Contract Law Concentrate: Law Revision and Study Guide (5th edn) by Jill Poole, James Devenney and Adam Shaw-Mellors

Contract Law Concentrate: Law Revision and Study Guide (5th edn) by Jill Poole, James Devenney and Adam Shaw-Mellors is another good book in the concentrate series which is useful for law students studying an undergraduate qualifying law degree in England and Wales. This book covers the full range of contract law including offer and acceptance, intention and consideration, contractual terms, misrepresentation, duress and undue influence, frustration and more. As always, I would emphasise that students should not rely on only this book for studying and revision purposes as every contract law module has its differences, but this book makes a great starting point and a good accompaniment for revision.

Like all the concentrate books, Contract Law Concentrate is written in mostly plain, easy-to-understand English, which makes it great for law students, particularly those in the first year of study. Due to this basic, easy-to-understand language, students could easily use the book either as pre-reading before covering the content in lectures or as a revision guide or use it for both purposes. There is also the use of diagrams and tables in this book, which helps break up the text, making it more pleasant for the reader to read and digest. I further really liked the case summaries at the end of each chapter, as well as the key debates and exam-style questions. Contract Law Concentrate also includes some extra features which the other Concentrate books I have read do not include, including "Think Like the Examiner" comments as well as other such comments which again add value to the book.

Although this Concentrate covers the module in fewer chapters compared to some of the other Concentrate guides, this resulted in some longer chapters, which, although it may not be the most desirable for some students, it makes sense as the chapters all covered the relevant topic and to shorten the chapters would be to dilute some of the detail included which should be avoided at all costs; the depth of detail in this guide is a good balance between a textbook and revision guide and so should not be diluted. Furthermore, much of this guide was not very well structured. For instance, some sections in the other Concentrate guides were included in a table to make them tidier, but they were not included in tables in this guide and were not very well formatted at all. Furthermore, throughout the book, but particularly in some chapters, there was an overuse of bold text, which made the text appear very ugly. For such important points, the authors should consider a different approach to bringing these points to the reader's attention.

Altogether, I rate this book 2 stars, making it an all right (Good) book because it presented the details of contract law in an easy-to-understand way with clear English language throughout and helpful revision tips both generally and in terms of answering contract law exam questions. It appears to cover the majority of the most relevant cases with some potential omissions in places, but it covers the most fundamental and foundational knowledge which is required. I would recommend this book for its easy-to-understand content and the exam practice questions and advice, which are included throughout.