Reading - Be Careful What You Wish For

Be Careful What You Wish For by Jeffrey Archer

 

 

 

For opens with Harry Clifton and his wife Emma rushing to hospital to learn the fate of their son Sebastian, who has been involved in a fatal car accident. But who died, Sebastian or his best friend Bruno?

 

 

When Ross Buchanan is forced to resign as chairman of the Barrington Shipping Company, Emma Clifton wants to replace him. But Don Pedro Martinez intends to install his puppet, the egregious Major Alex Fisher, in order to destroy the Barrington family firm just as the company plans to build its new luxury liner, the MV Buckingham.

 

 

Back in London, Harry and Emma's adopted daughter wins a scholarship to the Slade Academy of Art where she falls in love with a fellow student, Clive Bingham, who asks her to marry him. Both families are delighted until Priscilla Bingham, Jessica's future mother-in-law, has a visit from an old friend, Lady Virginia Fenwick, who drops her particular brand of poison into the wedding chalice.

 

 

Then, without warning, Cedric Hardcastle, a bluff Yorkshireman who no one has come across before, takes his place on the board of Barringtons. This causes an upheaval that none of them could have anticipated, and will change the lives of every member of the Clifton and Barrington families. Hardcastle's first decision is who to support to become the next chairman of the board: Emma Clifton or Major Alex Fisher? And with that decision, the story takes yet another twist that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Reading - Lola Rose

Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

My name is Lola Rose.

 

That wasn't always my name.  I used to be plain old Jayni - until my dad lost his temper, and things became really scary at home.

 

We had to run away in the middle of the night - me, my mum and my little brother Kenny.

 

Now we're starting again in London - new names, new identities, a brand-new life.  But escaping the past isn't as easy as I thought.  And Dad might find us one day ....

 

 

 

 

Reading - Together for Christmas

Together for Christmas by Carol Rivers

 

 

 

August 1914, London. Britain has just declared war on Germany, and the whole country seems to be in uproar. Flora, Hilda and Will, who grew up together in St Boniface orphanage sit in the sunshine in Hyde Park on a rare day off, discussing the impending war and the changes it will bring to their lives. Will means to go off to fight, Hilda hopes to better her current lot in life as a maid at the charitable institute, Hailing House, but Flora is content with her job as assistant to the Isle of Dogs' kindly Doctor Tapper. Taking a vow, they pledge to always be there for each other, come what may.

It soon becomes clear that the war will not be over by Christmas, as so many thought, and the first zeppelin raids bring casualties flooding into the surgery where Flora works. Tragedy strikes in the trenches, too, and Will returns home with physical and mental wounds too deep for Flora to be able to nurse back to health.

In the meantime, Hilda has taken herself away from London to work as a maid at the sumptuous house of Adelphi. But it is not long before she finds herself out of her depth. And the consequences of her choices will lead to a shocking discovery that will change the course of the three orphans lives forever.

Reading - Rooftoppers

 

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

Everyone tells Sophie that she was orphaned in a shipwreck,  but Sophie is convinced her mother also survived.  When no one believes her, Sophie sets out to prove them wrong.

 

On the run from the authorities, Sophie finds Matteo - a boy walks tightropes and lives in the sky ....  In a race across the rooftops of Paris, will they be able to find her mother, before it's too late ?

Reading - The Wyrm King (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 3)

The Wyrm King (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 3)

by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

In the final installment of Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Nick and Laurie had thought they solved their giant problems when they drove all the giants into the sea. But now, the Grace kids have come back to tell them they may have more trouble coming their way!

It turns out the giants control the population of Hydra, a dragon like creature that is creating sinkholes all over Florida. But with the mermaids refusing to return the giants to the shore, the nixie's still missing and the threat of a destroyed Florida drawing closer, the kids have to take matters in their own hands.

Will Nick and Laurie be able to stop the destruction they unwittingly caused? Can a new giant hunter help save the day? Can Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide help them out of this or are they on their own?

Reading - A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2)

A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2)

by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

Starting where A NIXIE'S SONG ended, the story has Nick and Laurie facing a calamitous invasion of giants. When the giants burn down their housing development, Nick and Laurie turn to the mermaids for advice. The rippling, echoing voices of the cruel mermaids add an exotic element to the audio performance.

Reading - The Wrath of Mulgarath (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 5 of 5

 

The Wrath of Mulgarath (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 5 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

Thirteen-year-old Mallory and nine-year-old twins Jared and Simon return to the Spiderwick Estate only to find their home in shambles, with trash and broken furniture scattered across the lawn and Simon's griffin chasing a "goblin" across the roof. The faerie world that the Grace kids have so slowly probed in this series has finally come home to roost.

Reading - The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 4 of 5

The Ironwood Tree (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 4 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

 A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

The Grace children are back for their fourth adventure in the quest to understand and protect Arthur Spiderwick's guide, a book that offers information about the faerie world. Mallory, the oldest, goes missing from a fencing match. The twins, Jared and Simon, must solve a riddle to save her from evil dwarves who want to create a world totally out of metal with their sister as their queen.

 

Reading - Lucinda's Secret (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 3 of 5

Lucinda's Secret  (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 3 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

The Grace kids--13-year-old Mallory and 9-year-old twins Jared and Simon--get to catch their breath in the third installment of the Spiderwick Chronicles, as they visit their "crazy old" Aunt Lucinda for some help in deciding the fate of the troublesome Field Guide.

 

Fresh from near-fatal goblin and troll attacks in the previous book (The Seeing Stone), the children are torn over whether to hang onto their long-lost great-great-uncle's book or to turn it over to the menacing faeries. Thimbletack--the house brownie who's transmogrified into an angry "boggart"--has lost his patience with the kids, and he starts subjecting Jared to increasingly nasty pranks. Hoping that Lucinda might know something about Uncle Arthur's fate (or at least have some advice on how to fend off the faeries), the three children talk their mom into a trip to the asylum for a visit--but there they learn their situation might be even more dangerous than they imagined. (And, as readers of the series know, the kids already thought they were in hot water.)

 

 

 

Reading - The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 2 of 5

The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 2 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

After making tentative peace with Thimbletack (a coveralled house brownie who's "the size of a pencil"), Jared chooses to ignore the creature's pleas that he destroy his great-great-uncle's mysterious tome, Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Thimbletack warns, "You kept the book despite my advice./Sooner or later there'll be a price." Sure enough, the brownie soon sniffs out a "fell smell in the air," and the disappearance of Simon's new cat starts to make sense. And if the chapter titled "IN WHICH Mallory Finally Gets to Put Her Rapier to Good Use" doesn't get your heart racing as fast as the kids', just wait till you get a load of the troll. ("Cooome baaack. I haaave something for youuu.")

Reading - The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 1 of 5

The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles) - Book 1 of 5 by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

After finding a mysterious, handmade field guide in the attic of the ramshackle old mansion they’ve just moved into, Jared; his twin brother, Simon; and their older sister, Mallory, discover that there’s a magical and maybe dangerous world existing parallel to our own—the world of faerie.

The Grace children want to share their story, but the faeries will do everything possible to stop them...

Reading - Doll Bones

Doll Bones by Holly Black

 

A Junior Fiction

 

 

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.

But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen—and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach and Alice and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen’s ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?