Author: James Treadwell

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (2nd February 2012)

Pages: 436

ISBN: 978-1444728460

From Amazon
For centuries it has been locked away
Lost beneath the sea
Warded from earth, air, water, fire, spirits, thought and sight.

But now magic is rising to the world once more.

And a boy called Gavin, who thinks only that he is a city kid with parents who hate him, and knows only that he sees things no one else will believe, is boarding a train, alone, to Cornwall.

No one will be there to meet him.

Review
Don’t be misled by the title Advent is not about Christmas … at all, well okay maybe a little reference near the end. It’s actually a story that is in a way based on the Faust legend or the bear bones of the legend anyway.

For those who don’t know the legend I did a little post about it the other day but the short version is a deal with the devil – selling a soul for something in return. In the case of the legend (and the retelling of it that I’m most familiar with – the play, Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe) the main character is after more knowledge.

Advent doesn’t really play up the relationship to the legend much, in fact if I hadn’t read the press release or the author note at the end I’m not sure I would have spotted it. There is a link but the story is told in such an unusual way that made it for me at least quite hard to spot.

I found Advent to be quite an odd book and I found it to almost be a book of two halves, the first half is split between the present day and 1537 and whilst the present day bits were interesting, intriguing and generally a very pleasant read, I found myself constantly confused and losing my place in the parts set in 1537. I understood enough to get a grip on what’s happening but I’m not sure if I was able to take it all in. It took me ages to get the link between the past and present which didn’t really help!

After roughly the half way point though and especially the last 100 pages things improved drastically, the number of visits to the past almost disappeared, it’s also roughly at this point that I started to get the link between Advent and the Faust legend and I most certainly got it by the end.

It was almost like the way of telling the story had changed by that point. Not only had we almost completely got rid of the one thing that was grating on me but also we got to hear the story from Horace, the journalists and the magic person’s point of view (I’m not revealing there name as it’s something I think best found out for yourself).

I’m not saying there was nothing I didn’t like about the first part, I loved how we met Gavin and how Gavin met Hester (one of my favourite characters), it provided a beautiful introduction to the world without having to spell it out and genuinely intrigued me but past that bit it was Marina who kept me reading and hoping it got better. She seemed like a ray of innocent light set against the darkness of the book and I was always looking forward to the bits where the story returned to her.

Overall, like I said above, Advent was a book of two halves – I loved half and was left scratching my head at the other. It’s generally a good book, well written but I would have liked a little bit less of the past.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for sending me a copy to review

Author: Susanne Winnacker

Publisher: Usborne (1st February 2012)

Pages: 320

ISBN: 978-1409536086

From Amazon
The Other Life: who we were before the virus. How we’ll never be again. It’s been 3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since Sherry has seen daylight. When things went wrong up above, she was sealed off from the world in a bunker with her family. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find devastation, desolation…and the Weepers: savage mutant killers. When her dad is snatched, Sherry joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua – an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers. But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all? The seeds of first love are sown amongst the death and destruction of a nightmare future in this incredible debut novel. Beautifully formed and gut-wrenchingly gripping, it’s essential reading.

Review
1 week since I finished The Other Life or to put it another way 7 days or 604,800 seconds if Google is to be believed and I still don’t know if I can put into words how I feel about The Other Life – it was just so good.

For a start it’s a dystopia and I’m still loving dystopias – I’m not sure how long I will continue to love them but for me at least they’re still very much going strong. I love the way they transport us to a new time where one thing is different and the effects it has on the characters and the world they inhabit.

The Other Life is no different, Sherry and her family have been hiding out in a bunker shut away from natural light due to a new form of rabies which if it doesn’t kill you turns you into a weeper. And after 3 years, 1 month, 1 week (or 98,409,602 seconds) the food supplies have finally run out and they are forced to brave the brave new world that awaits them.

The weepers are creeptastic with there eyes that .. weep, they seem genuinely savage and not like the kind of thing you would like to meet on a gloriously nice day let alone in the dark of night. What they do to a still living body doesn’t bare thinking about. The way they creep about and the way Susanne writes about them was enough to send chills down my spine – I’m never going to be able to listen to tapping on a window again! I mean what’s worse than a scary monster – an intelligent scary monster!

At the end of each chapter / beginning of the next is a page / page and a bit which gives us a glimpse into Sherry’s other life (the life she lived before the rabbies outbreak) and it shows her to be a happy normal teenage girl and this serves to heighten what has happened to the world around her as the chapters that follow show a stark contrast.

