Technically, this book haul was not paid for with money I shouldn’t have spent! It was paid for with ‘celebratory I have read 100 books this year and I’m feeling a bit low’ money. So, technically, I broke no rules!
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding
I am Cat Royal – Orphan, Adventurer, Actress…Meet the feistiest heroine in children’s historical fiction. Reader, you are set to embark on an adventure about one hidden treasure, two bare-knuckled boxers, three enemies and four hundred and thirty-eight rioters.
I was brought up in Drury Lane, so I have become accustomed to a life less than ordinary. But this turn of events, I have to say, surprised even me. Follow me, and I will show you in The Diamond of Drury Lane.
Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It by Susie Day
Max wants to be just like his dad – fun, loud and strong. Instead, he always seems to be accidentally getting into fights and breaking things.
But when his dad starts bringing home mysterious boxes, even more mysterious wads of cash start turning up.
The Dad disappears. And it’s up to Max to look after his sisters till he comes home. When they run away to a remote village in Wales, he’s convinced the no one will find them,
He’s Max Kowalski. Of course he can look after three kids with no grownups around! Although, he can’t stop thinking about where Dad really went. And the whispers of a golden dragon, asleep under the Welsh mountains…
The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman
On the edge of town, a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York.
The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either – her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all the children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.
When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?
We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizsal
Nobody knows that Zafira is the Hunter. Forced to disguise herself as a man, she braves the cursed forest to feed her people. If she is exposed as a girl, all of her achievements will be rejected.
Nasir is the infamous Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If he refuses he he will be punished in the most brutal of ways.
Both a legends in the kingdom of Arawiya – but neither wants to be. And when Zafira embarks on a quest to restore magic to her suffering world, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve magic and kill the hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds, and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine…
The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer
They wanted the same things. Death – and an audience.
Eve Singer makes her living from death. As a TV crime reporter, she’ll go to any length to get the latest scoop. But when a twisted serial killer starts using her to gain the publicity he craves, Eve must decide how far she’s willing to go – and how close she’ll let him get…
An Unlikely Spy by Terry Deary
World War II has begun. Brigit has been evacuated to Wales from her home near the aeroplane factories of Coventry. But when it’s revealed that her father is German, Brigit runs away to join her mother in a very special training camp, where Churchill is building a secret army of spies and saboteurs known as the Special Operations Executive. Brigit and her mother soon find themselves on the front line in Nazi-occupied France, where they search for double agents and meet with danger at every turn in their efforts to support the French resistance. But no-one will suspect Brigit is a spy, will they? After all, who would suspect a child?
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
We can’t choose the strangers we meet.
As the guests arrive at beautiful, remote Mitchell’s Inn, they’re all looking forward to a relaxing weekend deep in the forest, miles from anywhere. They watch their fellow guests with interest, from a polite distance.
Usually we can avoid the people who make us nervous, make us afraid.
With a violent storm raging, the group finds itself completely cut off from the outside world. Nobody can get in – or out. And then the first body if found…The horrifying truth comes to light. There’s a killer among them – and nowhere to run.
Until we find ourselves in a situation we can’t escape. Trapped…
BREAKING: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington.
Historian Jon Keller is on a trip to Switzerland when the world ends. As the lights go out on civilisation, he wishes he had a way of knowing whether his wife, Nadia, and their two daughters are still alive. More than anything, Jon wishes he hadn’t ignored Nadia’s last message.
Twenty people remain in Jon’s hotel. Far from the nearest city and walled in by towering trees, they wait, they survive.
Then on day, the body of a young girl is found. It’s clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer.
As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what kind of justice can he hope for, when society as he knows it no longer exists?
You Won’t Believe This by Adam Baron
Here’s something you won’t believe: someone is doing TERRIBLE things to Mrs Martin, Cymbeline Igloo’s favourite teacher of all time.
Cymbeline has to find the culprit (after he’s learned what ‘culprit’ means). He’s also got to help his friend Veronique, whose grandma is dangerously ill. It seems Nanai has a secret, connected to her arrival in the UK as a Boat Person from Vietnam, a traumatic journey in which she lost her twin sister. Can Cymbeline figure out the mystery in time?
One thing is for sure: even the most unexpected people can change your life in wonderful ways…
Eleven year-old Tilly has lived above her grandparents’ bookshop ever since her mother disappeared shortly after she was born. Like the rest of her family, Tilly loves nothing more than to escape into the pages of her favourite stories.
One day Tilly realises that classic children’s characters are appearing in the shop through the magic of ‘book wandering’ – crossing over from the page into real life.
With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland. Tilly is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago, so she bravely steps into the unknown, unsure of what adventure lies ahead and what dangers she may face.
So, maybe I did buy ten books in Waterstones, but eight of them were in the ‘buy 1 get 1 half price’ offer and only two were full price. ‘I don’t have to justify myself to anyone’, is what I said when my Mum discovered how many books I’d bought. I have left my Waterstones haul in the bag and am just picking out a book at random, which is quite fun and I might have to employ this technique to the large pile of other books I have to read!!!
At the End of the World is a Book 