All My Secrets by Sophie McKenzie
Fifteen-year old Evie is a normal teenager until a solicitor from Scotland appears on her doorstep with news of a £10 million inheritance and a secret that turns her world upside down. It's little wonder she struggles to cope and ends up being enrolled on a summer programme for troubled teens on the remote island of Lightsea. Little does she suspect that her troubles are only just beginning. At the same time as coping with her burgeoning attraction to two of the boys on the programme, she discovers the island is linked to her family secret. Evie is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, unaware of the dangers that this will bring for both her and her new friends. Full review...
Darkest Night (Department 19, Book 5) by Will Hill
Zero Hour has passed. Despite throwing absolutely everything they had into a full on assault on Dracula's forces, the combined might of the supernatural departments failed to destroy the ancient vampire, and he has returned to full strength, ready to strike at humanity with unadulterated violence. Secrecy is no longer an option as the entire world reels from the revelation that vampires are real. Department 19 has been through so much, shaken to its core by secrets, betrayals and losses. With the public eye now firmly upon them, the very fundamentals of the Department come under fire, as issues of morality that have long writhed beneath the surface finally burst to the fore. Jamie, Larissa, Kate and Matt have always found themselves at the centre of the chaos, and despite each struggling with their own demons, their friendship and companionship has helped them survive and even thrive within the department. Humanity's last stand will need them at their very best, will need every force that the supernatural departments of the world can muster, whether it be human, machine, monster or vampire. For failure simply isn't an option when the entire future of humanity is at stake. Full review...
Black Waters (Strong Winds) by Julia Jones and Claudia Myatt
Xanthe Ribiero had won the area championships in her sister's boat, but she now had sponsorship and a new laser dinghy. Best of all she had the letter from the GB Racing Committee which confirmed that she was in the squad and was off to the Easter training camp at the National Sailing Academy at Weymouth. She was full of plans to train harder, watch her diet and - she had to admit - just a little bit pleased that she might not have to worry about exam results and university applications. This was as good as it got. Full review...
Paper Weight by Meg Haston
Stevie had a plan. A good plan (in her mind). But, as is often the way, her plan has been interrupted. In her case it's by an unexpected and involuntary admission to an eating disorder unit in a different state. Under lock and key and constant supervision, she doesn't have the resources or the freedom to go through with it. And it's all a bit annoying. Full review...
Skink No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
Skink No Surrender is a love letter to the wildlife of Florida. The narrative is engaging and fast paced peppered with references to literature, folk legends, the ecological history of the area, the importance of conservation and the art of fishing. Hiaasen's protagonists are vividly observed and fully rounded. Skink is an eccentric, crazy, courageous, reckless renegade with a n anarchic, devil may care attitude and a no nonsense attitude. He is a good hearted protector of the innocent, possesses an assortment of false eyes, wrangles alligators, battles storms, lectures on politeness and deals out rough justice. His portrait is messianic and folkloric in places. Richard is plucky and loyal but is he in over his head? Malley is selfish, stubborn, smart, caustic, sarky and brave but also naive, vulnerable and susceptible to charm. Full review...
To Hold the Bridge by Garth Nix
A collection of 21 short stories loosely divided into six different categories, ‘’To Hold the Bridge’’ will probably divide opinion amongst readers. It’s undoubtedly a must-read book for fans of Garth Nix and these fans will, I suspect, quibble with my four star rating and challenge me to add another star. Those new to Garth’s writing might, in turn, think I’ve been over-generous given the mixed nature of the stories in the book. Full review...
Birdy by Jess Vallance
Frances has always been a loner, quiet and isolated, so when she's asked to look after the eccentric new girl Alberta for a few days she doesn't expect anything to come of it, only hoping that the whole incident will pass without embarrassment. The last thing she expects is for the new girl to become her best friend. Alberta's warm companionship is everything Frances has been missing for so many years, so when conflict inevitably arises, Frances is determined to do anything to save their friendship. Full review...
Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas
Ollie and Moritz can never meet. Because if they did, one of them would almost certainly die. Why? Because Ollie is allergic to electricty and Moritz has an electrical pacemaker inserted in his heart. Ollie spends his life hidden away in a log cabin in the forest - away from all the electricity that sends him into life-threatening seizures - with only his mother and the occasional visit from Dr Auburn-Stache for company. He did also have a friend, Liz, but he lost her a while back. Moritz is equally isolated even though he goes to school. Born without eyes, Moritz "sees" the world through echolocation, like a bat. You might think that's miraculous, but Moritz just thinks it makes him a freak. Full review...
Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz by Bernard Ashley
It's London in 1940. Most of the men have been conscripted and the East End is populated mainly by women and children. Josie and her friends are carrying on much as usual, though, grouping into little gangs and arguing over turf via mud fights along the Thames. But then comes a terrible night of bombing. It's the start of the Blitz and 57 consecutive nights of bombing for the East End. The fire service is stretched way beyond its capacity and the lucky ones make it out of the shelters in the morning, while the unlucky ones don't see another sunrise. Full review...
The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle
For a month in every year, the month leading up to Halloween, Cara's family are susceptible to accidents. There are cuts and scrapes and bruises. Sometimes there are broken bones. And sometimes, the accidents are even fatal...
... it's a curse, right? What else could it be? Full review...
Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine
Iris has never known her father. He didn't want her, her mother has always said. He threw them out years ago. But now she's about to meet him again. Her father is rich, you see, and dying, and Iris's mother and stepfather have worn out their welcome in LA. So they're running away from debts and towards a rich, terminally ill old man, ripe for exploitation. There's also the small matter of some of Iris's own bad behaviour. But the less said about that, the better Full review...
The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward
Samantha is a mixer of potions extraordinaire. Which is just as well, because someone has to save a princess who has fallen in love with herself. Yes, you heard right! You might not think this is the most enormous problem - princesses are so spoiled and pampered, is it any wonder they fall in love with themselves? But this isn't what's happened. Princess Evelyn has taken a love potion meant to make someone else fall in love with her. And the resulting havoc caused by the wrong person taking the right potion leads to some very unstable magic that could threaten the very kingdom itself.
Hence the Wilde Hunt, a national quest to find the ingredients for a cure. Full review...
Thirteen Days of Midnight by Leo Hunt
Luke Manchett really isn't that upset when he gets the news that his father has died. You might think that's a tad harsh, but Luke has been estranged from his father for years. His primary concern is his mother, who is disabled by crushing cluster headaches. So, rather than worry her, Luke heads off to a lawyer's office to deal with the reading of his father's will by himself. And he gets a shock. Luke's inheritance adds up to six million dollars. SIX MILLION! Full review...
Trollhunters by Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus and Sean Murray
West Coast USA in the 1960s, and the city is wracked and wrecked by a slew of missing children reports. The parents with their new anguishes, and new rules against playing out after dark, have no idea of the horrors in their vicinity – literally under their feet lies a city of trolls, guilty of snatching the children. Last to go, Jack Sturgess. Cue the modern era and Jack's younger, now grown-up brother Jim, and Jim Jr live a sheltered life in the most barricaded and secure home imaginable, and Jim Jr's life is as exciting as you'd expect. Unfortunately, however, the trolls are about to make a return to their nastiest of ways – and their intentions are a lot more surprising than Jim Jr could ever predict… Full review...
Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's Story by Marissa Meyer
Meyer’s dedication in this prequel to The Lunar Chronicles is to her fans, The Lunartics. This book is especially for voracious readers who have devoured Cinder, Scarlet and Cress and are desperately awaiting Winter, though it works as a standalone too. According to the publisher’s note Queen Levana is a ruler who uses her glamour to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet and Cress, Levana lived a very different story- a story that has never been told… until now. Full review...
The Snake Trap: Travis Delaney Investigates by Kevin Brooks
Teen private investigator Travis Delaney is still looking for the people who killed his parents. He needs more than anything to find out why they died. And, fresh from a narrow escape from death at the hands of a criminal mastermind, Travis now suspects that there's a traitor in the camp. This third installment in the Travis Delaney series has a barnstorming opening. Travis is abducted by terrorists and held captive alongside Winston, the security officer gone bad who Travis suspects is the person guilty of his father's death.
Travis has a lot of questions. But will he get any answers? And can he get himself out of this horribly dangerous situation? Full review...
Lady: My Life as a Bitch by Melvin Burgess
Sandra is a naughty kid. Fed up with the pressure of exams, a lovely but slightly boring boyfriend and an overbearing mother, she's gone a bit wild. She's thrown over the boring boyfriend and the worthy best friend, done pretty badly at her GSCEs, and is running with some exciting but unreliable new pals. She's done a bit of shoplifting and slept with a few boys, and caused her mother a good few hair-tearing moments.
