Potentially a huge title for 2011: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Our pals at Headline have given us a rare treat: a preview of a potentially huge new title for 2011.  A Discovery of Witches was the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair's hottest title and was consequently the source of a right old publisher ding-dong ( that means: fight, for the uninitiated).
Rolling up the respective worlds of witches, vampires and daemons (demons) into a single universe makes for some complicated reading; let alone creating a modern-day Romeo and Juliet to rival Bella and Edward (from the Twilight series).  A Discovery of Witches is the first in this much fancied trilogy... due out in February 2011.  But of course, you won't have to wait that long to find out if the book is really worthy of all that hype - we'll be publishing our review asap! 

Lunamorte by Sam Young

It’s not often that we come across a bright, young thing in the literary world that hasn’t already been discovered by the mainstream – and we have to admit, we probably never really expected to. Then, along came Sam Young with her debut teen novel: Lunamorte – and suddenly, we got ourselves all in a tizz. And here’s why: Ok, so the fantasy genre is burgeoning with vampires, werewolves and magical beings galore. So, yet another teen novel surrounding a teenage werewolf shouldn’t really get us going… but the thing is; Lunamorte is like taking your favourite wardrobe staple and vamping it up so it’s more than just utterly comfortable and familiar – it also sizzles with newness and above all – originality.



You see, Lunamorte’s “Caia” is not your average werewolf. And this isn’t your average war between good and evil. There is so much shading in between; it makes your head spin. We think this debut title from a young Scottish writer is a must read. If you want to know more, check out our full book review >>>

Secrets of the MoneyLab by Kay-Yut Chen & Marina Krakovsky

In our opinion, publishers are often reluctant to offer review copies of business titles, perhaps this is because they feel books in this genre don't really need reviewing... but we think they couldn't be more wrong.  Business titles are big business (apologies for the pun) - millions are spent on them every year, and they're not exactly cheap; many of them go for around £20 a pop.  But with so many titles to choose from: how the heck are we meant to know which ones deliver? 
So, it came as a pleasant and most welcome surprise when Penguin agreed to send us through their very latest titles in their new Portfolio list.  And to kick things off, we reviewed the extravagantly titled: Secrets of the MoneyLab by Kay-Yut Chen and Marina Krakovsky:

Read our review of The Secrets of the MoneyLab >>>

Business heads: stay tuned, we've got more on the way...

Rebel Books LLP and "There's a Lion in my Bathroom" by Giles Paley-Phillips

We're a huge fan of all things new when it comes to literature; so we were happy to be contact by an Giles Paley-Phillips in a bid for us to review his collection of short poems for children entitled: There's a Lion in my Bathroom.  Now, we know what you're thinking: poetry?  Really???
Well, we'd normally be with you on the dubiousness of poetry as entertainment - but we soon changed our tune when we gave There's a Lion in my Bathroom a shot.  Our review will be loaded shortly on our main website, however, we just wanted to congratulate Rebel Books LLP for broadening our horizons and giving the world this little gem of a book.
Incidentally, Rebel Books LLP itself is a young, new thing.  The above title only being their third publication - like - ever.  But if their editorial team is this brilliant at picking our great new writers; we're sure they'll be around for some time to come.