Australian author Sophie Masson's young adult fantasy Scarlet in the Snow is inspired by two Russian fairytales, The Scarlet Flower, the Russian version of Beauty and the Beast, and Fenist the Falcon. Masson calls her novel a ''fairytale thriller''. That certainly turns out to be the case, after her feisty heroine Natasha faces challenges from both a witch and the traditional encounter with the "beast", who demands retribution for destroying his red rose. Masson's imaginatively constructed Russian world provides a rich backdrop to an enchanting mix of magic, romance and adventure, with Natasha's courage and patience bringing just reward in her journey from adolescence to adulthood.

The Year of the Ladybird.
By Graham Joyce.
Gollancz. 265pp. $29.99.

Graham Joyce's The Year of the Ladybird, subtitled A Ghost Story, sees a young student, David, employed in a Skegness holiday camp in the hot summer of 1976. This is no Hi-di-hi holiday camp, however, as undercurrents swirl of National Front racism, sexual intrigue and corruption. David, who was abandoned at Skegness by his father at the age of three, is troubled by visions of a man and a young boy on the beach who then mysteriously disappear. The past must be exorcised before David's future can be resolved. Joyce superbly transcends the boundaries between the normal and the supernatural.

Blood Song.
By Anthony Ryan.
Orbit. 582pp. $29.99.

Blood Song, the first in Ryan's Raven's Shadow trilogy, was initially self-published in 2011, selling 30,000 e-books, thus causing it to be picked for print publication. The first volume begins the story of an important prisoner of war, Vaelin, about to be executed in a quasi-European late medieval kingdom. Vaelin, as a young boy, was recruited into a religious order where children are meant to fight and die for "the Faith". Vaelin's story, told to a chronicler, allows for a single coherent narrative voice. Ryan probes varying religious belief systems and wars in a strong fantasy debut, even if for some readers it may be the second coming.