The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Title: The Miniaturist
Author: Jessie Burton
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: 3rd July 2014
Genre: Fiction

Summary:
Nell Oortman thought that was she marrying into the wealthy family of an Amsterdam merchant. However, her new husband, and his family, are hiding a dangerous secret. He presents Nella a curious and unique wedding gift in the form of a miniature model of their house. Nella soon enlists the help of a miniaturist to help decorate her new toy.

Things soon take a dark turn when she is sent mysterious and intrusive decorations for her model home and the secrets hold within her family start to leak...

Paper Towns by John Green

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release Date: 13th December 2013
Genre: Young Adult

Summary: 
Margo Roth Spiegelman is a mystery, to even her friends.

So when she wakes her neighbour Quentin, who has secretly been in love with her since they were nine, up in the middle of the night and takes him on an adventure around Orlando, Florida - he is left baffled.

Her unhappiness with her life is so made clear, when the next day she disappears without a trace and it is left to Quentin to find her.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

Title: The Goldfinch
Author: Donna Tart
Publisher: Abacus
Release Date: 5th June 2014
Genre: Fiction, Drama

Summary: 
At the age of thirteen Theo's life is turned upside down when he loses his mother in a horrific terrorist attack at her favourite museum. Deterined to keep her memory close, he takes a valuable painting from the crime scene that reminds him of her. For years to come he takes the wanted painting wherever he goes, but it also takes him into uncharted territory in the criminal underworld.

Review:
This book is probably the most challenging book I have read in a long time, for many reasons.

Firstly, it is unnecessarily long. The paperback, coming in a just over eight hundred pages, is like a paperweight and actually broke my bag because it was so heavy! I feel that a lot of the plot could have been cut and was unnecessary to the story-line.