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Angel’s Fury

Cassie Farrier does not look forward to a good night’s rest. Everyday she fears what is to come in her ‘dreams’- a terrifying journey that ends in the death of a Jewish girl in WW2. This nightmare is not fantasy- it is memory. The question is, how does Cassie remember things from a time 70 years in the past? How can she speak fluent German without ever having been there? Is this her? Who is she? The Doctor has the answers but she isn’t willing to reveal them. For now, Cassie must be satisfied with taking “therapy” sessions with the Doctor, and putting up with the other kids in the manor… I find it frustrating that more and more YA novels are lumped as either guys’ or girls’ novels. In Continue reading →

News Roundup #5

So, another week another news post! First off, Derek Landy, the author of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, has said he’s working on a (rather long at 15,000 words short story for World Book Day 2012, set between The Death Bringer (publishing September) and Book Seven (publishing September 2012) and titled The End of the World. Read Derek Landy’s full post. Another, very exciting piece of news you’ve probably all heard is the title and publication of John Green’s new novel. John announced on Twitter and subsequently in a live video chat that his latest work will be called The Fault In Our Stars, inspired by something that Shakespeare wrote- “The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars/ But in ourselves that we are underlings“. My friend Aaron from Guy Continue reading →

Cover Chat #4 – Between Shades of Gray

Welcome to Cover Chat- this is a new meme that has a slightly different take on the UK vs US cover comparison features many bloggers have. If you want to find out more about why Cover Chat is different, or how to participate, read the “official” Cover Chat Page. Today, myself and Andrew from The Emancipation of the Pewter Wolf will talk about the UK YA, UK Adult and Polish covers of Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys. The US and UK YA cover are the same, so I decided to use the Polish cover and the UK adult cover just because there are so many covers for this wonderful novel. Andrew will be hosting the other half of this post, where we discuss the two covers for The Continue reading →

The Tiger’s Curse (Tiger Saga #1)

Kelsey needs a summer job. Is she going to stack shelves in a supermarket? Serve fries at McDonalds? No, she’s going to go work in a circus and look after a Tiger. During her placement, a man visits the circus and offers to buy Ren the tiger and transfer him to a nature reserve in India. He asks Kelsey to travel with him as she has experience working with Ren, but as soon as Kelsey gets to India things take a turn for the unexpected. Kelsey is abandoned by those she’s meant to be working with and left alone, lost, in the jungle. Luckily Ren’s able to explain things to her. How you ask? Because Ren is no ordinary tiger, he is a three hundred year old Indian prince who, Continue reading →

News Roundup #4

A little more news this time, partly because I missed last week’s! But first off, I hope everyone has been getting appropriately excited about J K Rowling’s “Pottermore” announcement! And if you have no clue what I’m talking about, then shame on you! Only 20ish hours to go! Anyway, Puffin UK has revealed the UK cover for The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan’s latest Greek frolick. I have to say, I’m rather disappointed by it- the American cover looks a lot better. Alas. But by far the biggest news is the title of Divergent #2, which Veronica Roth revealed to the web a week a go- and if I’m honest, I love this title- it’s different but the same and just fits so well with the first title. It is: Continue reading →

Long Reach (Eddie Savage)

In the world of espionage, things are never as they seem. Eddie Savage, – a 17 year old school boy, – is not who many think he is. He’s neither Eddie or Savage, and he isn’t a schoolboy either. : He is a spy, taking revenge on the man that murdered his brother: Tommy Kelly, pack leader of London’s largest and most dangerous group of criminals… I can’t claim to be a heavy reader in YA thrillers, but I like to think that I’ve read and enjoyed a fair few- enough to know when I’ve found something special and different. Long Reach is such a find- a burst of adrenalin in the oft-static thriller landscape of YA fiction. Long Reach doesn’t read like a debut solo novel (Peter Cocks collaborated Continue reading →

Book Week Summary Vlog 17/June/2011

I recorded this vlog on Monday, but I had a lot of trouble uploading it, so it’s nearly in time for Saturday! I hope you enjoy it.

