Abhorsen by Gath Nix

(518 pages)



The long-buried secrets of the Old Kingdom and the Ninth Gate are revealed in the sequel to Sabriel and Lirael. Orannis, the Destroyer, has been freed from its subterranean prison and now seeks to unleash its terrible powers. Only Lirael, Abhorsen-in-Waiting, has any chance of stopping this enemy of all Life. As she and her companions - Sameth, the Disreputable Dog and Mogget - set out on their fated journey, Lirael has no idea of what lies ahead. Only days earlier, Lirael was merely a Second Assistant Librarian. Now, with only a vision from the Clayr to guide her and without the experience of Abhorsen Sabriel and King Touchstone, she must search both Life and Death for some means to defeat the Destroyer. Before it is too late...

I have just finished this and have no Idea what to write about it. I think I can sum it up in 1 single word - FABULOUS!!!! this seemed to tie up the other 2 books and was well worth the read :o)
Personally I think that Sabriel is the best of the trilogy (probably because everything is new and there are no expectations), but the other 2 (Lirael and this) are fabulous, and follow the entire story through to a fantastic conclusion. I recommend this series to everyone. Young and Old!

Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman

(288 pages)



Jane Goodall is a TV producer on a talk show. She's just been dumped by a colleague she was crazy about and, as a result, develops a "New Cow/Old Cow" theory of human relations. Her magazine-editor girlfriend likes it so much that she persuades her to write a column under a pseudonym.

This was a sweet yet slightly psychotic account of life after heartbreak. Funny and obsessive I found it a dream to read. Although Jane's obsession is really sad and also quite worrying. She does fall short of turning into a "bunny boiler", and her crazy theories do have a lot of seeming truths in them! I did find myself looking at my boyfriend thinking "oh! thats why he does that!" quite scary really.
Honestly this was a nice fun read,l but if you are looking for happy endings, watch the movie :o) Hugh jackman makes a great Eddie, and Ashley Judd is perfect as Jane. (Greg Kinnear does a pretty good 'old-bull' impression too!)

Rescuing Rose by Isabel Wolff

(480 pages)



The fourth sparkling novel from the bestselling author of THE TRIALS OF TIFFANY TROTT, THE MAKING OF MINTY MALONE and OUT OF THE BLUE has Rose, a prickly agony aunt, fall for the charms of Theo, accountant by day, astronomer by night. who soon has her starry-eyed. But the starcross'd lovers have many obstacles to overcome on the path of true love. Agony aunt Rose has more than a few thorns digging in her side at present. Her seven-month marriage is in tatters, the bills are mounting up at an alarming rate and to top it off, she's being plagued by a stalker who seems to know rather a lot about the mysterious circumstances of her birth. It's usually Rose who dishes out the advice, but now she must rely on her wacky friends to come up with some solutions.They suggest she advertise for a lodger and at first, geeky accountant Theo seems the perfect choice for the now resolutely single Rose. However, she becomes intrigued by her new housemate's fascination with astronomy and he soon has her starry-eyed.
But the path of true love never did run smooth, and the starcross'd lovers face stiff opposition in many forms, including the increasingly deranged stalker who is intent on getting Rose's attention by fair means or foul...

I really did enjoy this, though not as much as "Out of the Blue". The characters were fun, some wacky and zany, others simply loveable but all pretty believable. It also tackled some issues that other novels in this genre don't, and I found that really refreshing.
This wasnt the best book that I have ever read, but it was certainly wrth the time :o)

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis

(399 pages)



Patrick Bateman is Harvard-educated and intelligent. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom - doing impermissible things to women. He is living his own "American Dream".

I finally got round to this (i have the sequel to read and pass on so I had to) and I certainly wasnt disappointed.The story moved at a really fast pace with lots of little twists and turns and shocks too.I would reccomend this to anyone who enjoys a thriller and detective story where the lead isnt actually a detective in the traditional sense :)
I am now moving on to 'The Narrows' can't wait......

Lirael by Garth Nix

(526 pages)



When the future is unclear, who holds the key to destiny? Sequel to the spellbinding, award-winning fantasy adventure, SABRIEL. Lirael has never felt like a true daughter of the Clayr. Abandoned by her mother and ignorant of her father's identity, Lirael resembles no one else in her large, extended family living in the Clayr's Glacier. She doesn't even have the Sight -- the ability to See into the present and possible futures -- that is the very birthright of the Clayr. Nonetheless, it is Lirael in whose hands the fate of the Old Kingdom lies. she must undertake a desperate mission under the growing shadow of an ancient evil -- one that opposes the Royal Family, blocks the Sight of the Clayr, and threatens to break the very boundary between Life and Death itself. With only her faithful companion, the Disreputable Dog, to help her, Lirael must find the courage to seek her own hidden destiny. Garth Nix draws readers deeper into the magical landscape of the Old Kingdom and weaves a spellbinding tale of discovery, destiny and danger.


