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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Courtney Sullivan1739526910|title=MaineWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Kellehers' beach-front holiday home in Maine was built on a plot of land won in 'One year after a bar-room bet at the end of World War II. Itsuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's not life, he arrives in the same league as the Kennedy compound an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at Hyannis Port but there are a couple his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of substantial properties on the plot and there's still room to sparereconnecting with everything he has lost. It's But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a place local world of indulgenceunlikely friendships, secrets mobile discos and the sort of burning cruelty which you only get in families who care for each other - some of the timesurprising romantic possibilities. ''Maine'' is essentially the story of a summer at the property - but the seeds of what happens were, of course, planted long ago.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085789496X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chad HarbachJenny Lecoat|title=The Art of FieldingBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Art Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of Fieldingthe occupation. During the war, Jean'' is basically s father was arrested for listening to a US-style campus novel featuring baseball. There are similarities in style between this banned radio and many of John Irving's workssoldiers took him away one night, with baseball substituting leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for Irving's wrestling focusnews of him. This As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, to and the UK-readerwar is finally over, raises their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the first potential barrier as we are, truth come as a rulerelief, largely ignorant of or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the US fixation with war? Who was the intricacies of baseball. Certainly you don't need an in depth knowledge to appreciate this story - it is really a story of friendship, ambition and informer who told the sporting dreams of youth - but despite a loose understanding of Nazis about the sport I felt that I would radio? And what other secrets have benefitted from more knowledge particularly towards been kept throughout the end when there is a climactic baseball matchoccupation?|isbn=1846976537}}{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4. You kind of get 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the pointworld, but I certainly felt that I was missing out thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on a little social media, where she posted every step of the tensionAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in much her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the same way I'd expect a US reader content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to be perplexed if the story had been based on saystart her PhD, cricketundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. It Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's a minor flaw though online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and it would be a shame if potential readers dismissed it for this reason.her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007374445</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eowyn Ivey1529153298|title=The Snow ChildList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The heart of Alaskan nativeIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Eowyn Iveyhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's debut novel is a re-telling of the Russian fairy tale family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'Snegurochkadisappeared'doesn' or t sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she'The Snow Childs overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. Set here in Alaska in the 1920s When you're from Yorkshire, Jack and Mabel have moved from the East coast to start Down South is a new lifefrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, apart from anything to help Mabel get over the grief of having lost move would mean leaving her only child in childbirth. Life in Alaska is tough best friend, Sharon, and Jack struggles she'll do anything to farm his new homesteadprevent that. Then in She's not worried about the first snowfall of the season, a playful snowball fight leads to the couple building a snowman, dangers or more accurately a snowgirl. The next morning the snowgirl has vanished along with the mittens and scarf that adorned her and Jack sees a ghostly figure, possibly a young girl, running in the woodsMum's stopped talking - to anyone. Can they have created a snow child? Is this their longed for daughter?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755380525</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=C J Sansom1035906708|title=Winter in MadridDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Despite being injured at Dunkirk Harry Brett We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was still willing born to do his bit for his country. The deafness from the bomb which killed the man standing next to him on the beach - Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and the resulting panic attacks had begun only moved to recede and he Athens when she was willing, if not keen, to go to Spain to do some work for the ''sneaky beakies''thirteen. He wasn't a spy by nature or inclination Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but he was one of the few people who might be able her father changed it to make contact with - and report back on - Sandy Forsyth who'd been at his public school. ThereCallas's another old Rookwoodian who's left some history in Madrid. Bernie Piper went to Spain to fight for the International Brigades make it more manageable in the Civil War and was thought to have been killed at Jarama but his body had never been found. The school is not the only link thoughStates. Barbara Clare When she was Bernie's girlfriend back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a Red Cross nurse - mother who mercilessly exploited her and now she was living with Sandy Forsythmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330411985</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Adrian Mole was just three months away from his fourteenth birthday when he began writing his diary on New Year's DayThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. He's just on Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the edge of true adolescence - pimples are appearing business, as Ness is planning to take a little bit trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of interest in a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the opposite sexchance to come home to Edinburgh. He's thinking about what he might like And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to do ''eventually''44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but his first major challenge is the breakdown of his parents' marriagewith some new characters who quickly begin to charm. He writes with Katie has no experience in running a wonderful mixture of ''knowingness'business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there' s always her very helpful (and innocence and usually manages rather handsome) neighbour, William, to get things just ever-so-slightly wrong.