Laure Mesne is one determined girl, she is ambitious and determined to succeed in the tough world of the Paris ballet.
But she is battling coming from a poor background and also a talented black girl up against the privelaged white girls she experiences prejudice and scorn.
It doesn't matter how good she is it doesn't get a chance.
Out of seeing the life she wants slipping away from her she cuts a desk with a primordial being that is pure evil.

Nikki has always dreamed of being a musician and singer, she wants to escape from home as her situation is bad and she doesn't get on well with her mother.
There are frequent rows and after the latest one involving her sister Vae she swears to "rage quit" Texas and pursue her dreams to attend a singing audition.
But when her her friend Mal who she has been crushing on asks her to stay just one week to change her mind how can she say no?

Steven is seventeen and has big issues that are wrecking his life.
He can‘t control his emotions in certain situational and this always ends in catastrophe.
For instance when he first kissed a boy his head LITERALLY exploded!
Terrified of causing more damage or injuring anyone else he runs away to a place called Grunsby on sea.
But a strange organisation called DEMA is on his case and they want to neutralise.
So where does he run to now?

Shaun Thompson is into rap music big time, he is also known by the name MC Growls.
His mission us to impress the gorgeous Tanisha at school by his rap skills and "cool" manner and to romance her he has a plan.
He thinks it will help if win the Raptology competition.
But when while practicing an embarrassing incident goes live around the school.
He is a laughing stock and Tanisha is appalled..
Until a new girl Siobhan tries to help his confidence.

I and my son absolutely loved this, I've read it over and over since I had my reviewing copy.
It's such fun it's so very interactive for young readers having to join in with the story and say and do things that it tells you too.
The colours were so vivid so for sensory kids this could help to gain their interest.
My son is spectrum and find repetitive things soothing so he really got into it and the repeated lines was helpful and easy to remember.

Faruq has grown up watching his gran Ajee cooking food for the whole family.
All he wants to do is follow in her footsteps, yet his father sees him as a doctor.
He turns to their neighbour, Mrs. Joseph who teaches him basic cookery.
He loves his time learning with Mrs. Joseph and his practice comes into its own when one day Ajee falls sick
She can't cook for the family that day so instead Faruq takes over and finally his family see what he can do.

Zara is a very romantic person and all her life has immersed herself in romance, consuming love stories and romcoms by the gallon.
Now she is just waiting to take centre stage in her OWN story.
But now her best friend Adnana needs a favour, he wants her to cover for him as he has a relationship with a girl with protective parents so if he "fake dates" Zara it will take the heat off him and Cami.
But this causes chaos in their personal lives.

Bob and his best friend Malcolm are consumed with winning the local school talent contest with their own brand of rock act called The tentacles of time.
But things don't go according to plan as Bob is starting to time travel and one of his "slips" take him to an alternate future.
Where their competition for the talent show Eno Fezzinuff, has grown up to become the inventor of a selfie camera hat that when activated turns its subject into a zombie.

Lara Bloom is desperately falling for the new boy Caiden but fears he won't like her for her awkward, clumsy, football loving self.
She and her friends decide to embark on a glow up and hold regular sessions to improve themselves.
Sure this is the fast track to success to getting the boy of her dreams Lara gives it all she's got.
She is determined that this will work and she and Caiden will be a couple.
THIS time she deserves a little luck.

Brother and sister Ralph and Robyn live at Crocodile lodge on a nature reservation.
Their job is to look after the native wildlife the local surroundings.
But suddenly they have a problem, there is a predator causing damage to the reserve, this new menace doesn't seem anything like what would be found in their area.
Clueless the pair start looking into it and suspicions falls right on their hermit like millionaire neighbour, hunter Josef Gerhard.

I read this with my spectrum son as he loves picture books.
He sat and listened to all of it which is a miracle as apart from storytime he is very energetic.
I think the bright colours of the illustrations and the cute animals really held and engaged his interest in the story.
Great for young children and had the added bonus of the whole thing havong a really positive premise and a motivational message to keep trying in life even if we fail.

The story opens in Karachi 1988 and two girls Zahra and Maryam are best friends.
But at this point Karachi is in turmoil and on the brink of great change.
The dictatorship is falling and a female leader is elected.
But one night of fun and frolics for the girls changes their lives.
The girls go driving out with some boys which is cultural taboo.
In present day London and both girls are now grown and driven women.
But that night still echoes...

