Gutsy prose and an excellent ear for social comedy

A slight, charming read

An enchanting little novel. The incendiary infatuation at its heart is both inexplicable as it is enthralling

A captivating and well researched tale of love, duty, and the consequences of actions, set against a vividly described New World

Brings together all the best elements of historical writing and breathes new life into the craft of epic storytelling. Sharply-drawn, credible characters, perilous adventure, exotic locations and the skilful blending of fact with fiction, make Mistress of the Sea a real page turner

A fabulous story, and a wonderfully different (but important) perspective on Elizabethan times... Whether you sign up for this journey in search of romance, high-stakes adventure, or just engaging entertainment, there’s something for most everyone here

On the day Drake's ship is set to sail, Ellyn makes a fateful decision that will change the course of her future - she disguises herself as a boy and stows away on Drake's ship. What follows is the adventure of a lifetime

A real swash-buckler of a novel that will appeal to all readers. It’s a story that harks back to the very start of the Golden Age of Discovery - the author has weaved a marvellous work of fiction around a very well-known historical figure and his ‘antics’

The splendid tale of Ellyn, who stows away with Sir Francis Drake to save her father's life and follow the man she's not yet willing to admit she loves. Thick with the voices, as well as the smells, sights, sounds and naval politics of a Tudor universe

A swashbuckler of a romance and adventure... Jenny's attention to detail is superb, her writing is skilled, and her sense of adventure is engrossing

Sizzling…fun, fascinating and vividly drawn…atmospheric, enchanting…Mistress of the Sea is a rip-roaring, escapist adventure story full of action, drama, good guys, bad guys, real history and thrilling romance

The market-leader.

A literary sensation.

A word of mouth blockbuster.

It’s the book everyone’s talking about.

The book that made women want to have sex again.

The fastest selling book of the year.

The world’s bestselling paperback.

One of the year’s most talked about books.

Given McEwan’s ability to make riveting fiction out of English politics (not easy), it would be hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write such a story... Delicious... Gripping

His assumption of a female persona is pitch-perfect

No contemporary novelist is more enthralled by what goes on inside the human skull than Ian McEwan... Doubling back and forth across genre boundaries, Sweet Tooth takes risks...this acute, witty novel is a winningly cunning addition to McEwan’s fictional surveys of intelligence.

Playful, comic... This is a great big Russian doll of a novel, and in its construction – deft, tight, exhilaratingly immaculate – is a huge part of its pleasure.

A thoroughly clever novel...a sublime novel about novels, about writing them and reading them and the spying that goes on in doing both...very impressive...rich and enjoyable.

Gave us another of his delightful posh-totty narrators, young Serena Frome, who is recruited into the intelligence services in the 1970s.

What you see is not what you get, and the twist at the end reminds us of how many of this author’s works confound readers imaginations... A well-crafted pleasure to read, its smooth prose and slippery intelligence sliding down like cream.

Simultaneously a tongue-in-cheek riff on his own early stories, a typically assured spy novel with a sting in the tail, and a meditation on the relationship between reader and writer.

The true subject of this smart and tricky novel, set inside a cold war espionage operation, is the border between make-believe and reality.

A wisecracking thriller hightailing between love and betrayal, with serious counter-espionage credentials thrown in... This is ultimately a book about writing, wordplay and knowingness.

A triumphant shedding of genre limitations.

For most of its length, this account of a young woman's adventures in the British secret service of the 1970s reads like Le Carre-lite, but with McEwan nothing is ever quite as it seems and towards the end the reader is asked to re-examine what's gone before. Real-life friends and acquaintances of the author have walk-on parts, which you may find fascinating.

Given McEwan’s ability to make riveting fiction out of English politics (not easy), it would be hard to imagine anyone better equipped to write such a story... Delicious... Gripping.

Parallels and contrasts between the mind-sets and mind games of espionage agents and writers of fiction are deftly teased out... acute, witty, cunningly crafted and full of fascinating autobiographical insights.

Gloriously readable and, at times, wickedly funny.

Had McEwan, through Serena’s benefit of hindsight in narrating her life, planted the clues? Let every reader have the pleasure of finding out.

A curious piece of autobiographical fiction.

McEwan’s prose is controlled, his observation forensic as ever... McEwan carries us with irresistible momentum to a surprise ending.

Highly entertaining.

The great thing about McEwan is that, despite his success, he continues to work hard, producing ever more accessible and entertaining stories.

An artful game of distortion... Clever handling.

Carefully researched.

I loved it. It reminded me of his most successful novel, Atonement.

Adroitly done...highly diverting.

McEwan’s mastery dazzles us in this superbly deft and witty story of betrayal and intrigue, love, and the invented self.

Fans of Ian McEwan should rejoice with this arrival of this novel, because Sweet Tooth is McEwan's finest work since 2001's Atonement.

His assumption of a female persona is pitch-perfect.

Must read... Intrigue, love and mutual betrayal by a master of the art.

Gripping.

Full of ideas.

Cleverly metafictional.

One of the most hotly anticipated novels of the year...it’s brilliant.

McEwan, as always, presents an engaging narrator... The plot is fantastic... McEwan plays with the readers expectations, and surpasses them all with a fabulous ending that makes me itch to re-read this superb novel all over again. Sweet Tooth marks another triumph for a brilliant British author.

A pleasing, tricksy beast with a subsumed sense of metatextuality likely to be pleasing to his fans.

This most cunning of authors entertains and manipulates his readers. Sweet Tooth is a masterclass in the art of fiction.

Ian McEwan proves he’s still the master penman with his twelfth novel.

Dazzling.