Today in the US is the official release for Jennifer Lynn Barnes' 'Raised By Wolves', and that seemed as good a cue as any for me to write the review I'd been planning for the last week or so ( Read more... )

It's no secret that I loves me some well-written fairy fiction, particularly of the Young Adult variety. And 2009 was a good year for YA fairies (yes, I know that I spell it the uncool way. Blame my Enid Blyton-devouring upbringing). Yes, amid the increasingly vampire-filled shelves (really, publishing houses of the world, enough already. We have ( Read more... )

One of the facts of life of which I, working in a bookstore, am constantly aware is that it is possible to over-hype a book. The book in question may not even be a bad book. It might just be built up to such an extent that it can never quite live up to its own hype. Twilight, for example, is over-hyped. Harry Potter is over-hyped. Whatever your ( Read more... )

As established in my last entry, and several others, I tend to get a little insensible in the presence of books. How I've managed to keep my bookstore job this long is a mystery, given my tendency to flit about the YA and Paranormal Romance sections and essentially shanghai people into buying books. (Actually, that might be the answer. People spend ( Read more... )

Everyone needs to go out and buy Knife by RJ Anderson. Like, now, if possible. You will not regret it.

I finished it a couple of hours ago, and it is seriously the best book I have read all year. One of the best books ever. I'm not kidding.

It's about the unlikely friendship (and maybe more) of a blond teenage boy in a wheelchair, and a seven inch ( Read more... )

Apologies to everyone for spamming their flists.

Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery

This is one of those books that I’ve loved for so long that it has become an indelible part of my identity. It’s the first book in a children’s trilogy, but I still re-read at least part of the series at least once a year. Written by the same author as the more ( Read more... )

Serendipity by Melanie La’Brooy

Hero always said that it was Sunday’s fault that she ever met Oscar in the first place. Although it was true that Sunday couldn’t possibly have foreseen that Hero donning a wig would lead to the gorilla-gram, the life-size cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush or the incident in the sex shop.

So begins what I firmly ( Read more... )

Another book review!!! Bear with me people, I'm enjoying the chance to talk about books without having to dumb things down for customers.

Valiant by Holly Black

Anyone who knows me, and several customers at work who don’t, likely already knows about my unholy love for Holly Black’s teen novels. Lately at work I’ve taken to recommending them to the ( Read more... )

Since I have only just found Jennifer Lynn Barnes's awesome ARC competition and have (oh, god) about 12 hours to enter, today has suddenly become a day of book reviews. Which is good, actually, because I've been meaning to do book reviews for a while now.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

This book ingeniously taps into what I firmly ( Read more... )