Earth is about to be hit by a comet.
In the mad scramble to leave on a space ship to another planet people are going to be sacrificed.
Petra and her family are lucky to gain passage to a new world.
But en route the ship is taken over and now the Collective is in command.
Their pasts are reprogrammed but somehow Petra escapes that fate and when she wakes up hundreds of years later, she is the only one who has any memory of Earth or the past.

Earth is about to be hit by a comet.
In the mad scramble to leave on a space ship to another planet people are going to be sacrificed.
Petra and her family are lucky to gain passage to a new world.
But en route the ship is taken over and now the Collective is in command.
Their pasts are reprogrammed but somehow Petra escapes that fate and when she wakes up hundreds of years later, she is the only one who has any memory of Earth or the past.

Max Mullers comes from a magical family background.
But now Max is in trouble, he has attracted the attention of Bottley the local bully and one day while minding his father's market stall disaster strikes!
A chase through the market ensues and he falls foul of the Crayfish twins and their suit gets ruined.
Now he owes them £250 and his family are struggling to pay.
Max desperately needs magical help to get this sorted!

Ivy never knew her mother as she was given away at birth, desperately seeking her she eventually hits lucky and finds a lead on a place called Bardsey Island in Wales.
But the first meeting doesn't go to plan, her mother is scared and to go away for her own safety but why?
Now something from the past has been reawakened and it's now searching for Ivy.
Somehow she is a conduit to the past and her mother gave her away to keep her safe.

Deina is one of many soul severers of the house of Hades.
It wasn't a life choice she has been selected to follow this life and all she ever dreams of is her freedom.
Now she is being offered it, King Orpheus is offering the soul severers a chance to be free if only they will bring back his Queen Eurydice from the dead.
But Deina has to work with a group she doesn't even completely trust and who will all sell each other our in a heartbeat...

Mayken and her nursemaid Imke embark for a voyage on the Batavia.
The year is 1629 and things aren't all that they seem onboard.
Strange things are happening, everyone can feel it.
The tension is reaching breaking point.
In the year 1989 we meet Gil, a very troubled boy whose mother has just died so he is shipped off to live with his reclusive grandfather Joss, a fisherman on an island in Australia.
Both these kids are intertwined.

Kiara Johnson comes from a difficult background, an errant mother, no father in the picture and a brother who would rather spend time in the recording studio than help his family.
Life pretty much falls to Kiara including trying to help another local kid Trevor with a similar family situation.
With little options and job avenues open to her Kiara starts "Nightcrawling with disastrous consequences.
She attracts the notice of the police who use her.

Luca is from a place called Parris island, a beautiful place that anyone would feel lucky to live in.
But Luca doesn't feel that lucky as Parris is home to many local murders within the past few years.
All this is bad enough but now it's more personal than ever, already having lost her best friend, now her elder sister Whitney is the latest victim.
Luca knows there was more to the night she died than anyone will admit...

This was at times such a quirky, fun, irreverent look at the book world, along the way we take in books made of cheese, famous book trials for obscenity, book vandals, books as art, high brow literature and "trash" reads.
Even the format of books, HB, PB, their bindings, the history of printing.
Then we have the more serious topics such as book burning by the Nazis and even modern book burning, human skin bindings etc.
A book treasure trove.

Denise is drowning in domesticity and is unhappy with her life.
She has no time for herself and her needs.
That is until she meets the glamorous Thea, the two strike up an unlikely friendship Thea is all Denise wants to be and seems to have her life sorted.
But she doesn't realise that is all just a facade and when they embark on a spontaneous road trip together they get to know each other better and that Thea's life isn't all that it seems.

Alfie recently lost his wife Pippa, he is left with his twin girls and life has started to fall apart.
He isn't coping so calls the children's aunt Julia in for Sylvie and Cassia are very troubled, they have told their father that Black mamba is in their room at night.
But this is no imaginary friend, Black mamba is there for a reason, he is coming for the girls.
Can they thwart this evil friend's plans to take his daughters?

Lucy is struggling, her life is now vastly different to what it used to be.
Pre marriage and children she had choices, was able to travel, she was able to pursue her career as a cellist.
She was HER, now she has little for herself as each day she just caves to the demands of family pressure.
She is a woman on the edge, her marriage is in meltdown, her career is in tatters and she secretly suspects that her eldest son is autistic.

When Leah Parata goes missing the local community mourns her loss but no trace could ever be found as to how or why she had disappeared.
This was twenty five years ago and now in the present day Emily Kirkland has flown back to New Zealand to look after her father.
Felix has been afflicted with the terrible disease of Alzheimer's.
Emily is struggling to cope yet at the same time she is getting a rather deep and profound look at her father.

