Win: Beautiful Dead: Arizona by Eden Maguire

This competition is for UK residents only but if you're in the US you can enter the Crocodile Tears giveaway.

Courtesy of the publishers, I have two copies of Beautiful Dead: Arizona by Eden Maguire to giveaway:


There's been no sign of the Beautiful Dead for weeks. Darina achingly misses Phoenix all over again. But surely he will return with the rest of the Beautiful Dead as so much still remains unresolved. It's been ten months since Arizona drowned in Hartmann Lake. Suicide, it would seem. But something doesn't add up. Drowning herself in a hidden-away lake does not sound like strong, confident, Arizona: Ellerton High School's high-maintenance drama queen. Darina needs to help Arizona the way she helped Jonas. But time is running out ...

Book one, Jonas, is reviewed here.


To enter the draw, simply answer the question below:

What is the name of the third book in the Beautiful Dead series?

a) Autumn

b) Spring

c) Summer

Hint: The answer can be found on the Beautiful Dead website

Email the correct answer to karen at eurocrime.co.uk, putting 'Arizona' in the subject line. This competition is open to UK residents only and the closing date is 30 November 2009. One entry per household please.

Trailer Thursday - Tempted

The UK edition of Tempted by P C and Kristin Cast was published on Tuesday. Tempted is the sixth in the House of Night series which began with Marked.


Zoey needs a break after some serious excitement. Sadly, the House of Night school for vampyres doesn't feature breaks on its curriculum - even for a High Priestess in training and her gang. Plus juggling three guys is no stress reliever, especially when one is a sexy Warrior so into protecting Zoey that he's sensing her emotions. Wider stresses lurk too, and the dark force in Tulsa's tunnels is spreading. Could Stevie Rae be responsible for more than a group of misfit fledglings? And Aphrodite's visions warn Zoey to stay away from the immortal Kalona and his dark allure - but they also show that only Zoey can stop him. She's not exactly keen to meet up, but if Zoey don't go to Kalona he'll exact a fiery vengeance on those closest to her. She just has to find the courage to do what's necessary, or everything that's important to her will be destroyed.
(Not suitable for younger readers)

Watch the trailer below:

Waiting on Wednesday - Ransom My Heart

Ransom My Heart by Mia Thermopolis and Meg Cabot was published in January in the US but a UK edition will soon be available (early December).

From Meg Cabot's website:

Her Royal Highness Mia Thermopolis, Crown Princess of Genovia–whose published “Diaries” have been a #1 bestselling sensation–now graces the world with her first novel of danger, desire, and timeless romance…with an introduction from Meg Cabot!

He’s a tall, handsome knight with a secret.

She’s an adventurous beauty with more than a few secrets of her own.

Finnula Crais needs money for her sister’s dowry, and fast. Handsome Hugo Fitzstephen, Earl of Stephensgate, returning home to England from the Crusades, has money–saddlebags of gold and jewels–and lots of it. What could be simpler than to kidnap him and hold him for ransom? Especially when he’s more than willing to allow himself to be caught by such a winsome captor.

Well, for starters, Finnula could make the terrible mistake of falling in love with her hostage, only to realize he’s been lying about his identity all along ….

But then, so has she.

Now their lives—and the lives of everyone they know and love—could be in mortal danger.

Is Finnula in hell? Or is she in heaven?

and..."Princess Mia and Meg Cabot have announced that all of the author's worldwide proceeds for Ransom My Heart will be donated to Greenpeace. It is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and the mill is FSC certified..."

Giveaway of Crocodile Tears (US only)

Courtesy of Penguin USA, I have 1 copy of the new Alex Rider novel, Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz, to giveaway.

The giveaway is open to US residents only and will close on 9 November.

To enter, please email me: karen at eurocrime.co.uk, with the subject line Crocodile.
One entry per person please.
After the closing date I will contact the lucky winner for their postal address.
All emails will be deleted once the winner's address has been supplied.



Synopsis: It's just another day in the life of an average kid. If you're Alex Rider, that is. A con artist has realized there is big money in charity-- the bigger the disaster, the greater the money flow! So that is what he will produce: the biggest disaster known to man, all thanks to genetically modified wheat that can release a virus so potent it can knock out an entire country in one windy day. But Alex Rider will face whatever it takes--gunfire, explosions, hand-to-hand combat with mercenaries-- to bring down his most dangerous adversary yet.

Review: The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd

The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd (September 2008, Hodder Children's Books, ISBN: 0340970154)

First Lines:
January
Thurs, Jan 1st
Exhausted. The whole family looks like death after an all-day meeting.

Notes: The Carbon Diaries 2015 was short-listed for the 2008 Costa Children's Award.

Review: It's 2015 and carbon rationing has been introduced to the UK. Each person has 200 units a month and there are penalties if you go over the limit. The diary is written by the youngster Brown family member, Laura, and there are fairly drastic changes ahead for her relatives: her sister Kim cannot now take a gap year travelling around the world, her mum's car sits on the drive and her dad's job teaching travel and tourism is doomed.

The diary recounts the way the family members cope (or don't) with the changes imposed and also the bigger picture of what has happened with the global weather that makes rationing the only way forward to protect the planet. As well as these serious issues, Laura also has the everyday teenage problems of school, fancying the boy next door and playing in a band.

Life becomes tough indeed but there is a glimmer of hope as the book ends...

The Carbon Diaries 2015 is a very thought provoking read and it would make a great discussion book for a multi-generational group. In the book the teenagers feel their parents have messed the world up and ruined their lives, though the parents probably didn't realise that that's what they were doing, and the generation that experienced rationing after the last war have much experience to share.

I was very interested in the concept behind this book and the author creates a very plausible world; I found myself getting tense as things went from bad to worse. I've read several diary format books and this has been by far the most serious but in addition to its environmental theme, it does cover the usual family issues as well.

I'm really looking forward to the sequel, The Carbon Diaries 2017.

Cover: A serious looking cover for a serious subject, though the book is not without humour. The book is appropriately made of 100% recycled material.

