Just So Stories

Hachette

July 2023

 9780734420923 | RRP $16.99 | Imprint: Lothian Books

I was getting a little worried I wasn’t going to get this one to review, and I have been waiting patiently for it since the day I finished the first one, but yayyyyyyy!! – thank you Hachette – for getting it to me (on Friday and binge read over the weekend).

I loved Trilby’s adventures since book #1 and, of course, wanted to know how she was going to foil the odious Mr Colin and his crew in book #2, as well as continuing the search for her mother and helping the children who are her loyal friends and guardians of Time.

Time is a curious thing, and in the hands of Kate Temple, even curiouser. A book, in my experience, rarely begins with a cliffhanger – and certainly, when it’s a literal cliffhanger involving a parlour chair, ropes and balloons on an actual cliff edge, any reader might be surprised. But then again, this is Kate Temple we’re talking about.

Once again, the brilliant legal mind of our time (sorry, no time at all), thylacine Benjamin is our revered narrator. and relates the circumstances leading up to Trilby’s imminent demise via being pushed off a cliff tied to a parlour chair.

We know that the repellent Mr Colin, will stop at nothing to stop Trilby in her role of Time Keeper, and guardian/protector of Time and the children. We also know he’s a cunning snake who is deceitful, dastardly, grasping, greedy, untruthful and unbelievably loathsome. but it seems it is not just him making difficulties. Who is the creepy black-clad stranger with the mysterious golden hoop? Why does Shut Up Brian obviously want to help the children (and seem familiar to Koji)? Where on earth is Egg Shell Island? And why did Trilby’s mother disappear – and, more urgently, where is she now?

I love how we get to find out more of the children’s backstories – how it is that they were taken from their various periods in history, and why. I also love that the mystery of Shut Up Brian’s strange behaviour, and his familiarity are explained. [Unfortunately, tied to the mystery of the stranger in the black wielding his time hoop.] I don’t love anything about Carole, and I sincerely hope that we find out she’s been roasted in the……….never mind, you need to read that part for yourself. Most of all, I love how tremendously kind, resilient and inventive Trilby is. She is just as scared as anyone but doesn’t let it overwhelm her, and especially when she knows her friends are depending on her.

Just like the first, this is fast-paced, laced with laughter, fraught with danger, often sarky, and a glorious adventure. The themes of found family, hope, resilience, inventiveness, cooperation/collaborative effort, and the importance of accurate record-keeping in a legal sense permeate.

Your readers who loved the earlier instalment (and I know these are legion) will be clamouring to get their hands on this one. I suggest you buy more than one copy. I also suggest you stand well back when it goes on the shelf. Oh! and I love more than anything, that this is obviously not the last we’ll hear of Trilby & Co!