Tom Weston (1)

FIRST NIGHT by Tom Weston is a strange and oddly fascinating mix of humor, mystery, adventure, and paranormal. Without wonderful descriptions of Boston that only a true observer could write, Weston instills his love of the area and the First Night festivities into the story making it come to life. With a good deal of fun and the perfect amount of adventure, FIRST NIGHT was a pleasure to read and a book that I know I'll be going back to.If you've ever been to a First Night festival, you'll know all about the fun and festivities that surround the celebration. For those that haven't experienced this joy, First Night takes place on New Year's Eve in many cities but most famously in Boston. Party goers receive a First Night button that gets them in to the events attractions where they can party the day and night away. For Jackie and Alex, First Night is both a blessing and a curse.Jackie is thrilled to be visiting her aunt and uncle. The sisters are given the entire day to wander the city on their own and Jackie can hardly contain herself at the possibilities this entails. Her older sister Alex, however, would much rather wait out the day in the car while her aunt and uncle finish up their work. Where Jackie is outgoing, Alex is more quiet and subdued. It'll take a miracle, or maybe a walking dead girl to get this teen excited about something.Sarah Pemberton is just your average Puritan girl. Only problem is that she's walking around Boston 300 years after her death. When her spirit is woken and brought to the Court of the Spirits, a charge of witchcraft against her might mean the difference between returning to a restful eternity of peace or eternal fire and fury for her soul. Allowed time to find an advocate for her defense, Sarah is set free on modern day Boston. As fate, and some great writing would have it, Sarah runs right into, or should I say through, Jackie and Alex. What follows are pages and pages of a unique story full of mystery, humor andcuriosity.I found FIRST NIGHT to be quite an enjoyable read. This is the kind of book that I would return to when I wanted something lighter and fun but still with a note of authenticity in it. The part that really sold me on FIRST NIGHT was the obvious research that went into the writing. Both the historical pieces and the modern pieces were described in great detail. The events and locations were as authentic as the author could make them and this aided the story. I think I expected a little less of the book, especially the historical sections but found myself pleasantly surprised (which has been happening more and more). Instead of racing through the historical sections and making up details to get on to the modern story, it seems that Weston spent a good deal of time developing both time frames.As is often the case with a book I like, the characters were another great aspect. I found the characters to be well developed and complex. Jack and Alex, the two blond sisters, could have easily become two identical puppets with different names simply to separate the dialogue. Instead, it is obvious that the two characters are two unique individuals. Each has their own personality and Weston's attention to detail ensure that these personalities come to life. My favorite character was, however, Sarah. How could one not love her! In my opinion Sarah provides the majority of the humor in the book either by her words or her actions. Weston does a great job of maintaining Sarah's historical nature even when the rest of his world is set in modern times.The scores are in! Based on my rating scale, FIRST NIGHT is a book that you are really going to want to read. It seems to have something for everyone including a great series of plot twists and turns. The only thing I would have loved more was a little smoother flow. The story was fantastic and the characters well developed, but occasionally the words wouldn't travel across the page as easily as my eyes wanted. Regardless, I did read the story and I wouldn't be hear recommending it right now if it wasn't good.… (meer)

Take an elf, vampires and a mermaid and combine them with Luxembourg history. Add two teen girls and mix gently and you've got a fantastic story that is guaranteed to keep you entertained. "The Elf of Luxembourg" is a fantastic young adult novel that weaves history, humor and the paranormal all together and creates a novel that's hard to put down.

I enjoyed everything about this book, from the history lessons of Luxembourg, to the beautiful black and white photos, the interesting quotes, and the fascinating storyline. Mr. Weston has an interesting way of presenting things. I quote from his introduction: "Therefore consider the narrative to be a fictional account of real events, except for those chapters which pass for real accounts of fictional events. I hope this distinction helps." This quote really shows the feel of the book and playfulness of the author, making it a fun and very interesting read.

The characters were interesting. The elf was a charming character that you can't help but like. The main characters were teen sisters, Alex and Jackie, are both so very different. Their differences made them quite real and ended up being an important part to the storyline.

