Ann

Jake D'Jones is a seemingly normal teenager with slightly eccentric parents and a lost older brother. The he gets kidnapped and find out that his parents are part of a secret time travelers society. His subsequent adventures, getting to know his fellow travelers, and trying to find his parents, make engrossing reading.

Clear to read, with historical facts and backgrounds as a bonus, this is a enjoyable, humorous escapist action novel, and the start of a series which has to be good news.

Can't emphasise enough - buy this for the Kindle - it's a huge, heavy book and uncomfortable to read unless sitting at a table !

Where to start - its classified as an epic, and the comparisons with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (which Sanderson helped complete) are inevitable and valid. It nearly lost me at the first hurdle as the size, plus the complexity and goriness of the first chapter didn't appeal but as it was a gift, I thought I should carry on, and I was well rewarded. It's a fantasy feast - rich, satisfying, complex.

What a disappointment! Started well enough picking up on the characters in the previous two very good books and the Loethar and Elka storyline developing in a believable fashion, but halfway through I felt it descended into a rush to untangle all the ends at once. Yes it was good that all was sorted out but at a high cost to the characterisation and the storylines.

What happened to Leo? Complete change in character. Loved the completely unnecessary Tourettes doctor, but the Vested went by the wayside and Evie and Ravan lines could have been so much better.

The second of the Time Riders series and this time it's back to the time of the Dinosaurs !

I really couldn't get into this book. While I'm quite a way from the target young adult audience, I did read and enjoy, with some reservations, the first one.

This time, even with a new female construct and consequent romantic aspect, it failed to hold my attention, I did finish but only by skipping through. I'm not sure why, the writing is good and the characters and plot are okay - perhaps it's the gore and last minute solutions that didn't work for me.

These are books aimed at the young adult market (with yet more girls as heroines - where are all the boys in this genre ?) based on the Norse sagas with an idiomatic northern language twist, but don't attempt this if you haven't read, and enjoyed, Runemarks, the first in the series !

A beautifully descriptive novel set in India in the 1940s and 1850s, wonderfully interwoven, with a satisfying romantic finale.

Some irritations of course, the precocious child Billy, the inability of characters to talk to each other and a certain incompleteness in the character of Evie which means she fades a little and one cares less about her.

But for a sight, smell and sound of India past and present, and a complex and subtle tale this takes some beating.

A gripping start to this new series about teenage time travelers policing the past. Couldn't wait to get the next page !

However, a few disturbing, jarring notes, for me anyway bearing in mind of course that I am not a member of the target audience !

Really enjoyed the first half or so of this book. Good page turner with wonderful descriptions and a wicked way with words. (I particularly liked "a rota of nurses, all busts and bingo wings"). Having being brought up in small village, the slightly claustrophobic atmosphere came over with great authenticity.

However, as the story developed, the characters seemed to lose their definition and drift away, and, as the body count increased, my interest decreased and I started skipping to the end.

The second in the YA ‘Raisied by wolves' series. The heroine has aged a couple of years and, despite being a non-shapeshifting human, has her own pack.

A satisfactory build on the previous novel, but I thought the introduction of the psychic coven a little convenient. Still however an easy to read writing style, good characters and some surprising plot twists.

Interesting to see where the next book goes.

A werewolf novel for the younger reader (the heroine, Bryn, is fifteen), or the younger at heart. Interesting concept of the orphaned human child raised by shape-shifting werewolves, and the detail of the pack way of life is well thought out and absorbing.

The heroine is, of course, feisty and the story as she finds out the circumstances of her adoption and falls in love, make for a very good read.

The plot has some surprising twists, particularly at the end and some good subsidiary characters, but the love interest is pale and the pace at time too frantic.