Dark Matter

by Michelle Paver

Hachette (Orion). Adult, Horror. Paperback RRP $26.99

Reviewer - Sandy Fussell

Subtitled A Ghost Story, Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter is equally an exploration of isolation and what happens to a man segregated from society.

When Jack is offered the opportunity to join an Artic expedition to Gruhuken, he embraces the opportunity for change and new experiences. His companions are wealthy, educated and well prepared. But circumstances conspire and one by one they are forced to leave the Artic.

Jack decides to continue on alone, taking the scientific measurements and looking after the huskies. But is he alone? When the sun disappears for the polar night, Jack learns to fear.

This is a story for those who like Artic tales, and ghost stories. But you might not want to sit up alone and late at night in bed to read it.

http://www.michellepaver.com/

embrace

by Jessica Shirvington

Hachette Australia. Australian, fantasy, romance. Paperback RRP $24.99

Reviewer - Barbara Brown

Violet Eden is turning seventeen. Her best friend, Steph, is excited about Violet’s birthday but it’s hard for Violet to get too excited. Her mother had died in childbirth and it seems Violet and her dad will be forever constantly reminded of this day – both joyous and sad. The only good thing about the birthday dinner will be that Lincoln will be there - friend, trainer and mentor who just happens to be sexy and mature and Violet has the hots for him big time.

Before they go to dinner, her father gives Violet a gift from her mother - a box, an amulet, a poem and a letter that was written before Violet’s birth and her mother’s death. Did her mother know she was going to die? What does she mean “A big decision lies ahead … I love you. Please forgive me.”? She puts the precious gift away and goes out to enjoy her night with her father, her best friend and Lincoln. And at the end of the night Lincoln confirms what Violet has believed all along – they were meant for each other – with an earth moving kiss. But then he leaves her abruptly on her front doorstep.

Lincoln is Grigori, part human, part angel and Violet is his eternal partner. Then Phoenix arrives, an exiled angel who Violet can’t believe anyone could be any sexier and he doesn’t lie to her. Bliss is where he takes her, but is it where she should go?

embrace is a wonderful story that you should not be blindsided because it’s about angels. It is more about light and dark and a love triangle that I feel very jealous about! If you like fantasy, mind games and a bit of a sexy love story, then this is a book for you.

http://www.jessicashirvington.com/

Firespell

A novel of the dark elite

by Chloe Neill

Hachette Australia. Young Adult. Paperback rrp $22.99

Lily Parker has been sent to a very elite boarding school in Chicago. Not quite sixteen, her parents have accepted an ‘amazing opportunity’ to work in Germany for two years. They will be too busy to oversee Lily’s upbringing so she has been shipped from her public education in New York to the snooty, rich lifestyle of the elite, but abandoned children of the rich.

From day one at St. Sophia’s School for Girls, Lily finds that she doesn’t fit in. From the brat pack to her strange roommate Scout, Lily has trouble seeing past the differences in human personalities.

Scout and Lily become friends and Scout helps Lily adjust to the rules and regulations of St. Sophia and the sights of Chicago. But Lily feels that Scout is doing something dangerous and because of their new found friendship, feels bound to save Scout from whatever it is that is taking her out all night. Then Lily starts hearing noises, seeing strange things and noticing that Scout has a different agenda then the rest of St. Sophia’s students.

When the brat pack lures Lily down into the school basements, she is confronted with a new terror. And then Scout goes missing and her room is trashed, it is up to Lily to help find her and save her. But what is she saving her from and will Lily be in just as much danger?

Firespell is a book about magic and demons, demons could be your best friend and sucking the life out of you. The next time you feel lonely and tired check out who is standing next to you. Firespell is the first book in the Dark Elite series.

http://www.chloeneill.com/

Only the Good Spy Young

by Ally Carter

Hachette Australia. Young Adult, Mystery. Paperback rrp $16.99


Reviewer – Barbara Brown

Ally Carter is the teenage girl’s equivalent of Ian Fleming. In the Gallagher Girls series there’s everything a spy-in-training could want. Espionage, gadgets to shoot, blow up, even invisible ink!

Cammie Morgan is starting her junior year at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. The Gallagher Academy is no ordinary school. It is a school to train female spies. And Cammie is no ordinary student. Her mother is the Headmistress of the school and her father has been missing for many years, presumed dead. Both parents were high ranking spies and Cammie is now being pursued by a secret sect. Cammie, ‘the Chameleon’ is having trouble hiding.

