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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex DrydenJenny Lecoat|title=The Blind SpyBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The author writes under Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a pseudonym banned radio and he has worked in intelligencesoldiers took him away one night, so he should know what he's talking - leaving Jean and writing abouther mother waiting for years for news of him. He concentrates on As the British finally free the Channel islands from the battle for supremacy (and we've been here before) as Russia Nazis, and the USA clash. The story itself war is an intricate one. Full of agents/counter-agentsfinally over, spies/double spies and the like and appearances by members their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of the CIA and MI6 amongst othershim. If you like spy thrillersBut will the truth come as a relief, then this debut novel or will suit you down to it raise further questions around what else happened during the ground. war? Lots of furtive and secretive missions all over Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the place to keep radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the reader guessing and interested.occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755373332</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrea NewmanOnyi Nwabineli|title=A Bouquet of Barbed WireAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=For those of you whoAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia've never heard of its increasingly popular presence on social media, A Bouquet where she posted every step of Barbed Wire was most famous as a landmark 70Anuri's TV series based on this 1969 novel by Andrea Newmanchildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. I'd never read the book before - Now Anuri is in fact I'm not even sure I knew there ''was'' a book her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step- or seen mother to take down the TV series but I was aware of the controversy it created at the time ofrelease content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so lapped up the chance to read the rerelease. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, accompanying who is the remake new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the TV series which has just started.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687721</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Williams1529153298|title=11:59The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The back cover blurb informs the reader 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 have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that this novel was a semi-finalist in her father wants to move the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awardfamily 'Down South'. And the front jacket When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is stylish and a bit Hitchcock-esquefrightening, foreign place, best avoided. All For Miv, the signs looked promising for a decent readmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. But did it deliver?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956373356</amazonuk>She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Nicholson1035906708|title=All the Hopeful LoversDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I had previously read Nicholson's ''The Society Of Others'' and thoroughly enjoyed it so I We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was looking forward born to reading this book. Nicholson writes a modern-day story which is relevant Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and bang up only moved to dateAthens when she was thirteen. We first meet Laura and Belinda. Two middle-aged, middle-class wives and mothers. Feeling sort of okay with their lives generally Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but all too aware also, that the marital her father changed it to 'spark' in their marriages is now a low peep - if there at all. Belinda in particular, knows she is bumbling along in life. SheCallas's not sure what to do to make things it more interesting manageable in the sex departmentStates. A fling would probably help When she was back in Athens - but would it be supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the answer?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916388X</amazonuk>Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ruth DugdallAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Woman Before MePerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're introduced The 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. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to one get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the female central chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters, Rosewho quickly begin to charm. ThereKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's been a serious house fire always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a baby has been involvedhand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4. Rose 5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is implicatedhaving a terrifically bad day. But is she innocent or guilty? He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Unfortunately for RoseOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, sheand it's been in possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the wrong place at thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the wrong time - and she's put behind barsvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Five years He is a long time nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a young woman with the rest of her life new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to leadhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Even more soSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if youhe, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny're telling anyone and everyone that you s wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are, in fact, innocent of the crime. But is anyone listening?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907461159</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanKatherine Howe|title=The Island of Sheep (John Hannay)A True Account|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard Hannay Hannah Masury is feeling oldliving in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. He looks at himself When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and his contemporaries watch. Enthralled and sees horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a spread young boy's death at the hands of complacencytwo vicious pirates. Luckily - or perhaps very unluckily - an old pledge will come She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to haunt him. His earlier career in Africa saw Hannay and his friends swear escape them completely she runs away to protect sea, dressing as a man from others - boy and now joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a second generation of animosity is ripe for Hannay to step in and be a protective detectivecabin boy. Add She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a supposed treasure hoardmutiny on board, and who knows where his last journey might end from there we are caught up?in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184697156X</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jed Rubenfeld1471180158|title=The Death InstinctMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=ItJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's three years since we were a control freak with all blown away by [[The Interpretation the subtlety of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld|The Interpretation of Murder]] but Jed Rubenfeld is back with the sequela half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, which takes place ten years later'has his problems'. And what a decade that has beenHe's asthmatic and the more you read, with the appalling tragedy of more you'll suspect that he's on the First World War and the influenza outbreak which followedautistic spectrum. ThereSometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a hope that things are getting better as New York moves into frequent flier in the twenties local A&E and Stratham Younger and Captain James Littlemore meet up for sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the first need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in ten yearsthe wrong. They're in Wall Street on September the sixteenth – just as a quarter of It was going to come to a ton of explosives is detonated in the worst terrorist attack in the country's hundred and fifty year historyhead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343999</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine Hall