Sherry showed herself to be a very determined character and no matter what happened to her she always tried to keep going. She was never on her own though, she had help from Joshua and the rest of the people at the safe-haven, a place which the weepers hadn’t discovered.

As I seem to be doing a lot lately I have to mention the grandma – she didn’t have a big role to play in the story but she knew what she wanted and nothing anyone could do would make her budge and so it was fun seeing the other characters having to accommodate her.

The story takes twists and turns that I’d never seen coming, yet that are hinted at along the way, it was so easy to be swept away by the story. Towards the end I was quite simply unwilling to put it down desperately needing to know what happened next.

Thanks to Usborne for sending me a copy to review

Author: Julie Cross

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books (5th January 2012)

Pages: 413

ISBN: 978-0230756267

From Amazon
Jackson Meyer is hiding a secret. He can time-travel. But he doesn’t know how he does it, how to control it or what it means. When Jackson, and his girlfriend Holly, find themselves in fatal danger, Jackson panics and catapaults himself two years into his past, further than he’s ever managed before, and this time he can’t find a way back to the future. All the rules of time-travel he’s experienced so far have been broken and Jackson has no choice but to pretend to be his younger self whilst he figures out a solution. Jackson is tearing himself apart with guilt and frustration, wondering if Holly survived. He’s also become the target of an unknown enemy force and it seems even his dad is lying to him. Jackson is racing against time to save the girl he loves, but to do that he must first discover the truth about his family and himself. And stay alive.

Review
When I saw Tempest in Foyles Bristol the other week … it had to be mine, I’d heard such good things about it and as it had a rather unusual take on time travel (something which there isn’t much of in YA anyway) – I couldn’t resist!

To be honest though it took a few chapters to actually get my head around what was happening, Tempest doesn’t make use of your ordinary time travel (is there such a thing as ordinary time travel?) theories where a time traveler can hop back to the past change something and it affects the future. It instead suggests that there are half jumps, full jumps and essentially parallel universes and not all affect the future.

But once you’ve got past this and have a lose general idea of what’s happening you can see through the science-y bits to a genuinely enjoyable story which became really difficult to put down.

I loved the friendship between Jackson and his best friend Adam. Adam is my kind of guy, he’s incredibly bright and determined and this comes in handy in more ways than one – he’s the one that encourages Jackson to explore and ultimately test what he can do and he has enough foresight to think about how Jackson can get help when he jumps to the past.

Jackson has another very close friend in Holly, I loved feeling the passion that Jackson feels towards her and the lengths that he would go to keep her safe. And i can’t not mention Jackon’s Dad and Doctor Melvin who are little stars in there own right!

Tempest flew by me in a flash of pages with a gripping story, brilliantly told by a fantastic debut author – I’ll be keeping my eye out for more Julie Cross in the future (couldn’t resist ).

Author: Rebecca Emin

Publisher: Grimoire Books (23rd January 2012)

Pages: 166

ISBN: 978-1908375063

From Amazon
Sam Hendry is not looking forward to starting at her new school. Things go from bad to worse as the day of truth arrives and all of her fears come true… and then some. When Sam meets a different group of people who immediately accept her as a friend, she begins to feel more positive. With her new friends and interests, will Sam finally feel able to face the bully who taunts her, and to summon up the courage to perform on stage?

Review
There are two things which will almost guarantee I will read a book – a book which tackles a subject like bullying, I will always try and highlight these books when I come across them. The other thing (if you’re wondering) is anything to do with theatre (professional, school or otherwise) and unusually New Beginnings has both!

Sam is just about to transfer to secondary school which can be a stressful period of time at the best of times but it’s made worse as her parents have opted to send her to a different school from her friends forcing her to start afresh. And on top of that she starts being bullied … arrgghhh!!!

I have to admit my first impressions of the teachers at the new school left a little to be desired, they seemed friendly enough but they didn’t seem to have a clue about what was going on right under there noses! Now I know it’s not possible to know how everyone in a classroom is feeling but even the teachers in my old school were better than that! I was particularly disappointed with Mrs Jennings (the PE teacher – maybe that explains my dislike of her hehe) as she failed to listen to both sides of what was going on after one incident.