The world is in lockdown during the first wave of the pandemic.
Max and his family are struggling cope just like everyone else, with his father as a key worker tensions can also run high.
After a disagreement with his mam as a way of escaping the isolation he feels he starts to count, the counting goes on until he decides he will only stop when he hits a million.
But what was originally a silly counting game has turned into a local frenzy.

I think this could be a very niche book as it relied mostly on characters and plot.
A writer has a chance meeting with an old friend or rather acquaintance at the airport and they strike up a convo and
Jeff tells his friend of a past incident where he rescued a man from drowning.
But with hindsight Jeff questions was this act the right thing to do as the man he saved wasn't a good character.
A clever thought provoking novel of a what if nature.

Sama and Hadi are a young couple just starting out in life, full of love and hope with a new baby on the way too this should be an exciting time.
But towards the end of the end of Sama's pregnancy Hadi has to travel to Jordan to arrange a funeral for his father.
Little does he know a law enacted while he is away denies him access both to his new adopted country and also his wife and child.
This is the heartbreaking story of lives torn apart.

This is the story of Jack Fiskardo, a boy through circumstances now an orphan.
His mother supposedly hung herself is left with a silver wolf icon in her hands while his father is murdered.
Jack sets out to find justice that takes him through many countries during the period of the thirty years war.
Amsterdam, France then onto the German battlefields.
But his journey has only just begun and his father's killers must pay for what they have done.

The story follows two young girls during the war years in Belfast and the time of the "Belfast blitz."
Emma is rather a free spirit and embarks on an affair with Sylvia which in those days would most certainly be frowned upon.
The other, Audrey is engaged to be married to Richard yet she is wrestling with her conscience as she isn't in love with him.
Both are trying to find a sense of identity and belonging during a very turbulent period.

Erm I don't quite rightly know what to say about this one.
Except that for such a relatively short novel it seemed to feel like I was wading through a book about the size of "War and peace!"
The most half hearted and mundane piece of writing I have come across in quite a while
It's the start of the pandemic and Senderovsky has rounded up a group of friends to share his country manor and hole up at his country manor.
Gossip sniping and sex abound.

In the town of Cooney the school is the centre of life and the ladies time tends to revolve around Glass lake extra curricular shenanigans.
When Beverly Franklin catches her naked daughter in the act of sending a rude selfie to a boy at school she goes on the warpath against the Whitehead family.
She is determined no stain shall attach to Amelia especially as the town has a feature of the school play on tv.

The year is 1800 the setting is Cornwall and Madeleine Pelligrew is imprisoned in a mad house.
She has spent the last fourteen years of her life in captivity and she can't even figure out in her frenzied and half crazy state why she is even there let alone to escape from this situation.
One day a mysterious man arrives at the asylum to sign papers for her release into her brother's care.
Confused and scared she is determined to find the truth.

Naomi is now on her own with just her two daughters Willow and Martha.
She is a widow, her husband Colin has died and she has found love with Ellis, but he is an old flame her daughters have no knowledge of.
Scared of how they will react Naomi is nervous of her new found happiness considering the secret she carries.
Yet her daughters are also struggling, Martha is trying to conceive while Willow has somehow fallen into a toxic relationship.

Civil war has broken out in the Britain, it is 1642 and the country is being torn apart by politics and families are sundered due to political affiliations while the king ad parliament tussle for supremacy.
Jayne Swift refuses to take sides even though her family is also doing so
She is a rarity of her time, a female physician who tends men‘s war wounds no matter what side they fight for.
William Harrier has seen her work and quickly falls for her

Gil Peck is a journalist and is reporting on and enjoying all the gossip and scandal attendent on the 1997 elections.
But then suddenly in the midst of all this whirlwind and hotbed of potential news his sister Clare dies in a hit and run
Clare also was prominent in the world of politics.
So after the first shock wears off Gil starts to ask himself did Clare know more than she appeared to?
Was this in some way related to her death?

Selma Falck meets up with friends with catastrophic consequences.
One of her friends that day is taken out when a sniper attacks and fatally shoots her.
Confused as to why this has happened both Selma and the police for a time assume that its Selma herself that was the intended target and her friend just got in the way.
But then Selma starts to dig deep and what she uncovers reveals that this was all just part of a wider situation.

I was intrigued by the subtitle of this, schoolboy poisoner, I hadn't heard of Graham Young before so wasted to learn more about him.
The whole story was rather a complex case and rather in a way motiveless as Graham admitted his stepmother wasn't abusive so it seems as if the poisoning of her, his first victim was pure curiosity as to the effects of poison.
Then just like other serial killers starting out he went onto bigger crimes...