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141046422</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bruce RobinsonDean Koontz|title=The Rum Diary - A ScreenplayBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Kemp has lied Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his way onto a failing newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rica, as the only candidate for the job, and in a semi-comatose state induced by too many miniatures from the hotel minibarhe loses his fiancee, stumbles into a conspiracy of epic proportions, via classic bar room brawls and nightclub mayhemhis house gets trashed. On the way he (almost) writes horoscopes and bowling championship stories, meets the fantastically erotic girlfriend of the evil businessman Oh, and teams up with someone has delivered a protoreally weird, disturbing coffin-Nazi out of sized object to his mind on a cocktail of hootch and LSDhome, and a photographer side kick. There it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is no question the thing that this has trashed his house! The thing is Hunter S Thompson territory, especially when Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the above delivery to his house is combined with a wittynew friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, slow-talking hero who in spite has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of his alcoholic haze sees clearly through the exploitation Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a third world country by its massive first world near neighbourwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099555697</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louisa YoungKatherine Howe|title=My Dear I Wanted to Tell YouA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'' starts Hannah Masury is living in Lagos but soon moves Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the ruraltown, oil producing Niger Deltashe decides to go and watch. This allows Christie Watson Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's young narratordeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, 12 year old Blessingso that they don't find and kill her too, and then to view escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the traditional ways afresh. Itnotorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a clever device and young Blessing cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is shocked by the rural conditions after a relatively luxurious life in Lagos with a good school and a modern apartment. But when her mother discovers her father mutiny on top of another womanboard, she takes Blessing and from there we are caught up in her older brother, rip roaring tale of life on the asthmatic Ezikiel, back to her family homeocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849163758</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Lake1471180158|title=In Darkness|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Shorty is lying in the rubble of the great Haitian earthquake of 2010. If he's not rescued soon, he will die. Shorty is from Site Soley, the sprawling slum of Port-au-Prince. After the murder of his father and abduction of his twin sister, Shorty has allowed himself to fall further and further into the slum's gang culture. But Route 9 isn't all about drug-dealing and gun-running - it's also about feeding the poor and educating the children. And Shorty has a great deal to teach his readers, as he recounts his life while waiting to die. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408824183</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=Simon Lelic|title=The Child WhoPenny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Simon LelicJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's third booka control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'The Child Who'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, takes him back to the format more you'll suspect that worked so successfully with his first novel, he''Rupture'', avoiding s on the nearautistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice -future angle he took, less successfully I felt, with his second book. Lelicshe's themes are always inspired by real events that have been a frequent flier in the newslocal A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Here, he tackles Missed shifts or the murder of an 11 year old child by Daniel, a 12 year old. The creative inspiration is surely the James Bulger case need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and he acknowledges put in the creative debt wrong. It was going to come to Blake Morrison's ''As If'' on that very subjecta head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330522744</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather PeaceB0CKD1L5JL|title=All To Play ForRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Back Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in August 1985 at the time forests of the Edinburgh Festival a group of people met in what could have been difficult circumstancesWashington's Olympic Peninsula. They were arrested for causing After Bear dies and a disturbance despite the fact that they weren't really involved brief sojourn in the fracas human company, and it was all armed with only a misunderstanding. Little did they know that in the following decade they would all be involved - one way and another - in producing drama for the BBC as it went pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through one of the toughest periods in its history. The tale is told - mainly - by Rhiannonforest, but we hear broadcasting the stories of Nicky, Maggie, Jillstrange, Jonathan wild and Chris. Names will change, but they'll all wander the circular corridors of power in Langford Placerarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248130</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Damian McNichollSarah Marsh|title=Twisted AgendasA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Writing After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about Ireland and her life changes. Living in a time when the Irishuse of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, especially the dimension of she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the