After the tragic death of her parents during an archaeological excavation, Dora Blake is now living with her uncle, Hezekiah, in her parents’ antiquities shop. But Hezekiah does not have the interest in antiquities her parents had and he is slowly destroying her parents’ once loved business. Dora is desperate to escape from her uncles’ care, and is hoping to turn her love of drawing and jewelry making into a career, giving her the independence she craves. When her uncle imports a Grecian vase, one so old that it predates time itself, Dora feels an immediate connection. While anyone else who touches it or means it harm is instantly cursed, Dora continues to be the only one to open it and she uses its Greek inscriptions and drawings as inspiration for her jewellery. But Hezekiah has darker plans for the vase, and even darker plans for Dora, and when Dora realizes the true importance of the urn, her life is put at greater risk.

Overall: I loved the historical setting, the intriguing mystery, lovely romance, riveting pacing! One of the greatest historical functions I’ve read lately! Many school suppliers, including Pandora Books, are offering banded ‘real’ books to widen children’s reading experiences and to promote reading enjoyment. The levelling is done in a ‘best fit’ way, meeting the criteria as much as ‘real’ books can, allowing for the non-contrived way they are written. Why Use Book Bands? I loved the fact that I couldn’t decide whether or not there was a touch of magical realism to this book. Much like The Essex Serpent, it straddles that divide in such a way that you’re never entirely certain. Though, in this case, I’m leaning strongly in the direction of there being just a touch of the supernatural housed within the story. Especially when it comes to the pithos itself. It’s beautiful and somehow disturbing in its perfection, magnetic and repellant. I loved the undercurrent of similarities between Dora and her Grecian namesake. And the identity hinted at for one particular side character near the end of novel was a very fun touch. This is a story set in Georgian era London, where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek Vase sets in motion conspiracies and revelations. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist and an orphan, she live together with her uncle and they run an antiquities shop. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigues by her uncle suspicious behavior and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antuarian scholar to find out the story about this mysterious vaseThere is a sudden sigh, a hum, a fluttering. It comes not from behind but in front of her, from within the vase, and Dora hears all at once its siren call, its darkling plea. It is the hush of wind, the whisper of waves, the music of grief, and she cannot help it, she cannot resist. Dora lifts the lid.”

Children progress through the banded colours as they gain confidence, and because of the breadth of choice available in each colour band, they should be able to find books that appeal to them at each stage. This allows teachers to provide the opportunity for children to read for pleasure even at an early stage in their reading journey. Many schools will offer decodable phonics books in the early stages and move onto book bands when children's reading is more fluent. Ongoing reading assessments will establish which level children are reading at and whether they need to move up to the next level to maintain the right level of challenge. But when they discover the secrets about the case, Dora’s entire life turns upside down. Anything she knows about her life, her past, her family is questionable! It seems like some things should be buried forever! I really enjoyed this especially that it was set during the Georgian period which is fast becoming one of my favorite eras. Fast forward and books bands these days are the most common system used by schools and by educational publishers of reading books, thus giving teachers a means of assessing children’s progress in reading in the absence of National Curriculum levels since 2014. As a result of the move away from NC levels, the book bands originally outlined by the UK Reading Recovery National Network and its authors for KS1 only, have extended to meet demands by a great many schools for further levels including up to the end of KS2. Thus providing an opportunity for assessment and progression right through the primary years. For confident and super-confident readers it is important that books are matched appropriately to their emotional maturity. For thisreasonPandora Books collate specific book collections for confident readerswhereextraemphasis is put on the contentbeingabsolutely spot on and not inappropriate for their chronological age whilst the book band level is higher.The book bands philosophy has not changed and at its heart is the opportunity it gives schools to use a mix of reading scheme and ‘real’ books from a range of publishers whilst maintaining a consistent and appropriate challenge for pupils. Using banded 'real' books, children are able to choose books freely from within a structured range of books making reading more independent and enjoyable.

Having finished school Dora now focuses her ambitions in designing jewellery, so when an ornate vase arrives at the shop, her interested is piqued immediately. Not because this treasure is a thing of beauty and mysterious, but she is able to take inspiration from its rare qualities and designs, when designing her own jewellery range. However, her interest only grows in a different direction when the secrecy, value and historical reference attributed to this piece of antique comes to light. There’s a small part of me that was uncomfortable reading about the colonial aspects of plundering and acquisition even though that was historically correct. I hate element of British history, our museums are still full of antiquities that are not ‘ours’.Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Banded books ultimately provide children with a pathway of progression in reading but also support teachers who are making book-buying decisions to meet the needs of individual pupils, bringing variety and breadth to children’s reading diets.When a highly anticipated Greek pithos is delivered to the shop, Dora wonders why her Uncles behaviour is so suspicious and wants to find out the mystery for herself. Dora enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a bookbinder looking for acceptance into the Society of Antiquities, for help on information of the pithos. Dora sees the pithos as a chance to escape her life and restore her parents shop to its former glory. Some secondary schools are now using book bands to support and monitor progress for students who require additional support in their reading. What are the Book Band Colours? The story is pretty interesting and engaging, i love the Georgian atmospheric vibe and the mystery element in the book but in my opinion the characters are pretty bland and the plot is slow… there are also a lot of unnecessary conversation and I think the book can be shorter, however I’m pretty much enjoyed this book and think this is such a great debut from the author