BOOK CLUB

BOOK OF THE WEEK with Linda Jennings. Girl Online, Zoe Sugg, ISBN 9780141357270 (Penguin) BD7.300 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members

This incredible debut novel from YouTube phenomenon Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella, shot from nowhere into the number one slot of the bestseller list and will, no doubt, also top the Christmas list of every teenage girl in Bahrain.

Zoe is a 24-year-old video blogger (vlogger) from Brighton, UK. Her beauty, fashion and lifestyle vlogs have gained her over five million YouTube subscribers, and her views often exceed 12 million a month. She won the 2011 Cosmopolitan Blog Award for ‘Best Established Beauty Blog’ and went on to win the ‘Best Beauty Vlogger’ award the following year. In 2013 she was awarded the ‘Best British Vlogger’ award at the Radio 1 Teen Awards and the 2014 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for ‘UK’s Favourite Vlogger’.

I have this dream that, secretly, all teenage girls feel exactly like me. And, maybe one day, when we realise that we all feel the same, we can all stop pretending we’re something we’re not. But until that day, I’m going to keep it real on this blog and keep it unreal in real life.
Penny has a secret.

Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, high school drama, her crazy family and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets Noah, a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. Suddenly Penny is falling in love – and capturing every moment of it on her blog.
But Noah has a secret, too, one that threatens to ruin Penny’s cover – and her closest friendship – forever.

* Read it now in paperback
The Facts Of Life And Death, Belinda Bauer, ISBN 9780552779654 (Black Swan)) BD4.500 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members

On the beaches and cliffs of North Devon, young women have become victims in a terrifying game where only one player knows the rules. And when those rules change, the new game is murder.

But a madman on the loose feels very far from the crumbling, seaside home of 10-year-old Ruby Trick. Instead she lives in constant fear of school bullies, the dark forest, and the threat of her parents’ divorce.

Helping her father to catch the killer seems like the only way to keep him close, as long as the killer doesn’t catch her first.

Author Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother. With her debut, Blacklands, Belinda was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work in 2013. Her fourth novel Rubbernecker was voted 2014 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Her books have been translated into 21 languages and if you haven’t yet read any of her novels, she is highly recommended and considered as one of the most interesting crime writers in England today.

* My favourite read-of-the-week
First Love, James Patterson & Emily Raymond, ISBN 9781784750428 (Arrow) BD4 for Gulf Weekly Book Club members

This is a contemporary young adult romance as James Patterson co-writes with Emily Raymond, the ghostwriter of numerous young adult novels, which will appeal to readers in their 20s as well as teens.

When Axi Moore decides to take a road trip across the US, the only person she wants to go with her is her best friend Robinson – who she also happens to be secretly in love with. She’s planned it all out, and all he has to do is say yes.
 
Axi has had a tough life: her little sister died young, her mother walked out and her father turned to the bottle for comfort. Her parents escaped their grief in their own ways; this trip will be hers. But life doesn’t always work out as you plan it, and there are some things you just can’t run away from.