The Mountains of Instead

Miles From Ordinary Carol Lynch Williams St. Martin's Griffin 2011
When thirteen year old Lacey sets out to start a summer job at her local library, it is not with the dragging of feet and longing for freedom that you might expect from your average teenager. Rather, Lacey is filled with excitemen…

West of the Moon Katherine Langrish Harper Collins 2011
When Peer's father dies, leaving him an orphan, he is distraught to find himself dragged from his Norse village by a pair of cruel and brutish uncles. He is forced into hard manual labour on their mill, working in miserable conditions while …

Darkest Mercy Melissa Marr Harper Collins 2011
Darkest Mercy is the fifth and final book in the Wicked Lovely series - if you haven't read the previous titles then this review may contain spoilers.
All is not well in Huntsdale – at least not for the wide variety of Fae who have chosen this particul…

Anna and The French Kiss Stephanie Perkins Dutton 2010
Anna's parents, for no discernible reason have deemed that she should spend her senior year of high school studying at the School of America in Paris. Anna doesn't speak French and has never expressed any particular interest in visiting t…

Crescendo Becca Fitzpatrick Simon and Schuster 2010
Crescendo is the follow up to Hush, Hush. If you haven't read Hush, Hush then this review may contain spoilers.
I read Hush, Hush shortly before I started blogging and wasn't particularly impressed. To be honest, I was too busy being creeped …

I've been reading quite a lot of contemporary fiction recently, having overdosed on paranormal and dystopian titles over the last year. I love what I've read so far – although this genre has never been a favourite of mine. Often these books, while good, are quite slight so rather than rig…

My Name Is Memory
Ann Brashares
Hodder and Stoughton 2010


Daniel is an old soul. Literally. He has lived many lives and, unlike the majority of souls, is able to remember each and every one. And in each and every one his driving force has been his love for another soul – Sophia. In each life he se…

Lady Victoria Mansfield is fortunate to have been born to a life of wealth and privilege but unfortunate to have been born with magical ability in a time when magic is seen as the province of only the lower classes.  Unable to completely hide her forbidden talent, Tory finds herself banished to Lac…

Burning Secrets Clare Chambers Harper Collins 2011
I have recently been lamenting the lack of good YA thrillers. As a big fan of adult crime/thriller fiction I have been looking for a decent YA contribution and slowly some are starting to emerge (Long Reach and The Body Finder standing out in particu…

Over the past few months, I've had the enjoyable task of reading and reviewing The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. One of the most fun, thrilling and original Fey based tales out there, The Iron King (first book in the series) is now available in the UK.  In order to celebrate this long awaite…