A poignant young adult novel set in the goldfields of Otago during the 1860s goldrush. The story by an award-wining YA writer follows the lives of two young people, both very different, drawn to the goldfields for the same reason - they all hope to strike it rich. One of the main characters is a young Chinese girl, and the other a European boy. As well as being a plot-driven story, this book examines the cultural differences between these two. This provides interesting discussion points for New Zealand society today, where we still grapple with many of these same cultural problems. It shows how people are shaped by struggle and adversity and how the goldfields shaped our society in the nineteenth century, changing people who then went on to change their world.

From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules. Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds. But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely. Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today.

An exciting young adult historical novel based on the true story of Captain Bligh leading his sailors to safety after the mutiny on the Bounty. Sixteen-year-old John Hallet was on board the ill-fated Bounty when Fletcher Christian and others of the crew staged the mutiny against Captain Bligh. Cast adrift in a small boat in wild and dangerous seas, Hallet tells the remarkable story of how Bligh led the sailors who were loyal to him to safety. This story is interspersed with a fictionalised account of the events that led up to the mutiny on the Bounty. Historically accurate and well-researched, Sea of Mutiny is a revisionist look at Bligh. He has gone down in history as sadistic and cruel. But award-wining writer Ken Catran portrays Bligh as a victim of the British class system and his own flawed decison making. At the same time as being a fascinating historical read, this is an exciting plot-driven novel about massive sea voyages in treacherous conditions in overcrowded, overladen ships. It's classic Ken Catran fare - ideal for male readers.

The Red Silk Cord resulted from my trip to Florence in 2007 where I visited the Hospital of the Innocents and saw the trinkets left behind by loving mothers and fathers who had to leave their babies with the nuns because they could no longer care for them. I built the story around this idea and included the 15th Century historic truths of the time and the Medici family. The story tells the resilience of a young woman, her survival after being raped, giving birth and being persecuted by the baby's father's family. She is helped by a silk merchant and together they go on a journey along the maritime and land silk route to Xian China. They play a part in the discovery of the new and fastest route to China. The emotional and sexual growth of Margherita is explored via a variety of relationships until she eventually discovers what love is. This book is the first in a group of three books named The Red Silk Cord, The Return of the Red Silk Cord and the Revenge of The Red Silk Cord. It includes the Medici families plan to have their fourth son become Pope Leo XI. I sincerely enjoyed writing this book and hope you find it as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write it. Regards Liz Berger M. A. Soc. Sc.

The Stranger's Guide To Talliston is a YA fantasy adventure set in Britain's most extraordinary home: Talliston House & Gardens. Abandoned and alone, thirteen-year-old Joe’s world is shattered when he enters a deserted council house and becomes trapped within a labyrinth protecting the last magical places on earth. There, Joe discovers The Stranger’s Guide, a cryptic book charting this immense no-man’s land and his only map through its dark and dangerous puzzle of doors and rooms. Hunted by sinister forces, Joe is forced ever deeper into both the maze and the mystery of his missing parents. What lies at the labyrinth’s centre and will it reunite him with the family he so desperately needs? The novel is inspired by and set inside a unique and amazing house and gardens. Talliston was a 25-year project that took the UK’s most ordinary house and transformed it, room by room, by ordinary people on an ordinary budget, into Britain’s Most Extraordinary Home.