Scatterheart – Lili Wilkinson

“Once upon a time, there was a girl called Scatterheart, who was selfish and vain, with a heart as fickle as the changing winds…”

Hanna Cheshire is rich and spoilt. She has servants to wait on her hand and foot — and Thomas, a passionate young tutor who fills her head with stories.

Then one day her father disappears, and she is left to fend for herself. Alone and penniless, she is sentenced to transportation for a crime she didn’t commit.

Once Hannah considered Thomas beneath her: a servant, a commoner. Now she thinks of him more and more.

But will she ever see him again?

One girl‘s adventure to find happiness becomes a fairytale within a fairytale. A romantic story of power and love.

Black Dog Books

Lilywilkinson.com

Emma – Jane Austen

The wealthy and somewhat spoiled Emma Woodhouse finds pleasure in trying to make romantic matches for her friends.

She takes a poor, farmer’s daughter, Harriet, under her wing and makes her a “pet.”
Harriet falls in love with the right man, Mr. Collins, at first, but Mr. Collins is more interested in Emma.

Throughout all the entangling relationships Emma has created, her old friend,

Mr. Knightley watches over her shoulder and steps in when he think things are going too far.

But Emma does not always listen to him, and thus suffers the consequences.

The real trial comes when Harriet falls in love with Mr. Knightley, who is far above her in breeding, social status, and intelligence.

By this time Emma realizes, seemingly too late, just how much she loves Mr. Knightley herself.

Megan E. Davis

The bookwormchronicles

Chocolat (movie)

The great call of China – Cynthea Liu

Chinese-born Cece was adopted when she was two years old by her American parents.
Living in Texas, she’s bored of her ho-hum high school and dull job.
So when she learns about the S.A.S.S. program to Xi’an, China, she jumps at the chance.
She’ll be able to learn about her passion—anthropology—and it will give her the opportunity to explore her roots.
But when she arrives, she receives quite a culture shock.
And the closer she comes to finding out about her birth parents, the more apprehensive she gets.
Enter Will, the cute guy she first meets on the plane.
He and Cece really connect during the program.
But can he help her get accustomed to a culture she should already know about, or will she leave China without the answers she’s been looking for?

Bookmark days – Scot Gardner

‘I’ve been driving the ute and the tractor since I was eleven. I get to sleep under the stars, help lambs into the world and ride my horse whenever I want.’

Avril Stanton lives in the country and thrives on it.

But she has never been in love – until she meets Nathaniel, the boy from the farm next door.

Avril’s family and Nathaniel’s family have been feuding for two generations and aren’t about to stop now.

Will it be a Romeo-and-Juliet-style tragedy or will a thunderstorm, a car accident and a couple of conniving grandmothers be able to solve her dilemma?

<a href=”http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=94&amp;book=9781741755787″>Allen &amp; Unwin</a>
<a href=”http://www.scotgardner.com/images/BookMarkDays.jpg”>Scot Gardner</a>

The wedding planner’s daughter – Coleen Murtagh Paratore

Twelve year old Willa Havisham is a classics reader, a cherry-cordial eater, and a quite possibly the world’s worst wisher.

However, when she and her glamorous single mother, Stella, move to Bramble, Cape Cod, Willa’s wishes are beginning to come true.

She makes her first ever best friend Tina, bonds with her hip, candy making Nana, and, best of all, helps steely Stella fall in love with Willa’s English teacher, Sam.

Before Willa can marry off her mother, or dance with her adorable crush, Joseph, a pit gets stuck in her wishing well….Can Willa undo the damage?

Wikipedia

Fantastic Fiction

World without end – Ken Follett

World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge,

two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth.

The cathedral and the priory are again at the centre of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own.

This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas-about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice.

In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds,

the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race-the Black Death.
Amazon
4.bp.blogspot

Atonement (movie)

The pillars of the earth – Ken Follett

The Year is 1123: in an unnamed English town, there is a hanging. The small boys come early and cavort around the scaffold. Soon they are joined by the peasants coming to market, or just to watch, and the townspeople likewise. The people like a good hanging. But the mood is odd: this is not a good hanging. The thief is a stranger, and the crime a poor one: the theft of a jewelled chalice from a monastery “something whose value was so great it that it would be virtually impossible to sell – which was not like stealing a ham or a new knife or a good belt, the loss of which would hurt someone”. It was difficult to hate such a man.
The witnesses who’d sealed his fate were also strangers: a knight, a monk and a priest.
When the time comes when most prisoners would call upon God or scream for their mothers, the prisoner sings a sweet melody about larks and hunters and the power of song.
When the deed is done a young girl falls to her knees and calls out a curse.
Twelve years later: Tom is building a house. He has dreams of building a cathedral. He’d worked on one once. But for now he has a family, and house-building for the gentry is good money. The house is for “Young William” son to Lord Percy Hamleigh and soon to be married to the Lady Aliena, daughter of the Earl of Shiring.
Or not.
The Lady Aliena it turns out has a mind of her own and is absolutely NOT minded to marry the Young William.
No marriage…no need for the house. All work is suspended and Tom, the builder, begins the slow descent into destitution.
Helium
bscreview

Pagan’s vows – Catherine Jinks

Pagan cannot believe that he is actually agreeing to devote his life to God, to accept life in a monastery. This is a lifestyle that he despises, possibly fears, and also one that he fled from when he was a boy.

But Pagan discovers that beneath the veneer of respectability, piety and humility lies a complex tangle made up of lies, deceit and greed. Pagan may not be the most honest person in the world, but this kind of dirty hypocrisy upsets him enough that he will not stop seeking out the truth even when his very life is threatened. It would seem that someone very high up in the monastic hierarchy guides the conspiracy, and Pagan needs to be wary of what he says and does.