On this particular day, she's getting off with Wayne and cheesing off Michelle, and just generally being rebellious, when she runs slap bang into a homeless alcoholic man, causing him to spill his can of Special Brew. The homeless guy is furious and chases her and Sandra is furious too, because he's ruining her day and HOW DARE HE? And then, everything changes for Sandra. The homeless guy has changed her into a dog. Yep. You heard. A dog. Full review...
Timebomb by Scott K Andrews
In 2141, Yojana Patel throws herself off a skyscraper. She never hits the ground. In 1640, Dora Predennick discovers a badly burnt woman. When she reaches out to comfort her, she’s flung through time. And on a rainy day in our time, Kaz Cecka sneaks into the ruins of Sweetclover hall in search of a dry spot to sleep. Instead he finds a frightened housemaid from the time of Charles I, and an angry girl from the future. Thrown into a war that spans millennia, the three must harness powers in order to escape deadly villains, and stay one step ahead of a fanatical army… Full review...
Silver Skin by Joan Lennon
Rab lives in the distant future, in a world where space is at a premium due to population pressures and in which status is expressed by how much room you have to live in. People's lives are guided and supported by their Coms, AIs which teach, medicate, navigate and all sorts else besides. When Rab's mother buys him a silver skin - time travel technology - Rab is overjoyed. The fieldwork he'll be able to do with it will allow him to produce work that will set him up for life. He decides to investigate the 19th century discovery of the Neolithic village of Skara Brae - because his tower block of the future is built on that very site.
But something goes wrong and Rab is ejected from his status as time travelling observer right into life in Stone Age Skara Brae. Full review...
The Forbidden City (Infinity Drake, Book 2) by John McNally
Finn may be only 9mm tall and still a teenager, but he's already saved the world once. Accidentally shrunk by his mad scientist Uncle Al, he joined a crack military team and helped foil the threat of a lethal bio-weapon, the Scarlatti wasp. But there's no let-up for Finn. Before Al can restore him to normal size, a new threat emerges. Full review...
What Was Never Said by Emma Craigie
This story is narrated by Zahra, a teenage girl who spends her early years in her home country of Somalia before her family move to the UK to escape civil war. Inevitably, some traditions travel with them and in the novel Zahra recounts her efforts to protect herself and her younger sister, Samsam, against FGM, a practice that claimed the life of her older sister in Somalia several years previously. Zahra intersperses her account with flashbacks to Somalia and the civil war that drove them away, thus giving a clear picture of the trials that she and her family have faced. Full review...
Remix by Non Pratt
Kaz and Ruby have been best friends for a long time but their lives are about to change irrevocably. Ruby has a sassy, devil may care outer shell that hides her vulnerability but where do her loyalties really lie? Kaz, short for Karizma, thinks she knows what she wants but what does she really need? Stu longs to shake off his bad reputation and win back the love of his life while Tom is unsure of what he wants and takes the coward’s way out. Meanwhile Ruby’s brother Lee and his boyfriend Owen have some of their own decisions to make. Throw into the mix an arrogant pop star, secrets, betrayal, jealousy, misunderstandings, new faces and some bad choices and the ingredients are there for an explosive weekend. Full review...
Circus Mirandus by Cassie Beasley
Micah is an orphan who has been raised by his grandfather, but now Micah’s grandfather is dying. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his horrible great aunt has arrived to take care of him, cutting their limited time together further. But don’t worry all hope is not lost. When grandpa Ephraim was a child he visited the mysterious Circus Mirandus, where he was promised a miracle by the miraculous Man Who Bends Light. All Micah has to do is get a message to the Light Bender and his grandfather can have his miracle. With the help of Jenny Mendoza (the smartest girl in the class), Micah sets his sights on the circus, a task that requires unconditional love and faith. Aunt Gertrudis is wrong, Ephraim’s stories aren’t just stories ... are they? Full review...
Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
Audrey has been stuck at home for a while now, ever since that awful business at her last school. It left her suffering from social anxiety disorder and depression. Dr Sarah is impressed with Audrey's progress towards recovery, but Audrey still can't go out of the house, speak to strangers, or even make eye contact with her family. The painfully slow path to wellness is beginning to weight heavily on her. And then her brother's friend Linus shows up and begins to entice Audrey outside of herself again. He has a lovely orange-slice smile and writes funny notes and - to Audrey's disbelief - seems to like her. But Audrey really does need to heed Dr Sarah's warning that recovery is not a smooth progression: it's a series of two steps forward and one step back. Full review...
