readers have to say
The writing was beautiful and very fluid, giving the story a whimsical and cosy feel, which made me not want to put it down at all.
Read to Ramble
There were so many things I loved in this book! The wintry setting of London in the mid-1700s, the sweets-shop atmosphere, the magical elements, but also the deep and emotional aspects. I also loved Anne and Thomasina’s friendship – as well as how important her family was for Thomasina.
The Artsy Reader
With discussions of female madness/‘hysteria’, representation of asthma and exploration of the multitudes of ways people deal with grief this is not a light middle grade but it is magical. Both the Frost Fair and the Other Frost Fair are exquisitely drawn and I would love to see this come to laugh as a Sunday BBC family series one day.
Kirsty
After reading this absolute gem of a book, I am definitely ready for winter to properly set in now!
Ellie Mai Blogs
I can honestly say The Miraculous Sweetmakers is one of the most original books I’ve read in a long time. This wonderful book is full of adventure, peril, and excitement – but it’s also about grief, friendship, and compassion.
Roachie’s Reviews
Jenjenreviews 