“Hush, Hush” by Becca Fitzpatrick

It’s another YA fantasy and the second one I’ve read this year about angels. Teenager Nora has recently lost her dad and her mom is working away from home a lot. She finds herself drawn to the new boy in class, Patch, but with his alluring, dangerous attraction she tries to resist falling for him. It’s not long before creepy things start to happen, making Nora think she may be the target of something sinister, and finds herself at the centre of a centuries old battle.

It may not be highly original and it may not be anything earth shatteringly literary, but what it is, is a fast paced, thrilling page turner with a believable and surprisingly unannoying heroine. The action whips along nicely throughout, there are some chilling scenes that make you wonder how it’s being done, and I liked the resolution of the plot.

However, it was a bit predictable and there were some clichés and stereotypes, so although I didn’t know how Nora was being manipulated, I could see who was causing the mayhem, who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. I did also find it slightly unbelievable that Nora would be left alone at home quite so much, and that her mother would be missing from her life so often despite the pressures of keeping the household running as a single parent, but it did allow the author to build the suspense well.

There are definitely some story threads that haven’t been fully established or explained, so I imagine this is probably the first of a series of books, and these other plots will be developed in future installments.

If you like the current crop of fantasy books that Twilight has brought to the fore of the YA market, then you’ll definitely enjoy this one as one of the better ones.

“Fallen” by Lauren Kate

Luce is sent to reform school after a mysterious fire kills her boyfriend and she can’t explain what happened. A world away from her previous private prep school where she was on a full academic scholarship, Sword & Cross reform school has strict rules, constant surveillance and strange classmates. But when Luce encounters Daniel, she’s sure she has met him somewhere before …

Yet another foray into teenage fantasy books, and this was a pleasant surprise as I was beginning to wonder if I’d become jaded by a surfeit of them, but I found myself completely engrossed in this story. Intriguing characters and with a niggling creepiness to the story which gradually builds to a thrilling crescendo before an epilogue to set up the rest of the series.

I loved the relationships between the characters and there were some genuine surprising plot twists and developments. A very satisfying piece of story telling on the whole, although sometimes I found myself thinking, “have you never seen a horror movie? DON’T DO THAT!!!!”

In fact, my only minor complaint about the book (but it’s more of a general moan) is what happened to books that deliver a complete story? Don’t get me wrong, I love series and I devour them with glee, but I’d much rather have a book that could be read as a single story, yet a lot of serial books I’m reading lately, whilst leaving me wanting more, leave a slight taste of disappointment when the final chapter or epilogue tries to entice you with some ideas of where the story will continue.

As a final word, my copy of the book has a very short blurb on the back which gives nothing away, but if you read the full synopsis from either amazon.co.uk or waterstones.com, then you will find out something that I think is a spoiler, so beware!