The Overflowing Library

Another insane reading month due to still being in a broken legged house bound state

Books read in October

Scarlet by AC. Gaughen (Did not finish)
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabriella Zevin
The Madness underneath by Maureen Johnson
A Month with April-May by Edyth Bulbring
Shift by Em Bailey
Blink Once by Cylin Busby
Hunted by Sophie McKenzie
Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles
A Witch in Love by Ruth Warburton
The Returners by Gemma Malley
The Stuff of Nightmares by Malorie Blackman
The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff
Double Cross by Sophie McKenzie
Solace of the Road by Siobhan Dowd
The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick
A year without Autumn by Liz Kessler (Did not finish)
Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman (on audio not finished but may finish at some point)
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan
Speechless by Hannah Harrington
A Sea of Stars by Kate Maryon (Did not finish)
Painted Blind by Michelle Hansen (Did not fi…

As romantic as Shiver...as intense as "Before I Fall". Revived is unmissable.

The world fades to nothing, and before I have the chance to think another thought...I'm dead.

My name is Daisy West and my whole life is a lie. I'm part of a programme to test a drug called Revive - a drug that brings people back from the dead. I have died five times. I've been Revived five times. With each revival comes a new name, a new town...a new life. But this time, I won't let myself die. This time, I've found a love that I can't let go of. This time, I'm going to make my life my own.

***
After reading Cat Patrick's forgotten I'd been excitedly waiting for Revived. While I didn't love this as much as forgotten I really did enjoy it.

Daisy has died many times since the age of 5. Each time she died she's had to pack up her life and move with the agents posing as her parents and start afresh. This has made it difficult for her to get close to …

When Rose was twelve, her mother and stepfather went out for dinner and never came back. Now seventeen, she lives with her grandmother and goes to school in London. She’s always wondered about her stepbrother, Joshua, whom she only lived with briefly and who was also relocated after their parents’ disappearance. When Rose and Joshua meet again, they find they have much in common, including a desire to uncover the mystery surrounding their parents’ disappearance . . . and a mutual attraction to each other. But when Rose witnesses the murders of not one but two of her classmates, she must uncover who is behind these violent crimes. And when she and Joshua discover that a much larger conspiracy is underway, both of their lives will be in danger. From international bestseller Anne Cassidy, this first in a fastpaced and romantic new mystery series will keep readers guessing.

***
I've had Dead Time on my TBR pile for ages and wish I'd got round to it earlier.

The story i…

So about 6 weeks ago I was offered very kindly a couple of audio books for review from the lovely people at Audio Go. I was incredibly excited about it because not only were they a couple of book I love but also I thought it would something different for me to do whilst in the middle of broken leg recovery (which involves sitting in one spot from 7am - 10pm all day every day, not reccomended at all).

However apparently I suck at audio books. I just can't concentrate on them. I'll sit listening to them but find myself completely zoning out and missing bits and I don't know why. It's not the story because it was a book I loved and it isn't the quality of the recording because the bits I listened to were excellent.

So to cut a long story short if you like audio books Audio Go is  brilliant website for them and very easy to use and the quality of book is good however it really isn't the way to enjoy books for me!

I live in a two bed flat with my wife and son. I don't really have a lot of room for well organised bookshelves. So mine tend to be in piles  around the house. This does make yourself vulnerable to that most dangerous of things - the book avalanche. This pile is a collection of books I was using to write Constable & Toop, my new book. It's a Victorian ghost story full of murders, intrigue and humour so there a few research books I used plus plots of the kinds of ghost stories written around the time, so I could attempt to get the language right.



There are always a lot of books on my bedside table. These are books I'm reading, have read or plan to read. Looking at this pile makes me realise how much of a scatter gun approach I have to literature. I'm not sure there's much to link any of these books.

The books that do make it on to the few shelves I have tend to be reference books. I realise that the internet can answer a lot of questions but there&…

An intense look at the rules of high school attraction -- and the price that's paid for them.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.

This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.

***


I must admit I have every mixed feelings about this book. For most of it I must admit I wasn't all that impressed but I did think the last part was much better and it changed my mind about the book as a whole.

The List is the story of eight girls who appeared on The List at their school. Every year a list appears at their school naming the prettiest and ugliest girl in each grade and follows their story on the lead up to t…

Anna Winterson doesn't know she's a witch and would probably mock you for believing in magic, but after moving to the small town of Winter with her father, she learns more than she ever wanted to about power. When Anna meets Seth, she is smitten, but when she enchants him to love her, she unwittingly amplifies a deadly conflict between two witch clans and splits her own heart in two. She wants to love Seth, to let him love her – but if it is her magic that's controlling his passion, then she is as monstrous as the witch clan who are trying to use her amazing powers for their own gain.

Although a perfect fit for the paranormal romance genre, A WITCH IN WINTER avoids fangs, excessive body hair and submissive female leads, and tells the heart-wrenching story of a couple meant to be together, but being forced apart. Seth is utterly irresistible and Anna is an empowered, proactive young woman with unimaginable magic inside her. 

***
I really enjoyed a Witch in Winte…

Will West is careful to live life under the radar. At his parents' insistence, he's made sure to get mediocre grades and to stay in the middle of the pack on his cross-country team. Then Will slips up, accidentally scoring off the charts on a nationwide exam.

Now Will is being courted by an exclusive prep school . . . and is being followed by men driving black sedans. When Will suddenly loses his parents, he must flee to the school. There he begins to explore all that he's capable of--physical and mental feats that should be impossible--and learns that his abilities are connected to a struggle between titanic forces that has lasted for millennia.

Co-creator of the groundbreaking television series Twin Peaks, Mark Frost brings his unique vision to this sophisticated adventure, which combines mystery, heart-pounding action, and the supernatural.

