From Essex to Chelsea With Love

From Essex to Chelsea With Love by Millie Conway

Published 22 November 2012 Headline Review

 

TOWIE meets MIC in this upbeat chick-lit romance.

 

Tallulah Caston-Jones has been dragged into planning her brother Persimmon and his fiancée Edwina's wedding at Highdrow Castle as part of her mother's as-good-as-the-Middletons party planning business. Edwina wants the wedding of the year but with just eight weeks until the day, will Talli manage to pull it all together?

 

Talli needs all the help she can get but instead gets a tall, fit, muscular distraction in the form of Zac Parker - brother of Lena and Minx, stars of hit reality TV show Lovin' Essex.

Zac is secretly dating Kiki Spooner - number one (in her eyes) of Lovin' Essex with big hair, big boobs and the biggest ego. When Kiki starts receiving hate mail and death threats Zac feels he must protect her but is Kiki really the one he cares about?

 

Sparks fly as Talli and Zac begin to work closer together in order to make Edwina's dreams come true.

 

Sex, drama and designer clothes - its all happenin' babes!!   

 

There is so much drama in from Essex to Chelsea you'll be well jeal to miss it! The book is fast funny and feisty. If you need your reality TV fix, this is the read for you.

 

 



The Catastrophic History of You and Me

 

The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg

Published 2012 Razorbill

 

This wasn't as catastrophic as I thought it would be.

 

In the first few pages of this YA novel we discover main character Brie has died of a broken heart. Yes....really.

 

It happened just after her boyfriend Jacob told her he no longer loved her and now she is stuck in some sort of Pizza Palace limbo with a swoonable 1980s guy named Patrick, trying to explain that there's been a terrible mistake and that she needs to go back - that she's not really dead at all.

 

Except she is. Patrick keeps her company as she moves through the five stages of grief.

 

Its teen fluff, could've been worse though it did lose me a little towards the end.

Deadly Hemlock

 

Deadly Hemlock by Katheen Peacock

Published 5 July 2012 Simon Pulse

 

"Beware the wolf within"

 

Mac's friend Amy was murdered during a spate of werewolf attacks in the town of Hemlock.

 

Lupine Syndrome has been officially recognised by the Government and numbers of infected are on the rise. Trackers - an extremist group - are determined to capture and detain every 'fleabag' by all means un-necessary and they've just rocked in to Hemlock.

 

Mac wants nothing to do with the vigilante trackers and so investigates Amy's murder herself. The more secrets she uncovers, the closer she gets to the killer...

 

I found Deadly Hemlock a very readable TF novel. Yes, I guessed the identity of the killer, and quite early on but the sub-plots still kept it entertaining. Good were-fic. 

 

 



Little Bones

 

Little Bones by Janette Jenkins

Published 5 January 2012 Chatto & Windus

 

Compelling Victorian historical fiction.

 

Jane Stretch was born with a disability - her bones twisted and out of shape. Sharing a nomadic upbringing with her wastrel father, drunken mother and elder sister, the family finally abandon her at the home of a doctor.

 

The doctor and his wife keep Jane and in return for her bed and board, she is to assist the doctor with his work, fetch and carry and accompany him as he tends his patients - poor desperate girls who have got themselves into a condition they need assistance in being released from. Yes, this is Victorian England and he is performing abortions.

 

All is well for Jane and her employers until one of the doctor's customers is found dead and the police are on their tail.

 

Poor Jane Stretch is a true character, a real gem in this novel. A great historical read, if you like your Dickens, give this one a try! 

The Paris Winter

 

The Paris Winter by Imogen Robertson

Published 11 April 2013 Headline Review

 

"A dark and opulent tale of deception, betrayal and revenge in Paris,1909."

 

This is one of my favourite books of 2013. The hugest of thank you's to H for sending me a copy. It is dark, it is opulent and it is completely wonderful. Writing this review makes me want to re-read it all over again!

 

The setting is perfect. I have been to Paris and felt almost homesick whilst reading the evocative descriptions of Parisian streets and parks, gardens and galleries. If I ever get to visit this wonderful city again, The Paris Winter is coming with me.

 

The story is highly appealing. Struggling art student trying to make her way in Paris, barely making ends meet. Guardian angel who leads her to well-paid respectable employment as a companion to a young lady. All is well until the student begins to learn a little too much about the young lady and her brother. A confrontation...a struggle....the freezing cold waters of the Seine.

 

This very clever plot kept me reading late into the night. Imogen Robertson is a new author to me and I am looking forward to reading more from her.

 

The Paris Winter is a fantastic read, especially at this time of year - curled up on the sofa in front of the fire with a glass of cognac and a macaron. Read it! You won't be disappointed.

Sea of Whispers

 

Sea of Whispers by Tim Bowler

Published January 3 2013 Oxford University Press

 

Hetty lives with her grandmother on the remote island of Mora.

 

She has always thought of herself as...different. Hetty sees things - mysterious shapes in pieces of sea glass she finds along Mora's many coves and beaches. However, the shapes never seem to mean anything - that is until the day of a great storm, a shipwreck, and a woman is washed ashore. A stranger in Mora.

 

The woman is the image Hetty has been seeing in the sea glass, and even in her weakened state, she seems to recognise Hetty too.

 

Many of the islanders are not so accepting of the stranger's arrival however. The Elders see her as an ill omen - a jinx, who not only created the storm but wrecked their boat. Soon accusations of witchcraft are flying and Hetty finds herself fighting to protect the sea glass stranger, with extreme results.

 

I found Sea of Whispers mesmerising. Its so lyrical. I flew through this novel. The islanders' hostility was very powerfully depicted. Its a novel that certainly reaches the reader's emotions.

 

One aspect I loved is that the reader is unaware of the time setting for this novel. The remote community is very self-sufficient with no mentions of technology. It could be of an ancient people or it could be more recent. I like my history so I prefer to think of Mora at an Iron Age sort of time (no roundhouses though!).

 

Sea of Whispers is the first Tim Bowler novel I have read, and I am looking forward to reading more.

Itch

 

Itch by Simon Mayo

Published March 1 2012 Doubleday

 

"The explosive adventures of an element hunter."

 

Wow. Lets just take a moment to appreciate THAT cover! POW! Such an attractive design that will grab JF-YA readers of both genders. Their first question (and mine): What is an element hunter?

 

Itchingham Lofte is science obsessed. When he is not causing small explosions in his bedroom, he is tracking down elements from the periodic table. So far his growing collection has been stored under his bed but after losing his eyebrows in an 'experiment', Mum insists it is all bound for the shed.

 

After accidentally poisoning his class at school, Itch thinks it might be time to take a break from his elements but then something comes to him that changes everything...he buys a rock. A very special, highly-prized RADIOACTIVE rock.

 

The rock takes Itch and his cousin Jack on a race against time culminating in a fight for their lives.

 

An interesting, action packed, edge-of-your-seat, pulse-raising read. Science in fiction? Brilliant!

 

If you loved this, the adventures of Itchington Lofte continue in Itch Rocks! - out now.