The Woman Who Rides Like a Man – Tamora Pierce

"Alanna of Trebond, the sole woman knight in the realm of Tortall, splashed happily in the waters of an oasis, enjoying her first bath in three days." Back in my childhood, I read and loved Alanna, never realising/getting my hands on any sequels. Aiming to rectify that recently, I found book 2 was a bit too …

Shadow Captain – Alastair Reynolds

"'Tell me what you think you saw.'" Following on immediately from the events in Revenger, usual warning that even mentioning characters that made it to the sequel can be a kind of spoiler. And my opening lines are definitely book 1 spoilers...! Okay with that? Then read on! Having won and renamed The Revenger, the Ness sisters …

Empire of Sand – Tasha Suri

"Mehr woke up to a soft voice calling her name." Mehr is a pampered if illegitimate governor's daughter, a virtual prisoner by dint of her gender in the culture she lives in, and a hated reminder of father's first love and thus enemy of her stepmother. She is also a half-caste, and the half that …

Dreams of Gods and Monsters – Laini Taylor

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil pressed their hands to their hearts and started the apocalypse." (As always, this is a review of the last in a series, so anything I mention might in some ways be a spoiler for the first two books. Read on at your own peril!) The stories …

Tempests and Slaughter – Tamora Pierce

"Arram Draper hung on the rail of the great arena, hoisting himself until his belly was bent over the polished stone." Showing a flair for magic, Arram is sent to the university where his skills put him on a fast-track programme. Younger than the other students, he bonds with two other advanced-course students, one of …

The Darkest Minds (2018)

A mysterious plague wipes out most of the juvenile population, but those who are left develop powers. Colour-coded from super-intelligent green up to deadly reds, the remaining youngsters are rounded up and put into camps - well, the greens, blues, and yellows, that is. Reds and oranges... not so much. Knowing her life is at …

Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well." Karou's life is anything but ordinary. From her blue hair and somewhat mysterious lack of details on her previous life, she seems perfectly suited to being a 17-year-old art student in Prague. Her sketchbooks are filled with strange …

Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor

"On the second Sabbat of Twelthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl fell from the sky." Imagine when the name of a city disappears in an instant - not just from history or official records, but from the every mind and tongue. A few, such as orphan Lazlo Strange, are aware of the loss …

Paris Adrift – EJ Swift

"The anomaly is waiting." Running away from her old life and old sense of self, Hallie lands in Paris and Millie's bar. Surrounded by other travellers and misfits, it's the closest Hallie has felt to home in a long time - until, that is, she stumbles through a time portal in the basement. At first terrified, …

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater

"Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she'd been told that she would kill her true love." Blue is an oddity in her family: a non-psychic amongst clairvoyants. She is surprised, then, to finally see a spirit - a future-ghost, a forewarning of death ahead. Why now? Well, it must be either because he's her …