The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey Headline Review (Aug 2012) | Paperback, 438 pages Contemporary Fiction The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is a book I’ve been excited to read for a very long time, and I wish I’d had the chance to read it sooner. Set in 1920s Alaska, the book tells the story of middle-aged couple Jack and Mabel who left their city home in pursuit of an isolated farming life. Needless to say Alaska is not all they’d imagined, and from the opening we begin to see how it’s…
THE CASUAL VACANCY by J.K. Rowling PUBLISHER: Little Brown RELEASE DATE: 27th Sept 2012 FORMAT: Hardback, 503 pages GENRE: Thriller, Realist When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first…
Title: Willow Author: Julia Hoban Publisher: Dial Books PublicationDate: April 2009 Hardback: 336 pages Genre: Contemporary Fiction Young Adult REVIEWED BY LAURA RATING: 7/10 SYNOPSIS BACK COVER: Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, sixteen year- old Willow’s parents died in a horrible car accident. Willow was driving. Now her older brother barely speaks to her, her new classmates know her as the killer orphan girl, and Willow is blocking the pain by secretly cutting herself. But when one boy —one sensitive, soulful boy—discovers Willow’s secret, it sparks an…
Title: Before I Fall Author: Lauren Oliver Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (UK) | HarperCollins (US) PublicationDate: 4 Mar 2010 Paperback: 352 pages Genre: Contemporary fiction Young Adult Source: Review Copy Reviewed by: Laura RATING: 7/10 BACK COVER SUMMARY: They say that when you die your whole life flashes before your eyes, but that’s not how it happened for me Sam Kingston is dead. Except she isn’t. On a rainy February night, eighteen-year-old Sam is killed in a horrific car crash. But then the impossible happens: she wakes up in her own…
Title: Angels of Destruction Author: Keith Donohue Publisher: Jonathan Cape Publication Date: 2nd July 2009 Paperpack: 347 pages Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Fantasy Source: Review Copy Reviewed by: Carolyn RATING: 7/10 AMAZON SUMMARY: “Angels of Destruction” is the mesmerising story of Norah, a nine-year-old girl who seems to materialize out of thin air when she arrives one bitterly cold night on the doorstep of Margaret Quinn. A widow who lives alone, Margaret has never got over the loss of her own child, a runaway named Erica who fled with her high school…
Title: Half-Truths & White Lies Author: Jane Davis Genre: Contemporary Fiction Publisher: Black Swan Publication Date: 9 April 2009 Paperback: 400 pages Rating: 8/10 Summary (Amazon UK) When Tom Fellows proclaims that a Venn diagram is a far better way of illustrating modern family ties than a traditional tree, his young daughter Andrea has no idea that he is referring to their own situation. It is only when she loses both parents in a shocking car accident that she takes an interest in her own genealogy and begins to realize…
Title: How To Talk To A Widower Author: Jonathan Tropper Genre: Contemporary Fiction Publisher: Orion Publication Date: 28 June 2007 Paperback: 352 pages Rating: 4/10 Summary (Goodreads) Doug Parker is a widower at age twenty-nine, and in his quiet suburban town, that makes him something of a celebrity—the object of sympathy, curiosity, and, in some cases, unbridled desire. But Doug has other things on his mind. First there’s his sixteen year-old stepson, Russ: a once-sweet kid who now is getting into increasingly serious trouble on a daily basis. Then there…
