Seafire by Natalie C. Parker

After her family is killed by corrupt warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets, Caledonia Styx is left to chart her own course on the dangerous and deadly seas. She captains her ship, the Mors Navis, with a crew of girls and women just like her, whose lives have been turned upside down by Aric and his men. The crew has one misson: stay alive, and take down Aric's armed and armored fleet.

But when Caledonia's best friend and second-in-command just barely survives an attack thanks to help from a Bullet looking to defect, Caledonia finds herself questioning whether or not to let him join their crew. Is this boy the key to taking down Aric Athair once and for all...or will he threaten everything the women of the Mors Navis have worked for?

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

by the author of Divergent...

In a galaxy powered by the current, everyone has a gift.

Cyra is the sister of the brutal tyrant who rules the Shotet people. Cyra’s currentgift gives her pain and power—something her brother exploits, using her to torture his enemies. But Cyra is much more than just a blade in her brother’s hand: she is resilient, quick on her feet, and smarter than he knows.

Akos is the son of a farmer and an oracle from the frozen nation-planet of Thuvhe. Protected by his unusual currentgift, Akos is generous in spirit, and his loyalty to his family is limitless. Once Akos and his brother are captured by enemy Shotet soldiers, Akos is desperate to get his brother out alive—no matter what the cost.

Then Akos is thrust into Cyra's world, and the enmity between their countries and families seems insurmountable. Will they help each other to survive, or will they destroy one another?

Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina

This book is set in a future after an ecological collapse. The world has been reshaped, and people have made a commitment to live within the Balance. There are many laws to help uphold the balance to limit things like technology (which can psychologically distance us from the environment), weapons, and use of natural resources. There are also laws to prevent people with Abilities from disrupting the Balance - mostly by locking them up and inhibiting them from using those abilities.

Ashala and other illegal runaways make up the Tribe. They believe that there is a place for them within the Balance, and that their existence is not a threat. Ashala has been captured - can she protect the Tribe from her own interrogation?

Mrs Kelleher rates this read:

Book trailer - Genius: the game by Leopoldo Gout

Trust no one. Every camera is an eye. Every microphone an ear. Find me and we can stop him together.

The Game: Get ready for Zero Hour as 200 geniuses from around the world go head to head in a competition hand-devised by India's youngest CEO and visionary.

The Players:
Rex- One of the best programmers/hackers in the world, this 16-year-old Mexican-American is determined to find his missing brother.
Tunde- This 14-year-old self-taught engineering genius has drawn the attention of a ruthless military warlord by single-handedly bringing electricity and internet to his small Nigerian village.
Painted Wolf- One of China's most respected activist bloggers, this mysterious 16-year-old is being pulled into the spotlight by her father's new deal with a corrupt Chinese official.

The Stakes: Are higher than you can imagine. Like life and death. Welcome to the revolution. And get ready to run.

An Irish read for St Patrick's Day

The Call by Peadar O'Guilin

We know that Ireland is full of fairies. But what if the fairies aren't the kind magical creatures we want them to be? What if they are cruel and evil?

3 minutes and 4 seconds. The length of time every teenager is 'Called', from the moment they vanish to the moment they reappear. 9 out of 10 children return dead. Even the survivors are changed. The nation must survive. Nessa, Megan and Anto are at a training school - to give them some chance to fight back. Their enemy is brutal and unforgiving. But Nessa is determined to come back alive. Determined to prove that her polio-twisted legs won't get her killed. But her enemies don't just live in the Grey Land. There are people closer to home who will go to any length to see her, and the nation, fail...

Unhappy Birthday Lemony Snicket

Are you sick of books that end happily ever after? Where no matter what life throws at them the heroes and heroines of stories always triumph over everything?

Why not celebrate Lemony Snicket's birthday by reading (or re-reading) his Series of Unfortuante Events?

Book trailer - This Savage Song

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music. When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.

Book trailer - The Diviners

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Part murder mystery, part historical fiction, with a large dash of the supernatural thrown in.

1920s New York. A teen clairvoyant. An old evil. It has begun...

Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old home town and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City - and she is pos-i-tute-ly thrilled! New York is the city of speak-easies, rent parties, shopping and movie palaces, and soon enough Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfeld girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult - also known as 'The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies'.

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of it. Even Evie's new pals - hoofers, numbers runners and activists, but all swell kids - are drawn into the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first...

Student review - Agent Nomad

Agent Nomad by Skye Melki-Wegner

Reviewed by Brodie Rabbas (8 Realino)

Agent Nomad is about a girl called Natalie who has the one-in-a-million ability to see people’s quintessences – their magical abilities and how they are using them.

