The Nowhere Emporium - Ross MacKenzie

Don't you just love finding an unexpected gem at the library? This book is so magical and intriguing that you'll find yourself wishing you could visit, even the cover cleverly invites you into the emporium.

While hiding from bullies, Daniel finds himself in a wondrous shop full of exciting and mysterious things. The owner is surprised to find him in the closed shop, but allows Daniel to wait till he feels safe to leave. The owner is even more astounded to find Daniel back the next day, as this is a magical shop and no one ever remembers it once leaving! 

Lucien Silver introduces Daniel to the mystical Nowhere Emporium. Full of magical staircases and mysterious rooms, there's a garden where every petal and leaf is aflame, a fountain of imagination and a library of souls. Then there's the mysterious Ellie, Mr Silver's daughter, who can't leave the emporium and can only be seen by Emporium workers. Mr Silver sees some potential in Daniel and offers to make him an apprentice, teaching him how to make Wonders of his own. 

The shop sounds a little sinister at first 'to enter you must pay a price' and you're not quite sure whether you can trust Lucien Silver. Customers are drawn to the shop, but then forget all about it once they leave. This all adds to the mystery and keeps you guessing. I loved the immersive magic of the book and will definitely be looking for more from this author.

The Nowhere cocktail I created is fairly light on alcohol but strong on flavours. I've used some of the smells that drift form the shop as it opens to customers, see if you spot them all when reading the book. I added shimmer to mimic the sparkling bricks of the hallways and a few Popballs at the bottom of the cocktail will be hidden at first but then surprise the drinker, like the wonders in the Emporium.

Put the following ingredients into a shaker with ice - 1 shot malibu, 1/4 shot blue curacao, 1/2 shot cranberry juice, 1/4 shot lemon juice, a few drops of chocolate bitters and a drop of liquid smoke. Shake them up and pour into a martini glass. Stir in a little blue shimmer and then drop in a few Popballs.

We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

This book was recommended to me by my lovely friend Helen so I just had to read it as soon as I could get myself a copy.

A life of endless summers where the rest of the year hardly seems to exist. Cadence and the rest of the Sinclairs spend every summer at her grandfather's private island near Martha's Vineyard. Blonde, rich and privileged, the family have every luxury and convenience at their fingertips.

All this changes after the accident. Now Cady has almost constant headaches and she cannot remember what happened to her that summer. Her mother doesn't want to let her go back to the island and she spends the next summer touring Europe with her father. Cady feels isolated from her cousins and suspects that something traumatic must have happened to her, especially when none of them bother to reply to her emails.  The year after, when she eventually persuades her mother to let her go back for part of the summer, she finds a very different island. Her grandfather has rebuilt his house as an austere Japanese villa and her cousins have moved into the empty house of one of her aunts.

What actually happened to Cadence? Her cousins won't tell her anything as they and the rest of the family have been told not to discuss it with her so she can remember by herself. All we know are the few vague details she is told about how she was found and she is sure that she must have some kind of head injury that the doctors haven't discovered.

The twist is quite clever and even after I finished, I tried to go back and find the clues but they were very well disguised. I don't know if anyone would guess what happened, if you've read it and figured it out, please let me know!

Cady, her cousins Johnny and Mirren, and their friend Gat, are known to the rest of the family as the Liars. I didn't feel like this was adequately explained and found myself wondering throughout the book. Particularly as it is in the title. There was a brief mention that they weren't called the Liars before Gat started coming to visit so I kept expecting to find that he had done something to earn their name. The version I read actually does explain it in the extras, which is useful.

Though every evening Cady's family gather for cocktail hour before dinner, I found this book was the hardest to match with a cocktail. Eventually I settled on an adaptation of the Pink Faced Liar. In a shaker with ice, mix a shot each of gin and vodka, half a shot of lemon juice and a couple of dashes of grenadine. Pour into a tall glass with ice and top with tonic, then give it a stir before serving.