As always, if you haven’t read this book, there will be spoilers.

Well it’s quite lucky that a Tenth Doctor novel won my poll because I just finished reading this book about two days ago and HOLY HELL.

I know I always give a lot of positive reviews and feedback about the books I read, but can you blame me when they’re written like this?

In this book, the 10th Doctor and Donna stop back on Earth so Donna can be with her family on the anniversary of her father’s death (how sweet). While they’re there, Wilf tells the Doctor that he’s discovered a new star, and invites him to the naming ceremony, where they find out that this is no ordinary star, and there is an evil, and if you’ve seen the Classic series, familiar force at work.

The Mandragora Helix is back at it again, taking on the form of a computer algorithm known as Ms. Delphi, using the company M-Tek, run by Dara Morgan and astrology to chart when the stars will be in the right alignment to give them the power to take over the earth.

The Doctor and Donna stop this, with the help of Wilfred Mott’s new lady friend, Henrietta Goodheart.

I had the pleasure of reading this book while I was stuck on a plane for about 6 hours and then sort of forgot about it until about a week ago. I really enjoyed reading this book because it gave a really good look into Donna’s family life and how it affected them now that she was traveling with the Doctor. While there was never an on-screen slap of the Doctor from Sylvia Noble (or maybe there was and I’m just thick), there was one in this book and while it was during a quite emotional science, I couldn’t help laughing out loud at the Doctor’s reaction, much to the annoyance of a few of my fellow passengers on the plane.

I was really fond of the character of Henrietta “Netty” Goodheart and her relationship with Wilfred. I found it heartbreaking that she suffered from dementia, and I just loved how much everyone took care of her, but she was still clearly a very strong character who could hold her own, and actually succeeded in fighting off the power of the Mandragora when it tried to inhabit her mind.

I rate this book 9/10 TARDISes because of how beautifully written and emotional the story turned out to be, but I am deducting one TARDIS, just because a few of the scenes seemed a bit unnecessary and redundant, but other than that, it was a fantastic story and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who prefers Doctor Who stories with a bit more feeling, like ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ or ‘The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang’.

Hope you enjoyed, stick around for next month’s review. I just got a bunch of new Target Novels, so please let me know during next month’s “What type of book would you like to see a review of?” poll if you’d like a review of one of those. Happy Holidays :)