She is a normal 15 year old before starts working for HELIX – a secret agency who protects normal people from evil people that feed off everyone’s magical essences.

Natalie’s ability is both very useful for HELIX, but makes her a target. Can she learn to master or powers before the Inductors manage to kill her?

Why I finished it: I finished it because it drew me into the book. I never wanted it to end, or put it down.

I’d recommend it to: I’d recommend it to anyone who likes spy stories, and anyone who like stories set in Australia

I rate this read: ««««« - OMG it was amazing

Check out the official book trailer:

Book trailer - The Outliers

The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight

It all starts with a text: Please, Wylie, I need your help.

Wylie hasn’t heard from Cassie in over a week, not since their last fight. But that doesn’t matter. Cassie’s in trouble, so Wylie decides to do what she has done so many times before: save her best friend from herself.

This time it’s different, though. Instead of telling Wylie where she is, Cassie sends cryptic clues. And instead of having Wylie come by herself, Jasper shows up saying Cassie sent him to help. Trusting the guy who sent Cassie off the rails doesn’t feel right, but Wylie has no choice: she has to ignore her gut instinct and go with him.

But figuring out where Cassie is goes from difficult to dangerous, fast. As Wylie and Jasper head farther and farther north into the dense woods of Maine, Wylie struggles to control her growing sense that something is really wrong. What isn’t Cassie telling them? And could finding her be only the beginning?

A new one in the Gone series

Monster by Michael Grant
The latest in the Gone series...

Michael Grant continues the story of the teens who morph into superheroes—and supermonsters—when they ingest an alien virus.

Four years after the events of the FAYZ, new meteorites are hitting Earth, and the whole world is exposed to a strange alien virus that gives humans unique superpowers.

As some teens become heroes and others become dangerously out of control with their new powers, the world will become more terrifying than the FAYZ—and only a monstrous battle between good and evil can save them [goodreads.com].

Book suggestion

Sparrow by Scot Gardner



Sparrow and the other kids from Juvie are returning from a wilderness exercise when their boat sinks.

Instead of waiting in the water for help, Sparrow swims for shore.

Alone, in the middle of the Kimberly, with only salt water crocs and mosquitos for company, Sparrow has to find a way to survive in this dangerous freedom.

Mrs Kelleher rates this read 4 1/2 stars

Two Wolves booktrailer

Two Wolves by Tristan Bancks

One afternoon, police officers show up at Ben Silver’s front door. Minutes after they leave, his parents arrive home. Ben and his little sister Olive are bundled into the car and told they’re going on a holiday. But are they?

It doesn’t take long for Ben to realise that his parents are in trouble. Ben’s always dreamt of becoming a detective – his dad even calls him ‘Cop’. Now Ben gathers evidence and tries to uncover what his parents have done.

The problem is, if he figures it out, what does he do? Tell someone? Or keep the secret and live life on the run?

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Book Trailer: Game Theory

Game Theory by Barry Jonsberg

Jamie's older sister, Summerlee, wins $7.5 million in the lottery she cuts ties with the whole family. But then their younger sister, Phoebe, is kidnapped.

Jamie is convinced  he can use Game Theory - a mathematical strategy to predict your opponent's actions - to get Phoebe back, and he might just have the mathematical know-how to pull it off. But can he do it? or are the stakes too high?


A hugely compelling YA thriller.

Mrs Stephenson rates this read 4 stars

Book Trailer: Extraordinary Means

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

If you love John Green books, try this.

Lane has been diagnosed with a new strain of tuberculosis that is totally drug resistant. TB is a lung disease that is pretty much a death sentence. Kids with the disease are sent to special country homes to recover with rest and fresh air. Sometimes people go home. Usually they don't.

Lane thinks that his life is over when he is sent to Latham house. But when he gets there he meets Sadie and her friends - a group of troublemakers that are determined not to measure their lives by their health charts. They will sneak phones into their rooms and steal internet time, and sneak into town for coffee just to feel normal.

But how real can love be when life seems so temporary?

Mrs Kelleher rates this read 3 1/2 stars

Book Trailer: Young Elites

Young Elites by Marie Lu

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all. 

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen. 

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

[Blurb from Goodreads.com]

Book Trailer: The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.

In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.


That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.
[Blurb from Goodreads.com]

Book Trailer - Salt to the Sea

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Winter, 1945. Four teenagers. Four secrets.

Each one born of a different homeland; each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies…and war.
As thousands of desperate refugees flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.
Yet not all promises can be kept.
Inspired by the single greatest tragedy in maritime history, bestselling and award-winning author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) lifts the veil on a shockingly little-known casualty of World War II. An illuminating and life-affirming tale of heart and hope. [blurb from Goodreads.com].