Review: Ninja School Mum

Ninja School Mum by Lizzie Chantree
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 39%.

I lurved the blurb for this book, a small English village in which a former spy, a former spy handler and the lord of the manor, three school children and a baby all converge at the school gate.

Unfortunately the book didn't live up to its potential. There was a weird dichotomy in that the two main female characters Skye and Leah are full of mystery, the reader doesn't know quite what they are or who they work for. Yet Zack's every lifetime achievement is described in mind-numbing detail. I made three or four notes as I was reading that there was too much telling and not enough sharing.

One third of the way through this book I had no idea what genre of book I was reading: was it a village romance? Was it a spy comedy? Was it a Mummy revenge comedy? Was it even supposed to be funny? Was there a massive plot twist?

This read to me like either a writer who wasn't comfortable getting into the psyche of a man and/ or is not a native English speaker.

I feel disappointed because I really liked the sound of this but the way it was written was too turgid, too boring, there was too much that was assumed/ unsaid. I would like to see this totally rewritten because I think the ideas were good - it was the execution which failed.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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