'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Gareth P Jones
|title=The Considine Curse
|rating=3.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fourteen-year-old Mariel and her mother emigrated to Australia when she was very small. It's just the two of them, apart from her mother's succession of boyfriends, and Mariel has always believed they have no family and are alone in the world. Then one day her mother tells her that her maternal grandmother has died and that they're going back to England for the funeral. And what's more, when she gets there she will meet her five uncles and six cousins for the first time since she was a baby. Mariel is both angry and mystified. Why did her mother keep the information about the family a secret? What right did she have to deny Mariel the opportunity to belong to a big loving family group? And what was it about Grandma that made her mother hate her so much? But Mariel's mother, true to form, won't answer any of her questions, and relations between them remained strained throughout the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408811510</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Mullin
|summary=Two people road trip across America. Sort of. They don't start off together, or meet up intentionally, and the age gap is purposely provocative. She likes him because he's old and has pointy, vampire teeth he might use to bite her with (Twilight sell out, much?) She is 17. We don't know her name, but it is she who tells us the story. He is called Gunther. People think she is his daughter. They hope she is. It's just too odd to comprehend otherwise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447200411</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patrick deWitt
|title=The Sisters Brothers
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Invariably, the Booker Prize longlist contains one book that is more on the side of light reading than the more worthy and overtly literary fare that it is usually associated with. 'The Sisters Brothers' is the 2011 choice. Set in the US in 1851, it details the adventures of two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired hands for a mysterious boss known only as the Commodore. Narrated by Eli, who has slightly more of a conscience than his older brother, the story starts with the Commodore ordering a hit, for reasons unknown, on a certain Hermann Kermit Warm.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847083188</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner
|title=The Comic Strip Big Fat Book of Knowledge
|rating=5
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Who doesn't like a nice comic, eh? There's something so accessible about the lovely picture and text combos, and facts are far from dull when they come via speech bubbles, don't you think? Taking full advantage of this fact, Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner have, for some time, been creating factual books for children which pass on their insight and Important Information through the medium of comics. Now for the first time, you can collect 3 of their titles in one simple volume. Combining the previous reviewed [[The Comic Strip History of the World by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner|History of the World]] and [[The Comic Strip History of Space by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner|History of Space]] with the ''Greatest Greek Myths''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408808242</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Vanessa Diffenbaugh
|title=The Language of Flowers
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The story see-saws a chapter at a time between the teenage Victoria and the child Victoria. The book opens with (the teen) Victoria leaving foster care for good. She's been a difficult child to place so, now at 18, she is a troubled and angry young woman with many unsolved issues. The constant link has been Meredith, the loyal social worker. But Victoria now wants shot of the lot of them, Meredith included. Victoria can now be as free as a bird and do what she wants, when she wants. Bliss. Or is it?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230752586</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Cooke
|title=The Damnation of John Donellan: A Mysterious Case of Death and Scandal in Georgian England
|rating=5
|genre=History
|summary=Truth is stranger than fiction - but it is not always this gripping. The Boughtons of Lawford Hall, Warwickshire, have a colourful history, including the ghost of One-Handed Boughton, who haunted their land long before this new misfortune befell them. With marriages creating more branches of family, delicate relationships abound and help to shape the complex events detailed in the book. We begin with Sir Theodosius Boughton, heir to the estate when he comes of age, suffering from venereal disease. He is obliged to take medication and is well known for neglecting the recommendations of physicians. One fateful morning, he takes a new medicine, and dies in agony.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668482X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Fiona Neill
|title=What the Nanny Saw
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Ali Sparrow is twenty-one and has just dropped out of university (albeit hopefully temporarily) as she needs to earn some money, so becoming a nanny to a rich family seems ideal when she sees Bryony Skinner's advert. Soon Ali finds herself central to the Skinner's vast home and life on the rather exclusive Holland Park Crescent in a house that extends way beyond the usual two floors.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241952557</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Aitcheson
|title=Sworn Sword
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel is set in the turbulent years following the Battle of Hastings. We follow the Normans as they set out to quell the restless and rebellious factions in the North of England. An ambush in Durham sees the Normans decimated and determined on revenge - this precipitates the events which follow.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093241</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alan Hollinghurst
|title=The Stranger's Child
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Alan Hollinghurst's Booker-nominated and long-awaited 'The Stranger's Child' is without doubt, as one might expect from this writer, beautifully written. Almost every page offers something to smile about either in terms of the comments of his characters or, more often, the wry descriptions that the author offers. The structure of the book is episodic, split into five parts covering pre-World War One, the 1920s, the 1960s, the 1980s and finally the early 2000s. It offers a thoughtful and well observed picture of changes in society and culture over this period and in particular of attitudes to homosexual relationships, although admittedly Hollinghurst's subjects tend to fall into a narrow band of well educated, artistic and often aristocratic members of society. Writers, poets and artists are the subject matter rather than the man on the street. His male characters are invariably homosexual while his females mostly either remain unmarried or have dysfunctional marriages.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330483242</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ally Carter
|title=Heist Society
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=A new series from the creator of the [[I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls) by Ally Carter|Gallagher Girls]]? Excellent! And this book doesn't disappoint: young people with unusual and highly specialised skills, encountering bad guys and peril with determination and a healthy dose of humour. So, what's the difference from the 'Gallagher Girls'? Well, this time, the heroine and her crew are, um, to put it bluntly, the villains! Except that it's just not that simple. Kat comes from a large family of burglars and art thieves, but she decides she's had enough of the family business and wants a normal life. Sadly, someone else decides that's not going to happen. They should have told her, using your criminal abilities to forge a false identity and get yourself into the best boarding school in the country is not the best way to go straight.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408309556</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lil Chase
|title=Boys for Beginners
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Gwynnie has always been one of the guys which was fine...until Charlie Notts showed up at school. He's Hot (capital H) and friendly and likes football, but when Gwynnie realises he's firmly putting her on his list of mates, not girls, action must be taken. The thing is, for a girl whose close family and friends are all blokes, and whose one life love to date wasn't so much a trouser shape as a team (Go Spurs!), it's going to be a big jump from ''being'' one of the guys to ''bagging'' one of the guys.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857384821</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Mayhew
|title=Boy
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Boy is chilly, and looking for somewhere cosy to snuggle up. He doesn't want to share with his parents though so he goes off exploring by himself to find the perfect cosy spot. Several times he thinks he's discovered somewhere, but then it turns out to be where a sabre-toothed tiger lives, or the home of a woolly mammoth. Will he ever find the place that's perfect just for him?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408314096</amazonuk>
}}