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
When Lane rocks up at Latham House, he has no intention of being there long. There is no way he is going to allow a diagnosis of total-drug-resistant tuberculosis to get in the way of his inexorable progress to an Ivy League college and a stellar career. He has even brought extra textbooks and test papers with him, so that he doesn't fall behind during this period of quarantine in this medical facility for kids with this new strain of TB. But when he meets Sadie and her group of misfit friends, Lane begins to wonder if he's got his priorities straight. Perhaps there's more to life - and illness - than a progression of tests and achievements. Full review...
It’s About Love by Steven Camden
As an acclaimed hip-hop style performance poet, Steven Camden is skilful at painting evocative imagery with words. His second novel for teens enters the world of the film script, cleverly playing with cinematic intertextuality. It is a tale of past mistakes, violence, revenge, friendship and love. An emotive, powerful, thought provoking experience it rates a 4.5 because it lacks the magical ingredients of Camden’s debut, ‘Tape’. It doesn’t make the reader’s heart sing but it does put their nerves on edge. I challenge you not to shed a tear. Full review...
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Finch and Violet are both counting the days. Violet is on countdown to graduation, to getting away from the school and town that hold so many torturous memories. Finch, meanwhile has started from zero and is logging the number of days in a row he is awake. And he doesn’t mean that in terms of physically awake, but more so in terms of his emotions. Neither of them are particularly happy. At least one of them has a plan to make the pain stop in the most final way possible. It’s pretty horrific. Full review...
Off the Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
Many readers can identify with the idea of falling in love with a hero from a book. After all, they are written to be appealing, with rugged good looks, charming personality, strength and wit. But what if the hero from your favourite book came to life and joined you in the real world? Can a storybook romance flourish in a High School setting? Or will our fairytale prince be keen to return to his homeland of unicorns, fairies, castles and mermaids? These are the dilemmas faced by awkward teen Delilah and her fantasy prince Oliver, who swaps places with a human boy in order to join his true love in the real world. The lovers may be together for now, but the book has other ideas, and soon begins rewriting itself to put everything back to how it was. Full review...
Made For You by Melissa Marr
Eva Tilling comes from a wealthy, influential family and reigns supreme at school - she is well thought of and has expectations to live up to - nothing ever changes for her, but that’s just how things are in obsolete Jessup: nothing unusual or unexpected ever happens… Full review...
Read Me Like A Book by Liz Kessler
Read Me Like A Book is both a coming-of-age and a coming-out story.
Ash feels as though everything is a mess. Her parents aren't getting on and Ash is terrified they're going to split up. She's struggling to keep up her relationships with her friends. She trying to decide whether or not to lose her virginity - and how exactly she even feels about the boy she might lose it with. She's falling behind in her grades at school and half of her is a rebellious teen who couldn't care less about it, while the other half is panicking that she might not get into university.
And if all that wasn't enough, Ash is struck by a bolt from the blue when she develops an almighty crush on Miss Murray, her English teacher... Full review...
Alienated by Melissa Landers
Two years ago, aliens made contact. Now, Cara Sweeney has been chosen to host Aelyx, a L'eihr exchange student. The first exchange student. Cara gets a free ride to any college she chooses out of the deal, some excellent material for her blog, and a chance to be a part of history, helping in her own way to form an alliance between the two races. Full review...
Invaded by Melissa Landers
To save the alliance between Humans and the L'eihr, and save the planet from the deadly algae blooms that threaten to destroy all life, Cara and Aeylx have to persuade the L'eihr that Humans and L'eihr can peacefully co-exist. Full review...
Itchcraft by Simon Mayo
Third book in the Itch sequence about the audacious, intrepid teen obsessed with collecting elements from the Periodic Table to the detriment of his own life. Electrifying, explosive, punchy and action packed tour de force sizzling with surprising shocks. Full review...
This is not a Love Story by Keren David
This is a perfect holiday read – but that doesn't mean you need to be on holiday to read it. This Is Not A Love Story will waft you away from your bed or your fireside or your tube train seat and relocate you to Amsterdam. Full review...