Difference between revisions of "Newest Teens Reviews"

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[[Category:Teens|*]]
 
[[Category:Teens|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Teens]]
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[[Category:New Reviews|Teens]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Teens==
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{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
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|author=Leanne Egan
 
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|title=Lover Birds
{{newreview
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|rating=4.5
|author=Pauline Fisk
 
|title=Midnight Blue
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Bonnie has finally got away from Grandbag and Aunt Doreen and gone to live with her - very young - mother, Maybelle. Maybelle may be nervous and insecure but she brims over with love. And love is something Grandbag doesn't understand too well at all. For Grandbag, it's all about control and possession. But for Maybelle, it's about sharing, bright colours, pretty plants and pancakes for breakfast. Finally, there's some optimism in Bonnie's life.
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|summary=When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her.  A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it?  Because Lou is straight, isn't she?  Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them?  So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?
 
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|isbn=000862657X
But it doesn't last long.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0062F6K10</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Cat Clarke
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|title=Wild East
|title=Torn
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=
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|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school.  The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.
A week in the Scottish Wilderness doesn't exactly sound fun, not to Alice King, but that's what she's about to embark on. Her and her classmates are off on an activity holiday together – walking, climbing, caving. Alice is fortunately put in a cabin with her best friend Cass, so things can't be too bad. But, then Tara Chambers, the popular girl, gets put in their cabin too - things definitely just got worse. Tara, though beautiful is powerful, mean and likes nothing more than putting people down.
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|isbn=0241645441
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857382055</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Marie Louise Fitzpatrick
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|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=Dark Warning
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
Taney Tyrell lives in a room in Missus Kenny's boarding house in Dublin. She shares it with her father, her step-mother Mary Kate and her little brother Jon Jon. Life is hard but both Da and Mary Kate are working and they get by. But Taney is lonely. Ever since she was a tiny thing she has known she can see things before they happen. She has the gift of second sight. But Da and Mary Kate don't see it as a gift. They see it as a curse and worse, the curse that killed Taney's mother. But whatever they say, Taney's gift won't be denied. It's as much a part of her as her beautiful red hair.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556789</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Helen Dunmore
 
|title=The Ingo Chronicles: Stormswept
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Morveren and her twin sister Jenna live with their parents in an isolated community on an island off the coast of Cornwall. A causeway leads to the mainland at low tide but at high tide they are cut off. Music is intrinsic to the islanders and Morveren's little brother Digory has a special talent for playing the violin. One day, he will play the special violin of island legend, but for now, Conan's fiddle sits high on a shelf waiting for him.  
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|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection.  They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable.   Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007424922</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1471196585
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Keren David
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=
 
Lia is obsessed with a guy called Raf who barely seems to know she exists. She has a sister who's got some problems at school, a mother who never seems to stop nagging... and an £8 million lottery ticket in her pocket. Suddenly, she's a lot more popular with her family and friends - but is winning the riches on offer all that it's cracked up to be?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847801919</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Melvin Burgess
 
|title=The Cry of the Wolf
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=hought to have been extinct in Britain for centuries, there are actually 70 English wolves left when Ben meets the Hunter. Burning with mortification at being mocked for poor shooting skills, Ben lets the carefully-guarded secret slip to this awful, vile man. And over the next three years, the Hunter makes it his business to find and kill these beautiful, rare creatures. Eventually, there is only one family left and Silver and Conna will do anything to protect their cub, the last of his kind...
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|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome.  What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world.  But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering.  When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393753</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|author=Andrew Lane
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|title=Compass and Blade
|title=Young Sherlock Holmes: Fire Storm
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|rating=3.5
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle has authorised Andrew Lane to write a series of books about the early years of Sherlock Holmes, and if this book is typical then they made an excellent choice. Through these stories we see the development of the complex and sometimes contradictory aspects of Sherlock's personality, set in the context of the most thrilling adventures and courageous acts of derring-do a young person could desire.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230758509</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jackson Pearce
 
|title=Sweetly
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=This book is the second in a series of fairy tale retellings (the first being [[Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce|Sisters Red]]) which, without being closely connected, share common elements. They both deal with the paranormal, including the Fenris, which are about as far from the glamorous and sexy werewolves of recent books and films as you can get. They stalk. They kill. They eat. End of story. The two books also look at the aftermath of an attack, and how it changes the lives of those who survive.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444900595</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Harlan Coben
 
