We are very pleased to welcome back guest-reviewer Sheryl Tongue:

If you have ever wondered why it is that Eurasians came to conquer most of the world, Guns, Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond will be a fascinating explanation.

Every inch of Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig screams pessimism. It lingers around the story, the characters, and even the back water towns in which it is set, like a cloud of noxious cigarette smoke blown from our heroin Miriam's sin-ridden lips. And yet, despite all the darkness, despite the death and the bleak world view, there is a sliver of light that manages to squeeze through.

I don't believe there has ever been a better time to be a Sherlock Holmes fan. With a superb BBC modern day adaptation, a great fun (if ridiculous) Hollywood blockbuster, and to top it all off a brand spanking new Holmes novel, The House of Silk, written by one of the worlds most prolific fictional murderers, it is a brand that is getting a large amount of positive attention today.

Florence & Giles by John Harding is a tale of isolation, fear, madness and risen spirits. It is simultaneously a classic ghost story and a modern psychological thriller, with a truly unique narrator. What at first seems to be a fairly standard story of a lonely child living a secluded life in a haunted house soon turns into an intriguing, compelling, spine-tingling and original story that is impossible to put down.

Moon Over Soho, book two in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, is an urban fantasy crime novel that is fast-paced, funny, dark and wholly British. A winning combination that makes Moon Over Soho an instant classic.

The second book in the Lorien Legacies series, The Power of Six, is a step in the right direction for the series. This step is away from the eponymous character of the first book (I Am Number Four), who is angsty, lovestruck and irritating. Instead we are introduced to several new characters including Marina, or Number 7, and the plot expands and evolves.

I'm having trouble writing a review of The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon.

It is, as I see it, a novel of two parts. The first is a gritty, real life drama about a mother trying to protect her daughter in a harsh world of gangs and loan sharks. Into this grey life steps a small ray of light, a kind man who might well be the salvation they desperately need – but this would-be saviour has his own dark secrets.

The second is just as dark as the first, but instead of being grounded in the real it is a strange and intriguing supernatural horror, with monsters and demons haunting the Concrete Grove. These demons are worshipped by crime-lords and have a sinister plan for certain young girl.

I don't read much science fiction. I think it is because of the same reason I don't read much hardcore fantasy – I like my fiction as grounded as possible in the norm. I struggle to visualise worlds that I don't know, whether they be a distant planet orbited by 7 moons where the inhabitants worship mechanoids created millennia ago, or middle-earth-esque lands where hordes of orcs battle the elegant, a-sexual elves, it matters not. I also tend to get confused by technical talk, especially if that technical talk is nonsense.

So I'll admit now that Reality 36 by Guy Haley – with its plethora of futuristic techno-babble and host of fantastical worlds populated by computer generated Paladins and talking lions – was never high up on my reading list...

Oh, how I curse my narrow-mindedness!

At the heart of Hard Spell is a fairly obvious premise, and one that has been done almost to death over the last few years. Magic and monsters are real and someone has to protect those who can't protect themselves. Still, there must be some life left in the genre yet, as Justin Gustainis proves with his dark and broody novel that pitches a run of the mill human cop against the forces of darkness.

Note: Check out the trailer for Hard Spell at the bottom of the review...

A personal account of the most tumultuous episode in world history reviewed by a History & Philosophy graduate who writes for a sports blog. What a combination! Thanks to Alex Harris of Football, Forumla 1 & Festivities for this insightful review of Albert Speer's autobiography.

If there is a subject that has been covered more often, academically or culturally, than the Nazis, Hitler and World War Two, I cannot bring it to mind. There are countless books, films, television programmes and internet sites dedicated to one of the most violent, emotive and despicable chapters of human history. However, Inside the Third Reich has niche appeal since it comes from the unique perspective of Albert Speer, a man intimate with not only the inner workings of Hitler’s Germany, but with Adolf Hitler himself. Compiled from the memoirs Speer wrote whilst in prison this is a fascinating first-hand account.

For your reading pleasure we happily present a new guest review from C. This time the books comes from that master of literary fiction Sebastian Faulks.

C Writes: I haven't read much fiction set in the last ten years. I'm not sure why but there doesn't seem to be much out there. I was therefore looking forward to reading A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks for a bit of a change. It's set in London in 2007, both a time and a place I am very familiar with. As it turned out, too familiar. The closeness of the setting didn't allow me the escapism that I usually experience reading fiction. Sadly, as I hoped Faulks would live up to his reputation as a writer of modern classics, I also thought it was a lazy novel. I felt the story lines were sloppy and the characters simply caricatures.

Note: Bit random to have a headphone review on a book review website, but go with it... You can always listen to audio books on them!

Sennheiser are highly regarded for their headphones. They have a large range of everything from large home entertainment on ear headphones to small sporty in ears.

Read on for the full review...

The Kobo Wireless eReader is the first eInk eReader I've had a real chance to use properly. Being in the UK means that choice is almost completely limited to the Sony Readers and the Amazon Kindle. Thankfully, the Kobo Wireless is now available from WH Smths, and offers a true alternative.

Read on for the full review...

We are pleased to present another fantastic guest review. This month we are pleased to welcome Sheryl Tongue of Stonehill Graphics, who has reviewed A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.

What do you get when you have three different races of Creatures (witches, vampires, and daemons) and they all want the same thing from the same person? Ruthless, total chaos.

The Necromancer and The Warlock by Michael Scott are the fourth and fifth books respectively in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. The first three books were good, but in truth they were merely a warm up for the complicated, winding, explosive penultimate books.

And there is still more to come...

The Boy and His Bee – the perfect story, encompassing all fields of human emotion: love, loss, loneliness, friendship and honey, all within a matter of 10 pages.

Read on for the full review and images from the book...

Michael Scott's world, the world of Immortal Nicholas Flamel, is one of mythology and creatures of nightmare, of magic and mayhem, but a world that is believable and engrossing. The first three books in the series, The Alchemyst, The Magician and The Sorceress, are the perfect launch pad into a vast, fast paced and gripping story...

Another year, another Mortal Engines prequel. The previous two, Fever Crumb and A Web of Air were OK. They were really quite good when compared to most books out there for teens. The problem was that they just couldn't live up to the pure brilliance, and I say that with conviction, of the original Mortal Engines quartet.

So, with Scrivener's Moon, was Philip Reeve able to bring back some of the va-va-voom?

Urban fantasy that I read and love, that of Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong and others, tends to be American. American in terms of the author and setting, but also in terms of the feel of the book and the prose. This is fine, but it often leaves me feeling a little left out, thanks to references to places or people that I have never heard of. I think that is how Ben Aaronovitch feels as well. But with his latest book, Rivers of London, he has turned the tables.

Rivers of London is a murder mystery, urban fantasy style, and does a cracking job at mixing magic and monsters with good old fashioned policing. What makes it unique, however, is the London-centric writing, where the big smoke is as much a character as anyone else...

Vernon God Little, black comedy and 2003 Booker Prize winner, was something of a let down for me. I found it more a depressing look at small town Texas, than an up-beat comedy. So it was with slight trepidation I took my seat at the classy Young Vic theatre, London, waiting for the stage play of the book to begin...