TSS: The week in summary (12)

This week I finished Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer and The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd (review to follow soon). I'm currently reading: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (for Euro Crime), Never Bite a Boy on the First Date by Tamara Summers (ebook), Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink and Cold in Hand by John Harvey (audio book)

Activity on the blog in the last week:

Monday - review of The Mediator: High Stakes by Meg Cabot (audio book).

Tuesday - details of a new publishing deal for Jonathan Auxier.

Wednesday - 'Waiting on Wednesday' post for The Carbon Diaries 2017 by Saci Lloyd.

Thursday - the book trailer for Fallen by Lauren Kate.

Friday - publishing deals for Jeff Sampson and Ty Roth.

Saturday - my newly acquired library book and presents.

Library Loot (19) and some gifts

Only the one out of the library this week but a friend has kindly donated a few of her daughter's finished with books:



(synopses from amazon.co.uk)

Library

Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters
When Phoebe's best friend Adam takes a bullet for her, it proves everyone right - Adam is in love with her. And now that he's come back to life, Phoebe's presence may be more important than ever. They say that a zombie can come back from death faster if they're loved...and kissed - which means Phoebe has to say goodbye to Tommy Williams, the other zombie in her life. While coaxing Adam back to reality and fending off Tommy's advances, Phoebe continues to carry on as if everything's normal. But normal has been different since American teenagers started rising from their graves. Although some try to bridge the gap between the living and the differently biotic, there are scores of people who want nothing more than to send all of the undead back to their graves. And the dead kids in Phoebe's school don't like that one bit...

Gifts

Ringmaster by Julia Golding
Expats, espionage and the exotic setting of Nairobi - here's an adventure-thriller you won't be able to put down. Darcie Lock is inadvertently thrown into a world of SAS men, espionage, corruption, polo games and fashion parades when her father is taken hostage while investigating an international smuggling ring. Darcie didn't even know her father was a secret agent - she thought he had a dead-end job processing visa applications! Darcie is commissioned to find out what happened - she is the last person to be suspected of being a spy. Armed with her sharp wit and only a few gadgets, can Darcie save her father? Once again, Julia Golding will have you captivated from page one with this thrilling African adventure.

Empty Quarter by Julia Golding
Expats, espionage and exotic destinations. "Empty Quarter" is gripping - you won't be able to put it down. Darcie's stuck aboard a cruise ship for problem rich kids. It sounds exotic but it's more like boot camp. And, annoyingly the US President's daughter with her reputation for being out-of-control is there too.Things are about to get interesting though...Darcie becomes embroiled in a kidnapping plot that will take her from Naples, via Cyprus, to Egypt and on a terrifying journey through the desert empty quarter. It is an adventure-thriller starring Darcie Lock.

The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
'This is not some true-crime tell-all. This is my actual journal, with everything I wrote at the time, edited by me. The revisions are minor; I only changed things when I felt that I wasn't really thinking something that I wrote at the time, and probably would have thought something else. After all, I was only eighteen then.' Meet Flannery Culp, a world-weary high school senior. She is primed to taken on the few remaining obstacles that stand between her and the rest of her life: the SAT, college applications, the autumn term...Mercifully, there are a couple of distractions: her friends: Kate (the Queen Bee), Natasha (less like a high school student and more like an actress playing a high school student on TV), Gabriel (the kindest boy in the world and in love with Flan), Lily, Douglas, V - (her name has been deleted to protect her prominent family), and Jennifer Rose - the Basic Eight; and Adam State, a well-groomed, polite young man and the object of Flan's affections. If only things hadn't gotten out of control. If only Flan had stayed away from the absinthe. Then she wouldn't be a topic on daytime talk shows, or on the cover of tabloids, or incarcerated, or have time to edit her journals...The supremely talented Daniel Handler has perfectly captured the absurdity of school life in this wickedly funny, dark-as-can-be novel.

Waking Dream by Rhiannon Lassiter
When Bethany's father dies she feels her life is over. Forced to spend the summer with her awful cousin Poppy, she escapes into her daydreams instead. Poppy is always the centre of attention. Pretty and popular, she uses black magic to keep it that way. But secretly she'd like to leave it all behind. When Rivalaun, a beautiful, strange boy, arrives out of nowhere to claim he's their cousin, all three start to doubt that what they've been told about themselves is true. Unable to resist the chance to find out who they are, they follow the truth that calls from their dreams. But, as sleep closes in, can they be sure they will wake again?


Sisters of the Sword: The Warrior's Path by Maya Snow
Kai Provence, Japan. 1216. Hana and Kimi are delighted when their heroic uncle, Hidehira, arrives at their palace, along with his dashing army of Samurai soldiers. He is their father's right hand man, a guardian and protector who helps him govern the land on behalf of the Shogun. So when Hidehira and his army slaughter their father and elder brothers, the girls are stunned. As the palace burns around them and servants are put to the sword, Hana and Kimi have to fight for their very survival. They manage to escape - just - but are separated from their mother and youngest brother. Now the whole country is searching for them - and anyone who helps them will be put to death. The girls must disguise themselves and find somewhere to hide out. And their solution is so daring - and so obvious - that it will either work brilliantly or end in their deaths. Betrayal, heroism and avenging their father's murder will hover at the edge of every thing the sisters do from now on...

Poison Study by Maria V Snyder
Choose: A quick death...or a slow poison...About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace - and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust - and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonising death from the poison. As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...

Publishing Deals - Sampson & Roth

In the latest edition of Publishers Lunch, two new publishing deals:

Jeff Sampson's debut THE DEATH AND LIFE OF EMILY COOKE, about a teen girl who, in evading a murderer, discovers that she and her classmates are very dangerous thanks to genetic engineering, to Kristin Daly at Balzer & Bray, in a three-book deal.

Ty Roth's SO SHELLY, a mature YA novel based on the personalities and careers of Keats, Byron and the Shelleys, transposed into the present as teenagers

Trailer Thursday - Fallen

This trailer for Fallen is one of the three finalists in the Kirkus 2009 Book Video Awards. Vote for your favourite here.