Moving away from the bullying aspect there is another side to this story – Sam loves to sing and she’s pretty, what am I saying, she is fantastic at it, everyone who hears her sing is captivated by it and it leads the story into some interesting places. It allows her to meet new characters and makes Sam feel like she’s found a place in the world where she belongs. It fills her with more and more self confidence and it allows her to discover it’s the bully with the problem and not her.

I loved how although the book doesn’t preach out a message about bullying, instead it shows the kinds of effects it can have on other people, plus there are references to the UK bullying charity, Bullying UK and it gives a tip on how to deal with it. Of course the most important thing it raises is that if you are being bullied you should tell someone!

I only had one niggle it is something that happens right at the very end so I can’t really say what it is, I understand why it’s in there but without encouragement I’m not absolutely sure it would happen. It’s only a tiny thing and nothing to really worry about and for the age group I completely understand why. (that’s why it’s only a niggle ).

New Beginning is a very fast paced story and its 166 page whip by and are gone before you know it, there’s plenty of things going on that no-one will get bored. Aimed at younger readers, it could be an eye opening read for the bully, the bullied and those that observe.

Thanks to Rebecca for sending me a copy to review

Author: Kimberly Derting

Publisher: Headline (11th November 2010)

Pages: 327

ISBN: 978-0755378951

From Amazon
Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend, she is more disturbed by her “power” to sense dead bodies – or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world…and the imprints that attach to their killers.

Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift, but now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer – and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay’s intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she’s falling in love, Violet is getting closer to discovering a killer…and becoming his prey herself.

Review
The Body Finder is another one of those books that I wish I’d bought and read ages ago (like when it came out for instance) but even when I did buy it a few months ago I still didn’t read it straight away. I waited and waited. Then the other week I felt like something completely different and there it was – waiting for me!

It’s about Violet, a girl who has what can only be described as a ‘morbid’ special ability. She has the ability to sense a dead body (whether it be animal or erm, otherwise). That may seem odd enough but there’s more to it as she can also sense when the killer is close to her.

For me it’s like nothing I’ve ever read before and it’s an ability I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But Violet seems to handles these discoveries remarkably. Sure she’s upset and all the usual feelings you would expect a young girl to feel when a discovery such is this is made are evident but once they are out to rest she seems to move on.

Violet, however also shows such compassion for these dead bodies, always having to give the dead animals a proper send off. And even when she discovers a dead body her determination doesn’t let her down. She becomes determined to help the police catch the killer even if it puts her own life at risk.

Another aspect I liked about The Body Finder was seeing the story from the point of view of the killer – it wasn’t an altogether nice place to be but gave a hint about what the killer was up to and there thoughts.

The Body Finder wasn’t all about death though (thank goodness, that would have been a little too morbid for my tastes lol). It also has an almost coming of age quality too it as the two main characters, Violet and Jay discover more about themselves as they grow up and the new feeling they are feeling.

It’s just a fantastic book and I know most of you will already have read it so I’m going to finish by saying I’ll be buying book two very soon indeed!

Author: Cate Tiernan

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (5th January 2012)

Pages: 392

ISBN: 978-1444707007

From Amazon
He is the thorn in my side, nightmare of my past, destroyer of my family . . . And the one whose fevered kisses I had relived over and over as I lay exhausted and unable to sleep.

And yet night after night, he – who had kicked down hundreds of doors – had not brought himself to knock on mine.

Nastasya has lived for more than 400 years but things never get any easier. As she learns more about herself, she questions whether it will ever be possible to break free from the darkness of her former life. Can she turn away from the one person she wants to be with above all others? Should her past determine who she should – or should not – love?

Desire, death and painful secrets are revealed in this compulsively addictive sequel to Immortal Beloved.

Review
Darkness Falls is the second book in the Immortal Beloved series, as such this review may unintentionally reveal things about the first book – you have been warned!

Before I started reading Darkness Falls I was worried, that I would have forgotten everything from Immortal Beloved and that would have effected my enjoyment of this book. I needn’t have worried. After just a few pages the story flooded back to me and anything extra that is needed is very conveniently filled in as we go.

In truth I’d forgotten how bad things had got between Nastasya and Incy in the first book and the reasons why Nastasya had run away from him. But even so he was far worse in Darkness Falls – he is responsible for a scene I know I won’t be able to get rid of in a hurry (brilliant that I read those pages in work and had the image stuck there while I was trying to work, lovely! hehe).