|title=Shelter
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Mickey Bolitar's girlfriend Ashley has disappeared, the latest in a long list of things to go wrong in his life. First his father died, then his junkie mother went into rehab, forcing him to move in with his uncle Myron, and now shy, beautiful Ashley has vanished.
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|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780620055</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.
|author=Joanne Harris
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|isbn=0008664730
|title=Runelight
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=''Runelight'' continues several years after [[Runemarks by Joanne Harris|Runemarks]] left off. The rescue of the gods has left a rift between the Worlds which allows demons and assorted ephemera to escape from Chaos into Malbry and spread towards World's End, a lawless city now it has no Order to maintain it. With Odin dead and the surviving gods power-stripped and forced to inhabit bodies of Folk, there is little chance of re-establishing Order. And with the End of the Worlds prophesied in just twelve days, the task of rebuilding Asgard and preventing it is Herculean.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085753081X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Harry Allen
|author=Stephen Law
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|title=Children of the Sun
|title=The Complete Philosophy Files
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
 
|summary=''The Philosophy Files'' and ''The Philosophy Files 2'' were first published in 2000 and 2003 respectively. Now we have them combined and reissued with illustrations by the wonderful Daniel Postgate.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444003348</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ilsa Bick
 
|title=Ashes
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Alex is hiking in the wilderness when it all kicks off. Suffering from a brain tumour and with only Aunt Hannah to care about, she has a mission to complete before it's too late. She is enjoying - as much as she could enjoy anything - the solitude and her memories, cruelly truncated by the cancer, which come in tiny, sparkling, precious moments. And then comes the zap. A catastrophic electromagnetic pulse sweeps across the globe and destroys almost everything. There are few survivors and most of those who do make it through have become psychotic, flesh-eating monsters. Those who haven't changed are in terrible trouble. Society is in ruins, all communication has broken down, and the flesh-eaters are hunting.
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|summary= Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857382624</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1805140493
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Alexia Casale
|author=Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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|title=Sing if you Can't Dance
|title=Beautiful Chaos
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Those of you who've been hooked on this series already will remember where we left off. A choice was made. Everything seems to have been changed. And now, we find, the End of Days is near… Dark characters lurk. Some who we thought (or hoped) were gone, have returned. Other things we’ve not seen before are starting to tear the small town of Gatlin apart. The shorthand way of summing up how terrible things are is to note that Mrs Lincoln may be one of the good guys now…
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|summary=It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage. Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141335262</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571373801
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jessica Warman
 
|title=Between
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Elisabeth Valcher, a spoilt, vain but popular girl, wakes up after a party to celebrate her 18th birthday on her father's yacht to discover herself dead, lying face down in the water. Luckily for Liz, who has trouble remembering exactly who she is and what happened in the run up to her death, she is soon joined by another ghost, Alex, one of the unpopular boys from her high school, who was killed a year earlier in a hit and run accident.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405260483</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Simon Fox
|author=Frances Hardinge
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|title=Deadlock
|title=Fly by Night
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The Fractured Realm is a country existing in an uneasy peace. Each province is ruled by the craftsmen guilds which hold ultimate control, an ineffective Duke, and citizens who honour a multitude of demi-gods, 'The Beloved', who haunt them their entire life. This is the world Mosca Mye inhabits. An orphan, Mosca is fostered by her aunt and uncle, who think little of her and use her as a bookkeeper due to her unique, and quite illegal, ability to read and write. She runs away the night she burns their mill to the ground.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330418262</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=50 Cent
 
|title=Playground
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When Butterball fills a sock with batteries and attacks geeky Maurice in the playground, his school sends him off to twice-weekly meetings with a therapist. Butterball is not impressed. It's a waste of his time and he will never, never, tell anyone the truth about that day. Besides, any problem could be easily fixed if his mother just gave up on this idea of nursing school and moved them out of the stifling suburbs and back to New York City.
 