Fallen by Lauren Kate will be published in December:

Seventeen-Year-Old Luce is a new student at Sword & Cross, an unwelcoming boarding/reform school in Savannah, Georgia. Luce's boyfriend died under suspicious circumstances, and now she carries the guilt over his death with her as she navigates the unfriendly halls at Sword & Cross, where every student seems to have an unpleasant - even evil - history.


It's only when she sees Daniel, a gorgeous fellow student, that Luce feels there's a reason to be here - though she doesn't know what it is. And Daniel's frosty cold demeanor toward her? It's really a protective device that he's used again . . . and again. For Daniel is a fallen angel, doomed to fall in love with the same girl every 17 years . . . and watch her die. And Luce is a fellow immortal, cursed to be reincarnated again and again as a mortal girl who has no idea of who she really is.

Watch the trailer below:

Waiting on Wednesday - The Carbon Diaries 2017

I've just finished The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd and the sequel is out on 7 January (UK) from Hodder Children's Books:

It's over a year since her last diary and Laura Brown is now in her first year of university in London, a city still struggling to pull itself together in the new rationing era. Laura's right in the heart of it; her band, the dirty angels, are gigging all over town until a police crackdown on rioting students forces them out of the city. After a brief exile on her parents' farm, the angels set off in a battered VW bus on a tour of Europe with the fabulous Tiny Chainsaws in the Distance.


The tour soon unravels, however, in an increasingly dramatic sequence of events that include drought in Europe and Africa, a tidal-wave of desperate immigrants, a water war in the Middle East and a city-wide face off with the army in London. Not to mention infidelity, betrayal, friendship, love and massive courage.

How long can Laura distance herself from the struggle? And more importantly, how can she keep her style and hope alive in a world on the edge of madness?

Jonathan Auxier - Publishing Deal

Today's email from Publisher's Lunch teases that debut Canadian author, Jonathan Auxier has a publishing deal for Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes. I haven't been able to find out the details of the deal but I have found a synopsis for the book:

Now for those of you who know anything about blind children, you are aware that they make the very best thieves. As you can well imagine, blind children have the best sense of smell, and can tell what lies behind a locked door—be it fine cloth, gold, or wine—at fifty paces. Moreover, their fingers are so small and nimble that they can slip right through keyholes, and their ears so keen that they can hear the faint clicks and clacks of a lock’s many moving parts. Of course the age of great thievery has long since passed; today there are no child‐thieves left, blind or otherwise. At one time, however, the world was simply thick with them. This is the story of the greatest thief that ever lived. His name, as you’ve probably guessed, is Peter Nimble.


Overflowing with wit and invention, Peter Nimble is the utterly beguiling tale of a ten-year-old blind orphan who has been schooled in a life of thievery by his brutal master, Mr. Seamus. One fateful afternoon, as he’s picking the pockets of townspeople enraptured by a travelling haberdasher, he “discovers” (steals) a box of magical eyes. When he tries on the first pair, he is instantly transported to the island at the top of the world, where he meets the maker of the eyes, Professor Cake. The Professor gives Peter a choice: travel to the mysterious Vanished Kingdom and try to rescue a people in need… or return back to his master and a life of crime. Peter chooses wisely, and together with Sir Tode, a knight errant who has been turned into a rather unfortunate combination of human, horse, and cat by a grumpy witch, he embarks on an unforgettable adventure in a book destined to become a classic.

Review: The Mediator (2) High Stakes by Meg Cabot

The Mediator (2): High Stakes by Meg Cabot and narrated by Johanna Parker (April 2008, Whole Story Audio Books, ISBN: 9781407479187)

First Line:
Nobody told me about the poison oak.

Notes: High Stakes is the second in the six-book Mediator series and was first published in 2001 as The Mediator: Ninth Key by Jenny Carroll.

Review: High Stakes carries almost straight on from Love You to Death. Our heroine, mediator Suze Simon, has another ghost to assist to "the other side". A woman has been screaming at Suze at night, demanding that Suze passes on a message to "Red". Suze doesn't get much information so she asks around as to who Red might be. She's pointed towards a wealthy, property developer - Mr Beaumont - who just happens to be the father of the gorgeous Tad, who Suze danced with at a pool party the other night.

Suze not only gets deep into trouble with the Beaumonts, but she also has her ghostly father's advice to ignore, the 'hot' ghost living in her bedroom to keep secret and a verbal sparring match with one of her new step-brothers to win.

High Stakes is darker than Love You to Death as Suze not only dishes out a few punches but receives a few herself and her life is more seriously in danger than in the first book. Though her mum seems to accept that Suze is a normal girl, I wonder how much she knows... I raced through this audio book but, as with most series, it's probably best to have a bit of a break between entries as there's quite a bit of recapping, repeated information and even the same phrases are used from time to time.

As before, Johanna Parker's narration is enjoyable to listen to and her voices are consistent with those she used in Love You to Death.

Cover: An interesting cover - I don't remember many skyscrapers (if that's what they are) ...

TSS: The week in summary (11)

I have that many books on the go at the moment that I've not actually finished anything this last week! I'm currently reading: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (for Euro Crime), Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (almost done), The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd and Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink.

Activity on the blog in the last week:

Tuesday - review of HIVE: Dreadnought by Mark Walden also details of a new publishing deal for Cathy Hopkins.

Wednesday - 'Waiting on Wednesday' post for The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan.

Thursday - the book trailer for Crash Into Me by Albert Borris.

Friday - Radio 5 Book Programme features Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.

Saturday - my newly acquired library books plus a review copy, prize and e-book.

Library Loot (18) & a review copy, a prize and an e-book

Here's what arrived this week:



Library Books

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
17 year old Tyler is totally enjoying his position as high school Alpha male, after years of being 'the geek'. But then Bethany Milbury - rich, blonde, beautiful and the girl Tyler wants - is the victim in a teenage sex scandal, and somehow Tyler is nailed as the prime suspect. Tyler knows he had nothing to do with it, but when everyone - including his hard-nosed father - believes he did, Tyler starts to spiral into a nightmarish, paranoid state of mind. He is desperate to find a way out of the mess he's in...Will he have the courage not to take the easy option?

