The Other Side of the Wall Book Review and Tea Party!

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I love it when a book inspires creativity! This happens A LOT at our house! So often we will be reading a book and all of a sudden an idea pops up for a craft, art project, or recipe! Well, I have just finished reading The Other Side of the Wall by Amy Ephron and guess what? Inspiration central! We decided it would be so fun to wrap up our reading of the book by having an English tea party! I can’t wait to show you!

The Other Side of the Wall

Before we jump into our English tea party, let’s chat a little about the book! The Other Side of the Wall is the third book in the series by Amy Ephron. The book follows brother and sister, Max and Tess as they spend Christmas break with their Aunt Evie in London. They are staying at the very swanky Sanborn House while they wait for their parents to arrive. Max and Tess soon find themselves mixed up in a mystery of sorts. They meet a boy named Colin, who lives year-round at the hotel. Colin lives in a fancy apartment on the 8th floor of the hotel…which doesn’t sound so strange, except for the fact that the hotel only had 7 floors yesterday. Mysteries keep appearing around every corner, like the strange 1920’s costume party that is happening in Colin’s apartment, the mysterious marble that definitely seems to be more than meets the eye, and the fact that everyone seems to ignore Colin. Max and Tess find themselves with more questions than answers as they try to find the keys to the mysteries before them!

Our Thoughts

We loved this book! I should first add that this is the 3rd book in the series but I didn’t find it at all difficult to follow along with the story having not read the previous two books. I have just checked the first two out of the library though because I really did enjoy the story, the characters, and Ephron’s writing style. If you love a book that is full of mystery and suspense with some holiday atmosphere thrown in then I think you will love this one. It was a quick read because I was very engaged in the story and kept wanting to read more! It is always good to get engrossed in a book that you can’t put down!!

Books and Tea

It didn’t take long for inspiration to strike while reading this book! A book set in England lends itself perfectly to a host little tea party! When we first meet Colin, he is enjoying quite a fancy little tea at the hotel so we thought we would create a tea party of our own! We do poetry teatime a lot here at our house…but it is usually a casual affair! Tea at Sanborn House needs to be fancied up a bit!!

The kiddos got the table set, we made cucumber sandwiches, we made scones, and we had some tea. Now, two out of the three of my kiddos LOVE any excuse to dress up so they, of course, had to get fancy for the occasion. Max even dug out the 3-piece suit that he hasn’t worn since our cruise! He thought the vest was very Colin-ish! I had to agree! I love that they will still indulge their mother in her crazy bookish whims!

For More Information

If you would like to order your own copy of The Other Side of the Wall you can follow this link here!

I would like to thank my friends at Penguin Random House for sharing this book with us! We truly enjoyed it and are looking forward to starting from the beginning with The Castle in the Mist!

Author Bio

Amy Ephron (www.amyephron.com) is the author of The Castle in the Mist, her first book for young readers, which was nominated for a SCIBA Award, and of Carnival Magic, a companion book. Amy has also written several adult books, including A Cup of Tea, which was an international bestseller. Her novel One Sunday Morning received the Booklist Best Fiction of the Year and Best Historical Fiction of the Year awards and was a Barnes and Noble Book Club selection. She is a contributor and contributing editor at Vogue and Vogue.com, and her work has appeared in numerous other publications. She was also the executive producer of Warner Brothers’ A Little Princess. Amy lives in Los Angeles with her husband; between them, they have five children. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @amyephron.