 
But Liz has other ideas...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780873301</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jessica Martinez
 
|title=Virtuosity
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Carmen Bianchi plays the violin; in fact she might well be the best young violinist in the world.  She plays a Stradivarius worth $1.2 million, provided by the grandparents who otherwise have little to do with her and she's managed by her mother, whose word is law.  Schooling is provided by a home tutor – and she doesn't even get to knock on doors because of the possible damage to her hands: she kicks instead.  So far she hasn't really minded that she doesn't have a life outside of violin, but then she meets Jeremy King – a fellow competitor in the world's most prestigious violin competition – and she has to think about her priorities.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857072846</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mia James
 
|title=Darkness Falls
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=April's not had the best time of it lately. First her family up and moved her clear across the country and sent her to an exclusive college full of the smartest (and apparently most beautiful) kids in the country. Then, while April was struggling to fit in, she discovered Ravenwood school's terrible secret - it's run by vampires.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780620411</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sarah Mlynowski
 
|title=Ten Things We Shouldn't Have Done
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=April doesn't want to move to Cleveland with her dad and his new wife. She doesn't want to move to Paris with her mum either. So April decides the best thing to do is to move in with her best friend Vi, and Vi's mum. But, Vi's mum has recently landed herself the role as Mary Poppins in a travelling theatre, so she's not going to be home. That's not going to stop April from staying in Westport, armed with a couple of fake emails addresses the plan is set.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408309793</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Andrew Hammond
 
|title=CRYPT: The Gallows Curse
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=A warning: do not begin to read this book while eating your lunch, as this unfortunate reviewer did. There's nothing quite like the description of people in an underground train being ripped apart, then having their faces chewed off by bugs, to put you off your egg and cress. In fact, you may develop a strong aversion to the whole of London Transport by the time you've finished this book, which will definitely not please Uncle Boris.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755378210</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Caragh M O'Brien
 
|title=Prized (Birthmarked)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=The Cool Age - our age - is long gone. Few people made it and those that did now live in isolated communities. Gaia Stone, a young midwife, has just escaped from the Enclave, where genetic manipulation has both saved and condemned the select few. The rest live in poverty. Lost in the wasteland, Gaia and her baby sister Maya are rescued by Peter, an outranger from another settlement, Sylum.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857074954</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Kevin Brooks
 
|title=Naked
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Lili is a quiet student, not hip or trendy or in demand, and she spends most of her time playing the piano. She's an unlikely candidate for the nascent punk scene but Curtis Ray, the school's charismatic bad boy, doesn't agree. He recruits Lili to his band Naked, and it's not long before Lili gets naked with Curtis in more ways than one. As the band begins to make a name for itself on the burgeoning punk scene, fame-obsessed Curtis gets drawn further and further in and his drug-fuelled behaviour becomes more and more erratic.  
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|summary=Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141326115</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1839944420
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Lex Croucher
|author=Jean Clemens Loftus
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|title=Gwen and Art Are Not in Love
|title=Ruby Rocksparkle: Her Wildly Incredible Adventure
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Ruby Rocksparkle and her thirteen - yes! thirteen! - siblings are all named after gemstones. Ruby's father is a peasant farmer in the happy little kingdom of Felicitania. Felicitania is ruled by the kingly King Flavian and his beautiful second wife, Queen Morgana. His son, Prince Alano, is busily preparing for the day when he must rule, and the time for him to find a wife is fast approaching. Ruby, a vivid, read-headed beauty, dreams of marrying Prince Alano. If only he could ever marry a commoner - but even Ruby knows that could never be.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1452059780</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Chris Priestley
 
|title=Mister Creecher
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Ooh, ooh - two Frankenstein-related books one after the other! More of that in the further reading at the end. ''Mr Creecher'' isn't a retelling, a sequel or a prequel; it's an interlude, set midway through the events of Mary Shelley's novel.
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|summary=Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom?  But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way.  In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust!  Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries.  And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives?
 