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

They'll chase you. They'll rip you open. They'll feed on you...When the sickness came, every parent, policeman, politician - every adult - fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry. Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive. Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait. But can they make it there - alive?

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical 'mirror' twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ...but have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins' mother - and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat. With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, "Her Fearful Symmetry" is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger's familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Dru Anderson: Night Hunter. Knife Wielder. Heart Breaker. Dru can sense evil, which helps when she and her Dad are tracking down ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional reanimated corpse. It's a dangerous life, but it's the only one she knows. Then Dru's dad turns up dead and she suddenly finds herself in the middle of a deadly game where every move she makes could be her last. Dru is more special than she realizes - and whatever killed her dad could be coming for her next. Can Dru stay alive long enough to fall for one - or both - of the guys hungry for her affections? Find out in the heart-stopping first book in a thrilling series.


Review copy

The Glass Demon by Helen Grant (May 2010, UK) (Synopsis taken from back cover)
The First Death
Seventeen-year-old Lin Fox finds a body in an orchard. As she backs away in horror, she steps on broken glass.
The Second Death
Then blood appears on her doorstep - blood, and broken glass.
The Third Death
Something terrible is found in the cemetery. Shards of broken glass lie by a grave.
Who Will Be Next?
As the attacks become more sinister, Lin doesn't know who to trust. She's getting closer to the truth behind these chilling discoveries, but with each move the danger deepens.
Because someone wants Lin gone - and won't give up until he's got rid of her and her family. Forever.


Prize (from S & S kids on Facebook)

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
The year is 1914 and Europe, armed with futuristic machines and biotechnology, is on the precipice of war. Prince Aleksandar is fleeing for his life, having discovered that his parents have been assassinated and that he is now a target for the Clanker Powers, a group determined to take over the globe with their mechanical machinery. They will stop at nothing to get what they want, so Alek knows his only choice is to keep on running. When he meets Deryn Sharpe, an orphan girl who has disguised herself as a boy so she can to join the British Air Service, they form an uneasy, but necessary, alliance. But the pair will soon discover that their emerging friendship will dramatically change their lives and the entire course of the Great World War...


E-Book purchase

Never Bite a Boy on the First Date by Tamara Summers
Newly turned vampire Kira has earned a reputation for breaking the rules. So when a student is murdered at her high school, via fang-bite, all fingers point to Kira. But she swears she had nothing to do with it! In order to prove her innocence she has to show her family that there’s another vampire in town. She’s pretty sure it’s one of three new guys who’ve moved in recently—so she goes about dating them all. Dating three cute boys may be fun, but which one is the murdering vampire? And what if he’s the boy she’s falling for...?

Her Fearful Symmetry on the Radio 5 Book Review Show

Yesterday's Simon Mayo Book Review show reviewed Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. You can download the podcast or listen to it at the Radio 5 website (I've not heard it yet).

Synopsis from amazon:
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical 'mirror' twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ...but have no idea that they've been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins' mother - and who can't even seem to quite leave her flat. With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, "Her Fearful Symmetry" is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger's familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.

Trailer Thursday - Crash Into Me

Crash Into Me by Albert Borris came out in July in hardback (in the US).

Owen, Frank, Audrey, and Jin-Ae have one thing in common: they all want to die. When they meet online after each attempts suicide and fails, the four teens make a deadly pact: they will escape together on a summer road trip to visit the sites of celebrity suicides...and at their final destination, they will all end their lives. As they drive cross-country, bonding over their dark impulses, sharing their deepest secrets and desires, living it up, hooking up, and becoming true friends, each must decide whether life is worth living--or if there's no turning back.

Watch the trailer below:

Waiting on Wednesday - The Dead-Tossed Waves

Carrie Ryan's sequel to The Forest of Teeth and Hands, The Dead-Tossed Waves, will be published in the UK on 11 March 2010 by Gollanz.

Carrie Ryan's sensational new novel reveals more of the secrets of the world after the return of the Unconsecrated and introduces a new heroine who must tangle with her mother's secrets. Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She's content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she's ever known and, and all she needs for happiness. But life after the Return is never safe and there are threats even the Barrier can't hold back. Gabry's mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but, like the dead in their world, secrets don't stay buried. And now, Gabry's world is crumbling. One night beyond the Barrier ...One boy Gabry's known forever and one veiled in mystery ...One reckless moment, and half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned. Now Gabry knows only one thing: if she has any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother's past.

Cathy Hopkins - publishing deal

From today's Bookseller, news of a new series from Cathy Hopkins:

Author of the Mates, Dates series, Cathy Hopkins, is to move to Simon & Schuster for a new four-book series described by the publisher as "teen fiction goes upmarket".

[The Million Dollar Mates series] is set in an apartment complex in Knightsbridge with A-list-only residents including actors, models and millionaires. Jess Hall's dad is the new general manager and moves Jess, her brother and cat into a staff apartment, where she soon realises fraternising with the stars isn't all its cracked up to be.

The series will launch in paperback in July 2010 with Barefoot Princess, with an "aggressive" marketing and publicity campaign including a partnership with a teen social networking website.

Review: HIVE: Dreadnought by Mark Walden

HIVE: Dreadnought by Mark Walden (September 2009, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, ISBN: 0747594848)

First Lines:
The young girl ran through the knee-deep snow, her breath escaping in ragged gasps, leaving a trail of thin white cloud that hung in the air.

Review: Dreadnought is the fourth in the HIVE (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) series. HIVE is a training ground for the next generation of villains and is hidden in a volcano on a tropical island. New girl Lucy is taken under the wing of our lead characters: Otto, Wing, Laura and Shelby. No sooner has she arrived when they are assigned to a training mission in the Arctic and their overseer is Raven, the world's top assassin.