When one of their own is thought to be a double agent, Cammie’s life is in far greater danger. Who can she trust and where can she get the answers to the puzzles everyone is keeping from her?

Fans of the Gallagher Girls won’t be disappointed in the fourth book in the series, newcomers you will love the action and thrilling storyline and everyone will be eager to read the first three books. The good news is there is definitely a fifth story imminent but the bad news is I can’t tell you why. It would spoil the story. Suffice it to say Cammie is still in danger and is putting all her friends, family and the spy boy, Zach, at risk.

The Reading Stack has also reviewed Ally Carter’s I’d Tell You I Love You but then I’d Have to Kill You, Cross my Heart and Hope to Spy, Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover and Heist Society. Heist Society has been long listed for a 2010 Inky.

http://www.thegallaghergirls.com/
http://www.allycarter.com/
http://www.gallaghergirlseries.com/

Heist Society

by Ally Carter

Hachette Australia. Young Adult, Crime. Paperback rrp $16.99

You have probably watched or read stories of mastermind thieves. Even ads reinforce the illusion of the glamorous thief doing back flips over infra-red security alarms. Heist Society is just like these movies, advertisements and books except in this case the very well-established thieves and masterminds are all teenagers. Too young to vote or legally drink but old enough to crack high powered security codes.

Katarina Bishop’s father is a well known thief. When five paintings go missing, all the clues mistakenly point to him. Kat is the only person who can save him from a powerful mobster intent on retribution. Except she has pulled her biggest scam ever and now attends one of the best boarding schools in the country. She has turned her back on the life of a professional thief.

Then Hal, a very wealthy young man and also Kat’s ex-partner in crime ensures that Kat is politely asked to leave the school and the new life she was happily settling into.

With the help of Hal and his vast family fortune, Kat sets out to save her father, her friends and herself; and return the priceless art collection to its rightful owner. Only one problem – she has two weeks to find the collection, steal them back without getting caught and get her father out of jail. Something even a criminal mastermind would normally spend months planning.

Can she do it?

Fans of Carter’s Gallagher Girl series, will not be disappointed in this wonderful book of intrigue and chase. Even before Heist Society was published the film rights were bought by Warner Bros. I will see you in the front row of the cinema!

http://www.allycarter.com/

Wildflower

An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa

by Mark Seal

Hachette Australia. Adult Non-Fiction. Paperback RRP $32.99

Guest Reviewer - Jo Burnell

Joan and Alan Root were pioneer film-makers in Africa in the 1960s and 70s. They took us inside termite mounds, over the jungles of Africa in a hot air balloon and swimming with hippos, sea lions and marine iguanas. Alan was usually the on-camera force, but nothing would have been possible without Joan’s amazing organisational skills and courage.

Mark Seal is an investigative journalist who brings the jungles of Africa to throbbing life in Wildflower. I flinch at the injuries Alan and Joan sustained and feel my eyes widen at the incredible adventures they enjoyed on a daily basis. No detail is spared as Mark paints word pictures of both breathtaking beauty and unforgiving landscapes. That was and is life in Africa.

The industrial revolution of flower-growing around Lake Naivasha (Kenya) is also outlined in detail. It’s a story of commercial intrigue, political snakes and ladders and humanity’s struggle to survive. Who are the good guys and bad guys in the imminent death of this irreplaceable ecosystem? It depends on your point of view.

Wildflower is Joan’s story. Shy and retiring in her youth, Joan’s passion for wildlife led her to become a powerful anti-poaching force in her later years. She chose to remain in Kenya in the late 1990s even when several friends were brutally murdered for their strong conservation beliefs. I was mesmerised by the lives these white crusaders led, but what captivated me more was Joan’s unrequited love story.

She was irresistible. Physically attractive as well as having a deep spiritual resilience, I struggled to accept there might not be a ‘happily ever after’ for her. I turned every page, hoping her luck would change.

Rivetting is the only word I can find to describe Wildflower.
http://www.mark-seal.com/

This is the Mud

by Kathryn Apel. Illustrated by Warren Crossett

Hachette Children’s Books. Australian, Picture. RRP $28.99 hardback, $16.99 softcover

Sometimes with a picture book, I find it hard to decide where to begin. Do I talk text or illustration? Do I tell the story? With This is the Mud, the answer is obvious. I start right at the front, with the cover and its quirky bottom-first view of the sad, soulful cow stuck in the mud. It’s an image to make the reader smile and promises a fun, mud-spattering read.