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|isbn=1526651793
It's Regency London, the Industrial Revolution is beginning to crank up, and Billy is an orphan and pickpocket trying to survive in the grimy streets. About to rob what he thinks is a corpse, Billy is set upon by some acquaintances to whom he owes money. Before Fletcher's knife prises out Billy's eye, the corpse - not a corpse at all, in case you didn't guess - comes to his rescue. This huge, shambling man is not a pretty sight. But he has a job for Billy. Mr Creecher has come to London on the trail of Victor Frankenstein, with whom he has a bargain. And he needs Billy to follow Frankenstein to make sure he doesn't renege on the deal.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408811049</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Nick Brooks
|author=Cathy Brett
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|title=Promise Boys
|title=Verity Fibbs
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Verity Fibbs is the daughter of fashion designer Saffron Fibbs.  Saffron's brought her up on her own and made a pretty good job of it without a lot of input from Verity's 'bio-dad'.  Verity's used to the celebrity lifestyle although Saffron does her best to keep her feet firmly on the ground, with or without coffee suede boots.  The latest buzz is that Saff and Eden Greenfield are dating – it's even trending on Twitter – and Verity is getting texts asking if the fashion magnate is going to be her new Dad.  When Vee wants to retreat from all this she plays an online game called Demon Streets, although she's ''obviously'' not addicted.  Before long she's going to find that she's playing the game against a real, live villain.
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|summary=When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects. Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder.  But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755379470</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1035003155
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lois Lowry
 
|title=Number the Stars
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Copenhagen, 1943, and everyone from schoolgirls like Annemarie up are suffering from shortages, fear and loathing - all caused by Nazi occupiers.  But it's always been an open country, has Denmark, and no less than the King takes a daily horse ride, protected in plain view by every single loyal subject.  But when, on the Jewish New Year, word gets out that Jews will have to be hidden more discretely, things kick into action.  Annemarie and her family take her best friend, Ellen, to the country for safety.  But it seems death will even follow them there...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007395205</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1919635017
|author=Kenneth Oppel
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|title=A Thief to Catch a Killer
|title=This Dark Endeavour
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|author=Kitt Townsend
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Victor and Konrad Frankenstein are twins, born just two minutes apart. They look alike but their personalities couldn't be more different. Konrad is calm, assured and capable. People like him. Victor is intense and arrogant with a burning ambition. He rubs people up the wrong way more often than not. The twins live with their beautiful, sometimes wayward, cousin Elizabeth and the three are educated alongside great friend and wordsmith Henry. It's a charmed life in the Frankenstein chateau in the Genevese republic.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857560123</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Aimee Carter
 
|title=The Goddess Test
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When Kate's mother makes a dying wish to return to her home town, Eden, Kate drops what's left of her life and goes with her. She doesn't want to make friends – she's here for her mum and nothing else – so she's not very interested when popular girl Ava, with her jock boyfriend Dylan, invites her to a party.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848450400</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Beth Webb
 
|title=Wave Hunter: The Book of Water
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=As the Iron Age comes to a close, Romans are sweeping across the British countryside destroying anyone who stands in their way. The druids are a particular target - the Romans understand all too well that the society they seek to subdue revolves around its religion and its sacred places. Tegen is determined to stop them. As the Star Dancer, the young druid girl's destiny is to avert a great evil, and she believes that evil is the Roman invasion.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956867308</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Charlie Fletcher
 
|title=Far Rockaway
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=Cat Manno and her grandfather Victor have a long-held ambition: to one day take the subway and ride it right the way to the very end, to Far Rockaway. Just for the sheer hell of it. But when the day comes, Cat's brother doesn't show. This is more than a disappointment to Cat - it's an utter betrayal. She needed Joe on the trip because she has a guilty secret. She hasn't read the latest book Victor gave her - he sends her a classic adventure every year on her birthday - and she knows he'll want to discuss as it they ride the train. Without Joe, Cat has no chance of concealing her sin.  
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|summary= Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034099732X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix
|author=Mary Hooper
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|title=Different for Boys
|title=Velvet
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Teens
|summary=The opening chapter of this book is a roller-coaster of a read. Velvet has fainted while doing back-breaking, gruelling work in a laundry, and risks being sent to the workhouse. Quick thinking saves her job, and the reader relaxes, only to learn a shocking and shameful secret about the heroine we have already begun to like. Her fortunes soon change, in true Dickensian style, but her troubles are not over: this same secret will come back to haunt her (please excuse the pun) and put her in the power of one of the other characters.
+
|summary=Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sex. Which is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie.  He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure.  And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747599211</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529509491
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1800901232
|author=Jonathan Maberry
+
|title=Stitched Up
|title=Dust & Decay
+
|author=Steve Cole
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Dyslexia Friendly
|summary=''Dust & Decay'' picks up the action six months after ''Rot & Ruin's'' climactic battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer. Benny and his friends have spent the time honing their self-defence and zombie-killing skills through some very intense training by Tom. And now, the time is finally right. They're about to head back out into the Ruin in search of the jet plane they saw in the sky after the battle at Gameland. There might, just might, be a real civilisation surviving somewhere on the continent.  
+
|summary=Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer.  Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to Hanoi. Only, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory.  You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs?  The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them?  It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857070975</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Patrice Lawrence
|author=Jeyn Roberts
+
|title=Needle
|title=D4rk Inside
+
|rating=3
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=''4. Earthquakes shudder across the world.''<br>
 