Enroute to the Arctic however, a detour to the GLOVE (Global League Of Villainous Enterprises) flagship Dreadnought goes wrong and it soon means that the Arctic mission is off the menu; the gang have a far more serious undertaking - to save the world from a mad man.

Dreadnought is a fabulously entertaining story, fast paced, full of tension and lots of action. There's a James Bond feel to it - there are high tech gadgets and weapons and the main villain even has an underground hanger. (One of the HIVE training manuals on "offensive beam weaponry" is called No, I Expect You to Die).

Otto and Wing have a lot of the screen time but the girls aren't forgotten and their special skills are equally essential. It's not often you root for the baddies to win but Otto and co. are much, much better than the alternative.

Dreadnought should be enjoyed by both male and female readers though the cover will probably attract the boys more. The story stands alone perfectly well, but the reader would probably get even more out of it, if they've read the earlier books (which I haven't). I enjoyed Dreadnought very much and the cliff-hanger ending has left me eagerly awaiting the next one.

Cover: The cover is probably aimed at boys and reflects the danger and excitement of the book.

Website: Visit www.hivehub.co.uk - for information about the series and the author plus a grapple training game and evil laugh generator!

TSS: The week in summary (10)

This week I finished HIVE: Dreadnought by Mark Walden (review to follow next week) and the audio book of The Mediator: High Stakes by Meg Cabot.

Ongoing reads are: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (for Euro Crime), Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (finally!!) and Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink.

Activity on the blog in the last week:

Monday - following Miss Understanding on twitter.

Wednesday - 'Waiting on Wednesday' post for Conspiracy 365 by Gabrielle Lord also the contents of the Love Bites boxed set in W H Smiths.

Thursday - the book trailer for Pastworld by Ian Beck.

Friday - the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a review of Mediator: Love You to Death by Meg Cabot (audio book) and publishing deals for Kieran Scott, Tessa Gratton and Carrie Jones

Saturday - Blood Ninja by Nick Lake is listed in the Corvus catalogue plus details of newly acquired library books and a review copy.

Library Loot (17) & a review copy

Three library books and a review copy this week. (Summaries are from amazon.)



B R Collins - A Trick of the Dark
Zach and his sister Annis have been uprooted by their parents from their comfortable home to a remote and half-built barn in France. Zach is being removed from his 'bad-influence' friends, their parents are trying to salvage their marriage and still remain on speaking terms whilst the bitterness of their father's affair bubbles underneath the surface. And Annis - Annis just keeps going, keeping her head down, trying to keep it together. So far so normal. And then Zach, uncommunicative and contrary as ever these days, defies everything their parents have said and makes his way to the unsafe ruined building at the edge of their new garden, and leans up against the wall. The wall bulges, totters - and suddenly collapses on top of him. Annis, horrified, sees him crumpled on the ground. Desperate, she races towards him, not daring to think anything at all. She sees him, on the ground, broken, silent, not there any more. And then, unbelievably, he moves. Zach moves. Zach, in an extraordinary and instinctive decision, has broken his bond with his own soul, the essence of himself. By doing so he has cheated death. By doing so he has also cheated life. He is unable to touch any human person again. And the essence of himself, his 'other', his soul, is chasing, chasing him, determined to rejoin what should rightfully be together. Zach is on the run, from himself, whom he can never escape, from death, but also from the life that he can never enjoy again. Perhaps only a sister can help him now. An extraordinary, electric and tautly thrilling new novel from the highly acclaimed debut author of The Traitor Game.

Claudia Gray - Evernight
Bianca wants to escape.

At the eerily Gothic Evernight Academy, the other students are sleek, smart, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

When she meets handsome, brooding Lucas, he warns her to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him. But the connection between them can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.


Sophia Bennett - Threads
Fashion fairy tales really can happen. Nonie, Edie and Jenny are best friends with very individual tastes. Nonie's a real trend setter and her passion is fashion. Humanitarian Edie is on a mission to save the world. And budding actress Jenny has just landed a small part in a Hollywood blockbuster. But when these three friends meet a young African refugee called Crow, sketching a dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum, they discover a common passion and somehow find a way to make all of their dreams come true.

and Luisa Plaja of Chicklish very generously sent me a copy of her book, Split by a Kiss, for review:

Jo has just moved to America with her mum. She's always been a fairly average girl - not a nerd but certainly never one of the popular kids. But on her first day in her new school, she seems to be adopted by the It girls - and is invited to one of their parties. There, she meets Jake Matthews, officially the hottest boy in school, and when they begin to play the kissing-in-the-closet game, Seven Minutes in Heaven, amazingly Jake picks Jo join him in the closet! She can't believe her luck. But the reality of being kissed and groped by Jake is not quite as great as the fantasy...Jo has a choice to make: should she carry on, kiss Jake and secure her position in the It crowd - or should she tell him where to get off and risk relegation back to the land of the ordinary ...? At this moment - Jo splits. She's Josie the Cool - girlfriend of Jake, member of the It crowd. She's also Jo the Nerd - rejected by the It crowd, single ...Will her two halves ever come back together again? Is Jake the guy she's meant to be with or could some of the other people she meets along her journey - Rachel the scary goth, David the misfit or Albie the rocker - be the answer? A fabulously inventive, heartwarming and funny take on the Sliding Doors idea, for teen readers.

Blood Ninja - coming soon

Back in August, I blogged about the publishing deal for Blood Ninja by Nick Lake. Browsing through the newly arrived Corvus catalogue for new crime titles I came across it - scheduled for next April (in the UK):

Taro is a boy from a coastal village in rural Japan, fated to become a fisherman like his father. But in just one night, Taro’s world is turned upside down – and his destiny is changed forever.

Skilled in the art of silent and deadly combat, ninjas are the agents of powerful nobles who rule Japan. So why did a group of these highly trained assassins creep into a peasant’s hut and kill Taro’s father? And why did one ninja rescue Taro from their clutches, saving his life at enormous cost?

Now on the run with this mysterious saviour and his best friend Hiro, Taro is determined to learn the way of the ninja to avenge his father’s death. But if they are to complete their perilous journey, Taro must first evade the wrath of the warring Lords, decipher an ancient curse, resist forbidden love…and come to terms with the blood-soaked secrets of a life lived in moonlight.