Though I liked Incy as a character, I loved, loved, loved Nastasya – she goes through so much in this story, puts up with a lot of crap from a lot of people. I’m sure it’s in no small part that she stays sane(ish) is because of her family (that is truly what they truly feel like) at River’s Edge help to keep her grounded and the warmth and care that grows and comes from that place escapes the page and made me feel all warm inside. I also felt that as a character she goes through some major changes, helping her see the world through a different pair of eyes and seeing this unfold in such a character as Nastasya was very satisfying indeed.

I love magic and books with magic are right up my street, like the first book Darkness Falls doesn’t make use of wizards and wands and the like, rather it takes the form of magick (with a k) which I don’t get to read about often. I like it because it’s different and in a way it feels (to me) more powerful, more deadly if you like.

Come the end I was literally cheering her on, by this point in the book it was so hard to put it down ‘for a bit’ as the action had come to a place where the stakes were at there highest, my hairs were standing on end. So good, but you’ll have to find out for yourself!

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for sending me copy to review

Author: Cliff McNish

Publisher: Orion Children’s (5th January 2012)

Pages: 274

ISBN: 978-1780620169

From Amazon
When Elliott and his brother, Ben, move into the old and crumbling Glebe House they don’t expect to find themselves sharing it with ghosts. But soon sinister events are unfolding. An old diary reveals glimpses of the mansion’s past – and of a terrible tragedy. A mysterious woman talks to the dead. And evil lurks in the East Wing – a hideous labyrinth of passageways devised by a truly twisted mind. Can Elliott and his family escape the clutches of Glebe House? Or will they be trapped in the maze of corridors, forever hunted by the dead?

Review
On the front cover of the Hunting Ground is printed the words ‘haunted by pure evil’ and I think this just about sums it up. It’s a book that won’t leave you when you close the cover, it won’t leave you when you do the washing up and it especially won’t leave you when you’re thinking about nothing. Ever since closing the book every now and again the story based at Glebe House keeps creeping back into my mind.

Essentially The Hunting Ground is a ghost story based on an old, creepy house which brothers Elliot and Ben are staying in temporarily while there Dad renovates it and makes it suitable to sell on. And so this is how we find ourselves in this creepy house which seems to have a mind of its own. I don’t want to say too much about the story as I think knowing too much would spoil the story as it’s so well crafted in revealing its secrets bit by bit.

Creepiness aside The Hunting Ground is a thriller which ever so gradually takes you over so you don’t really realise what’s happening. The pace may seem a little slow but it’s perfect for the story as it allows time for the happenings around the house to sink in. Gives us and the main characters the time to think about what has just happened and start to think about what is to come.

McNash leaves hints of what’s to come all over the story, makes it very hard to know who to trust – Janey for example I was all over the place with. One minute trusting her, the next not and so on and I can only imagine what Ben and Elliot would have felt being confronted with her and all the other weird goings on in the house especially around the East Wing.

I loved Ben and Elliot – I could really see the brotherly chemistry going on, how they didn’t always agree but deep down cared for each other and not mentioning Eve would be a crime. I’m not going to tell you who she is because I think you need to discover it for yourself but as a character I loved her!

I expected to enjoy The Hunting Ground but I think in the end it way surpassed my expectations and I’ll be sure to look out for more McNash stories in the future.

Thanks to Orion Children’s for sending me copy to review

Author: Don Calame

Publisher: Templar Publishing (9th May 2011)

Pages: 371

ISBN: 978-1848774537

From Amazon
Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year’s? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time. But this mission impossible starts to look easy in comparison to Matt’s other challenge: to swim the 100-yard butterfly and impress the gorgeous Kelly West.

Review
When we’re young the summer holidays used to feel like they went on forever so I loved the idea that Swim The Fly has it’s main characters (which are boys, yay!) come up with a single goal which they have to achieve over the summer months, something to aim for if you like. In the past the aims have been harmless but in the months that Swim The Fly covers – Matt, Coop and Sean have the summer goal to see a real life naked girl.

I loved the idea from the moment I heard of it and the reviews I’ve seen since have lashed so much praise onto this book I had to check it out, and boy am I glad I did. From the writing it’s not surprising that Don is also a screenwriter, it has a movie / film like fast paced style – interspersing sequences when I was just left cringing and laughing my head off (laxatives anyone?) with moments of such genuine warmth – amazing!

