Summer Reads List

For a little while now, Mark and I have been thinking about doing our own version of the R&J Summer Reads. Now that Summer is here officially - in the northern hemisphere, at least - we've decided to go ahead and do exactly that.

The books on the Summer Reads list are books that I've received recently or bought because something about them drew my attention. There is no high brow criteria when it came to choosing these books. I may have liked the cover or the premise sounded interesting or it may have come to me by way of my writerly/bloggy friends who said that they liked it. The books on this list will also be the only books on the blog to receive starred reviews. Rare in itself.

The selected titles will grow - as more books come in / are bought. These reviews may not be as intense as our previous reviews, purely because we will be working towards a tight deadline. We will also be working very hard to get some of these to give away on the blog.

The way the books appear on the list is not in any specific order - they'll be read as Mark and I grab the next one in the pile. I may be getting some people to do guest reviews. So, fellow bloggers and friends of the blog, watch our for a nagging email from my side!

The intial list stands as follows:

Standalone Novels

Adult Reviews

• Storm Glass by Maria V Snyder, published by MIRA in May 2009
• The Cold Kiss of Death by Suzanne McLeod, published by Gollancz in July 2009
• Hunt at the Well of Eternity by Gabriel Hunt as told to James Reasoner, published by Dorchester Publishing
• The Secret of Excalibur by Andy McDermott, published by Headline in May 2009
• At the City's Edge by Marcus Sakey, published by Penguin in May 2009
• Night of the Miraj by Zoe Ferraris, published by Abacus Books in May 2009
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, published by Gollancz in June 2008
• A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin, published by Orbit in April 2009
• Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn published by Gollancz in June 2008
• Nights of Villjamur by Mark C Newton published by Tor UK in June 2009
• Black & White by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittridge (double review with guest reviewer) published by Bantam Spectra in June.
• Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Millar to be published by Piatkus in 2009
• The Amulet of Vichalace by Zoe Stead published by Olympia Publishers 2008

Children / YA Reviews

• The Poison Garden by Sarah Singleton, published by Simon & Schuster May 2009
• The Eye of the Serpent by Philip Caveney, published by Red Fox in August 2008
• Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr, published by Harper Collins
• Who is Charlie Keeper by Marcus Alexander
• Sprout by Dale Peck published by Bloomsbury
• The Demon Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan published by Simon & Schuster

Series Reviews:

Adult

• Joe Abercrombie's First Law Trilogy
• Kat Richardson's First Four books in the Harper Blane series (ongoing)

Children / YA

• Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (S&S)
• The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray (S&S)
• A great and terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (S&S)

• Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, published by Walker Books
• The Ask and The Answer - by Patrick Ness, published by Walker Books

• Mirrorscape by Mike Wilks published by Egmont
• Mirrorstorm by Mike Wilks published by Egmont

It looks a lot but then Summer is long and we are doing our utmost to keep our weekends free as the past six months have been insane.