The sequel is scheduled for April 2011.

A triplet of publishing deals

From Publishers Weekly, news of three exciting publishing deals:

Simon & Schuster has acquired hardcover and audio rights to a new series by Kieran Scott, who writes the bestselling Private and Privileged series under the pen name Kate Brian. She's So Dead to Us, the first title in the series, which chronicles "lost fortunes and forbidden love," is due out in May 2010.

Random House Children's Books has acquired two books from debut author Tessa Gratton, at auction. The first, Blood Magic, is about two teens who meet in a cemetery and plunge into a dangerous world of dark magic and first love; publication is scheduled for summer 2011. Gratton is a contributor to the fiction blog The Merry Sisters of Fate.

Bloomsbury has bought the next two books in Carrie Jones's paranormal Need series, which began last year with Need, followed by Captivate, which comes out in January. The next book is due in 2011.

Review: The Mediator (1) Love You to Death by Meg Cabot

The Mediator (1): Love You to Death by Meg Cabot and narrated by Johanna Parker (April 2008, Whole Story Audio Books, ISBN: 9781407478364)

First Line:
They told me there'd be palm trees.

Review: Love You to Death is the first in the six-book Mediator series and was first published in 2000 as The Mediator: Shadowland by Jenny Carroll.

We are introduced to Suze Simon who has had to move to Carmel, California from Brooklyn, New York City to join her mother who has remarried. Suze's new family includes three step-brothers - Sleepy, Dopey and Doc aka Jake, Brad and Dave and her step-father, Andy. It soon becomes clear that Suze has something unusual about her, for one she hates old houses and panics when she learns that both her new school and home are over a hundred years old. When she gets to her new, beautiful bedroom she finds it already occupied, by a ghost. A handsome ghost called Jesse, but a ghost nonetheless. For Suze is a mediator, someone who can see and feel ghosts and who helps them on to the next place, often by force it would seem.

In Carmel, Suze's first mediator "job" is to get rid of the ghost of the girl whose place and locker Suze is taking at the school and the ghost isn't going willingly. Suze finds that her normal methods won't work and she dices with danger through the rest of the book, all the while hiding her secret(s) and becoming very popular with her new classmates.

I have read the 1-800-Missing series by Meg Cabot and enjoyed that very much. For some reason I'd the impression that this series would be darker but this one at least, wasn't. Suze puts too much emphasis on violence being the key but I can imagine that she will grow out of that approach during the course of the series. Suze is one of those characters who gets to speak the truth and answer back to bullies and win the exchange. Though she's not chuffed at being a mediator at least she's had the opportunity to start over and make friends, and it looks like a little romance will finally come her way. And she lives in Carmel! So it's not all bad.

Love You to Death is a fairly light read with characters you want to revisit, in a beautiful setting, with action and adventure and a possible romance. No wonder I've already started on #2 High Stakes.

Johanna Parker provides a narration which is pleasant to listen to with distinctive voices for each character and her Jesse does sound rather dishy.

Cover: I don't know whether it's just me but the covers seem to give the series a darker tone than they actually are and the picture is not particularly accurate, but it's attractive.

Guardian Children's Fiction Prize - winner

The winner of the Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize has been announced and it is...Exposure by Mal Peet.

The full longlist was:

Genesis by Bernard Beckett (Quercus) (review)
The Silver Blade by Sally Gardner (Orion)
Nation by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday)
Then by Morris Gleitzman (Puffin)
Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn (Oxford)
Exposure by Mal Peet (Walker Books)
Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd (David Fickling Books)
Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion)

Summaries of all the books can be found on this Guardian round-up.

Read more about Exposure and the author Mal Peet, here, and read an extract from Exposure, here.

Pastworld - trailer

Pastworld by Ian Beck was one of my early Waiting on Wednesday posts and it has just been published in the UK.


Pastworld. A city within a city. A city for excursions and outings. Pastworld is a theme park with a difference, where travellers can travel back in time for a brush with an authentic Victorian past. But what if the Jack the Ripper figure stopped play-acting and really started killing people? For Caleb, a tourist from the present-day, his visit goes terribly wrong when his father is kidnapped and he finds himself accused of murder. Then Caleb meets Eva Rose, a Pastworld inhabitant who has no idea the modern world exists. Both Caleb and Eva have roles to play in the murderer's diabolical plans - roles that reveal disturbing truths about their origins.

Watch the trailer below:



Wondrous Reads has a review of Pastworld and an interview with author, Ian Beck.

W H Smith's Teenage Books box set offer

In bricks and mortar W H Smith's, they currently have the following six books in a slip case for £9.99, (I've read two but 4 books for a tenner is rather good and my resistance is crumbling):

Laurie Halse Anderson - Twisted
17 year old Tyler is totally enjoying his position as high school Alpha male, after years of being 'the geek'. But then Bethany Milbury - rich, blonde, beautiful and the girl Tyler wants - is the victim in a teenage sex scandal, and somehow Tyler is nailed as the prime suspect. Tyler knows he had nothing to do with it, but when everyone - including his hard-nosed father - believes he did, Tyler starts to spiral into a nightmarish, paranoid state of mind. He is desperate to find a way out of the mess he's in...Will he have the courage not to take the easy option?

Andrew Clover - Dirty Angels
Colin Hitchin's got the highest IQ in his year and he's psychic. He sees things before they happen. Uncle Jimmy believes Colin. He encourages him to pursue his powers. Turns out Jimmy sees things, too. He sees into people's souls, he knows who they really are. Then his best friend Polly goes into a coma, and only Jimmy and Colin know why.





Eden Maguire - The Beautiful Dead: Jonas (review)
Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances. Rumours of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss.

Darina, Phoenix’s grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can’t escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head...Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances. Rumours of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss.

Darina, Phoenix’s grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can’t escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head...