The three girls, Bron, Georgie and Lissa knew each other from their time on the swim team.
Best friends ever since they find it hard to believe that one of them is gone, Lissa has drowned.
Georgie, Bron and their friends Adam and Duncan gather on the island where Lissa drowned off the coast of.
But something is not quite right and making them question the situation, the girls are all asking themselves how such a proficient swimmer can drown?

This was such a charming story of loss, love and rediscovery.
When Penny loses her father and also her fiance around the same time she sets off on a voyage of self discovery and as an homage to her father's memory as he introduced her to the Durrells books.
Fascinated by their eccentric and bohemian lifestyle she books a month long trip to Corfu to follow in their footsteps and soak up the local history at the same time.
Finding love along the way

Iris and Summer are twins but their personalities are mirror images.
Summer is considered the good, sweet, accomplished twin who has a stepson, amazing husband and great lifestyle and basically all a woman could ever want.
Iris is the one on the outside always looking on.
So when she is invited to crew the family yacht down to Thailand she jumps at it.
Through a quirk of fate it ends up just being Summer and Iris in charge of the Bathsheba...

Leigh Collier is happy in her life, it is ticking along OK and she has tried to bury her dreadful childhood in the past where it belongs.
But suddenly she is presented with the case of a lifetime, one that could make or break her law career.
But she knows the person she has to defend, essentially he IS a huge part of her past.
Now skeletons locked in a cupboard threaten to come to light and this case also involves her drug addict sister...

This is the story of Missy Carmichael, a very lonely yet to the world anti social character.
Though reserved Missy finds herself accosted by two very different ladies in the local park whilst out on a walk.
Those two ladies are the new lifeline in her life and are the way that Missy rejoins a social world that she thought was behind her.
So used to her own company she struggles but ever so slowly she learns to trust but can she ever fully live?

Keira is happy, life is good with no bumps in the road in sight.
Then one day her world comes crashing down in the space of an hour in a consulting room.
For Keira has just been diagnosed with breast Cancer.
Not dealing well with it she meets a lady called Tamsin, she too has Cancer.
This inspirational lady sets up a Cancer ladies running club.
It's given her a boost and a new found will and strength to come back fighting.
A sweet tale of hope.

Emma was once married to a well known diplomat and mixed in the highest circles.
She partied with the higher echelons and even turned her hand to spying.
You can say she lived a rather exciting and fast paced life.
But there was always one shadow on the horizon, the death of her beloved brother Hugh.
Now terminally ill she is determined to find out the truth while blending a holiday with her grandson Phil into a fact finding investigation.

Rachel Lambert and her boyfriend suddenly find themselves as the victims of crime.
He is knocked off his bike and hospitalised.
Scared of repercussions Rachel leaves the area and temporarily goes to Ireland to get away from the danger and stress.
Meanwhile she starts to question and probe the death of a homeless man that could have links to the bike accident...
Bit she uncovers some very dark truths.

This has got to be one of the best thrillers I have read so far this year.
DI Grace Archer is assigned a case to find the @nonymous murderer.
It's a serial killer that is using his staged murder victims as art installations that he is live streaming to social media.
Sickened by watching people die online Archer and her partner Quinn are in a frantic race to try to apprehend the killer and stay one step ahead to try and save his next victim.

I didn't know what to expect from this as I couldn't find much info online and the blurb just hinted and let drop that the whole thing would be a magical journey and wow was it.
I hadn't read a book like this before.
It was so clever.
The whole premise of the story was the journey of a word.
He set on a quest to find his own meaning.
I suppose he was looking for an identity, the key to who he was and his essence.
Wonderful and whimsical.

I really loved this, such a refreshing take on Snow white.
Sophie is led by a huntsman into the forest and is slain.
Her evil stepmother is determined to get rid of any who could rival her.
But in a quirk of fate Sophie doesn't die, she wakes up and is shocked to find herself surrounded by a band of dwarves who have fashioned her a clockwork heart.
There is just one tiny snag, the clock mechanism only has a limited time to run and beat...

Jo moves back to the forest of Dean from a high powered job that is unsatisfying in London.
Her mission is to try and save the family butcher business as her parents plan to retire.
Brimming with ideas she throws her lot into the shop to try and improve the takings.
Meanwhile she takes a room with the thorny Tessa in her cottage.
Both have baggage and slowly as they unfold their lives to each other they are forced to confront their issues.