'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Karen Harper
|title=The Queen's Governess
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Kat Ashley isn't a name one usually associates with the Tudor era, but just like the more famous characters of the period, she has her own fascinating story to tell, a story which this book captures perfectly. As Thomas Cromwell's spy, Anne Boleyn's confidante and later Princess Elizabeth's governess, Kat Ashley certainly knew the Tudor court well and it is through her fictional diary entries that the reader is invited to know the dazzling, yet dangerous Tudor court too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091940419</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Gardner
|summary=Ashdown won the Observer Best Debut Novels of the Year with her book [[Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown|Glasshopper]], an excerpt of which is given at the back of this book. I decided to read it first and I must say that I immediately warmed to Ashown's style of writing. She seems to have a knack for down-to-earth language especially with teenagers and young people. So, I was really looking forward to this book but I was also conscious of the fact that it had a lot to live up to. Will she be able to deliver?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956251552</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Bond
|title=Paddington's Guide to London
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Some things are just a brilliant idea. Young Paddington Bear has written a guide book to his adopted home in the way that only he could do it. All his old friends are there – Mr and Mrs Brown and their children Jonathan and Judy along with their housekeeper Mrs Bird and of course we mustn't forget Paddington's old friend Mr Gruber who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of London. So, where is Paddington planning to take you?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007415915</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Aravind Adiga
|title=Last Man In Tower
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Following a Man Booker winning book like [[The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga|The White Tiger]] is always going to be a daunting challenge for any writer, let alone one when that book was the author's first novel. In 'Last Man in Tower' Adiga perhaps sensibly turns to a proven structure that allows his story-telling skills to flourish. Gone are clever structural ideas, like 'The White Tiger's' letter format and instead we get a straightforward engaging story set in modern day Mumbai where a rich builder is seeking to force residents of an old apartment block to sell their flats to enable redevelopment.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848875169</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andy Briggs
|title=Tarzan: The Greystoke Legacy
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Robbie Canler is on the run. From what, it takes us a while to find out, but it's clear that it's something bad when the alternative is working for an illegal logging team in the jungle of the Congo. The work is tough at the best of times, and when things start going wrong for the team, it's definitely not the best of times. And then Jane Porter, his boss's daughter, disappears... Can she be found? And why do all these strange things keep happening to the loggers? It's almost as if there was a weird presence in the jungle.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>057127238X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David McKee
|title=The Hill And The Rock
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The Hill and the Rock is a very funny book that is based on one very quirky idea. Mr and Mrs Quest are an ordinary couple but their home gets many visitors as it is at the top of the only hill for miles around. Everyone admires the view, but as Mrs Quest spends much of her time in the kitchen, her view is blighted by the large rock that stands tall just outside the window. Mrs Quest is also extremely good at nagging and she pesters her husband every day until he agrees to dig the ground that surrounds the rock so that it eventually rolls down the hill. That night Mrs Quest is much happier but is puzzled by a hissing noise that stops her from sleeping. The next night they both hear it and it slowly dawns on them that now the rock is no longer in place, all the air is seeping out from inside the hill.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393052</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Samantha Mackintosh
|title=Lula Does The Hula
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Talullah Bird, otherwise known as Tatty, Lu, or Lula, has finally been kissed! She has a boyfriend! Frikkly frik! This is exciting! Except there is an evil woman lusting after her boyfriend! Hoooo no! And her dad is weird! Hooo no
again! If you think this review is annoying so far with the exclamation marks and strange words, you may want to avoid the book!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405256532</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kazuni Yumoto and Komako Sakai
|title=The Bear and the Wildcat
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=This lovely picture book dives in at the deep end with its opening sentence of 'One morning, Bear was crying. His best friend, a little bird, was dead.' I must admit I initially wondered what on earth I was reading to my four year old and regretted not skimming it first to check, but as we read on together we discovered a beautiful story of friendship and loss, grief and hope.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1877467707</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James S A Corey
|title=Leviathan Wakes
|rating=4
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=Humanity has managed to venture into the solar system and colonise Mars, various moons and some asteroids and stations in the (asteroid) Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Those inhabiting the Belt have evolved to be significantly thinner and elongated compared to Earthers and Martians, due the low gravity in which they live; their difference in appearance and a difference in attitude form the basis for a lot of the tension and uneasy relationships in the novel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841499889</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adele Parks
|title=About Last Night
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=I've noticed a trend in recent women's commercial fiction titles of rather dark subject matters. It seems that the light-hearted romps involving shopping and shoes are out and the subjects have grown up and become much more serious. This latest from Adele Parks certainly deals with some weighty issues. Steph and Pip have been best friends since they were at school together. They've supported each other through everything, and although they both find themselves living very different lifestyles they are still best friends. Or at least, that's what they think until Steph desperately needs Pip's help after one eventful night and Pip suddenly isn't sure if she can help her best friend.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755371291</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Amor Towles
|title=Rules of Civility
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Katey Kontent works hard during the day as a typist at a big law firm in 1930s Manhattan, but at night she likes to sample the nightlife – jazz clubs in Greenwich Village. There on New Year's Eve 1937, she and her roommate Eve meet the charming Tinker Grey. This is the start of a year of many changes for Katey and her friends.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444708848</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=E D Baker
|title=The Wide-Awake Princess
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Princess Annie is Sleeping Beauty's younger sister. Her sister, Gwendolyn, was given various magical gifts at her birth making her graceful and beautiful, but then a bad fairy created the spell that Gwendolyn would prick her finger on a spinning wheel before she turned 16 and sleep for one hundred years. So far, so familiar. All of the upset over Gwendolyn's christening led to the King and Queen being very scared when their second daughter, Annabelle, was born. They invited only one fairy along and asked her advice. She cast a spell on Princess Annie that made her impervious to all magic. Although this seemed like a good idea it means that none of her family like to be too near her because her spell tends to affect their own magical enchantments, making them less beautiful, more wrinkled and aged. Annie does her best to please her parents and to try and protect her sister, but in the end the wicked fairy's magic spell comes true and Gwendolyn and everyone in the castle falls asleep. Everyone, that is, except for Annie...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408807572</amazonuk>
}}
