The Wardstone Chronicles Book5

THE WARDSTONE CHRONICLES:
The SPOOK'S Mistake by Joseph Delaney

Everybody Makes Mistakes!

With his second winter as the spook’s apprentice fast approaching, Thomas Ward is to be sent north to Caster to spend the next six months under the apprenticeship of the spook Bill Arkwright. Tom is told he will learn a lot in the north, that it will toughen him up, but he is not looking forward to leaving the spook or Alice, and according to his letter Arkwright is not looking to having him stay.

When he arrives he soon learns that things are different in the north, yes there are still witches to contend with but these are mostly water witches and nothing like the witches he has encountered so far. The worst of these is Morwena, the Fiend’s own daughter who has made killing Tom her sole purpose in life. But Tom’s is not the only life in danger, and when a deal is made with the dark the spook will make the biggest mistake of his life.

The Spook’s Mistake could cost lives or lose him an apprentice as his greatest fear of the darks influence comes to bare. As Tom is drawn ever closer to the dark and to his own demise, Alice will stop at nothing to protect him despite the consequences. But when truths are revealed and alliances are made, the line between dark and light is blurred and in the half light the future of all is uncertain. Another brilliantly entertaining story.

Joseph Delaney Webpage

Joseph Delaney @ Random House

THE SPOOK'S

On sale: 03 August 2009
Price (AU): $17.95
ISBN: 9781862303515
Recommended age: 12-16
In a word: Morwena
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: five out of five
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Healing With The Fairies Oracle Cards

Healing With The Fairies Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue

 

"Heal Your Life With Help From The Fairies"

Fairies have long existed, sharing their knowledge, wisdom and enchantment to those who were willing to open their hearts to them. Found in places of magic, such as in woods, at the bottom of gardens or simply in your own imaginations, fairies have always served as guides. And now through these oracle cards the fairies are able to do just that.

Healing With The Fairies Oracle Cards are a fun and enchanting source of entertainment, enlightenment and magic. Beautiful and positive affirmations accompany these enchanting images of the fairies who share their wisdom, love and healing. A wonderful gift for a treasured loved one or a special treat to buy for yourself.

Doreen Virtue Webpage
Doreen Virtue @ Walker Books

(includes 44 Cards + Booklet)
On sale: 01 June 2004
Price (US): $24.95
ISBN: 9781561707850
Recommended age: 14+
In a word: Fairies
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: four out of five
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The Violet Eden Chapters #4

THE VIOLET EDEN CHAPTERS:
Endless by Jessica Shirvington

Love Will Tear Us Apart!

 

Having witnessed the opening of the gates of hell, and almost falling through, Violet is now dealing with the aftermath of that event, namely the return of her mother. But in this she is not alone, her father is also getting used to her mothers return, taking it a lot better then she is, and is also learning about her Grigori status. But to become a full Grigori Violet must travel to New York where's she will be tested, assessed and if successful accepted as one of their own.

Meanwhile Lilith has plans of her own for Violet and her mother, the woman responsible for sending her to hell in the first place. With the lives of innocents held in the balance Violet can hardly refuse Lilith’s wishes and with her mother watching on, she will suffer as she has never suffered before. But she will not suffer alone; turning what was an act of love into a strategic move against an inevitable attack from the enemy that will have dire consequences for them all.

Endless was how Violet and Lincoln had described their love for each other, beautiful, impossible, painful and endless. But Violet and Lincoln are learning the hard way that sometimes love is not enough. After having faced countless exiles, witnessing the gates of hell open and suffered at Lilith’s hands, in the end will they be torn apart by their own love for each other? A page turning romance that improves with every new chapter.

Jessica Shirvington Webpage

Jessica Shirvington @ Hachette Children's
The Violet Eden Chapters

On sale: 01 September 2012
Price (AU): $24.99
ISBN: 9780734412720
Recommended age: 14+
In a word: Eve
Re-read it: probably
Recommend: to those reading the series
Star rating: three out of five
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The Rosie Black Chronicles #2

Equinox by Lara Morgan

A Choice That Will Have Dire Consequences!

'Five Hundred Years Into The Future' and the world has changed. Society is segmented into the 'Centrals', those living with all the conveniences money can buy, the 'Bankers', those living on the banks of the river and barely getting by, and the 'Ferals', those who live wild with nothing but there wits to sustain them. Though different in many ways they all have one thing in common, anyone of them is susceptible to the deadly MalX, get bitten from the wrong mosquito and there is no cure only death.

