young adult books

Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory {4}

Stormbringers_Philippa_Gregory

Stormbringers by Philippa Gregory. RRP $16.99. Published by Simon & Schuster

Luca Vero is a member of the secret Order of Darkness, tasked with searching out and reporting signs of the end of the world. Breaking his journey in Piccolo, he finds a place filled with superstitious fears: of the unknown, of the forces of the sea and sky, of strangers. With him are his loyal friend and servant, Frieze, and his clerk, Brother Peter, as well as the Lady Isolde and her mysterious servant-companion Ishraq. The five of them are followed into the town by a huge children’s crusade, led by a self-proclaimed saint. Its young leader promises that the sea will part before them, and allow them to walk dry-shod all the way to Jerusalem. Luca and Lady Isolde are swept up in the growing excitement; but something dangerous is brewing far out to sea…

2012 The Year in Reading and Other Bookish Things {0}

THE-HOBBIT-DWARVES

 “I am in fact, a hobbit in all but size” J.R.R Tolkien

I have been enjoying a rather Hobbity holiday. This is usually the time of the year I start reading Lord of the Rings, and watching the movies (my new Blu Ray boxed set this year) but I don’t always read The Hobbit before I start LOTR, in fact I will usually read it later. Having read it directly before I started Fellowship of the Ring I was able to enjoy it more as a prequel, more than usual in any case. I sometimes forget the references to Dale and the Mountain during Bilbo’s birthday party, the last chapter in The Lord of the Rings in which we are still allowed to be children.

Changeling by Philippa Gregory {0}

Italy, 1453. Seventeen-year-old Luca Vero is brilliant, gorgeous—and accused of heresy. Cast out of his religious order for using the new science to question old superstitious beliefs, Luca is recruited into a secret sect: The Order of the Dragon, commissioned by Pope Nicholas V to investigate evil and danger in its many forms, and strange occurrences across Europe, in this year—the end of days.     

Isolde is a seventeen-year-old girl shut up in a nunnery so she can’t inherit any of her father’s estate. As the nuns walk in their sleep and see strange visions, Isolde is accused of witchcraft—and Luca is sent to investigate her, but finds himself plotting her escape.    

Cinda Williams Chima – The Exiled Queen {0}

Spoiler Warning – Contains spoilers for Demon King and Exiled Queen


The second book in an epic fantasy series from Cinda Williams Chima. Adventure, magic, war and ambition conspire to throw together an unlikely group of companions in a struggle to save their world.

You can’t always run from danger…

Genre Snobs and the Bloody Vampire Bandwagon {1}

Bookseller lunches  consist of myself and my bookseller friends usually taking over a large table in a cafe with no prior booking because we’re unorganised and proceeding to blather on for hours. They are always a lot of fun, and usually divided into small camps. Some of the girls sell romance, some sell a bit of everything, I’m the only one who reads kids books, Dave is the only comic book collector.

I watch one camp trying to recruit others to read their preferred genre, which is always outrageously amusing, while the other camp scoffs. I’ll sometimes tell the scoffers off for being snobs. After all, I read about magic, wizards and talking mice with legendary swords. Who am I to point fingers?