Troubles deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the IRAsame time, from a third hand American perspective Bell is a recipe for cliché working on other inventions and stereotype. Balancing ideas, and interweaving the story of American journalist Piper with that of Irishman Danny's search for independence in London does enable McNicholl Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in some part to achieve a wry and knowing stance, making us hope for a clever twist away from the predictably which always seems so closecomplicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248025</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin BarryB0BC3YTCMR|title=City of BohaneGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Bohane is a thoroughly lawless town, set in what would appear to be some kind of parallel universe. We are told it is set in 2053, but it's a town without any technology or modern luxuries. It's a violent place fuelled by alcohol, drugs and lust with a patois style language that takes a little work to get intoThis story is not for everyone. Novels with this kind of premise have to be beyond good if they are to interest the annual literary prize judges; this is one such book and ''City of Bohane'' is nominated for this year's Costa First Novel prize. It is stunningly good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090577</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gavin James Bower1472263936|title=Made in BritainThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=25
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The settings of the intertwined tales of RussellIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, the working class swot trapped Greek by his conditionsbirth, Charliehad left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the heroic 'lad' who gets caught family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the drugs scene first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and Hayley the naïve wannabee with a single parent father are the school rooms and backstreetsfamily's maid, flatsDina, pubs but was wary - and clubs frightened - of Every Townher grandfather, the vision retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of twenty-first century deprivation that Bower conjures. Or rather fails his close connections to conjure, for the device of making the 16 year olds tell the story Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from their own first person narrative deprives the reader of a genuine sense of the physical reality in which this story unfoldsher father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372290</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura WilkinsonDean Koontz|title=BloodminingAfter Death|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Although Wilkinson Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has placed her story in the near futurea sense that something very, for very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the most partshrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, you wouldnhe realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''t necessarily be aware of that fact. Personally, I was delighted as IMichael isn't ''Michael''m not a fan of futuristic fictionanymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907335145</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kerry JamiesonB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Forgotten LiesGrave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the mid-thirties, the golden age of Hollywood, three aspiring starlets shared a studio house on Lantana Drive as they waited to hear if they were going to have a career in the movies – or not. Charlotte (soon to be Carlie for acting purposes), Verbena, known to her friends (and ''only'' her friends) as Bee and Ivy were desperate for the role of a lifetime, which would put their name in lights. There was an added appeal. Whoever won would star opposite Liam Malone – good looking, charismatic The village is isolated and ''very'' married with six childrenpoor. It wasn't just s surrounded by a case of being able to actWitching Forest. Their lives would be under intense scrutinyAnd the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141026049</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Conny Braam|title=The Cocaine Salesman|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Picture a world black wood of hellish exclusionthe forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, nightmarish noise and imageseven gallows, and horrid violenceif needed. Picture one person trying to live through The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the sleepless nights, village and that is the isolation among his peersreason Volushka, the permanent sense of dreadful threat. Picture him needing drugs. His best friend might even be called Charlie. But don't picture an inner city sluma drunken, 2012self-indulgent, but lazy lout of a man on the front in World War Oneis tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907822054</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel ConnorB0BYF82CXT|title=SisterwivesSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I first read the title (I hadn't yet read the back cover blurb) I glibly thought that it was about two sisters 'Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their marriages. Wrong. This debut novel by Connor is about two very different women (one is no more than a girl really) who just happen outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and life appears to 'marry' the same manimprove for both pairs. I use the word marry very loosely indeed. Their communityBut all is not what it seems, and their rules, their descriptions etc can be rather quirkyincreasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. Marriages are normally called 'sealings'.