Rosie is no longer living on the banks, exposed to the MalX, living day to day on the items she sold from the ruins of the old city. In fact Rosie never has to worry about the MalX ever again, thanks to Pip she was now immune, her father saved and she is living safely in the 'Central' part of the city with her aunt. However millions of others are not so lucky, MalX is still killing by the thousands, Helios is far from defeated and Pip has disappeared from her life. But worst of all she is expected to become a regular girl at a Central school.

When Pip finally surfaces again the reunion is not a happy one, and when the resistance is compromised Rosie again finds herself on the run, only this time it is not to the moon but the desert she is heading for. With the key to the resistances survival locked in her head, Rosie is now the only hope the resistance has left to fight Helios, but will she decide to fight against the monsters who created this nightmare disease , or will she chose to betray all she loves to keep them safe.

Equinox continues the fight to bring down Helios and discover a cure for the deadly MalX that is rapidly killing the world’s population. But there are complications as new allies and new enemies lead to explosive decisions and traitorous deals. Helios will stop at nothing to get Pip back and with him control the cure for the MalX, and the only way for Rosie to save him may just be to give Helios what it wants. Not to mention the fact that Helios may by the key to saving her own life.

Lara Morgan Webpage
Lara Morgan @ Walker Books
Rosie Black

On sale: 01 November 2011
Price (US): $22.95
ISBN: 9781921529405
Recommended age: 14+
In a word: Equinox Gate
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: four out of five
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What The Raven Saw

What The Raven Saw by Samantha-Ellen Bound

"An Extraordinary Story"
  

As a bird of intelligence and great beauty, the solitary and superior raven is a bird to be respected and admired. How could a lowly and disgusting pigeon ever understand the trials of a magnificent raven, what right has a ghost to ask a favour of a proud and busy raven, and how dare anyone accuse raven of lying. But raven will learn that sometime when you give a little you get a lot in return.

What The Raven Saw was a ghost without hope, a girl lost to grief, a scarecrow come to life, an ever annoying pigeon, an unassuming thief and new beginning. A charming misadventure and quirky fairy story of a grumpy raven and the friends he made that change his life. A remarkable first novel that is recommend for children and adults alike.

Samantha-Ellen Bound Webpage

Samantha-Ellen Bound @ Random House

On sale: 01 February 2013
Price (AU): $16.95
ISBN: 9781742757353
Recommended age: 8+
In a word: Raven
Re-read it: probably
Recommend: yes
Star rating: four out of five
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Joyous & Moonbeam

Joyous & Moonbeam by Richard Yaxley

"All Life Is Joyous"

Joyous is always looking on the bright side of life, always trying to see the good in every situation, no matter how difficult or challenging that proves to be. Joyous' life has been a hard one, full of violence, ugliness and sorrow and yet he still manages to see life as a beautiful gift. It is a lesson that is hard to learn but beneficial to all.

Ashleigh has not been happy for some time, slowly her family is falling apart and her cries for help, her desperate please for her parents’ attention are going unheard. In these dark days of her life it is difficult see anything good or positive. But then she meets Joyous and he shows her the good in life, in herself and he calls names her Moonbeam.

Joyous & Moonbeam are the unlikeliest of friends, offering each other understanding, companionship and the freedom to be themselves. As bad as things can get, there is always something positive to be found, although it may some work to see it. A touching, quirky and joyous tale that teaches you to appreciate the good things in life.

Richard Yaxley @ Scholastic

On sale: 01 April 2013
Price (AU): $16.99
ISBN: 9781862919877
Recommended age: 9+
In a word: Joyous
Re-read it: probably
Recommend: yes
Star rating: four out of five
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The Host

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

A Love That Refuses To Fade!

In all the planets she had lived on, all the species she had lived as, Wonderer had never before experienced such emotion, such violence and such resistance as she did with her human host. It wasn't supposed to be this way, the human hosts previous consciousness was supposed to fade away. But this human Melanie, her new host, wasn't leaving without a fight.

Melanie was a constant presence in her mind, a loud, angry and strong presence, trapped inside her who refused to fade away, refused to give up her secrets, refused to let go of the person she once was, of the people she loved most. Wonderer knew all this, felt all this and couldn't help being influenced by her hosts body, couldn't help loving those Melanie had loved.

The choice to venture off alone to find the humans that Melanie and she both love is really no choice at all, despite the fact that the humans are dangerous, violent creatures. But when she finds these humans they both love, they see only the monster who has taken their Melanie from them. Although Melanie still exists inside her, is it really possible for Wonderer to go on living as two people.

The Host is a science fiction romance that goes the heart of what it is to be human. A love story at the end of the world, where humans as we know them are being hunted to extinction, their very consciousness being replaced by alien souls. This is the story of one souls experience of humanity, the violence, the emotions, the irrational natures and the love that is the only hope humans have left.

