It's no secret that I'm a major fan of The Virgin Suicides, which Jeffrey Eugenides is perhaps best known for, so it was only a matter of time before I got my hands on these two. And they look really interesting too: the protagonist of Middlesex is intersex which is something I've never come across before in a novel so I'm interested to see how the author tackles that topic, while The Marriage Plot, quite aside from the stunning cover, is set in the 80s and is about a group of college students which just about redeems it for smacking of clichéd chick-lit love triangles.

Reckless by William Nicholson // The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

I love novels set in World War 2 or immediately afterwards and I have a certain fondness for the Cuban missile crisis when it appears in books - according to the blurb Reckless manages to tick both these boxes so I'm excited to get stuck into it. The Paying Guests just looks like a cracking good novel: it's about a widow and her daughter in the 1920s who are forced to take in lodgers and what happens when a young modern couple move in with them. Apparently it's also a crime story so that gets bonus points in my book!

Rise by Anna Carey

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley

Lastly I ordered Rise, which is the third in a trilogy by Anna Carey. To be honest I can't quite remember what it's about because I read the first one years ago, but I do know it's one of those YA dystopian deals which I used to love so much and at some point I planned to get the second and third so I'd have them all. I'm definitely going to read the whole trilogy through at some point anyway. I also have no recollection of why I ordered How to Build a Girl but it looks really good and the cover is quite striking. Last but not least, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust is the latest in the Flavia de Luce series which I'm sure I've raved about somewhere on my blog before - in a nutshell it's about an 11-year-old amateur sleuth and chemistry whizz who solves crimes in the small town of Thornton Lacey where she lives. The difference with this installment is that Flavia has been sent off to boarding school in Canada, which I'm not quite sure how I feel about because I dearly love the established setting - but I suppose we'll see.