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0946745587</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil ForsythShalini Boland|title=Why Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob ServantSilent Bride|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Catchy title Alice and catchy front cover graphicsSeth are a match made in heaven. What's not to like? He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. It takes She is all he could possibly want in a lot to make me laugh generallywife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, but beaming with pride and excitement as I had an initial flick through she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this bookjoyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, things looked promising. And I was also thinking that itAlice's a pleasant change world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for her to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airingbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=D. J. Connell1787636003|title=Sherry Cracker Gets NormalThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Whilst it's wrong to judge a book by its cover, a mere sight of D. J. Connell's second novel 'Sherry Cracker Gets Normal' is enough to make me smile. The title is amusing; It was the colourful design enticing summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the effusive praise for Connell's debut 'Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar' encouragingisland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000733219X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gavin James|title=Ariadne's Thread|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''Ariadne's Thread Rachel wasn'' is the story of Elena Avgoulas who decided in May 1941 that t exactly innocent but she would have to leave Chioswas, perhaps, the Greek island where she was bornnaive, until the war was over. German soldiers had occupied the island and whilst they were there it would not be home so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, her mother and sister and brothersshe was flattered rather than wary. The brothers were in the Greek army. Her mother would run the family bakery and her sister would support their mother. Elena It was quite a medical student in Athens while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and had a nursing qualification; she decided by that time she would make use of this in the war effortwas obsessed by him. And so began a journey that would take her to CyprusAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, Palestine, Egypt, Italy looking after his interests on the island and Germany in particular in the course of bar where all the wargirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005FRG8P4</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Javier MariasAmanda Craig|title=While the Women are SleepingThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Connecticut innkeeper Faston Hanks is obsessiveFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. HeThere's very keen on food but something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it's cars – and particularly old cars – which drive himstands in one particular moment. This time heTo say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's involved in practically synonymous with the search genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the only one ongoing issues of the fifty Blower Bentleys made which remains unaccounted for. SM3912 was originally purchased by Lord Brougham and Vaux and ownership can be traced to one D H Sessions, after which the trail goes cold. We know something which Faston doesn't know though – the Bentley came day into the hands lives of Stephan Sidlowher characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, who was high up in the APR during World War IInever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, by less than honest means. But then Sidlow was less grappling with issues far larger than honest about which side he was supporting in the warthemselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920180</amazonuk>140871468X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ernest Cline152915118X|title=Ready Player OnePineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A short while ago, I stumbled across a highly enjoyable film called ''FanboysPineapple Street''is the story of three women: Sasha, about Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a bunch of Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem'Star Wars's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they' fans trying d like to break move into George Lucas' mansion the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to get another property, a sneak preview street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the new filmfurniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. I didnNominally, they had a choice but that wasn't pay much attention the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the name of the writer, until I came across Ernest Clinegold digger'. She's author bio living in ''Ready Player Onetheir'' and realised family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it was written by to 'the same person. This immediately gave me high hopesGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846059372</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert HarrisEmily Critchley|title=The Fear IndexOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=With 84 year old Edie has lived in the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop in same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 yearsago, turmoil on and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the bond markets and thing that reveals the prospect truth of economic meltdown and what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the possible disintegration last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the euro zonepast, Robert Harris' new thriller couldn't be she is forgetting more and more timelyin her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John O'Connell0008506337|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1900The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and a described by Margo's mother as 'an older man on a ship coming back '. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from the Boer War what they felt she could achieve - going to edit Oxford and having a glittering career. In the Daily Express meets one of his heroes in event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the form Isle of Arthur Conan DoyleWight. With similar experiences Margo did go to Oxford and interests yet different enough went on to bounce off each other they take up the idea of collaborating on become a plotwell-respected journalist. When they do fix on time to do soThe couple had three children: Rachel, it leads to literary prospectsImogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, which lead to a weekthe family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's research together on Dartmoor, which leads to mind: ''The Hound of the Baskervillesshe would never be able to leave him in charge''. But perhaps in a way that only one of them intended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guillaume Musso1914585402|title=The Girl on PaperDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a modern book for modern times. I loved the reader-friendly layout with big, bold type letting the reader know exactly where we were, in terms couple of storyline years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and locationaffecting it was. But the story itself does jump about It was a lot gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I suspect Musso wants to give a sense of urgency, a sense of frenetic energy at timesmight not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908313056</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria HislopLucy Ashe|title=The ThreadClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and enjoyed HislopThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's 'The Island' so I was looking forward to reading this bookWells. The Prologue is May 2007 Ballerinas Clara and readers Olivia are treated to a vivid coastal description of sisters, twins no less. Identical on the area which is to play such a big part in outside but not, we learn, on the novelinside. Lines such as And not on stage, either. Because there'With the lifting hazes a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across the Thermaic Gulf attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the restful blues of sea classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, and sky shrugged off their pale shrouda star.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>0861544080
