In the Library this January we have even more new fiction to help ease you back into the new term.
Do you need some comfort reading? Go for your favourite genre, we have something for everyone.
But hey, new year, new you! Maybe try something a bit different this time, challenge yourself to a new style, theme or genre?
Here are some of our brand new books and a little bit about them to help you choose..........
SPACE
Jazz Bashara is a criminal.
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.
Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.
THRILLER
The boathouse had been built by an Edwardian aristocrat - from a single cedar of Lebanon - as a retreat, maybe even a cage, for his glamorous American bride. But in 2008, just weeks after moving into this dream home, Bertie starts to feel uneasy about living inside someone else's fantasy.
Obsession takes hold when he becomes convinced that a carpenter commissioned to fulfil Lord James Newton-Grey's vision, was murdered in the boathouse. His investigations immerse him in a sinister web of family secrets, as tangled and treacherous as the Norfolk marshlands that lie beyond his windows.
Bertie's own dark past plays tag with the present, driving him to the edge of madness, when he is forced to confront a chilling truth about himself - delivered by an unexpected visitor on Christmas Day.
Readers of The Cedar Cage - like its characters - must make up their own minds: is Bertie's strange, unquenchable imagination running riot... or has something genuinely supernatural been at work?
MUSIC
Despite sending him letters ever since she was thirteen, Taliah Abdallat never thought she'd ever really meet Julian Oliver. But one day, while her mother is out of the country, the famed rock star from Staring Into the Abyss shows up on her doorstep. This makes sense - kinda - because Julian Oliver is Taliah's father, even though her mother would never admit it to her.
Julian asks if Taliah if she will drop everything and go with him to his hometown of Oak Falls, Indiana, to meet his father - her grandfather - who is nearing the end of his life. Taliah, torn between betraying her mother's trust and meeting the family she has never known, goes.
With her best friend Harlow by her side, Taliah embarks on a three-day journey to find out everything about her 'father' and her family. But Julian isn't the father Taliah always hoped for, and revelations about her mother's past are seriously shaking her foundation. Through all these new experiences, Taliah will have to find new ways to be true to herself, honoring her past and her future
GOTHIC
This second novel in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine's island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises. Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.
The Peculiar Children are back in the third instalment in the bestselling series of YA novels by Ransom Riggs. Time is running out for the Peculiar Children. With a dangerous madman on the loose, and their beloved Miss Peregrine still in danger, it's up to Jacob Portman to channel his newfound abilities and defeat Caul before he loses his friends--and their world--forever. This action-packed adventure features all-new Peculiar photographs from times and places all over the world.
MYSTERY
Three decades ago, Howard York founded the most extraordinary hotel in London: the Hotel Alpha. A self-made man, Howard believes that you create your own luck - and when he is in the room, there is a sense that anything is possible.
Graham, the concierge, has been behind the Alpha's front desk since the day the hotel opened and knows everything about it. Chas, Howard's blind adopted son, has almost never ventured outside its walls. Both of them believe that the Alpha gives them everything they need - until two mysterious disappearances raise questions that no one seems willing to answer. As the years forge ahead, Graham and Chas must ask themselves whether Howard's vision of the perfect hotel has been built on secrets as well as dreams . . .
FANTASY
FAMILY IS DUTY. MAGIC IS POWER. HONOR IS EVERYTHING.
Magical jade—mined, traded, stolen, and killed for—is the lifeblood of the island of Kekon. For centuries, honorable Green Bone warriors like the Kaul family have used it to enhance their abilities and defend the island from foreign invasion.
Now the war is over and a new generation of Kauls vies for control of Kekon's bustling capital city. They care about nothing but protecting their own, cornering the jade market, and defending the districts under their protection. Ancient tradition has little place in this rapidly changing nation.
When a powerful new drug emerges that lets anyone—even foreigners—wield jade, the simmering tension between the Kauls and the rival Ayt family erupts into open violence. The outcome of this clan war will determine the fate of all Green Bones—from their grandest patriarch to the lowliest motorcycle runner on the streets—and of Kekon itself.
SCIENCE FICTION
Welcome to real life 2.0. Are you ready to play?
There are no screens. There are no controls. You don’t just see and hear it – you taste, smell, and touch it too. In this new reality there are no rules to follow, no laws to break. You can live your best life. It’s a game so addictive you’ll never want it to end. Until you realize that you’re the one being played. Step into Otherworld. Leave your body behind.
The frightening future that Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller have imagined is not far away. Otherworld asks the question we'll all soon be asking: if technology can deliver everything we want, how much are we willing to pay?
The frightening future that Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller have imagined is not far away. Otherworld asks the question we'll all soon be asking: if technology can deliver everything we want, how much are we willing to pay?
LITERARY FICTION
A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. He's a hard drinker, largely absent, and it isn't often he worries about the family. Esch and her three brothers are stocking up on food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; at fifteen, she has just realized that she's pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pit bull's new litter, dying one by one. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting.
As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to a dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family - motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting
and nurturing where love is scarce - pulls itself up to face another day.
and nurturing where love is scarce - pulls itself up to face another day.
PASTORAL
Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. His mother, Leonie, is in constant conflict with herself and those around her. She is black and her children's father is white. Embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances, she wants to be a better mother, but can't put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use.
When the children's father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary. At Parchman, there is another boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all of the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. He too has something to teach Jojo about fathers and sons, about legacies, about violence, about love.
YOUNG ADULT
It’s a new day in the Empire. Tyrus has ascended to the throne with Nemesis by his side and now they can find a new way forward – one where they don’t have to hide or scheme or kill.
But having power isn’t the same thing as keeping it, and change isn’t always welcome. The ruling class has held control over planets and systems for centuries and they are not going to give up their power willingly, especially not to a teenage Emperor and Nemesis, who they consider nothing more than a creature and certainly not worthy of being Empress.
Nemesis knows she will protect Tyrus at any cost; he is the love of her life and they are partners in this new beginning. But she also knows she can't protect him by being the killing machine she once was. Instead she will have to prove the humanity that she’s found inside herself to the whole Empire – or she and Tyrus may lose more than just the throne... they might lose their lives.
HUMOUR
Greg Heffley and his family are getting out of town.
With the cold weather and the stress of the approaching holiday season, the Heffleys decide to escape to a tropical island resort for some much-needed rest and relaxation. A few days in paradise should do wonders for Greg and his frazzled family.
But the Heffleys soon discover that paradise isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Sun poisoning, stomach troubles, and venomous critters all threaten to ruin the family's vacation. Can their trip be saved, or will this island getaway end in disaster?
FANTASY
When a lone soldier, Cole, arrives with news of Lachlan Agatta's death, all hope seems lost for Catarina. Her father was the world's leading geneticist, and humanity's best hope of beating a devastating virus. Then, hidden beneath Cole's genehacked enhancements she finds a message of hope: Lachlan created a vaccine.
Only she can find and decrypt it, if she can unravel the clues he left for her. The closer she gets, the more she finds herself at risk from Cartaxus, a shadowy organization with a stranglehold on the world's genetic tech. But it's too late to turn back.
As the pieces fit together it's clear there is one final secret that Cat must unlock. A secret that will change everything.
AFRICAN FICTION
An exciting literary debut: the unflinching and powerful story of a young girl's journey out of Zimbabwe and to America.
Darling is only ten years old, and yet she must navigate a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by paramilitary policemen, before the school closed, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.
But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few.
HISTORICAL FICTION
Enjoy and watch out for more coming soon!