PageB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Body in the FjordRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Page gives us another ''The Body In The...'' book within a tried and tested format. The book jacket covers are always bright and jazzy and this one Petr is no exceptionan orphan. We're deep in NorwayRescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, its picturesque countryside he is brought up far from bustling cities and world-famous fjords. We are busy human society, in the company forests of two different but interesting womenWashington's Olympic Peninsula. Mother After Bear dies and daughter. Pix, the daughter (I think the name sounds as if it belongs to someone young) is a mother brief sojourn in middle-age with teenage children. She has responsibilitieshuman company, but at times she behaves like a sixteen year old and I suppose that is part of her appeal. She cannot seem to say ''no'' to anyone and now finds herself enlisted to solve an unexplained death and armed with only a missing person. The latter is the more important as the missing person, Kari, is related to Ursula's best friend. Yespirate radio transmitter, perhaps Petr goes on a few too many names at journey through the beginning of forest, broadcasting the book to grapple with but it soon settles downstrange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090641</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcelo FiguerasSarah Marsh|title=KamchatkaA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Initially I was very excited and interested when The Bookbag was given this novel to review. Set at After a bout of scarlet fever as a time in which I lived in Buenos Aireschild, I was looking forward to Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a fictionalised account world of these traumatic years - made all the more appealingsilence, as the narrator purported to be everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the eldest use of the family's two sons - 10 year old 'Haroldo' sign language was seen as he comes something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to be knownlip read, having by necessity left his former identity behindbut physically restrained from signing. In this respect From here, I was to be sadly disappointedshe ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. The majority of At the novel comprises recollections from an adult Haroldo - not quite what the Amazon blurbsame time, nor the précis Bell is working on the cover, leads the reader to believe! In fairness, the author can't be blamed for this - but I felt mislead by the dust jacket - which may have coloured my enjoymentother inventions and ideas, and which lead, Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in part, to the relatively low star rating which I gave the booka complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843548267</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR
|title=Good Girls Die
|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''This story is not for everyone.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex Chance1472263936|title=Savage BloodThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book's cover is a very good clue as It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to its content: weapons dripping in blood and decapitated headsGreece. The novel starts with Professor Edward Quinn on a rather unusual journey. It seems to end abruptly and in plenty of spilled bloodShe was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, gore had left the family home and horrendous scenes of carnage. Meanwhilerefused to return, in Atlanta, USA, Dr Cortez has been cheating on his wife. His one-night stand proves satisfactory but Mary and interesting in all sorts of ways. Suddenly, heHamish (Helena's involved in an extremely worrying medical situationparents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. It needs Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be sorted - and quicklythe first of several annual visits. Cortez is a young, modern professional but heShe grew to love her grandmother and the family's human alsomaid, so not without his hangDina, but was wary -ups. The conversations between himself and his even more successful wifefrightened - of her grandfather, are bang onretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. They hit He was proud of his close connections to the right note. Many will identify with the couple. At times you can almost hear the friction between them. And the man-Junta and expected his family to-man conversations between Charlie Cortez and uphold his buddy Dan are terrific. Trying hard values but saw no reason to be big shots in a social situation when really they are out of their depthaccommodate them. A great introduction to this part of the story, I thoughtHis prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019364</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This 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 a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the third novel Ishrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel've read by Diane Chamberlain and I felt as if I was visiting an old friend' everything. I enjoyed the other two books and this one looked promising''Everything''. Although many of the characters spill over from [[Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain|Before The StormMichael isn't ''Michael'']] this current book is a stand aloneanymore. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>077830387X</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Priya BasilB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Obscure Logic of the HeartGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lina The village is from a devout Muslim family isolated and lives with her aunt while she studies law at university; where she meets Anilpoor. Anil is It's surrounded by a Kenyan boy from a nonWitching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-practicing Sikh family who dreams like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of becoming a ground-breaking architectthe forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. The two fall fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in love but as the lies they have to tell their respective families become more village and more elaborate they are forced to make some difficult decisionsthat is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385611455</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diana EvansB0BYF82CXT|title=The WonderSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lucas ''Bill and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother on Amanda are living in a canal boat semi-detached house, stuck in west Londona depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, after the death of their parentswhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Now they are in Despite their 20sdifferent outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and their grandmother Toreth is gonelife appears to improve for both pairs. Denise But all is a practical and responsible young woman, getting on with her job as a florist, but her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying to establish not what he wants to do with his lifeit seems, and their increasingly distracted by trying to find out more about his identity, about who his parents were, especially his fatherinterconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099479052</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret Henderson SmithShalini Boland|title=A Question of AnswersThe Silent Bride|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Harriet Glover lives with her partner who's reluctant to commit himself to marriage. It's not that he hasn't had time to make up his mind – their two children are at the stage where they might produce grandchildren. His excuse is that he can't see the point as they already share a surname through chance, so what difference would marriage make? Mark's not ''entirely'' insensitive (well, some of the time…) but he can't understand Harriet's need for that reassuring piece of paper. Until then she's going to be wondering if his eyes are wandering elsewhere. Harriet's not entirely immune either: she finds the headmaster of the school where she teaches quite irresistible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845493281</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Tyler|title=Noah's Compass|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's always Alice and Seth are a red letter day to sit down to an unread Anne Tylermatch made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. This She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is her eighteenth published noveleagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. For any readers not already fans of When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her