After having read Sabriel and loving it, i wasnt sure whether Lirael could match up to it. I was wrong. It is just as good if not better!
The characters are so believeable, and immediately become real to you they are so fantastically imagined. Lirael is such a stirring character in herself, it is quite amazing the way that describes her, not by words or adjectives, but in her actions and behaviour. The Disresputable Dog is also a fantastically witty character and Sameth, son of Sabriel is a worthy child after his mother. I was delighted at the return of Mogget, who is dark, but witty and humorous all at once. The scenes with the dead are tense and exciting, and left me biting my nails down to the quick! I loved this book and I simply cannot wait to read Abhorsen - which is my next task!

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

(480 pages)



In 1843, a 16-year-old Canadian housemaid named Grace Marks was tried for the murder of her employer and his mistress. The sensationalistic trial made headlines throughout the world, and the jury delivered a guilty verdict. Yet opinion remained fiercely divided about Marks- -was she a spurned woman who had taken out her rage on two innocent victims, or was she an unwilling victim herself, caught up in a crime she was too young to understand? Such doubts persuaded the judges to commute her sentence to life imprisonment, and Marks spent the next 30 years in an assortment of jails and asylums, where she was often exhibited as a star attraction. In Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood reconstructs Marks's story in fictional form. Her portraits of 19th-century prison and asylum life are chilling in their detail. The author also introduces Dr Simon Jordan, who listens to the prisoner's tale with a mixture of sympathy and disbelief. In his effort to uncover the truth, Jordan uses the tools of the then rudimentary science of psychology. But the last word belongs to the book's narrator--Grace herself.

I found this quite hard going at first, but then I found myself absorbed by it. The details were unbelievable. It was written in such a way that I felt that I was actually there.
I did get frustrated with the letters that the Doctor wrote, as I felt they made the book feel a little disjointed. But they did give an insight into the workings of the minds of both Doctor and 'patient'.

Awaken the Dawn by Doris B. Wolfe

(196 pages)



Can two hearts, torn by separate losses, learn to love again? Lisa Anderson gave in to God's call to teach at a remote, jungle school in South America for one year. Why was God asking more of her than her heart could give? Pilot Mike Osborne was still healing from his wife's tragic death. Did his co-workers in the jungle missionary outpost have a right to play matchmaker in his life? Awaken the Dawn is an intriguing romantic Christian novel with strong biblical principles woven through it.


I did enjoy this, and felt that the characters (especially the children) were very well written The only problem was that I lost track of the time in the novel. There didnt seem to be any way of working out how Long Lisa had been at hte mission for. Apart from that it was a lovely romantic story, with lots of Faith based insights in it :o)

Kiss River by Diane Chamberlain

(376 pages)



Gina Higgins has come to the close-knit community of Kiss River - with a secret. The local nineteenth-century lighthouse has all but fallen into the sea, but it holds the key to Gina's future, her fortune and her only chance to save the one person in the world who matters to her.
Clay O'Neill is grieving the tragic death of his wife and finds himself drawn into Gina's quest for the truth. Together they uncover a decades-old story of a courageous teenage girl swept away by love and plunged into the treacherous waters of espionage during the Second World War. This is more than Gina expected . . . much more. And with it comes new hope for the future . . . and for love.

This was a difficult book to enjoy. I had a real hard time feeling involved with the characters, and didnt enjoy te way it kept jumping back and forth.

Indelible by Karin Slaughter

(360 pages)



Medical examiner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver make their fourth appearance in this riveting new back-and-forth thriller that grounds a brutal attack by two young men on the Grant County, Georgia police department in a twelve-year-old Alabama murder case that occurred while Sara and Jeffrey were just beginning their tumultuous romance. En route to a beach vacation shortly after they meet, the couple takes a detour to the small town where Jeffrey grew up and began his law enforcement career. But their carefree holiday is interrupted when his best friend from childhood, a fellow cop, is charged with murder after killing a man who broke into his house. Despite his subsequent confession, Jeffrey believes there’s more to the story than Robert is telling him, and when the skeleton of a young woman with whom both Robert and Tolliver were once involved is discovered in a secret cave only they knew about, and Robert admits to her murder too, Tolliver must again confront a past he thought he had long since put behind him.

