Summer's Shadow
by Anna Wilson
Summer is living with her best friend Jess and Jess's mum. Summer's mum was hit by a car and is in hospital. One night, just before midnight, Summer's mobile phone rings even though it is switched off. When Summer answers it, she hears her mum's faint voice "Bye love". The next morning comes the news that everyone was dreading - Summer's mum died - at just before midnight.
At her mum's request in her will, Summer is sent to live with a distant uncle, who lives in Penzance in Cornwall with his wife and son. Summer has never met this uncle, in fact it is the first she has ever heard about an uncle in Penzance. When she arrives, she gets a frosty reception from the son, and the wife does not even make an appearance. Why has Summer's arrival met with such anger? What are the strange noises she hears in their large and draughty house near the shore? Is it true that the house is haunted?
Summer takes comfort by seeking out the small private beach nearby, where she meets and befriends Zach. But although he offers a friendly face and time away from her hostile cousin, he is not able to provide answers to her questions about what is going on in the house and why she keeps seeing the ghost of her mother. She must seek out the truth on her own.
I quite enjoyed this book, even though I was very frustrated with the uncle - he never wanted to answer any of Summer's questions, and Summer never seemed to push the matter. She was also always quite rude to Zach and he seemed to put with it - any normal person would've just walked away.
Apart from these small matters, the book has lovely descriptions of the small nearby cove, and you can just imagine the large, dusty mansion with its unused rooms and dark attic. The kind of place I'd love to live in!
Because of the small mention of a swear word, I would recommend this for children 12+.
Blue
by Lisa Glass
Like surfing? Like chilling out on the beach? Like reading about teen summer romance? Well this book is PERFECT for you. Even if you've never surfed in your life, I promise you that after reading this book you will be itching to give it a go. It's set on Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall (a beautiful part of the world - but I'm biased because I live there myself!) and follows 16 year-old Iris who meets Zeke at a yoga class. Iris isn't aware that Zeke is actually a champion surfer, but as she starts to fall for him she wonders whether the relationship is for real, whether she is just 'one of the many', and how the relationship would last when Zeke has to travel round the world taking part in competitions.
Iris has to confront family crises, jealousy, cheating, and horrific accidents - all in the name of love. But a final tragedy could upset all her dreams...
This book is full of surf lingo and slang, and you really get to understand how competitive surfing is amongst those who take it seriously. There are so many rules about the waves and who can ride them - I never realised! One thing's for sure - if ever I want to take up surfing (I'm just a lowly bodyboarder) I now know to make sure I have a proper surf instructor teaching me!
A great book which makes you want to dash to the beach and jump into the waves. A perfect summer read. It's the first in a series - the next 'Air' is out June 2015.
The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters
I've never read anything by Sarah Waters before, even though she is an international bestselling author and has had her books dramatised on the television. Then I read a precis of her new novel, The Paying Guests, and fancied the sound of it and decided to give it a read.
It was fantastic. At the moment The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is my favourite book of the past year, but this gives it a run for its money! I was utterly absorbed in every word, you can picture every single scene as it's described, the story is compelling, all the characters are wonderfully realistic, the story is dramatic, horrific, heartbreaking. On some of the pages I had to cover up the facing page with my hand so my eye didn't 'accidentally' wander over to prematurely discover what had happened. I didn't want it to end, and when it did I wanted to read it again.
The year is 1922. Frances Wray and her mother live in a big house in South London. Frances has lost her 2 brothers and her father in the First World War, and she and her mother are trying to get their lives back together. Frances has never married, though she was very much in love once, but it had to come to an end. They have no money and so have to rely on renting out rooms in order to pay the bills and feed themselves. The first paying guests are Mr and Mrs Barber - Len and Lilian. What starts as a new and rather uncomfortable relationship with them both as tenants, then blossoms into a close and loving friendship - at least for two of the party. But something absolutely awful happens which changes and upsets the dynamics of everything and everyone in the household.
A completely engrossing read. I will definitely seek out Sarah's other books to read.
Geek Girl - Picture Perfect
by Holly Smale
(Review by Megan, 11)
The third book in the Geek Girl series, still holds me page by page.
Harriet Manners has had the best summer ever and is planning her next few weeks of pure delight on A3 pieces of paper.... but not for long.
On the day of her exam results, Harriet returns home to find her parents hurriedly packing: they were packing for New York. Astonished but excited, she takes the move as a new experience, and looks forward to seeing the wonderful sights of America! Unfortunately, Harriet's parents made a white lie, they weren't moving to New York, but two hours away from it in a shabby American estate in Greenway. Furious, Harriet runs away to the glamorous city for a modeling job, but will things turn out alright for her in the end?
A gripping read as always from Holly Smale, still one of my favourite books! Definately recommended for 11/12- 15 yrs. GEEK OUT! :D
Dream on Amber
by Emma Shevah
(
Review by Megan, 11)
Amber is half Italian and half Japanese, so starting a new school and getting annoying texts from a-bit-too-eager-friends is just something she'll just have to get used to. As if her name isn't bad enough: AMBRA ALESSANDRA LEOLA KIMIKO MIYAMOTO.