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=William GiraldiHeather Fawcett|title=Busy MonstersEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his Gillian. He's proved it to usEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, if not to write herlife's work, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper the very first encyclopaedia of an ex with the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat insteadfaeries. But lo Whilst she is brilliant at research and beholdspeaking to faeries, she's declared is not so good with people. So when she's off to discover finds herself far, far North in the real love small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her life - final investigations for her book back on the giant squidright track. Failing to stop thisEnter Wendell Bambleby, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessive, then goes on a hunt of his own - for Bigfoother dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all the whilecharm and delight, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative of the same much to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsEmily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Sparks1398515388|title=The Best of MeBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching the film First of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to all, it until I saw was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, his newest offeringin turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. Here we have The deaths were uncountable, and the tale loss of two childhood sweethearts whose love livelihoods was always threatened by the widespread. The fact that they many pets were separated from opposite sides their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tracks tsunami - he from the rough, poor family that is forever on the wrong side of the law, and she from one of the better, respected families in the townKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. After life forces them apart they go on to live very different lives, He wasn't a dog person but it seems the convenience store owner's comment that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to look at open his car door and Tamon the choices they've made dog jumped in their lives and where they go to from here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marius BrillChristopher Bowden|title=How to ForgetMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you are Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a fan patient untangling of the BBCa seemingly ordinary woman's 'Hustle' serieslife, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'carried out by her nephew after she has died. It’s The aunt who always provided a funny, clever safe harbour and twisted tale of grifters and con tricks with a little bit of magic thrown in for good measure. Brill gives us indulgence to a cast of strange characters: there's an ethically dubious brain scientist, young nephew had had a dodgy Derren Brown-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugs, an equally violent FBI agent much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and a female British copper. At the heart of the story though is it seems to him an apparently naïve British magician, Peter, and a supreme grifter, Kate, in whose life Peter finds himself entangled.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=S G Browne|title=Fated|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Clever and very funny, this is the sort of book where you immediately feel in safe hands. S.G. Browne has gone obligation to town (New York), satirising just about every aspect of modern life, and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly in recognition in my headfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Titania HardieJennifer Mason|title=The House Partitions of the WindUnity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title of the book Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She doesunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touchAn Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], I thought when she investigated and not over-played either. The short Prologue describes unravelled a young girl on the eve series of her 'terrible fatedisappearances.In ' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minute. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House Partitions of the Wind.Unity''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Sanderson|title=Netherwood|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The cover of Netherwood features , she sets her mind to solving a bold promise - 'Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey'murder.. The basic features of a reliable 'upstairs/downstairs' saga are all present; the landed gentry enjoying their estate, the staff servicing it and the locals, all relying on the fortunate family for their own income.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Khaled HosseiniWill Carver|title=The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel)Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Five strangers come together in one moment as a ''New York Times Bestseller'' I was expecting great things from this book; coupled with the fact that I really enjoy American fiction, I was itching suicide bomber prepares to get readingdetonate his vest on a London tube line. The As their fates overlap, the story is told from the perspective of Sheilain backwards order, sister leading up to Mike and half-sister to Arthur (he's normally called Art). Art is the priest and who is at the centre of the storm. We go back in time and discover a rather pious woman who has had a hard start to married life. She's now left to bring up her young son, Art, on her own. But things pick up pretty quickly from here and as an attractive woman it's not long before she meets someone else. Two more children are born and they all settle down into a normal, American family unitfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>1914585186}}
