Some novels announce themselves on the first page. Others behave like a serious red, closed and a little reserved at first, then opening slowly...

An orphaned cellist moves into her guardian's spotless Chiswick house and finds the back bedroom already occupied by a boy only she can see. E L James's first young adult novel is at its best on grief and at its weakest on repetition, possessiveness and a heat level that strains the YA label.

Three linked holiday novellas from Abby Jimenez: exes forced to fake a reunion, a man stuck in a diner in a zombie Santa costume, and two best friends who team up against a three-day engagement. Funny and generous, with endings that come a little too easily.

Six months after Nyx's birth, the Night Court is negotiating with kingdoms that want the human lands back, an ancient death-lord is stirring, and Azriel is coming apart. The sixth ACOTAR book is a sharp, dark first movement with a superb mid-book set piece, though it resolves very little and its love triangle brings out the worst in everyone.

Spoiler-free review of Arcaneia by Trenor Rapkins: a 2126 dystopia where a corporate soldier uncovers his manipulation and seeks truth and redemption.

Five years after Duck Lake, Nate Yellow Tail rides east in a borrowed parade RV to bring a Blackfeet boy's bones home from Carlisle. Jones's sequel is braver, funnier and stranger than its predecessor, with a sagging middle and supernatural rules that arrive late.