''3. SOMETHING is released.''<br>
 
''2. Trust no one - not even yourself.''<br>
 
''1. The killing game has begun...''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230756182</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Lesley Howarth
 
|title=Maphead
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=MapHead and his father Ran are of the Subtle World. Ran can travel through time, make things disappear and erase human memories. MapHead can flash the map of any place across his face and bald scalp. MapHead is a halfling and now he is almost 12, Ran has brought him to meet his human mother. As they need to pass for humans, they've taken new names - Boothe and Powers, from a random movie - practised their English, and enrolled MapHead at the same school as his half-brother.  
+
|summary=Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846471206</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800901011
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Ann Sei Lin
|author=Rob Keeley
+
|title= Rebel Skies
|title=The Alien in the Garage and Other Stories
+
|rating= 5
|rating=4
+
|genre= Teens
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|summary= Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her…
|summary=Would aliens like custard creams? Can fake tan hide a big lie? Are TV remotes sinister objects? Do secrets make you popular?
+
|isbn=1406399590
 
 
Rob Keeley explores all these questions and more in a super collection of slightly spooky, blackly comic short stories. They're beautifully observed and you can see that Rob knows children well. He has the emotional landscape exactly right and is equally accurate when describing - and sometimes gently mocking - peer relationships.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848765797</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Marcus Sedgwick
|author=Susan Cooper, Joseph Delaney, Berlie Doherty, Jamila Gavin, Matt Haig, Robin Jarvis, Derek Landy, Sam Llewellyn, Mal Peet, Philip Reeve and Eleanor Updale
+
|title=Wrath
|title=Haunted
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=I've always enjoyed a good ghost story – whether at a sleepover when I was a teenager, or even now reading horror stories in bed in the middle of the night. As soon as I saw this book I knew I wanted to read it, and it did not disappoint; a group of excellent authors from all genres have come together and the result is a collection of brilliant stories not to be missed by any ghost hunters out there.
+
|summary=Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393214</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1800900899
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Tori Bovalino
|author=Anna Sheehan
+
|title=The Devil Makes Three
|title=A Long, Long Sleep
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=This is a book set in the future, with hover-cars and eye-scans and travel to other planets. But make no mistake – that's not what this book is about. Sixteen-year-old Rose has been asleep for far longer than she intended; in the meantime the world has almost come to an end in a terrible plague, and her stasis tube has been abandoned in a basement. If Brendan had not come exploring, she might never have been found at all. But how is that possible? How could the daughter and heiress of the most powerful couple in the galaxy have been forgotten? This book is about her awakening, and the slow, painful unfurling of the real facts of her early life.
+
|summary= Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575104724</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1789098130
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Philip Reeve
|author=K M Grant
+
|title=Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep
|title=Hartslove
+
|rating=5
|rating=4.5
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Teens
+
|summary=In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not.
|summary=1861, Epsom. A young lad, Garth, is at the start of the biggest horse race in the land, astride The One, an ungainly but lightning-fast three year old who had never been ridden until just months ago.  At the side of the track, Garth's five sisters, and friends, are willing him on.  How can this young jockey win the race, upon which the fate of their castle home and so much more depends?  And what are we to learn after the prologue that sets all this out, that would make us want him to NOT win?
+
|isbn=1788452372
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857381873</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jessica Verday
 
