The Mountains of Instead

As the official blurb says, everyone has met a kid like Charlie Crabtree - intelligent, manipulative, secretive and a little scary.  Paul, even as a teen, knew that something had to be done about Charlie but was unable to fathom exactly what before Charlie and his group of friends committed a terri…

Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier is one of my top five favourite books. I have re-read it once a year since I was about 16 which means that I've read it more times than I am willing to admit here. Yet as entranced as I have always been with Rebecca, and Maximilian and the young Mrs. de Winter, I had never been tempted to read anything else by Du Maurier until recently.  What prompted my long overdue interest was an email from Little, Brown who have re-released Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek with some gorgeous new covers and who were wondering if I'd like one to review.  It seemed like the thing to do.  So here we are, part of the Du Maurier blog tour.  I urge you to check out all the stops on this one as, rather than just focussing on one book, it's focussing on several and each one is a classic.  I know this because, having read Frenchman's Creek (thanks to Little, Brown) I sought out and read all three (including Rebecca. Again)....

Made for You Melissa Marr Harper Collin’s Childrens 2015
When Eva is victim of a hit and run in her sedate North Carolina town, she is confused.  Who on earth would hit someone with a car and not stop?  Who would want to hit her?  Eva is, after all, Little Miss Popular with a locally noble lineage and…

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme run by The Broke and The Bookish.  It involves lists of, well, top tens. We like lists.  This week's Top Ten on the Mountains of Instead is brought to you by Splendibird.

The problem with loving to read is that there are so many, many books in the world and so very lit…

Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer  Pan Books 1997
Edmund Mallory, one of the first and keenest adventurers on Mount Everest was once asked why he wanted to climb it.  He famously answered, “Because it’s there”.  And people have been climbing it, because it is there, ever since.  Not all with success. Mallory…

Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Maggie Stievfater
Scholastic 2014

Blue Lily, Lily Blue is the third book in Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle. This review therefore may contain mild spoilers for the previous two books (reviews of which you can find here and here).

In the arena of 300 Fox Way, Monmouth Manufactu…

#Scandal Daisy Ockler Simon Pulse 2014 Lavender Oaks High is online, all the time.At least the students are… and most of the staff, too.It’s a digital world, with Facebook ruling the technological roost – much like the majority of high school s in the Western world.At Lavender Oaks, the hive mind is o…

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history wit…