A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

The Blurb On The Back:

It's 1895 and, after the death of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma finds her reception a chilly one. She's not completely alone, though ... she's being followed by a mysterious young man, sent to warn her to close her mind against the visions.

It's at Spence that Gemma's power to attract the supernatural unfolds, as she becomes entangled with the school's most powerful girls and discovers her mother's connection to a shadowy, timeless group called The Order. Her destiny awaits ... if only Gemma can believe in it.

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The Verdict:

An interesting read and one that sets up the potential for an intriguing trilogy. Although some of the language didn't quite feel right for the period, the descriptions are lush and evocative and Gemma a sufficiently complex heroine for me to want to read more of her adventures.

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson

The Blurb On The Back:

Once it had been the great forest of Lythe – a vast and impenetrable thicket of green with a mystery in the very heart of the trees. And here, in the beginning, lived the Fairfaxes, grandly, at Fairfax Manor, visited once by the great Gloriana herself.

But over the centuries the forest had been destroyed, replaced by Streets of Trees. The Fairfaxes had dwindled too; now they lived in ‘Arden’ at the end of Hawthorne Close and were hardly a family at all.

There was Vinny (the Aunt from Hell) – with her cats and her crab-apple face. And Gordon, who had forgotten them for seven years and, when he remembered, came back with fat Debbie, who shared her one brain cell with a poodle. And then there were Charles and Isobel, the children. Charles, the acne-scarred Lost Boy, passed his life awaiting visits from aliens and the return of his mother. But it is Isobel to whom the story belongs – Isobel, born on the Streets of Trees, who drops into pockets of time and out again. Isobel is sixteen and she too is waiting for the return of her mother – the thin, dangerous Eliza with her scent of nicotine, Arpege and sex, whose disappearance is part of the mystery that still remains at the heart of the forest.

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The Verdict:

Worth a look but it's let down by a poor ending that made me feel as though I'd wasted my time with the preceding pages.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

The Blurb On The Back:

Katniss Everdeen survived the Hunger Games. Now the Capitol wants revenge.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

There was too much repetition of The Hunger Games for this to truly satisfy me as a novel, although the cliff-hanger ending hints that the final book in the trilogy will pack more of an original punch.