I had a very sleepless night last night because I just had to find out who dunnit!
I have read all the Grant County novels and they seem to get better and better! This one did start out slowly, and It was a little confusing at first, but then the pieces of the puzzle just seemed to drop perfectly into place, until for me it became absolutelly un-pt-downable! I just cant waut for the next one!

Hannibal by Thomas Harris

(576 pages)



You remember Hannibal Lecter: gentleman, genius, cannibal. Seven years have passed since Dr. Lecter escaped from custody. And for seven years he's been at large, free to savor the scents, the essences, of an unguarded world. But intruders have entered Dr. Lecter's world, piercing his new identity, sensing the evil that surrounds him. For the multimillionaire Hannibal left maimed, for a corrupt Italian policeman, and for FBI agent Clarice Starling, who once stood before Lecter and who has never been the same, the final hunt for Hannibal Lecter has begun. All of them, in their separate ways, want to find Dr. Lecter. And all three will get their wish. But only one will live long enough to savor the reward--.

I really enjoyed this book (if thats the right word to use!) BUT I have to say that I think the movie was better. I really didnt like the way Mason Verger's sister tret him and also I didnt find the ending believable enough. It was a real page turner, and I had a hard time putting it down, but I didn't get along with some of the characters as well as I did when they were on screen!

Out of the Hannibal Lecter Trilogy, I have to say that The Silence Of the Lambs is my favourite!

The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket

(259 pages)



Arriving at Dark Avenue, the three Baudelaire orphans, Violet, Klaus and little Sunny, begin their new life with Jerome and Esme Squalor. Jerome is a kind man, but he agrees unquestioningly with everything said by his wife, who is the city's sixth most important financial advisor. The Baudelaires find themselves in a strange world of in things: aqueous martinis (consisting of water with an olive), pinstripe suits (even for infant Sunny) and meals only involving salmon. Sadly, elevators are out, and the children are obliged to walk the many steps up to the Squalors' penthouse. Even more sadly, they soon meet Count Olaf again, disguised as the auctioneer Gunther, and discover that the ersatz elevator is not an elevator at all, but a shaft in which the Quagmire triplets are imprisoned. When they tell Esme of the triplets' fate, she shocks them by throwing them down the elevator too and revealing herself to be in league with Count Olaf. Sunny manages to escape using her teeth, and help her siblings out, who run down the ersatz passageway to emerge - in a spectacular climax - in the charred remains of their parents' mansion! With no time to reflect, they run to Esme's In Auction, hoping to save the Quagmires, but Esme and Olaf escape with the triplets, and the Baudelaires are once more left with only each other to rely on...

Another horrible adventure fot the Unfortunate Baudelaires! Poor things, just when things are going well they start to go badly!
I really like these stories, but I am starting to get annoyed with the constant "...which here means..." dictionary-like explanations of words. I know theyre Childrens books, and thast its probably a good way to learn vocabulary, but almost everyother paragraph, and sometimes for half a page, it does start to grate after a while!

Anyway, I hate Count Olaf and his Cronies so there!!!!!!!!!!!

Recommended to everyone who enjoys seeing poor innocent kiddies in danger! lol! ;o)

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

(288 pages)



Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit). For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own. Add to that the fact that Holly is a true heroine and that her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back and you've got the mother of all sieges brewing!

I was really looking looking forward to this one after hearing all the hype, but unfortunately I didnt get along with it very well. I am not sure why but it irritated me. I guess I was expecting an Laex Rider (Horowitz) clone, but that wasnt what I got! The book wasnt bad, I could imagine loving it when I was a kid, but the writing style felt a little young for my mature 27 years! ;o) LOL! its just that i dint particularly enjoy it :o( I wasnt keen on Butler and Artemis really p***ed me off from the outset! Never mind, you cant win em all!

