Chocolate Box Girls: Marshmallow Skye

Product Information

Third must-have title in this gorgeous series from one of the UK's best-loved girls' authors, Cathy Cassidy. I’ve been veggie for 30 years, and was vegan for 8 of them – a chocolate-eating vegan, like Storm! I love old clothes, old toys, cars, books. We have three cats, two rabbits and a mad, hairy lurcher called Kelpie (the model for Leggit in my book Dizzy). Skye and her family is so believable. That's what i love most about this book, the fact that it feels like i'm having a conversation with Skye, or it feels like i'm looking inside her brain. Obviously most books are like this, but Marshmallow Skye really stood out to me in the way the story was described.

Her twin Summer was quiet, confident and addicted to ballet. She was also a real feminist – woman power means that boys and romance equals trouble. But she wasn’t nearly as supportive of Skye as Skye was for her. She just didn’t understand that some things were as important to Skye as ballet was to her. I think she thought that identical twins were identical in all ways, and she struggled when she realises that wasn’t true. At one point, I wanted to just yell at Summer and shake her, like: “can’t you see how much you are hurting Skye?!” But then, she just changed in my eyes. I love characters that do that – that become so strong you just can never tell where they’re going. Cathy Cassidy’s stirring teen novels have a huge following. Their optimism, realism and empathy explain their popularity, especially with girls, and are perfect for fans of Jacqueline Wilson. The rest of the sisters were vastly different from one another – each felt like they had their own distinct personality. Fourteen-year-old Honey, who used to be the “coolest sister” ever, but since the whole Cherry-Shay and Dad-moving-to-Australia, had been “off the rails”. Even though she wasn’t always ‘likeable’, I really liked how she said what she thought. Cherry Costello, the new sister, was really sweet and really worried about fitting it. Cherry was super smart and wise and cool. I loved her! Eleven-year-old Coco was cute: all hyper and rather funny. She was really excitable, bouncy, cheerful, and full of life. Plus: animal mad – I like this kid! The plot is suitable for tweens/teens growing up. I think this book is great if you're starting to feel a bit more grown up, around the age of 11/12/13. I love how there are problems in the story that I would have with my friends. Being a teenager, I think this book gives younger girls a little taste of what it's like coming into puberty, blah blah blahThe next scrumptious story in Cathy Cassidy's Chocolate Box Girls series, following Cherry Crush and Marshmallow Skye. Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Wilson. Skye Tanberry was wonderful, rather mature and really sweet. I just instantly fell in love with her voice, her kindness, how devoted she was to her twin. She was addicted to history, something I loved – plus her fashion sense was awesome: history inspired! She was kind of a realist, but she was so supportive and caring. But poor Skye felt like she was living in Summer’s shadow, like she was second best and always would be. How wonderful she thought her twin was just ate away her confidence. She was sometimes jealous of Summer – I mean, she felt like the “shadow twin”, useless and dull compared to Summer. I felt so sorry for her. Because she wasn’t. She was wonderful. I loved Skye! Middle school ends and the holidays begin, but unlike her sisters, Summer has no time for lazy days and sunny beach parties. The audition becomes her obsession, and things start spiralling out of control . . .

Marshmallow Skye was a beautiful, heart-warming, chocolate-filled story about finding yourself – with a scrummy side of an impossible romance, a tragic death, finding freedom – whether from a cage or your family – and a wonderful supernatural twist. And I was lift feeling all warm and squidgy inside – much like the namesake sweeties, marshmallows. I loved this book. I’m now desperate for Cherry Crush and Book Three. Whoever’s story it may be, I know – I know – it will be fantastic. (Fingers crossed for Honey, by-the-way.) Plus… Too Cute!Cathy's style of writing is brilliant. Similar to making her stories believable, Cathy's style of writing is amazing. I particularly like the way she describes every single detail, like the food spread out at the buffet, she carefully describes exactly what is there using all five senses. She creates a perfect image in my head, and I think that's why she is my favourite author. I can really connect with the book and her characters.