Stephanie Meyer Webpage

Stephanie Meyer @ Hachette

On sale: 01 February 2012
Price (AU): $19.99
ISBN: 9780751550979
Recommended age: 15+
In a word: Wanderer
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: five out of five
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Girl Defective

Girl Defective by Simmone Howell

Life Is Strange!

Sky’s life is far from normal; to start with her name is actually Skylark, her brothers’ Seagull. Her mother has run off to Japan to become an alternate music artist, her father has become an absent alcoholic with the single goal in life of finding the record 'Wishing Well' by the Millionaires and her socially awkward brother believes himself to be a detective. And then there is Nancy.

Girl Defective is a vulnerable, naive, lonely girl, learning, making mistakes and growing up. Absorbed in a mystery, experiencing her first love, betrayed by her best friend, taken for granted by her family, she will learn to accept others for who they are and herself for her own strangeness. A charming misadventure that is quirky and chaotic, full of life discoveries, friendships, defects and acceptance.

Simmone Howell Webpage

Simmone Howell @ Pan Macmillan

On sale: 01 March 2013
Price (AU): $16.99
ISBN: 9780330426176
Recommended age: 16+
In a word: Sky
Re-read it: yes
Recommend: yes
Star rating: four out of five
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Guest Post - Hidden: Writing After Cancer

Blog Tour - Hidden

Writing After Cancer
Guest Post by Marianne Curley

  

Writing After Caner

I was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer just weeks after finishing the final revisions for The Key. The doctor put me in hospital immediately for a stem-cell bone marrow transplant. I had only weeks to live.

Thankfully, the transplant was a success, but during my third week in hospital I experienced a fall onto my back, and because the chemotherapy treatment made my bones brittle, the fall was devastating. I lost three vertebrae and quite a few inches in height. I couldn’t concentrate because of the chronic pain, and the medication they gave me to ease the pain made me sleepy.

The first year after the fall and transplant I could do little but recover slowly and build my strength up again. I had to be careful of germs and watch how I moved for fear of the pain that would sear through my back and down my legs with every movement.

Eventually the crushed bones of my vertebrae settled into place and the number of tests I needed for my transplant reduced to once every three weeks, allowing me to make the seven-hour trip home to Coffs Harbour. During this first year at home, combined with the return trips to the hospital every three weeks, I couldn’t hold my concentration long enough to write squat.

But I was grateful to have made it through the transplant, thrilled to be alive and I couldn’t wait to get back into writing. I struggled through my sleepiness to write two manuscripts over four years. Unfortunately, they haven’t made publication, but they showed that I could write. It was a matter of hitting on the right topic, creating the best characters and producing a strong, vibrant story.

So how has my battle with cancer affected my writing? I would have to say it has made me more determined to succeed, and it has given me an insight into life that not everyone gets to experience (thankfully!)  Cancer also helped me feel a whole gambit of emotions, from utter despair and hopelessness to a sense of utopia and nirvana. I now have an insight into some of life’s hardest experiences, fears and deepest emotions, which has created a rich and profound well of memories to draw from.

 

Follow the Hidden blog tour on facebook @
Hidden Facebook page.

Find out more about the book Hidden @
Hidden Bloomsbury Australia page.

 

The Avena Series #1

THE AVENA SERIES:
Hidden by Marianne Curley

She's Such An Angel!

Taken at birth and hidden away from all who love her, Ebrielle is unaware of who she is, what she is capable of and how much danger she is about to bring to those around her. Given a new name and new life on earth, Ebony has grown up in an overprotective family surrounded by sheltered peace, until the night she sneaks out to go to a party, meets a boy and uncovers a truth that will change her life.

Josh's life has been anything but peaceful. Orphaned at a young age he has experienced more loss and hardship in the last sixteen years then most have in their whole lives, and now just when he has met a girl that could be the one, he finds his short life is about to end. However as one deal is made to save his life, another may be made to bring it to an end.

Hidden is the story of an angel, a demon and a human boy all fighting it out for the love and life of a girl with violet eyes and untold powers. As the forces of good and evil turn earth into a battle field, one girl is trying to figure out who she is, what she wants and where she belongs. The beginnings of a new angel series that is sure to please.

Marianne Curley Webpage
Marianne Curley @ Bloomsbury Australia

On sale: 01 March 2013
Price (AU): $15.99
ISBN: 9781408822623
Recommended age: 14+
In a word: Ebony
Re-read it: possibly
Recommend: yes
Star rating: three out of five
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