***
The Paladin prophecy is an exciting new novel from the co author of Twin Peaks. It's fast paced and exciting with…

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.
Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.
Everyone except Jenna Fox.

***
I loved Jenna Fox and have been waiting desperately for this book. Now I've read it I'm so not so sure it was worth the wait and anticipation.

Don't get me wrong I found it very easy to read this book because the writing style was good, as it was with Jenna Fox, meaning I found it to be a really quick page turner. However I just felt that the s…

If you haven't worked it out yet, girls don't do this. They don't come to the Hovel. They don't like goblins and dragons. They don't paint miniatures. They don't play role playing games or re-enact fictional battles. And they don't talk to Geeks like me especially if they're pretty. And this girl is pretty. What do you do if you're a fourteen-year-old Geek, and a Beautiful Girl has appeared in the midst of your geeky world? And she seems to like you... For Archie, the natural reaction would be to duck and cover ... run for the hills ... buy a new model elf... Anything but risk stepping into the Real World. But even Geeks have to put their heads above the parapet at some point. With his mum barely able to contain her excitement that her son is about to join the human race, and his step-father, Tony the Tosser, offering crass advice, it's time for Archie to embark on a daring Quest to win the Beautiful Girl's heart and shake off …

I've had a lot of books in my lifetime, but unfortunately I've moved house many, many times and had to shed books along the way. Some have remained with ex-partners, and new partners have then filled up my shelves with their books, and so on…it's a kind of meiotic process that lead to strange new genetic combinations! Sadly a lot of our books and bookshelves aren't easily accessible at the moment - my husband works from home as a non-fiction sales rep, so a good many of our own books have had to be packed away to make room for his stock, whilst others are on bookshelves wedged behind furniture - or, in one case, a bicycle! - which makes for terrible photos.
So, I've concentrated on the bookcases that are important to me as a writer. The first, of course, is my SF and fantasy collection, in the corner of the bedroom. This holds everything except the complete Terry Pratchett collection, which practically needs its own bookcase! It's a mixture of ol…

In this action-packed thriller sequel to Envy, foreign exchange student Olivia Grant is stabbed to death after a party--and the prime suspect is her best friend. As twins Hayley and Taylor Ryan get pulled into the aftermath of this Amanda Knox-like crime, they realize nothing is what it seems. Could it be betrayal of the ultimate kind?
Betrayal features real-life crime-solving techniques, heart-stopping suspense, plenty of red herrings, hard-hitting ethical questions, and information about the Amanda Knox case that inspired the novel. As the crime unravels, so does the twins' past…and they must face off against a family member who may unexpectedly have carried out the worst betrayal of all.

***
Betrayal is the sequel to envy. The story focuses around the murder mystery following the death of a teenager in the town and picks up and develops storylines first mentioned in book one involving twins Taylor and Hayley Ryan

The main storyline following the murder mystery was muc…

An off-the-wall love story told in two voices. Straight-laced Sara dreams of two things: getting into her first-choice university and finding true love. Rock-loving slacker Tobey also dreams of two things: winning Battle of the Bands – and winning Sara. He is determined to make her fall in love with him. Tobey's quirky wit and big blue eyes are hard for Sara to ignore. But can a scruffy rock-star wannabe ever win the heart of a girl who’s both beautiful and brainy? Sara and Tobey's intense connection will have you rooting for them from the very minute they meet!

***
I got this book a while back as I wanted to read more contemporary fiction and then left it on the shelf for ages. Why I did this to myself I have no idea because it was so good and I whizzed through it in a matter of hours.

When it happens is the story of Sara and Tobey and is split between their dual narrative. Sara is waiting for the perfect guy to come along and whisk her off her feet and doesn'…

When oxygen levels plunge in a treeless world, a state lottery decides which lucky few will live inside the Pod. Everyone else will slowly suffocate. Years after the Switch, life inside the Pod has moved on. A poor Auxiliary class cannot afford the oxygen tax which supplies extra air for running, dancing and sports. The rich Premiums, by contrast, are healthy and strong. Anyone who opposes the regime is labelled a terrorist and ejected from the Pod to die. Sixteen-year-old Alina is part of the secret resistance, but when a mission goes wrong she is forced to escape from the Pod. With only two days of oxygen in her tank, she too faces the terrifying prospect of death by suffocation. Her only hope is to find the mythical Grove, a small enclave of trees protected by a hardcore band of rebels. Does it even exist, and if so, what or who are they protecting the trees from? A dystopian thriller about courage and freedom, with a love story at its heart.

***
I must admit that whil…

Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa — and their high-profile revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp — people can no longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of troublesome teens while simultaneously providing much-needed tissues for transplant might be convenient, but its morality has finally been brought into question. However, unwinding has become big business, and there are powerful political and corporate interests that want to see it not only continue, but also expand to the unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.

Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.

Rife with action and su…

For fans of Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels.

Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud—and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place. Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection—and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her …

After her mother died, Glory retreated into herself and her music. Her single father raised her as a piano prodigy, with a rigid schedule and the goal of playing sold-out shows across the globe. Now, as a teenager, Glory has disappeared. As we flash back to the events leading up to her disappearance, we see a girl on the precipice of disaster. Brilliant and lonely, Glory is drawn to an artistic new boy, Frank, who moves in next door. The farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness. Before long, Glory is unable to play anything but the song "Chopsticks."

But nothing is what it seems, and Glory's reality is not reality at all. In this stunningly moving novel told in photographs, pictures, and words, it's up to the reader to decide what is real, what is imagined, and what has been madness all along....

***

Chopsticks is a brilliantly different read. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and in the case of this book it's definitely true.…