|title=The Hollow: The Hidden
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Abbey loves Caspian more than ever, and with her death apparentlyapproaching, she knows they will be able to be together forever soon. But why is he growing so distant? Is there something the revenants who are protecting her aren't telling her? And can anyone keep her safe from the rogue revenant Vincent, who attacked her previously?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385001</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston
|author=Karen Wallace
+
|title=Julia and the Shark
|title=Emerald
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Emerald and her brother Richard never understood why her father decided that after his death they would go and live with their uncle and aunt at Hawkstone Hall, even though their mother was still alive. Still, she had always been a cold woman, more interested in profit than people, and they soon forgot her. Until, that is, the day she wrote to Uncle Charles saying that Emerald was to marry Lord Suckley, and that he was already on his way to the Hall to inspect his new bride.
+
|summary=Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one night.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1416917160</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1510107789
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Laini Taylor
 
|title=Daughter of Smoke and Bone
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=Karou's friends think she's normal. They assume, however often she tells them that her bright blue hair grows that colour, that she dyes it. They think her frequent errands are just normal everyday things to earn money. They believe the snake-bodied being she draws in her sketchbook is a figment of her imagination. They're wrong.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144472262X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alyxandra Harvey
 
|title=The Drake Chronicles: Bleeding Hearts
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Things in Violet Hill are not looking good at the moment. The small town is practically over run by the vicious Hel-Blar vampires: not the civilised, friendly (and hot) variety that Lucy is used too – these are feral, and attack indiscriminately, humans and vampires alike.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408814978</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ian Beck
 
|title=The Hidden Kingdom
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Prince Osamu is a pampered, spoiled young orphan who has never known friends his own age or been told what to do. He spends his life surrounded by beauty and riches in a world where most people do not even dare to raise their eyes to his face, collecting the exquisite pots made by Master Masumi and writing poems. His tutors have told him about the demons of Hades which try, every few centuries, to break through the barrier and take over this world, and that it is his responsibility to repel them, but he dismisses all this as old wives' tales. And then one night the forces of the Emissary attack the palace, and every certainty he had is gone in a flash.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192755633</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sally Gardner
 
|title=The Double Shadow
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=In 1937 Amaryllis Ruben is about to turn seventeen. As a present, her father, Arnold Ruben, a widowed, multi-millionaire, is going to give his daughter his life long work, an invention that could alter time forever, a memory machine. It can capture the good, erase the bad, and keep you young for all time. But things aren't going to plan; apart from Amaryllis not wanting it, other people have taken an interest, and not in a good way.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780620128</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Jonathan Stroud
|author=Amy Kathleen Ryan
+
|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
|title=Glow
+
|rating= 4
|rating=4.5
+
|genre= Teens
|genre=Teens
+
|summary= Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?
|summary=Everyone expected Kieran and Waverley to be together. As the first of the first generation born in space, it seemed almost written in the stars. Destiny. Waverley is mostly happy with her life on board the Empyrean – one of two ships trailblazing across the universe to New Earth, where their crews will start a new human frontier – she loves Kieran (she thinks) and the ship's crew is like one big happy family. But sometimes, she wonders if her life would be different, if her choices would be different, if the weight of continuing the human race didn't rest on her shoulders.
+
|isbn=1406394815
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330535587</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth Miles
 
|title=Fury (Fury Trilogy)
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Both the central characters in Fury have dark secrets. Em is in love with her best friend's boyfriend. So when Gabby goes away on a winter holiday and Zach starts flirting with her, Em just can't resist even though she knows she's doing something unforgivable. Chase lives on a trailer park but runs with a rich crowd. He'll do just about anything to maintain his place in the group - and there's something he has done to that end of which he's deeply ashamed. But their small American town has come to the notice of three otherworldly sisters. The Furies have come to Ascension and Em and Chase are about to discover that feeling guilty isn't the only price they'll be paying for their misdeeds...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857071998</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Thrillers Reviews]]
|author=Fiona Foden
 
|title=Life, Death and Gold Leather Trousers
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Despite having not seen her uncle Jupe, the famous former rock star, for several years after he fell out with her mother, Clover is still devastated by his death. So when her parents split up the day after she turns thirteen, and her father runs off with a nude model, she doesn't think things can get any worse. Can she cope with the fallout of the split, look after kid sister Lily, and get to know cute fellow guitarist Riley better? Or will her rival Sophie Skelling's teeny crochet bikini tempt him away from her?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407120867</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:54, 8 July 2024

000862657X.jpg

Review of

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

4.5star.jpg Teens

When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she? Full Review

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Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words. Full Review