An Act of Love

They start out as childhood friends- at aged 7 they are inseperable. They do everything together- swimming, football, exploring The Wilderness; the empty area of land behind the estate. But slowly, everything starts to fall apart. Chris moves away and makes new friends, Imran doesn’t. Chris gets a job, Imran doesn’t. Chris becomes a soldier, goes out to Afghanistan, and Imran slowly hates him for it. Imran is being radicalised by fellow Muslims, jihadists intent on ruining Britain. Their lives were entwined, then they were apart. They will come together again. An Act of Love starts amiably at first, meandering it’s way through the young lives of Chris and Imran. But the first chapter starts 12 years later: Chris, about to receive a medal, and Imran, on his way to Continue reading →

The Shadowing: Hunted (Shadowing #1)

Hunted, written by Adam Slater and published early May is the first in his new horror series, titled The Shadowing. This book follows the path of Callum, a supposedly normal boy (the “normal” you come to guess that isn’t that normal) who seems to have extraordinary luck…what the devil could this lead to? Ironically, it could actually be the devil. He starts to become aware of some presence following him one night, in a dark wood on his way back home (original, I know). It turns out he’s being hunted by something that’s not from this world. The underlying thought I had the second I read the blurb is that it was a all but the same idea of Horowitz’s Power of 5 series, based on evil creatures opening a Continue reading →

Blog Tour: Caroline Lawrence’s First Western

As part of a blog tour celebration of the publication of the first novel in Caroline Lawrence’s Western Mysteries, she has kindly come to talk about her first Western here on T4F! Read the review. Although I grew up in the America during the golden age of the Western, and although we went to the movies a lot, the Western that first made an impression on me wasnt one of the great film classics. It was an obscure TV show. In fact, there were two of them. Have Gun Will Travel (1957 1963) was a show about a hired gunman. I liked it because the hero dressed all in black had the emblem of a chess knight on his black leather holster. His name was Paladin, which means knight in Continue reading →

The Case of the Deadly Desperados (Western Mysteries #1)

I came to read The Case of the Deadly Desperados with a certain excitement and apprehension – excitement because The Roman Mysteries were a large part of my childhood reading, and apprehension because I was worried that The Case of the Deadly Desperados, or more broadly The Western Mysteries, would not be to the standard of The Roman Mysteries. The Case of the Deadly Desperados is different. It HAS to be different. I think that had it had any similarity to The Roman Mysteries, it would have felt a lot weaker, but Caroline Lawrence made a wise and (probably conscientious) decision to make the setting, period, and style very different to The Roman Mysteries. This difference affords The Case of the Deadly Desperados to become its own book and not Continue reading →

An Interview with Tom Clempson!

I managed to nab Tom Clempson, author of the hilarous One Seriously Messed Up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite (what a title! Link goes to the review!) for an interview. One Seriously Messed Up Week is publishing on the 2nd May, so look out for it! I’d like to thank Tom for participating! (He can be a-followed on Twitter: @TomClempson)  ThirstforFiction: Jack Samsonite is pretty crude at times- were there any things that had to be cut because they were too crude? Tom Clempson: Nothing that was too crude, but I did end up cutting out quite a few ‘F’ words. I also wanted to make sure that, whilst staying true to the way teen boys talk to each other in that tongue-in-cheek homophobic Continue reading →

News Roundup #3

So, this week we have a more, err, historical news! For a start, the US cover and an extract from the second Heroes of Olympus have been unveiled. The sequel to The Lost Hero is called The Son of Neptune. The extract, which may or may not shine some light as to whom the title is referring to, can be read here. The other, “historical” (though not quite as ancient as the Greek myths!) is that Caroline Lawrence’s latest novel, The Case of the Deadly Desperados, the first in the Western Mysteries, will be published on the 2nd of June. As part of that, Caroline Lawrence will guest post, right here, on the 7th, and a review of the fantastic novel will be published later this week. Click here to Continue reading →

One Seriously Messed Up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite

Introducing: Jack Samsonite, a nearly-16 British teenager. His mission: to pass his GCSEs, pull the girl of his dreams, and not get beaten up. Wish him luck. Diary-style novels are always hard to review. Always. Take a look at the other reviews I have made of books like Spud and Adrian Mole – they’re short. It’s very hard to comment on a diary, for me at least. So I shall do my best with One Seriously Messed Up Week in the Otherwise Mundane and Uneventful Life of Jack Samsonite, hereafter referred to One Seriously Messed Up Week! Unlike many diary-style novels, One Seriously Messed Up Week only covers a week (most diary-novels cover a year!) and at just over 300 pages, a lot of stuff would have to fill up Continue reading →

Duty Calls: Dunkirk (Duty Calls #1)

Private Johnny Hawke has just arrived in France. The year is 1940 – the middle of the Second World War. Germany has invaded most of France, but French and British forces are attempting to hold them back. It is not easy when both rations and ammunition are in short supply. Aged 16, Hawke has just begun his service. He will be part of the Battalion that will attempt to cover the immediate evacuation of all troops. There is little chance he will survive. I’ve never really been “into” war stories; even as a child, I wasn’t prone to killing my friends with my pistol shaped hands. It was with little or no knowledge of the structuring of the military that I began reading Duty Calls: Dunkirk, and finishing it, my Continue reading →