Ring by Koji Suzuki

(304 pages)



Stunning, cutting-edge thriller with a chilling supernatural twist from Japan's stylish new literary star. Asakawa is a hardworking journalist who has climbed his way up from local-news beat reporter to writer for his newspaper's weekly magazine. A chronic workaholic, he doesn't take much notice when his seventeen-year-old niece dies suddenly -- until a chance conversation reveals that another healthy teenager died at exactly the same time, in chillingly similar circumstances. Sensing a story, Asakawa begins to investigate, and soon discovers that this strange simultaneous sudden-death syndrome also affected another two teenagers. Exactly one week before their mysterious deaths the four teenagers all spent the night at a leisure resort in the same log cabin. When Asakawa visits the resort, the mystery only deepens. A comment made in the guest book by one of the teenagers leads him to a particular videotape. When he watches it, instead of a movie he finds an odd collection of disparate images with a portentous message at the end: Those who have viewed these images are fated to die at this exact hour one week from now. Asakawa finds himself in a race against time

Having seen both the original Japanese film 'Ringu' and the Americanised version 'Ring' and loving both, i felt it necessary to read the book. Luckily I wasn't disappointed!There are some big differences between the films and the books, the main one being that the main character (Asakawa) is male not female, there is also some detailed description as to how the video could've come into being and that all makes sense (unlike parts of the American film), BUT I think that had I not seen the Japanese film first, I may not have been sure where it was going. I am definitely glad that I hve read it, and having discovered that there are another two books 'Loop' and 'Spiral', I must say that I am itching to read them!I would recommend this to everyone, but must suggest that you watch 'Ringu' first (it is scary - more so than the book)

Naked In Death by JD Robb

(313 pages)



Crime and punishment is Lieutenant Eve Dallas's business. Murder her speciality...Named by the social worker who found her when she was a mere child roaming that city's streets, Eve Dallas is a New York police detective who lives for her job. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all - and knows her survival depends on her instincts. But she's going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, a charismatic Irish billionaire - and a suspect in Eve's latest murder investigation. But passion and seduction have rules of their own, and it's up to Eve to take a chance in the arms of a man she knows nothing about - except the addictive hunger of needing his touch.

I really liked this, I loved the characters Roarke sounded very dishy, and I found the writng style nice and easy to follow and get along with!
It would've gotten 5 out of 5 had I not figured ot whodunnit so soon!
Just have to work my way through the rest of the series now!

No Greater Love by Danielle Steel

(384 pages)



In her twenty-eighth bestselling novel Danielle Steel portrays the full breadth of human emotions as she sweeps us back to a dramatic moment in history no-one will ever forget.

On the maiden voyage of the greatest ship ever built, the Titanic, Edwina Winfield was returning from her engagement trip to England with her fiance, her parents and five siblings.

In one fatal, unforgettable night, Edwina instantly becomes a woman mourning the loss of the man she loved, and mother to her five brothers and sisters. Her struggles to keep the family together go on for twelve long years, but as each child sets sail at last, to Hollywood, Europe, and elsewhere, Edwina finds her own life finally, and frees herself from the ghosts of those she loved and lost on the Titanic.

In this magnificent work that brings a new authenticity and immediacy to the Titanic disaster and its impact on those who survived, Danielle Steel is at the height of her enormous talent as one of the world's most respected and beloved writers.

Just finished this again, and loved it even more than bthe first time, its absolutely wonderful! Recommended to everyone with a soft centre!

Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly

(352 pages)



The solemn, rhythmic intonation of the shipping forecast on BBC radio is as familiar as the sound of Big Ben chiming the hour. Since its first broadcast in the 1920s it has inspired poems, songs and novels in addition to its intended objective of warning generations of seafarers of impending storms and gales. Sitting at home listening to the shipping forecast can be a cosily reassuring experience. There's no danger of a westerly gale eight, veering southwesterly increasing nine later (visibility poor) gusting through your average suburban living room, blowing the Sunday papers all over the place and startling the cat. Yet familiar though the sea areas are by name, few people give much thought to where they are or what they contain. In ATTENTION ALL SHIPPING Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography. Armchair travel will never be the same again.

This was a fun read giving us a guided tour of some odd places and people. Not my usual cup of tea, but was worth the read.

Man In The Mist by Annette Broadrick

(256 pages)



He appeared from the mist - formidable, feverish... and searching for her. Within moments he was in her bed, leaving Fiona MacDonald to wonder why an American man had travelled so far and to such personal expense to find a woman who hadn't wanted to be found.

She'd nursed Greg Dumas to health, only to learn that the former police officer's investigation of a client's birthright had led him to her father's dusty medical files. Fiona knew nothing of clandestibe deliveries, but she did know that she wanted to love the sorrow from this wounded warrior's eyes. But she also sensed Greg might disappear from her life as suddenly as he'd entered it...

This was a nice slushy read, but in typical Mills And Boon style it was rather corny! As usual there were some decent sex scenes too!