Don has done a fab job of capturing the male voice, the characters all reminded me of people I knew in school and it was funny thinking of them in similar situations. Very funny hehe.

Credit also has to be given for the older ‘authority’ characters, each gave something extra to the story – my favourite of these characters has to be Ulf, the way his character helps Matt develop through the story and the comedy that he creates. And I can’t not mention Ms Luntz or Grandpa Arlo who Swim The Fly would not be the same without.

It’s the kind of book which I think will immediately appeal to boys but boys and girls of most ages will equally enjoy (though it does have a parental guidance badge on the back and would not be suitable for really young readers lol).

I didn’t realise there was a second book – Beat The Band which essentially follows up on this story and I for one can’t wait!

Author: Ally Carter

Publisher: Orchard (1st September 2011)

Pages: 332

ISBN: 978-1408309551

From Amazon
When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents took her to the Louvre…to case it. For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle Eddie travelled to Austria…to steal the crown jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a con of her own – scamming her way into the best boarding school
in the country, determined to leave the
family business behind.

But now her dad’s life is on the line, and Kat must go back to the world she tried so hard to escape…

Review
I’ve been dying to read Heist Society since I heard about it (I think) last year when I think it was released in the states. So as you can imagine when I saw it my local Smiths recently – it was mine! And it was even better than I could have hoped for.

In part Heist Society feels a bit like Hustle (but with kids), it follows the same set of, um – guidelines including ‘you can’t con an honest man’. I loved how like Hustle we’re not given the full picture as to how the characters are going to pull off the con, instead giving us small bits of the plan and then WAM revealing the real plan at the end.

Anyone whose read this blog recently might know that I love stories which don’t tell a story from a goody-two-shoes perspective and like the H.I.V.E series, Heist Society has its main characters doing the wrong things for potentially the right reasons.

But there’s more to Heist Society than a, um, heist – it’s a story with characters that I truly cared for. Katrina and Hale are fab and you can tell that they care for each other. Uncle Eddie acts like a Father towards Katrina while her real father is .. away and Gabrielle was fun to read about. This little band of (hate to call them this but) criminals had a real family feel to it.

Overall, Heist Society is a fast paced and action packed story wrapped up with a story of friendship and family loyalty and I for one am unbelievably excited that there is a second book – Uncommon Criminals which comes out in paperback next year (though I think it’s already out in hardback).

In fact I liked Ally’s ideas so much I’ve already bought (well, at the same time) – I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You!

Author: Jon Mayhew

Publisher: Bloomsbury (7th March 2011)

Pages: 418

ISBN: 978-1408803943

From Amazon
Edgy Taylor sees demons. They walk among us, masquerading as humans, but he can see through their disguises. So when Edgy discovers the Royal Society for Daemonologie, he hopes that at last he will find some clue to the origins of his mysterious ability. Within the Society’s ancient walls are the answers to many secrets. And when Edgy joins their expedition to the Arctic Circle, he sails through icy seas towards the darkest secret of all …

Review
From the outset The Demon Collector sounds really interesting (it features demons!) and exciting and the cover really hammers this point home (and I have to mention the black page edges which make the overall hardback look amazing).

The Demon Collector centres around The Royal Society of Daemonologie, an institute which basically collects demons (although for what point and purpose I’m not entirely sure). Our main character, Edgy Taylor can see demons and this makes him valuable to the society. As a result he finds himself mixed up with the society after being saved by one of it’s members.

Edgy was quite an interesting character, I felt he was a little too trusting to begin with but that this can be forgiven due to the situation that he was in and based on what his job was anything was a step up from that! He does find his feet though and by the end he is truly forced to take control of his destiny and stand on his own two feet.

I enjoyed the way the story depicted the evil Satan and someone very (er, not sure if close is the right word but) close to him in the form of Salome. I have to say that Salome was my favourite character, she was so devious and crafty. I loved that she gave the story so much unpredictability and I never knew everything about what she was up to (though I had a feeling about some).

The demons can’t be forgotten either, each one has a personality trait which is tied to one of the sins (which I though was a nice touch). They love riddles and games and this made their interactions with Edgy amusing to read (though I never once got one of the riddles right, it was fun to try ).

The Demon Collector concludes with a really fast paced ending which had my hairs standing on end – even thinking about it now sends a shiver down my spine!

Overall, The Demon Collector is an fun read, one I think boys in particular will enjoy.

Thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a copy to review