Book Reviews

Paperback, 356 pages
Published June 4th 2013 by Berkley (first published January 1st 2013)
original title Entwined with You
ISBN 0425263924 (ISBN13: 9780425263921)
edition language English
series Crossfire #3
characters Gideon Cross, Eva Tramell
setting New York (United States)

The worldwide phenomenon continues as Eva and Gideon face the demons of their pasts, and accept the consequences of their obsessive desires…

From the moment I first met Gideon Cross, I recognized something in him that I needed. Something I couldn’t resist. I saw the dangerous and damaged soul inside–so much like my own. I was drawn to it. I needed him as surely as I needed my heart to beat.

No one knows how much he risked for me. How much I’d been threatened, or just how dark and desperate the shadow of our pasts would become.

Entwined by our secrets, we tried to defy the odds. We made our own rules and surrendered completely to the exquisite power of possession

Hardcover, 181 pages
Published June 18th 2013 by William Morrow Books
original title The Ocean at the End of the Lane
ISBN 0062255657 (ISBN13: 9780062255655)
edition language English
characters Lettie Hempstock, Ursula Monkton, The Nameless Boy
setting Sussex (United Kingdom)

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.(less)

Hardcover, 404 pages
Published May 21st 2013 by Riverhead Hardcover
original title And The Mountains Echoed
ISBN 159463176X (ISBN13: 9781594631764)
edition language English
characters Julien, Abdullah, Pari, Suleiman Wahdati, Nila Wahdati
setting: Kabul (Afghanistan), California (United States), Paris (France), Tinos (Greece)

An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.

Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations.

In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most.

Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.(less)

Paperback, 565 pages
Published March 19th 2013 by Walker Books Ltd
original title Clockwork Princess
ISBN 1406321346 (ISBN13: 9781406321340)
edition language English
series The Infernal Devices #3
characters Theresa Gray, Magnus Bane, William Herondale, James Carstairs, Henry Branwell
setting London, England, 1878 (United Kingdom)

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

Tessa Gray should be happy – aren't all brides happy? Yet as she prepares for her wedding, a net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shaodwhunters of the London Institute.

A new demon appears, one linked by blood and secrecy to Mortmain, the man who plans to use his army of pitiless automatons, the Infernal Devices, to destroy the Shadowhunters. Mortmain needs only one last item to complete his plan. He needs Tessa. And Jem and Will, the boys who lay equal claim to Tessa's heart, will do anything to save her.

Also don't miss The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, in cinemas August 2013! Follow /TheMortalInstrumentsUK on facebook or @InstrumentsUK on twitter for movie news.(less)

Hardcover, 1st Edition, 462 pages
Published May 14th 2013 by Doubleday (first published 2013)
original title: Inferno
ISBN 0385537859 (ISBN13: 9780385537858)
edition language: English
series: Robert Langdon #4
characters: Robert Langdon, Sienna Brooks
setting: İstanbul (Turkey), Florence (Italy), Venice (Italy)

In his international blockbusters The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown masterfully fused history, art, codes, and symbols. In this riveting new thriller, Brown returns to his element and has crafted his highest-stakes novel to date.

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.(less)

Hardcover, 496 pages
Expected publication: October 22nd 2013 by Harper Collins
original title Allegiant
ISBN 0007524277 (ISBN13: 9780007524273)
edition language English
series Divergent #3
characters Tobias 'Four' Eaton, Beatrice 'Tris' Prior, Peter, Caleb Prior, Christina
setting Chicago, Illinois (United States)

One choice will define you.

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered—fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.

But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend the complexities of human nature—and of herself—while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, Allegiant, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the Divergent series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.