1471196585.jpg

Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together. Full Review

0008666482.jpg

Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

0008664730.jpg

Review of

Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw

3.5star.jpg Teens

I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear. Full Review

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Review of

Children of the Sun by Harry Allen

5star.jpg Teens

Ra Eun Seo lives in a North Korean town and she is a talented singer. Life is hard and food is difficult to come by, so Seo and her friends Nari and Min go foraging every evening, looking for tree bark and edible grasses to supplement the meagre rations of rice and kimchi at home. Full Review

0571373801.jpg

Review of

Sing if you Can't Dance by Alexia Casale

5star.jpg Teens

It's hard enough to navigate your teenage years without suddenly finding that you're having to navigate a life-changing disability too, but that's what Ven is dealing with after collapsing on stage in the middle of a dance performance that was going to change her life. But she comes back fighting, desperate to avoid the pity stares, and desperate to get back to a life that's as normal as she can possibly manage. Meanwhile there's a new (cute!) boy in school, her music A Level performance piece to try to sort out, and just the day to day traumas of all the challenges her body continues to throw at her to navigate. So even though she can't dance anymore, might she be able to sing her way through instead? Full Review

1839944420.jpg

Review of

Deadlock by Simon Fox

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Late one night Graham Blake is late back from his shift on the force, and then suddenly rings Archie, demanding he fetch something from a secret place, and join him on the run. They get together, but barely begin to smell the whiff of Southern trains when the father is arrested, leaving Archie on the late express to Brighton, toting a tin his father was determined to keep away from his colleagues, and the bearer of a whole heap of questions. Full Review

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Review of

Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher

4star.jpg Teens

Who knew that what I really needed to read right now was a gay Arthurian RomCom? But honestly, it lifted my spirits in a most delightful way. In this story, Gwen and Arthur have been betrothed since they were tiny, much to their mutual disgust! Gwen, you see, is in love with Bridget (the kingdom's only female knight) - something that Art discovers from her private diaries. And then when Gwen then catches Art kissing a boy they find themselves becoming reluctant allies, creating the subterfuge of falling in love with each other, when really they are enabling their own other romantic attachments. But as their impending wedding draws ever closer, will they find a way in which they can both truly be themselves, or are they destined to live a lie their whole lives? Full Review

1035003155.jpg

Review of

Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

4star.jpg Teens

When the principal (headmaster) of Urban Promise Prep school is murdered, three boys find themselves called into the police station as suspects. Each, seemingly, has a grudge of some description against Principal Moore, and each could have been there at the time of his murder. But who killed him, and why, and if any of the boys are innocent, will they be able to clear their names? Full Review

1919635017.jpg

Review of

A Thief to Catch a Killer by Kitt Townsend

4.5star.jpg Teens

Solomon Klyne isn't a bad lad, so why is he running around London committing a series of robberies? And how did he learn to crack safes? You'll have to wait to get an answer to the second question because I avoid spoilers. But I'll answer the first one: for his grandmother... Full Review

1529509491.jpg

Review of

Different for Boys by Patrick Ness and Tea Bendix

4.5star.jpg Teens

Ant is in Year Eleven at quite a standard school, and is surprised to find his geography class (within which it seems absolutely nothing about geography is ever learnt) has been restructured, so his desk is one of four with both his best buddy from the football team, and two other old muckers – in fact they all go back to primary school days together. As they're all fired up, straining at the leash only a single-sex school can form, the talk in class and out often turns to sex. Which is confusing for Ant, as he doesn't know what his score is, where his achievements in that regard lie. He's had a casual relationship, a secret one, for several months now, and so has effectively progressed up the ladder headed by 'experienced', but whether that's set in stone, he can't be sure. And that's mostly because of who he's been having the relationship and the sex with. Full Review

1800901232.jpg

Review of

Stitched Up by Steve Cole

5star.jpg Dyslexia Friendly

Twelve-year-old Hanh wanted to be a fashion designer. Life in the rural village where she lived with her family was happy, if not prosperous, so when the smartly-dressed man and woman came to the village to offer Hahn a job in Hanoi it was an opportunity not to be missed. Some money changed hands and Hanh was on the mini-bus to Hanoi. Only, Hanh and the other girls were not going to work in a shop, they were to work in virtual slavery in an illegal garment factory. You know those jeans you really wanted: the ones with intricate embroidery and beading on the legs? The ones with the artfully-placed rips and distressed seams that felt so soft when you touched them? It's quite possible that Hanh and her co-workers made them. Full Review