This book is the second in the Alex and Jackie adventure series, but is certainly able to be read as a stand-alone with no feeling that one has missed anything. I really enjoyed this book and certainly want to read the other books in the series.

If you would like to read them in order, the first Alex and Jackie adventure is: "First Night: Being a Ghost Story". Mr. Weston is currently working on the third installment.… (meer)

It's not all fun fairs and ice-cream in Luxembourg. Here there is a certain standard to maintain, and vacationing with Elves and Vampires is just too old school. But can Alex convince her younger sister, Jackie, of that? Nope, of course not. Because beneath the ancient city of Luxembourg there lies a secret. The Vampires believe it is protected by The Elf. However The Elf has different ideas... Can Alex and Jackie fulfill the prophecy and end the war between The Elf and the Vampires before it is too late?

My Review:
This story was fun- a true young adult adventure full of intriguing, fun characters. This is the first time I've been introduced to Alex & Jackie and it was an enjoyable ride. I had fun taking an adventure through Luxembourg with the girls and meeting the townies. The characters were cunning and full of witty repertoire. This book goes back and forth between the ancient, tragic journey of Cuchaquicha and the current day happenings of both Alex & Jackie.

Make sure you're on your toes and paying attention- it is a bit confusing to read. This is both good and bad- I felt as if someone was personally speaking to me and telling me a story rather than something more formal- I love that. However, I truly wished there was more story on the Alex & Jackie adventure and less Cuchaquicha. Cucha made the story seem a little dry at times although his story was intriguing and incredibly sad. I found myself skimming through Cucha's parts quickly to get to Alex & Jackie. I was dying to find out what those two would get into next... Who wouldn't, though? Ancient elves, vampires, prophecy and two pretty blondes? Sounds good to me!

Now, I haven't read the first Alex & Jackie adventure- First Night, but I do intend to. I can't wait to find out if Weston's writing style in this book accurately reflects the writing in First Night. I'm not a huge fan of the overwhelming geographical and historical facts on Cuchaquicha, but if you can drudge through those parts it is well worth it once you get to the fictional story.

I hope Weston decides to give Alex & Jackie more adventures. But if you're looking for an easy, quick read- look else where. As refreshing and fun as The Elf of Luxembourg is, I suggest it to those who like an educational adventure story. ;)… (meer)

-As a Muica, living in South America and preparing for one of the most important ceremonies of his people, Cuchaquicha was horrified to find that the Spanish Conquistadors had invaded their lands and kidnapped both his wife and his son during the ceremony. Only having them in mind, Cucha set off on a trip that would take him to Luxembourg all because the vampires wanted the secret to finding El Dorado (the city of gold) and the vampire named Meadow thought that Cucha could draw out the elf that was the Guardian. - 400 years later - As Alex and Jackie set off on vacation to see their Aunt and Uncle in the town of Luxembourg the plan was to do some shopping and enjoy their time there. The sisters did take the time to learn a little of the languages, one chose a few phrases of French while the other a few words of German, but that didn’t help with the too expensive shops that they had intended on visiting. Exploring the rich cultural, religious and mythical history of the area was how they ended up spending their days. Touring the area, the museums and the churches proved to be more interesting after meeting a man named Sergio who seemed to know a lot about the history of Luxembourg.

When I got this book, I didn’t know that Alex and Jackie had other adventures - so this was all new to me. Parts of the book read like a history lesson, parts of the book read like a geography book, parts of the book read like a tour guide. I really enjoyed the fictional story, the vampires, the elf, the mermaid but I didn’t think there was enough of the fiction in the book to make it as fun as it could have been. I didn’t read the first adventure (which I later found out was called ‘First Night‘), so I can’t say that it is the writers style or just this one book. I felt that for a fiction, there should have been less concentration on the accuracy of the history and geography (while accuracy is important, it just didn’t need to be so thorough for a fiction novel) and more on the characters (unless you want to count Luxembourg as a characters - which I don’t). I had trouble getting into the story because of the use of the foreign (to me) languages and use of a lot of names of both past and present people that weren‘t actually important to the story. This is a good adventure if you have the ability to sludge through the facts to get to the fiction, but my mind doesn’t work well at that especially when I wanted a fictional adventure story, so I struggled with this one a bit.… (meer)