Christopher Pike - The Last Vampire
Alisa Perne is the last vampire. Beautiful and brilliant, she hunts alone, living among humans, living off humans. But someone is stalking her. Someone wants her dead. And Alisa has a choice to make - to keep a long held promise or protect the mortal she seems to be falling for.







Gabriella Poole - Darke Academy: Secret Lives
The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An elite establishment that moves to an exotic new city every term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes. What sinister secrets are guarded by the Few -- the select group of students who keep outsiders away? Who is the dark stranger prowling the corridors at night? And what really happened a year earlier, when the last scholarship girl died in mysterious circumstances? One thing Cassie will discover is that a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but knowing too much can be deadly...

L J Smith - The Awakening (review)
Elena is the school beauty, but she's bored, until Stefan turns up. He is mysterious - and she's determined to get to know him better. But Stefan is determined to resist her... until a series of attacks in the area terrify the town and Stefan is held responsible. Elena offers help and, falling in love with her, Stefan tells her his terrible story.

Waiting on Wednesday - Conspiracy 365: January by Gabrielle Lord

Conspiracy 365: January by Gabrielle Lord will be published in the UK on 7 January 2010 and is the first of a twelve books series, to be published monthly in 2010.

On New Year's Eve, Cal is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They'll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days!

Forced into a life on the run, Cal finds himself hunted by ruthless criminals and the police. Somehow he must uncover the truth about his father's mysterious death and solve the Ormond Singularity, a secret from the past, before the year is up. But who can he turn to when the whole world seems to want him dead? The clock is ticking. Any second could be his last. Callum Ormond has been warned. He has 365 days. The countdown has begun ...


Read more about the series and get a sneak peek at book 1 at the Conspiracy 365 website.

Miss Understanding is on Twitter

At the end of last week I posted a review of the very entertaining Miss Understanding: My Year in Agony and today I was delighted to find out that I was being followed by Miss Unders on twitter and so I'm naturally now following her.

Follow Miss Understanding at twitter.com/MissUnders

Sample tweet:

Kettle's not working. Mum keeps switching it off and on again. "It wasn't made by Microsoft, Mum," I said. Marley's gone to get a hammer.

TSS: The week in summary (9)

This week I finished Miss Understanding: My Year in Agony (see below) and the audio book of The Mediator: Love You to Death by Meg Cabot. I'm part way through: The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (for Euro Crime), Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink and HIVE Dreadnought by Mark Walden. I'm also about 1/6 way through listening to The Mediator: High Stakes by Meg Cabot.

Activity on the blog in the last week:

Monday - details of special offers on teenage books at The Book People.

Wednesday - 'Waiting on Wednesday' post for My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray also how you can read Gone by Michael Grant for free online.

Thursday - the book trailer for The Hate List by Jennifer Brown and a new publishing deal for Tamsyn Murray.

Friday - review of Miss Understanding: My Year in Agony

Saturday - details of newly acquired library books and review copies.

Sunday - the latest links from the blogosphere post.

Links from the Blogsphere (16)

Here are a few links/reviews which caught my eye this week:

TV.com has a few pictures of The Doctor appearing in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Jay Asher highlights some upcoming books to look out for.

Books to film news: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and L A Candy by Lauren Conrad.

The Guardian reviews The Enemy by Charlie Higson.

Lymeline.com outlines the printed career of Nancy Drew

Nominations are open until 15th October for the Cybils: Children and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards

All the Blog's a Page interviews John Green, author of Paper Towns

and Zombie Watch Network interviews Stacey Jay, author of You Are So Undead to Me

Library Loot (16) & 2 review copies

So Tuesday was Doctor Who day:



where I brought home the latest Doctor Who magazine and:

The Rising Night written by Scott Handcock and narrated by Michelle Ryan
When Harry Winter goes out collecting rocks to repair the wall around his father's farm, he makes a fatal mistake. He disturbs Lucifer's Tombstone, and awakens something demonic and dreadful...The TARDIS arrives in the 18th Century village of Thornton Rising in the Yorkshire Moors - a village cut off from the world by an all-consuming darkness, where the sun has not risen for three weeks. Farm animals have been attacked, people have gone missing, and strange lights have been seen in the sky. The Doctor soon becomes involved in a nightmarish adventure, helped by a young local woman named Charity. But who is feeding on the blood of the locals, and where will the carnage stop...?

Autonomy by Daniel Blythe
Hyperville is 2013's top hi-tech, 24-hour entertainment complex - a sprawling palace of fun under one massive roof. You can go shopping, or experience the excitement of Doomcastle, Winterland, or Wild West World. But things are about to get a lot more exciting - and dangerous! What unspeakable horror is lurking on Level Zero of Hyperville? And what will happen when the entire complex goes over to Central Computer Control?

During the week I also brought home two more Mediator audio books:




The Mediator (3) - Mean Spirits by Meg Cabot
It's a hot Californian summer and Suze's best friend, Gina, is visiting from New York. All Suze wants to do is check out some cute guvs and compare designer sunglasses with Gina. Unfortunately, being a mediator makes hanging out on the beach like any normal teenager pretty hard. For Suze, unwelcome, ghostly surprises are never more than a heartbeat away...

and The Mediator (4) - Young Blood by Meg Cabot
Suze the ghost-hunter should be spending the summer vacation at the beach. Instead she's been forced to get a babysitting job at a swanky resort. She's expecting to look after some boring brat, but is surprised to find that her charge is actually a budding Mediator - with a totally hot older brother.

