Letterbox Love [4]

Letterbox Love is hosted by Lynsey at Narratively Speaking. Letterbox Love is intended for us Brits with a focus on the books that are coming though our letterboxes.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he’s offered the chance to join an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun.

At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken. But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go. Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness.

Soon he will reach the point of no return – when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark…

I know this one got great reviews when it came out, and with R.I.P just around the corner, I picked up a second-hand copy in Oxfam, this last week.

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith

If he’s in the right mood, divine Angus might grant you sight of your true love in a dream; you might even fall in love with him – but he’ll never love you back. This book retells the “Myth of Dream Angus” as part of the “Canongate Myths” series.

Spotted this one in Oxfam the other day and I know other books in the Canongate Myths series have been quite strong reads, so I snapped it up.

Foiled by Jane Yolen

A quirky, fast-paced urban fantasy by esteemed author Jane Yolen Aliera Carstairs just doesn’t fit in. She’s always front and center at the fencing studio, but at school she’s invisible. And she’s fine with that . . . until Avery Castle walks into her first period biology class. Avery may seem perfect now, but will he end up becoming her Prince Charming or just a toad?

If I still gave out Bad Bloggers’ points (I lost track months ago) one would be going to Chris for this one. It’s been on my wishlist since he reviewed it a couple of years ago.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high. Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides.

All my favourite bloggers that have read this one, seem to have loved it! So it was never going to be long before I got my own copy. I did make sure it was a copy with the US/Canadian cover and the appalling UK one.

Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe

When the mischievous shape-shifter Jinchalo hatches from a mysterious egg, he starts our heroine adventuring anew. Magical troubles drag the pair out of the safety of her home, through the small village where she resides, up, up, and away. In the course of their flight, they visit a robot garden, follow a vine into the clouds, and leave the village far behind. These comics are firmly rooted in Korean folktales and stylistic conventions, with a playful, joyous drawn line.

Drawn & Quarterly are one of those graphic novel imprints always seem to put out great looking products, and Jinchalo by Matthew Forsythe is no exception. I spotted this one in my local Waterstones the other day, and knew almost immediately that it was coming home with me!