Emerald’s class are spending the day sea combing-picking up human rubbish that ends up on the ocean floor. Laura Benedict does an excellent job of getting into the minds of her various characters, particularly control-freak Miles.

Not much was made of the reveals of the various murderers; they were sort of thrown toward the end of the story, but it didn't really matter because any mystery aficionado could have figured it out about a third of the way through the book. Rewarding … Benedict’s debut is a small-town thriller with a hint of the supernatural and compelling, well-drawn characters. Any of you city slickers who imagine small-town life is dull ought to read Laura Benedict's suspenseful, sexy, and haunting debut novel, Isabella Moon, as this book set in Carystown, Kentucky, proves otherwise.

Kate Russell, who has only been in the small town of Carystown, Kentucky two years, awakens to find a little girl in a yellow coat outside her window. Luckily, her mum is on hand to help set things right and together they come up with a new, magical way to say goodbye to the magic pox and even make revising for the maths test fun! For my stand alone short story collection, Seeing Red, my designer and I worked through a lot of iterations.

But when Isadora’s attempts at magic go awry, she accidentally causes baby sister Honeyblossom to grow to giant proportions! If you like books that keep you guessing, that keep you on the edge of your seat, and that present you with believable, sympathetic characters, then this book is for you.

Mirabelle is having a sleepover at her best friend Carlotta’s house, and the pair have been told they are absolutely not allowed to go in big sister Edith’s bedroom. Quiet Carystown was to be Kate’s salvation, and she’s settled into a comfortable job, a charming cottage, and a blissful romance. She has been a freelance book reviewer for The Grand Rapids Press (Michigan) and other newspapers since 1997.