Not that Suze's head could be turned by some guy - she's pledged her heart to Jesse, the most gorgeous ghost ever. But it's tough when the boy you love doesn't seem to love you back, and it's even tougher when you think you've found his 150-year-old grave in your back yard...

and today - yet more library books:



Escape from Shadow Island by Paul Adam
Max is an ordinary north London schoolboy by day, but at night he performs sell-out public shows as an escapologist - nicknamed The Half-Pint Houdini by the tabloid press. His father, Alexander, was also a world-renowned escapologist, who disappeared two years earlier in the Central American state of Santo Domingo. His body was never found, but Max's mother, Helen, was convicted of murdering her husband by a Santo Domingan court. One evening, after his show, Max receives a visit from a mysterious man from Santo Domingo - Lopez-Vega tells Max that his mother's trial was rigged and, if Max comes to his hotel room the following night, he has something to give him.When Max goes to the hotel, he finds Lopez-Vega dead, shot through the head. The room has clearly been searched by the killer, but what was he looking for? By chance, Max finds a piece of paper hidden under Lopez-Vega's wig. Written on the paper is a sequence of eight numbers - 83521113. What do the numbers mean? Are they a code, or maybe the combination for a lock or a safe? Could they be the key to unlocking the mystery of his father's disappearance and getting his mother out of prison?

Airhead Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
Supernerd Emerson Watts is getting to grips with life in the body of Supermodel Nikki Howard, and finding that the celebrity lifestyle is a lot harder than it looks. The bikinis are teensy, the heels are sky-high, and no one seems to care that Nikki's life is on the verge of falling apart. With too many hot men chasing her, and too many big problems to hide, it's up to Em to keep things together - even if her heart is breaking.

The Traitor Game by B R Collins
There was a folded bit of A4 paper wedged into the locker. It said MICHAEL THOMPSON. Michael slid it out, and flipped it open. It said I KNOW WHERE ARCASTER IS. That was when the bottom dropped out of everything. Michael and Francis are best friends at school, drawn together by their common secret - a complete obsession with creating, crafting, adding to and poring over their joint fantasy world, Evgard. Their friendship is put to the severest test when Michael, thinking that Francis has betrayed their world, takes the cold, deliberate decision not to help Francis when Francis is the victim of a brutal attack. Michael then has to see the consequences of his mistake, and confront his own weaknesses. This absolutely compelling charting of the boys' friendship is reflected in the fantasy world, as the fantasy characters and their actions are a clear mirror of the boys' own actions in the real world. With one difference. In the fantasy world, one of the characters does not survive. Each world, both real and fantasy, is just as gripping as the other.

and two fabulous review books:



The Beautiful Dead: Arizona by Eden Maguire (published 15 Oct 09 (UK))
There's been no sign of the Beautiful Dead for weeks. Darina achingly misses Phoenix all over again. But surely he will return with the rest of the Beautiful Dead as so much still remains unresolved. It's been ten months since Arizona drowned in Hartmann Lake. Suicide, it would seem. But something doesn't add up. Drowning herself in a hidden-away lake does not sound like strong, confident, Arizona: Ellerton High School's high-maintenance drama queen.

Darina needs to help Arizona the way she helped Jonas. But time is running out ...

TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow (published 4 Feb 2010 (UK))
Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘Take my hand . . .’ But Liam, Maddy and Sal aren’t rescued. They are recruited by an agency that no one knows exists, with only one purpose – to fix broken history. Because time travel is here, and there are those who would go back in time and change the past. That’s why the TimeRiders exist: to protect us. To stop time travel from destroying the world . . .

Review: Miss Understanding: My Year in Agony

Miss Understanding: My Year in Agony by (Lara Fox/T S Easton*) (June 2009, Hodder Children's Books, ISBN: 0340988827)

First Lines:

Miss Understanding Blog Entry
- 1st October 2009

Hey there you.

Well I'm back everyone! After two weeks' break, in which I was taken by my grandparents and brought to their cottage in Devon.

Review: Anya Buxton is a sixteen-year-old who runs the anonymous blog and advice column, Miss Understanding in which she hosts gossip about teachers, answers agony aunt questions and details her life (with fictitious names for her friends and family). The book comprises her online presence and runs between October 09 to June 10.

Anya's parents have divorced and she's living with her six-year-old brother at her mum's new home which has entailed a change of school and friends though she tries to keep up with her old group.

During the year Anya makes many mistakes, goes through some difficult times before resurfacing as a more mature individual.

I adored Miss Understanding: My Year in Agony. It's very funny - the agony aunt questions and answers are a hoot - and in some ways it reminded me of Back to Life by Joanna Nadin. It does seem to me to have an underlying theme - about the effect of divorce on children and how they have to adjust to the new arrangements and new partners. It feels very up to date with little touches like referring to Matt Smith as Doctor Who and I was a bit startled to see the blog entries labelled as 2010 as usually books are set a year or two earlier than present day. In short, Anya's life and her decisions kept me hooked and I really could not put this down. I'm very pleased that there's a sequel out next April: Miss Understanding: My Summer on the Shelf.

There are some "rude bits" so again this is one probably for older teens.

Cover: I love the cover though I can't see many boys picking it up. The next one is blue.

*Author's Name? The author wishes to remain anonymous but for ease of finding this book - online bookshops list it as Lara Fox and inside the cover the copyright is for T S Easton (this copy was shelved under EAS in the library).

Tamsyn Murray - Publishing Deal

My Waiting on Wednesday post this week was for My So-Called Afterlife by Tamsyn Murray and news reaches me via BookBrunch that her publisher has bought a second teenage book:

Piccadilly has bought a second teen novel (autumn 2010) by Tamsyn Murray, author of My So-Called Afterlife. Brenda Gardner at Piccadilly says: "We love the vivacity and quirkiness of Tamsyn’s writing, and the plus is that she also deals with 'real' issues with compassion and humour."

Hate List - trailer

Hate List by Jennifer Brown is published today (1 October) in the UK by Little Brown.

Synopsis: Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend opened fire on their school cafeteria, killing five students and one teacher before turning the gun on himself. Valerie, who was shot trying to stop him, is initially implicated in the shootings because of the hate list she helped create. The hate list her boyfriend used to pick his targets. As Valerie integrates back into school, more of an outsider than she ever thought she was before, she is forced to confront her feelings of guilt and loneliness. Exploring the gray area between hero and villain, she navigates the rocky relationships with her family, her former friends, with the memory of the boyfriend she still loves, and with the girl whose life she saved five months ago. As she moves toward graduation and the year anniversary of the shooting, Valerie must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it all in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Watch the trailer below: