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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A L KennedyJenny Lecoat|title=What BecomesBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesGeneral Fiction|summary=YouJean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the war, Jean're three stories into this collection s father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - a man with love drooping soldiers took him away from his marriage, making soupone night, leaving Jean and another, a greengrocerher mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationship. But there the war is no pattern to finally over, their hopes rise that. Four stories in and there have been two bursts they will finally learn what became of non-sequitur comedyhim. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, and But will the thoughts of truth come as a woman in a flotation tankrelief, remembering Doctor or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who, locked parental doors - and was the informer who told the Nazis about the urban myths of gerbils. radio? But there's still no pattern - and that's And what other secrets have been kept throughout the point of these combined stories. Life and all of its emotions does not live to rule.occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009949406X</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street)Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=EvereyoneAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's favouritechildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, Bertiebasically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is still struggling with his over-protectivein her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, oversuing her step-zealous mother Ireneto take down the content about her. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga classAnuri is battling alcoholism, saxophone lessons, Italian lessonsfailing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and he longs to go away to Scout camp, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as a helperreceiving money from them for doing so. AndMost importantly, as the title suggestsshe is desperately worried about her little sister, he who is looking forward to being seventhe new focus of Ophelia's online empire. His little brother, UlyssesCan she save her sister, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene perhaps herself goes missing in a rather mysterious manner...and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971454</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shannon Burke1529153298|title=Black FliesThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ollie Cross has failed It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to get into medical schoolhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. While he thinks about what he plans Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to domove the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, he takes Down South is a job as a paramedic on frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the tough streets of Harlemmove would mean leaving her best friend, New York CitySharon, and finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to shiftanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535491</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Kay1035906708|title=MickaDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Micka We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Laurie are two ten year old boysonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. TheyHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas're to make it more manageable in the same class at school and are friends, of a sortStates. They both have vivid imaginations, and Laurie's plans involve finding When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a magical bone and using it for murder. Micka lives with his mum (who can't read and is often drunk) and his two older brothers who get into fights, are involved in crime, and mother who abuse Micka physically mercilessly exploited her and sexually. Laurie lives with his parents, until they suddenly break up, and he is left with his mum who seems to be having a breakdown. The book is told from the point made no secret of view of the two boys, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with themher preference for her elder sister, we also read with horror their own descent into violenceJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513826</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan WiggsAlexander McCall Smith|title=Just BreatheThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Sarah may be struggling to make a living off it, but she does enjoy her job as a cartoonist. She's been through a lot recently, including her husband's battle with cancer, and her alter ego Shirl provides an outlet for a lot of the emotions and confusion she's feeling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303543</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Cronin|title=Dr Finlay's Casebook|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Most people will have heard of Dr Finlay, although they may not be entirely sure why - A J Cronin's stories of The Perfect Passion Company is a fictional doctor dating agency in pre-War Scotland have been televised over Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the yearsonline apps in providing a more personal, most recently in tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the nineties when David Rintoul starred business, as Dr FinlayNess is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Although fictional Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, A J Croninand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, who died in 1981bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, was himself a doctor thanks to 44 Scotland Street and has apparently based the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some of Finlay's experiences on his ownnew characters who quickly begin to charm. This omnibus is made up of two books by Cronin Katie has no experience in running a business, Dr Finlay of Tannochbraeor in match-making, published but Ness has full confidence in 1978 her abilities, and Adventures of a Black Bagthere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, published in 1943William, both collections of short stories.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841588547</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clancy MartinDean Koontz|title=How To SellThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=In the 1980'sBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, 16 year old Bobby Clark and his house gets expelled from his high school in Canada for stealingtrashed. This is Oh, and someone has delivered a young boy so immoral that he pilfers really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his own motherhome, and it's wedding ring possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to pawn for cash to keep deserve all this bad luck. He is a girl happynice person. After the girl A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to be less interested in him than he his house is in hera new friend, he follows his older brother Jim a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to Texas, where he gets help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a job working with Jim in a jewellery storegood person. As he falls into a life Spike is going to take care of scamsBenny, drugsand will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, hookersif he, gorgeous womenBenny, and an obsession with JimHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's girlfriend Lisa, it's clear that this coming of age story is a tragedy waiting to happenwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532182</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick MarrinanKatherine Howe|title=Degrees of GuiltA True Account|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Police broke into the apartment Hannah Masury is living in Sandymount Village in Dublin and woke Yuri Komarova rather roughly. He'd Boston, having been drinking heavilysent to live with a family who run an inn, smoking dope and was difficult being made to arouse, but on the floor near his bed was the knife which he had apparently used to stab his mother to deathwork there from a young age. He seemed When she hears there is to have no memory be a hanging of this but he spoke little English some pirates in the town, she decides to go and had the mental age of a twelve-year oldwatch. An interpreter helped with the questioning Enthralled and when the case came to trial his defence relied on proving that he had been sleep-walking horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the time hands of the murder and had no intention of killing his mothertwo vicious pirates. This is the most difficult defence to uphold She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and there was the added problem that Yuri seemed then to have lied escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the police when he told them that his mother had very little money notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as some Russian icons were found a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a strongbox mutiny on board, and they were worth several million Eurosfrom there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090749</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katie Kitamura1471180158|title=The LongshotMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Cal and his longJamie Matson works in an upper-time trainer Riley travel down to the town of Tijuana in Mexico class grocery store, for a crucial rematch man who's a control freak with all the undefeated champion Riverasubtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. Three years earlier Cal He's promising career had been derailed following a close yet devastating defeat at asthmatic and the more you read, the hands of Rivera. After more you'll suspect that defeat Cal carried he's on fighting but never reached the same heights as beforeautistic spectrum. Now he finally gets Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the chance local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to face his nemesis once moreschool. The story takes place in Missed shifts or the two days before the rematch as he need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and Riley prepare for put in the biggest fight of his life, wrong. It was going to come to a fight that could once again end in tragedyhead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374999</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laurie GrahamB0CKD1L5JL|title=At SeaRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've already read Graham's 'The Future Homemakers of AmericaPetr is an orphan.' It was goodRescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, but not particularly memorable so I was keen to read this novel. The reader he is introduced to two vastly differing opposites brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the shape forests of Mr and Mrs FinchWashington's Olympic Peninsula. Well, Lady Enid (English) After Bear dies and Professor Bernard (American) Fincha brief sojourn in human company, to be precise. And we're transported straight away onto the decks of the liner 'Golden Memories' and Graham starts to have her fun: armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the languageforest, broadcasting the characters strange, wild and the whole set-uprarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849162182</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura BartonSarah Marsh|title=Twenty-One LocksA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This debut novel's central character is 20 year old sales girlAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, JeannieEllen Lark loses her hearing. She lives Suddenly plunged into a very humdrum world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a rather uglytime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, down-at-heel town in the north. And straight away Barton treats the reader Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to her lovelylip read, descriptive prosebut physically restrained from signing. For exampleFrom here, when she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the reader is given some detail about Jeannie's workplace at the perfume deaf and cosmetics counter where ..using a system called Visible Speech. 'At the lipsticks ... all lined up like chorus girls ...' Barton's writing style same time, Bell is very easy to readworking on other inventions and ideas, very fluid and I found myself getting right into the story straight away - and caring about JeannieEllen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849161747</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne PeileB0BC3YTCMR|title=Repeat It Today With TearsGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Repeat it Today with Tears follows the ''This story of Susanna, a sixteen year old girl from a broken and loveless home who obsessively collects information in the back of a notebook about the father she has never metis not for everyone. When by chance she discovers that he still lives nearby she sets out deliberately to find and seduce him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687462</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Orringer1472263936|title=The Invisible BridgeFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a story It was in 1968 that takes us from the elegance of ParisHelena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, through had left the streets of Budapest family home and on into the Hungarian countryside refused to return, but Mary and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully toldHamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about Her trip to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture the family apartment in Parisup-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. AndrasShe grew to love her grandmother and the family' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Pariss maid, Dina, the theatres but was wary - and the barsfrightened - of her grandfather, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hideretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. As the tragedy He was proud of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, his close connections to the little village where Andras Junta and expected his brothers grew up, family to Budapest where uphold his new family live values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungarygreen eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>
}}
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1863 and the Superintendent covering the inner city area Michael Mace, Head of Glasgow has his hands fullSecurity, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. First off an alarming forgery scandal Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has just been discovered a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and no sooner has only him – as he drawn breath than one, two sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and counting suspicious deaths occurformer colleagues. InstinctivelyAs he recovers his senses, I want to say he realises that itthere is something different about him; he can ''feel''s all good, clean funeverything. Because it is''Everything''. The language Fraser uses is very much of that era which lends the book a particular old-fashioned and rather twee, charm. ItMichael isn't 's all over the book in spades. On almost every page. Let me give you just one endearing example of the flavour of the book 'None of Mrs MaitlandMichael's four regulars at her superior guest house for single gentlemen would even dream of taking another's seat .anymore..'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090684</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jodi ComptonB0BVDC2VWH|title=Hailey's WarThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the beginning villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the bookforest provides heat and warmth, Hailey Cain is a 23 year old cycle courierliving in San Franciscoroofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. The story then takes a step back fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in time the village and wediscover that she had to leave West Point Military Academy during herfinal year, for reasons she prefers to keep to herself. I continued to read under the assumption that Hailey had done something which forced her to leave. Hernext move is to L.A, where she spent the latter part of her childhood.During these yearsreason Volushka, her mother with whom she hasa drunken, at bestself-indulgent, lazy lout of a very strained relationship man is no source of comfort and Hailey develops a very close attachment to her cousin CJ. Aspects of this relationship make for uncomfortable reading at timestolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847373577</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew GrantB0BYF82CXT|title=Die Twice (David Trevellyan)Semi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The title is very much at home ''Bill and Amanda are living in keeping with the thriller genre a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and it's both eye-catching Fiona – glamorous, successful and also has a perfectly reasonable explanation which comes right at the very end of the story. I must admit to thrillers generally not being my most favourite reading materialmuch in love – move in next door. Some can be a bit flashyDespite their different outlooks on life, a bit trashy even. But not this novel. Right from the start I felt I was in couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for a good, intelligent readboth pairs. There were pointers to this But all over the place. For startersis not what it seems, David Trevellyan has a nice line in witty humour. There and their increasingly interconnected relationships are numerous snazzy one-linersfated for tragedy. It all went down very well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230747582</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan LeeShalini Boland|title=Who Is Mr Satoshi?The Silent Bride|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens somewhere Alice and Seth are a match made in the Home Counties and Rob Fossick is attending his mother's funeralheaven. The event in itself He is extremely distressing and also depressing everything she has been searching for him; factor handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in that he's become a bit of a recluse lately wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and I could feel the sheer loneliness creeping into Rob's very boneswedding is planned and set. Lee describes When the event much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice'Zimmer framess world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, bifocals, trifocals, dark grey coats with yawning shoulderswho is waiting for her to become his wife. The apparatus of old age.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434020419</amazonuk>1662507089
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hazel McHaffie1787636003|title=Remember RememberThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The story starts at It was the end summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and works back in timearrived on the island. This works extremely well as we see Doris ManneringRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, mothernaive, grandmother and greatso when thirty-four-year-grandmother now living old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in a residential homeher, she was flattered rather than wary. The decision It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to 'put mother' into a home was very, very difficult her and had been put off by that time and time again. We come to realize that this she was a heart-wrenching decisionobsessed by him. The daughter and carer, JessicaAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, will always be asking herself if she'd done looking after his interests on the right thing, made island and in particular in the right decision for bar where all the right reasons. A veritable minefield. And here is where many an ethical dilemma lies for many families in real-life similar situationsgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906817294</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John NivenAmanda Craig|title=The AmateursThree Graces|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Gary Irvine only wants two things out Few styles of life. He'd contemporary fiction interest me like to have children and he wants to reduce his golf handicap. Nothing extraordinary there, you might think except for the fact that his wife, Pauline, is planning to leave him for a selfstate-of-made carpet millionaire and Gary is a dreadful golfer. His handicap is eighteen – but I'm not entirely certain how he got it down to that level in the first place-nation novel. His family doesnThere't give him much solace either. His brother Lee is on s something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the fringes atmosphere of the local criminal underworld day and hasn't the wit to keep himself out capture it, crafting an image of trouble with Ranta Campbell, the local overlordcountry as it stands in one particular moment. Ranta could To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be quite likeable if it wasnembarrassingly inadequate: she't s practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for his penchant for a certain type weaving the ongoing issues of violence designed to keep the others day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in line rather , never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than to teach the victim a lessonthemselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516667</amazonuk>140871468X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Ross152915118X|title=Mr PeanutPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The main couple who tend to take centre stage here ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are called David sisters and Alice PepinSasha is married to their brother Cord. They live 're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a kind of comfortableStockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, middle-class life in busy asks Cord and bustling ManhattanSasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. After more than Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a decade of generally happy married life togetherstreet or so away, which they want to take own. They won't need any of the next step furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and have a familyCord can move straight in. Easy to say Nominally, they had a choice but things donthat wasn't quite work out according the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to plancall Sasha 'the gold digger'. We are taken on various She's living in 'dark' journeys within their marriage'' family home. These are situations which most of us can identify with. Some of these situations are painful, stressful, unhappyThey use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087738</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas ShakespeareEmily Critchley|title=InheritanceOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Andy Larkham's 84 year old Edie has lived in the 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 career are going nowherebring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. He works for a small publishing house However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, Carpe Diemwho went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that specialises reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in publishing self-help booksthe high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, his fiancée is about she starts to dump him and he has no money and mountains find pockets of debtmemories coming back to her. And that's before we begin to talk about his dysfunctional family. His only real role model was yet as she remembers the Montaigne-loving teacher, Stuart Furnivallpast, whose funeral he she is late forforgetting more and more in her day to day life. But an unexpected inheritance of £17 million has a habit of changing one Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's outlook on life. But while he trades self-help for help yourselfdisappearance before her move, Andy also realises that he has inherited a mystery.and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553156</amazonuk>1804181250
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{{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''
Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cath Staincliffe0008506337|title=The Kindest ThingGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Imagine that your partner of The 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 or so years discovers -one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they are dying from felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a terminal diseaseglittering career. Now imagine that In the event, they've asked you eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to help them Oxford and went on to die become a little soonerwell-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on their own termsthe Isle of Wight. What would you do? This is Even then the dilemma that faced Deborah and, after doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she went ahead and helped her husband Neil would never be able to die, she found herself charged and standing trial for murder with her own teenage daughter, Sophie, testifying against herleave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012083</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eliza Graham1914585402|title=JubileeDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As the village celebrates the QueenI reviewed David F Ross's Golden Jubilee two people canbook [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There't help but think s Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back to the Silver Jubilee. Evie Winter and her niece Rachel have vivid memories of the day when Evie's daughter Jessamy wandered off remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and the mystery of her disappearance has never been solvedaffecting it was. She It was eleven years olda gripping, brightemotionally wounding read, athletic and loved by her mother and cousin. There would seem to be no explanation as to why she rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have disappeared of her own free will and no evidence that she was abducted. Life has carried lavished enough praise on, but it has not been the same. It has not been easy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330509268</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael RobothamLucy Ashe|title=Bleed For MeClara and Olivia|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=An ex-detective is found dead in a pool of blood in his teenager's bedroom. She runs from the scene of the crime. Is this the easiest cut-and-dried case ever? This novel is told in the first person by the investigating psychologist, Professor Joe O'Loughlin. He's got a lot going on in his life right now. His health is not good so he's to keep popping pills to try and get through another working day. He's also newly separated and his daughters seem to talk a completely different language. He feels old and very ragged round the edges. Into this mix, he discovers that the teenager everyone is talking about, the teenager who's been discussed and described as a cold-blooded killer, is his daughter's best friend. Could his life get any worse, he thinks. Yes. Big-time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847442188</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Catherine O'Flynn|title=The News Where You Are|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The main character in this novel year is Frank Allcroft1933. Husband, father, son and also a bit of a minor celebrity as heThe place? Sadler's beamed into Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the region's television screens nightlyoutside but not, we learn, presenting on the local newsinside. Make And not on stage, either. Because there's a lot that minor with builds a small 'm'dancer. He comes across as a likeableSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, middle-aged man, content with his lot attention to detail – and with his home life. But he does have some personal issues to attend tothings, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the classroom. In particularA stage presence, his grumpya charm, sometimes forgetful, elderly mother who is now living in a retirement home''joie de vivre''. Mother The difference between a hard-worker, and son give each other lots of grief on a regular basisstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670918555</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mario PuzoHeather Fawcett|title=Six Graves to MunichEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the dying days of the Second World War Michael RoganEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, an American Intelligence officer was captured and tortured by a group of seven menresearched meticulously, most of whom were senior Gestapo officers trying to obtain write her life's work, the secrets which Rogan could give themvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. His wife was in another room Whilst she is brilliant at research and he could hear her screamsspeaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. Ten years laterSo when she finds herself far, when he had recovered from the appalling injuries he suffered he made up his mind that he would avenge far North in the death small village of his wife at Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the hands of village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the seven menright track. ItEnter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's no easy task as frustration. But why is he doesn't even know who they are.here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184916276X</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kishwar Desai1398515388|title=Witness The Boy and the NightDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens on a disturbing dream sequence (or is First of all, it a memory?) that sets up was the earthquake, deep in the murder ocean floor, which is to be at created the centre of tsunami and this book, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. DurgaThe result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, a young girl living in Julundur, is instructed by a mysterious male character to return to and the house loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from which she has just fled, their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the house in which her whole family lies deadtsunami - poisoned, stabbed and partly scorchedKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. There Durga is tied up, having been attacked He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and rapedTamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636857</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chioma OkerekeChristopher Bowden|title=Bitter LeafMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jericho, (whoChristopher Bowden's female by the way), latest novel is a beautiful young patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman. She's curious about the outside world so like many before her, she's taken the brave step of sampling life in a big, bustling city. She returns to carried out by her home village with some rather pretentious airs ..nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a rich suitor in tow. By sheer coincidence Jericho's mother little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had attended an interview in her past at her daughter's new boyfriend's family home. A veritable mansion with ' ... sweeping rooms a much more interesting life than that took longer than a river nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to cross.' What a lovely way of describingluxury in him an essentially poor area of Africaobligation to find it all out. Everyone thinks the next natural step is marriage and babies but is it?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844086275</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith ColquhounJennifer Mason|title=Five Deadly Words|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Five Deadly Words follows the story of charismatic former dictator Lucas, as he charms and 'collects' people during his exile in London. The story is seen mostly from the point of view of Helen Berlin, the bright young Detective Constable who is put in charge of Lucas' safety. Helen finds herself caught up in matters which become increasingly out Partitions of her depth as she falls further into the former dictator's world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529496</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Don Boyd|title=Margot's SecretsUnity|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Margot is a psychologist who specialises in sexual disorders and obsessions. She lives Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and works for herself unintentional detective in Barcelona amongst the ex-pat community[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and although she only has unravelled a dozen or so clients at any one timeseries of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity'', spends much of she sets her week living at her officemind to solving a murder.. Her clients, both male and female, are bewildering and fascinating in equal portions, and the description of the therapy sessions make fascinating and revealing reading.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955405149</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven CarrollWill Carver|title=The Art of the Engine DriverDaves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Carroll has chosen a bygone era in the 1950s and also a bygone but much treasured mode of transport, whether it's Australia or the UK. Immediately I'm drawn Five strangers come together in to the story. Both the title and book's front cover are arresting and original. The novel centres on one evening in this suburban neighbourhood when all its residents are invited to a celebration party. Carroll see-saws back and forth moment as he shares the individual lives with us. It is an engaging style.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099537273</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick Woodhead|title=The Forbidden Temple|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Luca, a mountaineer trying suicide bomber prepares to escape from detonate his disappointingly unsupportive parents and a past accident, witnesses something strange in the distance, while watching his climbing partner Bill put the kibosh vest on their latest sky-bursting Himalayan ascent - a mountain shaped like a perfect pyramid, circled by other peaks he's never seen beforeLondon tube line. Back in England nobody else seems to have seen them eitherAs their fates overlap, but colleagues mention mysterious Shangri-La style Buddhist sanctuaries - could this be the prime onestory is told in backwards order, hidden from prying eyes for centuries? Nobody wants leading up to declare it actually exists at all. Meanwhile, Himalayan natives are trying to pull the wool over Chinese occupiers' eyes regarding a very sacred personagefateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848090773</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken McClureJennifer Mason|title=Dust to Dust (Steven Dunbar)Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=John Motram is a cell biologist. He's 'A struggling poetry zine, a promising and wellmom-though of academic and his pet subject is - Black Death. Intrigue is high on pop mobile diner in the agenda right from Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the beginning. Motram is invited to 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a meeting along billionaire with other higha state-fliers of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in their respective fields. This meeting is top secret. Motram isAlabama, an enigmatic signature, howeverK(s, mystified. The situation appears pretty straightforwardx), so why all this cloak-and-dagger stuffon a cheap oil painting, he wondersan erotic art dealer in Georgia... And why has everyone to refer to the patient only as 'Patient X?'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971268</amazonuk>}}
}}
