By Gabrielle Zevin, published by Macmillan.

For Anya, love will become a life-or-death choice…

It’s New York in the year 2082, and Anya has, as believed by the police, attempted to murder her ex-boyfriend. Even though she was not the criminal against the poison laced in the chocolate she gave her ex, she is considered dangerous (She is one of New York’s most notorious criminals daughter) and sent to Liberty Island where criminals are now kept.

Upon coming out with criminal status, she falls in love with the District Attorneys son: Win. But she cannot love him. It could cost her a lot; including her loved ones lives. What will she decide; to stay with Win and risk lives, or leave him to save her siblings?

This book is the first in the BIRTHRIGHT Trilogy, and now I can’t wait for the second instalment!

It’s a heart-breaking and sad story: The protagonists older brother is unable to help run the house, her grandmother is bed-ridden and her parents were both murdered in an unsolved conspiracy. As you’re introduced to this Anya’s ex-boyfriend is poisoned! Suddenly the book turns into a fast-paced thriller complete with gangster-family members with grudges on each other, and a fight for survival as well. It’s a brilliant story, with a strong main character who I loved reading about, and the book ticked all of the boxes for me. I would really recommend it to all YA’s looking for an exciting, crime based read!

By Stefan Bachmann, published by Harper Collins Children’s Books

“Child number eleven is everything. Everything we hoped…”

Bartholomew Kettle and his sister Hettie are Peculiar. Their mother is a human and their father a faery, and they are hated by both faeries and humans alike. They reside with their mother in a faery slum in New Bath, England, live by the motto ‘Don’t get yourself noticed and you won’t get yourself hanged’. But one day Bartholomew sees a mysterious lady in Plum on his street take a small peculiar like him, and his world is turned upside down. Little does he know it, he has landed himself in the middle of a conspiracy. When Hettie is endangered, can a certain Mr Jelliby help Bartholomew save her and stop an evil mind which is plotting something terrible?

This book was amazing! It is steampunk, murder mystery, folklore and fairy tale all rolled into one. It’s by far one of the most imaginative novels I have read in a while! The protagonists were easy to love and made great leading characters. The settings I loved; I like how Mr Bachmann has turned places in England to believable faery-infested places. I still find it pretty hard to believe it is the debut novel of an eighteen year old writer though!

I can’t wait to read more from this talented new voice in children’s books; Keep writing Stefan!

By Sam Gayton, published by Andersen Press.

Lettie Peppercorn is the twelve year old landlady of a house-turned-hotel on stilts, and ever since she can remember she’s been making tea and soup for the guests and tidying up after them. Her best friends are the wind and a pigeon, and life is no fun at all, but she’s used to it. But one day her life changes forever! A mysterious man who calls himself Blϋstav the Snow Merchant turns up at lettie’s door with a suitcase full of the most wonderful invention ever- snow. After Lettie is introduced to it an adventure begins. She embarks on a mission at sea to find her lost mother, who Blϋstav once knew, with her new best friend Noah: A boy with a branch growing from his shoulder. Their adventure will contain magic, alchemy, and some evil guests… will they be able to claim snow as their own, find Lettie’s mother and get her family back to normal?

This book was awesome! Right from the very first page it hooks you in, and the story is just so unbelievably imaginative. There are all sorts of things packed in, from alchemy and a family mystery to giant whales and great antagonists (Two of which are old ladies who were guests at Letties house!). It’s a great adventurous storyline with lots of unexpected twists and I couldn’t stop reading it. All in all I think it’s a great wintery read that’s perfect to curl up with this holiday.

 I can’t wait to read more from Sam Gayton, his writing is great!

By Gareth P. Jones, published by Hot Key Books

Sam Toop works with his father and his father’s partner Mr Constable at a funeral parlour. Not only does Sam have to endure looking at dead people, but he can see ghosts too. Sam’s uncle Jack Toop is a murderer and when he comes to stay everything seems to be turned upside down… Jack finds himself working for ghosts and Sam is in the middle of a similar sticky situation… The Black Rot. Nobody knows what it is yet except for that it’s covering the houses of London… can Sam help defeat an Exorcist, and save the ghosts?

