Soul Beach by Kate Harrison

The Blurb On The Back:

Welcome to Soul Beach.

People are dying to get here.

www.soulbeach.org.

When Alice Forster receives an email from her dead sister it seems like a sick practical joke. Then an invitation arrives to the virtual world of Soul Beach, an online paradise of sun, sea and sand where Alice can finally talk to her sister again.

But why is Soul Beach only inhabited by the young, the beautiful and the dead? Who really murdered Megan Forster? And could Alice be next?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Kate Harrison’s first YA novel has a great idea by conceiving limbo as a website but the execution didn’t work for me, mainly because the book’s hook is a murder mystery but you don’t find out who the killer is and Alice isn’t really put in jeopardy in the storyline. Instead the final quarter’s given over to a rushed storyline involving one of Megan’s friends and the romance between Alice and David, an inhabitant of Soul Beach, never convinced me. As such, I’m not sure I’ll be reading on.

SOUL BEACH was released in the UK on 1st September 2011. Thanks to Orion for the ARC of this book.

The Thief-Takers Apprentice by Stephen Deas

The Blurb On The Back:

Berren has lived in the city all his life. He has made his way as a thief, paying a little of what he earns to the master of their band, Hatchet. But there is a twist to this thief’s tale.

One day Berren goes to watch an execution of three thieves. He watches as the thief-taker takes his reward and decides to try and steal the prize. He fails. But the thief-taker spots something in Berren. And the boy reminds him of someone as well. Berren becomes his apprentice.

And is introduced to a world of shadows, deceit and corruption behind the streets he thought he knew. A city where he must learn to take not purses, but lives …

Full of richly observed life in a teeming fantasy city, a hectic progression of fights, flights and fancies and charting the fall of a boy into the dark world of political plotting and murder, this marks the beginning of a new series for all lovers of fantasy.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Stephen Deas’s novel, the first in a YA trilogy, is a detailed and at times slow read, which contains a lot of set-up for the characters and the world they live in. However the thief-taker, Sy, is an interesting character with an intriguing past and there’s enough for me to care about both him and Berren, so I will be reading on.

Thanks to Gollancz for the free copy of this book.

Strange Angels: Defiance by Lili St. Crow

The Blurb On The Back:

Dru Andersen is not afraid of the dark. But she should be.

Dru knows that The Real World – peopled with ghosts, suckers and zombies – is a frightening place. She’s ready to kill first and ask questions later, so it is going to take her a while to work out just who she can trust.

Segej, the deadly nosferat, has kidnapped Dru’s best friend Graves and she must go on a dangerous mission to get him back. But the Order – the vampire-fighting training school – says it will take years to train her. And her mentor, the seductive but dangerous Christophe, doesn’t seem very interested in rescuing Graves.

Time is running out, and Dru is finished with listening to the Order and finished with listening to Christophe. From here on she’s going to face the kind of vampires on her own terms.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

I didn’t enjoy the 4th in Lili St Crow’s STRANGE ANGELS series mainly because I hadn’t read books 2 and 3 but also because there isn’t a huge amount happening here and what does happen takes a long time to get going. I did like the fact that Dru doesn’t fall into the normal clichés for girls in the middle of a love triangle, but the lack of action and the fact that once Dru Blooms she has the potential to be a giant Mary Sue prevented me from connecting with it.

Thanks to Quercus for the free copy of this book.