When Amber (the English version of her name) reaches the point of total devastation and annoyance, she desperately needs someone to talk to. Due to her father leaving when she was only a baby, Amber uses her art and imagination skills to conjure up an EPIC replacement Dad to help her through the first year of secondary school.
A fantastic read for 10-12 year olds. Emma Shevah sure does know how to amaze! Blew me away, one of the best :)
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
by Joel Dicker
I think I may stir up something here - I wasn't that impressed with this book. I was quite desperate to read it as it's had amazing reviews, had won 3 French literary prizes, and has been plastered over nearly every broadsheet review page. Simon Mayo also tweeted that he thought it deserved Book of the Year. Not sure about that! What about the brilliant The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Half Bad by Sally Green, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent and many more worthy nominees for such an accolade? Now, I did enjoy the story - upto a point. I read it on e-book and it was a massive 460 pages. I was looking forward to it ending, but it never seemed to! What I think is it's main downfall - ok, 2 main downfalls. Firstly, it's a translation from the French original. Some of the conversational parts are absolutely awful, the writing is dreadful, so that took away some of the enjoyment. The translator, Sam Taylor, also provided the translation for another bestseller 'HHhH'. I haven't read that, but my partner has, so I asked him what the book was like and how it read. He said it was good, he didn't notice anything about it. So perhaps conversation is quite tricky to translate into readable English...?
Secondly, the plot -good as it is - is very complex. Twists and turns in a book are plauded and encouraged, but this has so many you feel you should have drawn a diagram with arrows pointing to 'suspected' 'exonorated' 'died'.
I'm making it sound like it's the worst book ever, but it definitely isn't that. It's worth a read, especially if you like murder mysteries. The style just wasn't to my liking. One character I did love though was Marcus's Jewish mother. She was hilarious. She should have her own chat show.
Boy in the Tower
by Polly Ho-Yen
Ade (pronounced Addee) lives in a high rise block of flats with his mum in South London. He goes to the local school where he is friends with Gaia who lives in the high rise opposite. One day his mum comes home crying with a bruised and battered face and refuses to tell Ade what has happened. After that, she becomes withdrawn and asks Ade to do the shopping and the cooking, while she sleeps all day and night. Ade takes comfort in looking out of the window at life passing him by outside and down below. Then strange things start to happen in the area. A pub nearby collapses to the ground, then building workers and policemen fall down dead, and slowly all the high rise flats and houses in the town fall down, killing all those trapped inside. Many people flee the area, but still Ade's mum refuses to leave the flat. What is causing the buildings to fall, and how will Ade and his mum manage to survive? The tables are turned as a young teenage son is having to care for his mother while all around them the world is changing and disaster is creeping upon them.
This is a wonderful story of courage, determination, strength and bravery. The storytelling is simplistic but addictive, making you want to read straight from one chapter to the next.
If you like this, I also recommend P.O.D. by Stephen Wallenfels.
Man at the Helm
by Nina Stibbe
At the moment, Nina Stibbe is better known for her first bestselling book Love Nina, a collection of letters written by her to her sister while Nina was a nanny in London. I really loved that book, it was very funny, she has a wicked sense of humour (in the literal and slang way), so I was looking forward to reading this book, her first foray into fiction. Her writing style is unchanged. She has a great way of using brackets in sentences to clear up confusion over meanings, and I have to smile every time she does it. It took me a couple of chapters to settle into the story, I seemed to be waiting for something big to happen, (but I do spend 90% of my time reading Young Adult/9-12 fiction, where you're wham bang straight into the adventure), but suddenly I couldn't put it down.
The story is recounted by 9-yr-old Lizzie. Her parents divorce after her father falls in love with someone else, and she (along with her older sister) decide to write a list of all the men they deem suitable to become the next 'man at the helm'. They then forge letters from their mother to these men, asking them to pop over for a drink, and then they wait to see what happens. What's funny is that the girls just want them to be 'intimate' enough times to have to get married. Most of these encounters don't end too well, but you find yourself laughing about it rather than thinking 'oh the poor woman/the poor children'. Of course the one man the mother falls for is not the best of characters and the children are aghast at what they've let themselves and their mother in for.
Just as your thinking 'oh this is hilarious, what on earth is going to happen to the poor family next', something either heartfelt or heartwrenchingly sad happens and you have to have a good old blubber and a moment away from the book to compose yourself and then get right back into it. (Well I did anyway, ask my daughter - she thoughtfully left the room when she saw my eyes filling up and my nose turning red, saying "I'll just leave you on your own for a bit").
Nina said in one interview last year that the book is semi-autobiographical ("it's about my mother's unorthodox style of parenting"). The mother in the story survives mostly on pills and drink, swears like a trooper, and basically just lets her children run wild, but is a natural beauty and makes all men she meets stop dead in their tracks.
I loved the book, loved all the characters and love Nina's style of writing.
If you like this, I also recommend the completely farcical Campari for Breakfast by Sara Crowe.