I thought this book was great! Another of the new Hot Key Books releases, and I really enjoyed it. Constable and Toop makes a comedic twist on the world of horror. It contains murderous acts, exorcism, ghosts, haunting and more… but the author has made it really come alive with funny bits. It scared me a little, and made me laugh too!

 It’s very well written; with each chapter switching from Sam’s Dilemmas, and to the Ghost’s dilemmas. I loved the way the events develop, and all of the characters such as Sam, Clara, and Lapsewood all come together at the end!

Try this book out, it’s really good! Also, this book has won the Blue Peter Book Award, which is an amazing achievement!

By Annabel Pitcher, published by Indigo (Orion)

I’ve done something wrong. Not even a little bit wrong or even quite a bit wrong. What I’ve done is awful. And do you want to know the worst thing?

I’ve got away with it.

Zoe is fifteen. She’s an average girl, but one thing is eating at her from the inside and she needs to tell somebody. She can’t confess it to anyone. It would be too hard. But when she finds a site where you can become pen pals with people on Death Row in America, Zoe sees criminal Stuart Harris and begins to write him her shocking story. She locks herself in her shed with a jam sandwich, and a pen and paper, and writes a series of letters, containing everything from love and lies, hope and fear, to humour and heartbreak.

This story, just like Annabel’s debut novel, is everything I hoped for. The characters are perfect: They’re three-dimensional and make strong emotional bonds with the reader, especially the unique character of Zoe, whose life story is mostly heart-wrenchingly sad!

Annabel Pitcher, as all of you who have read her debut novel ‘my sister lives on the mantelpiece’ will know, has an extremely brilliant talent at creating realistic, unforgettable storylines and plots, and this has really shown through yet again in her long-awaited-for new novel! The book is expertly told from the perspective of a fifteen year old girl, and even though there is so much packed into it: The romance, the heartache, the murder, this story is so believable!

Overall I really loved it. The murder mystery with an essence of romance in a unique, one-sided letter conversation is very appealing to me and I’m sure that it will be enjoyed by crime lovers, as well as Romance fans.

 This story is a special one, from an author who I can tell has an extremely bright future ahead of her. Keep writing Annabel! I can’t wait for more amazing books to come from you!

By F.R Hitchcock, published by Hot Key Books.

Have you ever made a wish on a shooting star? Tom has, but his wish has gone terribly wrong!

Tom is your average, nearly 11 year old boy. He has just moved in with his parents and grandmother at ‘by-water-by-sea’ and hasn’t exactly settled in at his school or home. He is called names like ‘model village’ because of the house that he lives in. All around it is a miniature replica of the town, as his grandma owns it!

It is at the model village when Tom makes his wish on the shooting star. But it doesn’t come true. Instead, something incredible yet dangerous has happened… Tom now has the supernatural power to shrink things!

By Accident, he shrinks Jupiter. But now, with no Jupiter in the solar system, the magnetic pull of everything has messed up… and Earth is set on track to hit the Sun! While meteors are crashing all over the place and Tom is trying to hide his shrinking powers, can he and his new accomplices save the day by getting Jupiter back to its normal spot?

This is another one of Hot Key Book’s awesome reads! It’s probably the only book with an age range of under-teens, (The rest is all a teen range, check them out too!), but lives up to the same expectations I had of all of the other seven releases. It’s a great read for around age eight, but I have to say, I enjoyed it as much as eight year olds probably would. The book, Shrunk, is an epic, one of a kind sci-fi adventure with a funny twist. It’s actually really sad, but has such a lovely ending, with lots of unexpected humour!

All in all, I would really recommend it; to little people and the teens- it’s an awesome, small novel. But there’s a catch… once you’ve read this, you’ll really want to have Shrinking powers! I know I do! (But obviously I wouldn’t use them to shrink a planet, I now know the consequences!).