Young Adult Book Reviews

Name: Stephen Leitch
22 April 2022;

Genre: LBGTQ+

"Breathe. Just breathe", is the starting advice in Queer Up by Alexis Caught, an incredible, uplifting and honest book offering positive advice and information to LGBTQ+ teens and allies, who may have questions about their identity. Chapter themes include looking at coming out...

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Name: Clare Wilkins
22 April 2022;

Genre: Suspense & Thrillers

Millie adores the shared summers with family and friends at Creek House. Whilst the adults reminisce over their youth, the children have the run of the idyllic estate. But as the children become teenagers, tensions and differences emerge and the youngest, Millie, realises that the carefree sum...

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Name: Tanja Jennings
22 April 2022;

Genre: Fantasy

South African born fantasy YA author Mary Watson, known for her bewitching ‘Wren’ books, returns to her Cape Town roots for her latest thriller. Reminiscent of Tracy Deonn’s ‘Legendborn’ with its blood magic, heady sense of place, colloquial language, generational pain, interwoven mythology an...

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Name: Sharon Bolton
22 April 2022;

Genre: Personal Growth

Imagine having to go live with your dad and his new girlfriend, miles away from the rest of your family, and then her son is released from the Young Offenders Institution he has spent time in. Ryan is dealing with his mum and dad's divorce and a move to London. Then when Tommy is released, he...

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Name: Lucy Georgeson
14 April 2022;

Genre: Friends and family

Tara is from Derry, Faith is from Armagh; their lives are very different, but they look exactly the same - they just don't know why... Two teens from very different backgrounds - Tara, the Catholic daughter of a two generation single parent family, and Faith, the daughter of strict Evangelical...

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Name: Clare Wilkins
07 April 2022;

Genre: Friends and family

Tara is the catholic daughter of a single mother, raised in a tight family of women in Derry. Faith is the daughter of strict evangelical protestant parents and brought up in Armagh. Wildly different in temperament, the girls are astounded - when meeting on a youth trip - to realise that they...

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Name: Stephen Leitch
01 April 2022;

Genre: Friends and family

Wolves, Lynx, friendships, the rugged Scottish landscape, and a case of feline misidentification all come together in The Rewilders, a most enjoyable novel with a twist by Lindsay Littleson. Set in rural Scotland, the story follows Esme who, rather than getting to atten...

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Name: Catherine Purcell
25 March 2022;

Genre: Science Fiction

The fate of the universe is once more in peril; welcome back to The Infinity Guardians! The second in S.M.Wilson's enjoyable duology, it works as a stand alone but really you do need to circle back and read The Infinity Files, the first book, to fully benefit. That way you can...

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Name: Nicola Jenkin
18 March 2022;

Genre: Environment & Nature

Having thoroughly enjoyed Floodland, I was excited to read Sedgewick’s latest offering from publisher Barrington Stoke, whose books I am often recommending to reluctant or struggling readers. Wrath did not disappoint; I was hooked from the first paragraph and finished the book...

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Name: Nicola Jenkin
17 March 2022;

Genre: Friends and family

Set in the 1960s, before sex education in schools was the norm, a time when unmarried mothers were pitied and shamed and teen pregnancies were hidden from society - girls often left with little support from family and authorities and had no choice but to give up their babies - the story follow...

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