Based on the familiar, thumping rhythm of The House that Jack Built, This is the Mud is a text that demands to be read aloud. With pomp and emphasis! With oomph, emotion and expression! I had a stirring time doing exactly that.

The is the cow who was chewing her cud,
as she went for a drink and got stuck in the mud.

The story is a universal one. The cow rescued by a team of people – the girl who raises the alarm, the dad, the neighbour with the tractor and the woman on the two-way radio. The farm could be anywhere but the occasional clue, such as ‘ute’ places it in rural Australia, a landscape author Kathryn Apel calls home.

Warren Crossett’s vivid pictures provide action, humour and confirmation that this is a picture book ‘proud to be Australian.’ The splodges of mud containing landscape reflections are an interesting graphic feature on some pages of text. My favourite illustration, other than the cover of course, is the poor cow unceremoniously and inelegantly plucked from the mud by a sling around her middle. Still, she was glad to be rescued and in the end is happily chewing her cud again.

This is the Mud is a wonderful read-aloud, rhyme-along, imagine-the-mess book. And it’s lots of fun.

http://katswhiskers-thewritestuff.blogspot.com/

Don’t judge a girl by her cover

by Ally Carter

Hachette Australia. Young Adult, Mystery. Paperback rrp $16.99

I have been waiting anxiously for the third book in the Gallagher Girls series, Don’t judge a girl by her cover. The first two books were excellent reads.

Don’t judge a girl by her cover continues on with the story of four friends who attend the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, Cammie, Macey, Bex and Liz. It’s a school for spies. Cammie is the Principal’s daughter and likes to get into trouble. But this time trouble seems to be following Cammie.

Cammie visits Macey who is on the political trail with her family (her father is running for the Vice Presidency of the United States), and together they thwart a potential political kidnapping of Macey. But why her? Has Macey’s father done something illegal or bad or has it got something to do with The Gallagher Academy?

Cammie and Macey, with the help of Bex and Liz, find that the pieces don’t add up and the target may not be who they think. The people hunting them may not be what they seem.

To add fuel to the confusion of Cammie’s problems, Zach, the spy boy that kissed her then disappeared in book 2 Cross my heart and hope to spy, has returned.

I am a big fan of The Gallagher Girl series and Carter’s writing is more exciting with each new book. I hope I don’t have to wait as long for Book 4 otherwise I will have withdrawal symptoms from the sort of exciting life that I will never live! At least I get to read about it.

I’d tell you I love you, but then I’d have to kill you and Cross my heart and hope to spy were reviewed in Issues 11 and 16 respectively.

http://www.thegallaghergirls.com/
http://www.gallaghergirlsseries.com/
http://www.allycarter.com/

Trust Me

by Jeff Abbott


Hachette Australia. Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.99

Thump, Thump! Thump, Thump! Thump, THUMP! That’s my heart racing from the moment I read the first line of Trust Me until I closed the book 36 hours later! Jeff Abbott knows how to grab an audience and throw them around, causing mayhem and havoc to this reader’s brain matter. Brilliant writer, brilliant story!

For the past ten years, Luke Dantry has been brought up by his stepfather Henry. Henry was a fellow professor working with Luke’s father, Warren. When Warren was tragically killed, Henry helped comfort Luke and his mother and stepped into Warren’s shoes. Luke’s mother dies in a car accident and Henry suddenly realises that Warren’s shoes may be too big for him!

Luke is majoring in psychology and helping Henry with his research monitoring extremist groups on the internet.

When Luke is kidnapped at gun point and becomes an accessory to murder, his world starts to become unravelled, and very quickly. Luke doesn’t understand what he has done but is worried that his research for Henry is a small key. Maybe he stepped over an invisible line with one of these groups.

A simple young man with no skills other than getting inside the heads of others, Luke becomes a frightened and desperate man. All Luke wants is his life back. But how far will one man go to get back his freedom? Who can Luke trust now?

Trust Me has more twists and turns than a spiral staircase. Warning to anyone with a bad heart – read very, very carefully and ensure you have someone near you at all times … Trust me!

Abbott’s book Run was reviewed in Issue 5 of The Reading Stack.


http://www.jeffabbott.com/