Jennifer Archer - The Shadow Girl (2013)

Lily Winston has a voice in her head - it belongs to Iris. They've been together forever and now Iris is pushing Lily to find out the truth about their past. To solve the mystery of why they exist and how Lily can remember things that Iris did before she was ever born. Is Iris a ghost? Is Lily possessed?

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone, so I can't really explain more than that. It was an interesting book and it raised a lot of questions in my mind. Mostly about whether souls exist or the mind just creates a personality? Also, is who we are a part of every cell in our body? What does this mean for organ transplants? The concept of the book is a worrying pit of questions without answers, but it's a future we're rapidly moving towards.

Ellery Adams - Peach Pies and Alibis (2013)

This is book two in the Charmed Pie Shoppe mystery series.

American writers really do love to "Americanise" the Arthurian myth. In this series the LeFaye women are direct descendants of the good Morgan LeFay, and their nasty counter-parts are from Queen Guinevere. Perhaps America is a mirror-verse of England?

Having grown up on the Arthurian myth, particularly via Susan Cooper and T.H. White, the book seemed really implausible. Why would all of the Arthurian characters ditch England for America? Particularly when one of the main aspects of the myth is how Arthur is the great hero for England's times of peril? (Although I think he missed the boat on World War II. Perhaps his supernatural alarm didn't go off?)

Anyways, ignore the myth and you do have a good book. The story is interesting, each of the LeFaye women has a specific gift. The lead character, Ella Mae, can bake pies that enchant people to do or feel what she wants them to. It borders on manipulation (or has crossed that border), but fortunately Ella Mae is a good encantress and she tries to help make people's lives better, even when she doesn't like them. This helps her solve mysteries and find murderers - although in this book Ella Mae has to do it before they all lose their powers. No pressure kid.

Victoria Hamilton - Bran New Death (2013)

This is the first book in the Merry Muffin Mystery series and seems to be part of the penny-dreadful mystery books that are being conveyor-belted out these days. It's tolerable light reading, but don't expect a mystery in the realm of Christie or Sayers. These are fluffy books that you can spend a few hours consuming, non-taxing or thought provoking.

The protagonist Merry Wynter's life falls apart in New York, so she heads off to a house she recently inherited from her Uncle. Merry essentially runs away from home and only lets friends know she's gone once she finds herself alone and in trouble - like most kids. Happily her friends are very forgiving and they rush to her aid as she creates a new life in Autumn Vale and solves the mystery of her Uncle's murder.

The story wasn't unduly deep and the characters didn't draw me in. I didn't like any of them, I felt they were cardboard cut-outs. Surface development without substance which left me not overly interested in reading the next two books in the series.  I think an author with Hamilton's experience should have been able to write more realistic characters than this. The whole book felt tongue-in-cheek, right down to the character's names. Like the author was poking fun at the more ludicrous writers in the world - only she wasn't, and that's just a bit sad for literature.

David Perlmutter - Grain Brain (2013)

The essential aspects of this book were extremely interesting, although I had to wade through all the padding to find them. The theory is that an addiction to grains, gluten and sugar is destroying our brains and leading to the recent rise in dementia, Alzheimer's, arthritis and auto-immune disease's in today's society.

Perlmutter makes a very strong case for going off addictive foods and developing healthier brains that don't start their early decline, more frighteningly in teenagers as much as adults, in our current processed foods addicted society.

I found the information that everything we eat contains gluten very helpful. It's what triggers the process in our brains and makes us want to eat more of it because we briefly feel a happy-sated reaction and we want to feel it over and over again. This is why I avoid Krispy Kreme Doughnuts - anything that makes me that happy must be super-bad for me.

The trick is finding something to eat or do that replaces the opiate-like gluten reaction in our brains and supports its healthy development. Easy? No. Everyone is different and it will take a lot of trial and error to find what is right for you. So the book lets us know we have a problem, but there's no easy solution to it. Perlmutter describes it as going off a drug and just abstaining, but we're confronted by gluten foods constantly in society, so abstaining isn't enough. There needs to be a better process in place that makes the gluten reaction redundant.

I'll go think on it while I eat my vegemite toast, my tea and biscuits, my gluten-enriched vegetable chow mein...

Lucy Carver - Young, Gifted and Dead (2013)

When I began this book I almost threw it aside. It initially begins like season one of Veronica Mars - the murdered best friend is even named Lily! But, the brilliant plot quickly had me hooked. Our heroine, Alyssa, is sent off to an elite boarding school in the wilds of England where she encounters a ruthless secret society with a very nasty agenda.

Put like that it doesn't sound like much, but the author has a way of twisting the plot and throwing the blame in different directions until you don't know who the real murderer is until the very end. Some of the topics raised in the book were a little frightening, but very relevant in today's egotist society. I wouldn't want anyone under the age of 16 to read it, but it definitely would be thought provoking for older teens.

Anne Bishop - Written in Blood (2013)

This is the first in a new series by the ever brilliant author, Anne Bishop.

Meg Corbyn is a cassandra sangue, a woman who can see the future when her skin is cut. This makes her a very valuable commodity without a life of her own. Escaping her 'owners' she ends up in the non-human section of the country, hiding where human law does not apply.

The non-humans in this book are the best I have ever read - they're not the fluffy werewolves and sparkly vampires of popular fiction. They're what they truly are, a completely different species with opposing beliefs and societal mores to humans. They see humans the same way a lion would, as prey. They tolerate them... when they're not hungry.

Every myth or monster is alive and living in the Others courtyards and they do not politely negotiate when they feel threatened. They're the dominant species on the planet, humans are just tasty-tasty-monkeys to them, and when the humans try to assert their dominance cities drown, Winter strikes and scary things get scarier.

I cannot wait for books two and three, this book was just that fantastic. If you really enjoy urban fantasy then 'Written in Blood' shouldn't be missed.

Robin Benway - Also Known As (2013)

Maggie Silver is a brilliant safe-cracker and teenage spy. Spending her childhood roaming the world with her spy parents, solving world crises, trying not to get kidnapped and keeping her life 'beige' is all she has ever known.

Until New York.

The spy ring Maggie's parents work for suddenly thrusts her on a solo mission at an expensive private school with the lives of every spy in the organisation at stake. No pressure, right?

Benway writes a fun novel. I really liked the characters and the plot progression. The ending of the mission seemed a bit sudden, but it was really more a backdrop for Maggie's introduction to high school and a normal teenage lifestyle. Any girl who has ever wanted to be a spy will love this book... I did.

Jonathan Stroud - The Screaming Staircase (2013)

Brilliant book! Very scary!

Stroud has come up with an interesting storyline - ghosts have become a major problem in England, but the only people who can see or hear them are children. So children with this gift (or curse) are trained to rid England of ghosts or become nightwatch-kids to protect entries to buildings - all very dangerous jobs.

It's quite horrifying that children are put in often fatal situations, protecting adults from the very things the adults should be protecting them from. This ghost-wormed England is quite topsy-turvy to our current day world and almost Victorian in its child-labour aspects. Stroud's characters face down situations that would make an adult run screaming - but these 'psychic investigator's' are resigned to their role in society. It's in their speech and actions, it distances them from ordinary people. They know the reality of what's out there and that it will probably kill them, whilst others get to live normal lives.

The whole concept was wonderful. I cannot wait for book two.