Fury by Rachel Vincent – Book Three of the Menagerie Series ★★★★★ A thrilling, intricately woven dark fantasy set in an alternate reality 1986: It is a world in which humans live alongside cryptids, aka werewolves, sirens, dryads, oracles, faes, minotaurs, and other mythical creatures. One night, 14-year-old human Rebecca Essig returns home from a slumber party to a horrifying double murder. Her family’s tragedy is part of a nationwide child massacre known as ‘the reaping’, instigated by children called ‘surrogates’: changelings with the ability to force humans into committing terrible crimes against each other. One of the few survivors of the reaping, Rebecca struggles to understand why it happened as she grows up in its shadow, and is...

Obsidian – Book II of the Book of Bera Trilogy by Suzie Wilde ★★★★ A Viking seer sets out on a quest to save the world from ending Wracked with the agonising pains of childbirth, Bera the Valla sees and feels the earth below being torn apart with her. Beneath the ice, fire pushes upwards as she pushes her child out of her body; fire that will burst through the ice and engulf the world in a storm of ash, lava and brymstone. With her daughter safely born and clearly destined to inherit her powers of foresight, Bera’s vision of the world’s destruction and the wrath of Hel haunts her as she works to carve out a life for herself, her stepson, Heggi, whom she loves as much as her own flesh and blood, and the impoverished band of sea-faring...

The Magician’s Daughter by H. G. Parry ★★★★ Reviewed by Jo-Anne BlancoGenre: Fantasy, Historical FictionTime Period: Early 20th CenturyEurope by Region: UK (Britain) & Ireland Subgenres/Themes: Coming of Age, Magical or Supernatural Elements An enthralling, enchanting story set in a world of fairy tales and folklore, in which sixteen-year-old Biddy leaves her sheltered childhood behind to help save magic and learn the truth that has been hidden from her all her life. Review “Magic isn’t there to be hoarded like dragon’s treasure. Magic is kind. It comes into the world to help. Our job is to make sure it gets to where it needs to go.” In H. G. Parry’s novel The Magician’s Daughter, sixteen-year-old Biddy lives on the wild, remote,...

The Little Snake by A. L. Kennedy ★★★★★ An enchanting fable that deserves to become a classic Mary is a wise, clever, lonely little girl who lives with her parents in a cramped flat with a small rooftop garden. All around her is a fascinating, bustling city that fires her imagination, a city filled with all kinds of wonderfully diverse people, yet the divide between rich and poor is starkly apparent. Into Mary’s tiny garden one day comes the little snake, a beautiful golden creature with red eyes like jewels. Although he is proud and boastful, Mary strikes up a friendship with him and names him Lanmo. The little snake in turn becomes intrigued and eventually fiercely protective of her, constantly returning to visit her and converse with...

The Journal by R. D. Stevens ★★★★★ Remarkable story superbly combining philosophical insight and gritty reality Ethan was always close to his clever, thoughtful sister Charlotte. While growing up, she was the person he most loved, idolised, and emulated, and it was she who influenced him more than anyone else, shaping the person he wanted to be. So when Charlotte drops out of university and disappears in South East Asia without a word, Ethan travels to Cambodia to find her. With the help of a fellow traveller, he follows her trail to Laos and Thailand, experiencing all the joys and travails of backpacking while questioning the world around him as Charlotte taught him to do. Moving childhood memories and insightful philosophical musings...

The Heavens by Sandra Newman ★★★★ An imaginative, genre-defying tale of time travel and the butterfly effect At a glittering party in New York in the first summer of the new millennium, geologist and poet Ben meets artist Kate, and the two embark on a passionate romance. The gleaming world they inhabit is almost utopian: the planet is well on the way to decreasing carbon emissions, there is peace in the Middle East, and poverty is being eradicated. However, Kate is prone to a recurring dream that she has had since childhood: a vivid dream of existing as another person, in another place. As she falls more deeply in love with Ben, her dream becomes stronger and more real, and with it her sense that from within the dream she is somehow meant...