1800901011.jpg

Review of

Needle by Patrice Lawrence

3star.jpg Teens

Brave. Charlene, the 'heroine' of this piece is extremely hard for some people to like, characters and readers both. Kicked out of multiple homes and schools, she's fostering with a pleasant yoga tutor, Annie, and has taken up residence in her son Blake's old room while he's at uni. Such a tempestuous personality may be in need of a comfort blanket, you might perhaps think, and the creation of one such item is part of the plot here, as Charlene is a wonder knitter, and is making something full of love for her younger sister – a younger sister she's allowed contact with no more. We see Charlene prove her belligerence with a store detective, and then force people to give her two days off school, when she shouts someone down as expletively ignorant. And then... well, what exactly happens is not for me to say, only to remark how sharp and pointy those knitting needles can be... Full Review

1406399590.jpg

Review of

Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin

5star.jpg Teens

Kurara has spent her entire life as a servant on the Midori, a massive dining hall floating in the sky where soldiers of the Empire come to drink and make merry between their conquests. However, when a man named Himura arrives to tell her that she is a Crafter like him, someone with the power to form paper into whatever she desires – a power sought after all across the Empire. He asks her to come with him, to leave the life of dreary servitude that is all she has known. Well, soon Kurara won't have any say in the matter, because the Midori is destroyed by a monstrous paper spirit known as a shikigami, and she is forced to flee out into the world. She joins Himura aboard the Orihime, a sky-ship whose express purpose is to hunt down shikigami, and a whole world of adventure awaits her… Full Review

1800900899.jpg

Review of

Wrath by Marcus Sedgwick

4.5star.jpg Teens

Meet Fitz, a young Scottish lad full of frustration at himself. Lockdown is only just over, and he should be free to do what he wants, to go where he wants and with whom he wants, but he cannot stop himself from putting his foot in it when he talks to his best friend, Cassie. They were half of a desultory school band, but Cassie was also one hundred per cent the enigmatic – saying she could hear a subhuman hum coming from the earth. Is this connected with one of her eco-warrior parents saying the end of the world is already a done deal? Is it some spooky new kind of music she's dreaming of? Is she just bonkers? And can Fitz find out the truth? Well, not when Cassie has gone missing he can't... Full Review

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Review of

The Devil Makes Three by Tori Bovalino

4.5star.jpg Teens

Working all summer in her boarding school's library is the last thing Tess Matheson wants to do — especially when she gets a request for over a hundred books that she has to deliver herself. What makes it worse is the man who requested the books: Mr Birch. The boarding school's headmaster, and a man Tess hates. As a petty act of revenge for making her find and deliver such a large request, Tess sticks post-it notes on each of the books, scribbled with the ugliest insults she can think of. They're never meant to reach him, of course. Her plan is to get her anger out like this, and then take them all off before delivering them. No harm done… Or it would be, if someone hadn't delivered them for her. Full Review

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Review of

Utterly Dark and the Face of the Deep by Philip Reeve

5star.jpg Confident Readers

In a word, rich. There is certainly an abundance of riches in this story set on a peculiar island called Wildsea, British but way west, beyond the Scillies. There are troll people on it, and sea-witches, and legends of the Dark family that has to keep watch for magical islands and their monster approaching from even further west, where no ship dare sail. The current Darks are the Watcher, Andrewe, who has to keep notes of activity from the Hidden Lands, his brother Will who lives in London with too much science in his head to worry about such local yokel superstitions, and Andrewe's foundling daughter, who washed up out of the sea one day eleven years ago. But when Andrewe Dark drowns himself, both his sullen brother and his curious ward are thrust into the world of protecting their island, like it or not. Full Review

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Review of

Julia and the Shark by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Julia, our pre-teen heroine, has been packed off with her parents and their cat from the family home in SW England to be lighthousekeepers for a summer, in the far NE of the Scottish islands. Here be Vikings, that kind of Scottish island. Dad is going to be automating the lantern, which is his specialist thing, while mum will be leaving her career in algae behind to hunt the elusive Greenland shark. And Julia, well, she will be homesick and alone – until she suddenly finds company one night. Full Review

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Review of

The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud

4star.jpg Teens

Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain? Full Review

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