booksfather, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this American writer observes joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the ordinary in order to excel man at 'making the familiaraltar is, strange'who is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099539586</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bernie McGill1787636003|title=The Butterfly CabinetGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This novel has been based It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on factthe island. McGill moves back and forth with various charactersRachel wasn' storiest exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. A child has died in the family home and the mother, Harriet has been tried in It was quite a court while before he made any sort of law physical approach to her and found guilty. The fact by that time she is a practical, no-nonsense woman who does not wear her heart on her sleeve does not go down well with the majority of the jurywas obsessed by him. She has also committed another crimeAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, almost equally as grave, she has sullied looking after his interests on the family name of her husband. He is a prominent island and respected member of in particular in the local community. Nothing will be bar where all the same again for girls either of themworked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755370686</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean KwokAmanda Craig|title=Girl in TranslationThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate to Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the USA from Hong Kong they believe that, true to state-of-the American Dream, their lives are about to get better-nation novel. However, although KimberlyThere's aunt paid their air fares something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and arranged their green cards she is intent on getting her money back. She arranges their accommodation in a run-down part capture it, crafting an image of Brooklyn the country as it stands in a building where they are the only tenantsone particular moment. Their apartment has broken windows, no heating and To say that Amanda Craig is rife skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with cockroaches and ratsthe genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. The aunt arranges work for Kim's mum in her husband's Chinatown factory, paying her She has such a pittance gift for piece work and then taking most weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her salary away for repayments on their flights characters in a way that feels natural and their accommodation. Huddled around their oven for warmth, wearing layers of clothing made from material they found lived-in the trash, their lives seem incredibly bleak. But Kimberly has brainsnever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, and determination, and she is adamant that she will find a way to take care of her mothergrappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905490623</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helon Habila152915118X|title=Oil on WaterPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with two local journalists on a rather dangerous trip''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Zaq, old-timer Darley and George are sisters and cynic but still has the skills Sasha is married to seek out their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a good story and apprentice RufusStockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. A British oil engineerThe problem's wife has gone missingexacerbated when the clan matriarch, believed kidnapped Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the two journalists are following her trailPineapple Street property. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; all-seeingTilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, all-knowing albeit likes a drink street or twoso away, which they own. HeThey won's happy to impart years t need any of knowledge to Rufus the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and tells him Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn' ... t the story is not always the final goalreality.' WhatDarley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 's really important, what the readers want to know and what sells newspapers is gold digger' . She's living in ''their'' family home.. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the meaning of the storyGD'.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144868</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura ElliotEmily Critchley|title=Stolen ChildOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The title of 84 year old Edie has lived in the book leaves us in no doubt 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 what it's all aboutlose her memory. It does exactly what it says on However, Edie is tormented by the tin. But those twomemory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, small words are wrapped up in plenty of emotions and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the characters involvedthing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. In some waysAfter 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, it's worse than a death. With deathjust as she was the last time she saw her, there's closure but with a baby being stolen there's living hellshe starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And, yet as you would expectshe remembers the past, some characters cope with all of this better than othersshe is forgetting more and more in 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>1847561462</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''
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008506337
|title=The Garnett Girls
|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=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-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 felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-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 the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shannon Burke1914585402|title=Black FliesDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ollie Cross has failed to get into medical schoolI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. While he thinks about what he plans to do, he takes a job as It was a paramedic on the tough streets of Harlemgripping, New York Cityemotionally wounding read, and finds his whole perspective rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on life and death beginning to shiftit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535491</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances KayLucy Ashe|title=MickaClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Micka and Laurie are two ten The year old boysis 1933. TheyThe place? Sadler're in the same class at school s Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are friendssisters, of a sorttwins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. They both have vivid imaginationsAnd not on stage, and Laurieeither. Because there's plans involve finding a magical bone and using it for murderlot that builds a dancer. Micka lives with his mum (who Some things that can't read and is often drunk) be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and his two older brothers who get into fightssome things, are involved in crimethat ''je ne sais quoi'', and who abuse Micka physically and sexuallythat don't come from the classroom. Laurie lives with his parentsA stage presence, until they suddenly break upa charm, and he is left with his mum who seems to be having a breakdown''joie de vivre''. The book is told from the point of view of the two boysdifference between a hard-worker, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with them, we also read with horror their own descent into violencea star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330513826</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan WiggsHeather Fawcett|title=Just Breathe|rating=4|genre=WomenEmily Wilde'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 Encyclopaedia of the emotions and confusion she's feeling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303543</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Cronin|title=Dr Finlay's CasebookFaeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Most people will have heard of Dr FinlayEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, although they may not be entirely sure why - A J Croninto write her life's stories work, the very first encyclopaedia of a fictional doctor faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in pre-War Scotland have been televised over the yearssmall village of Hrafvsnik, most recently in having somehow offended the nineties when David Rintoul starred as Dr Finlay. Although fictionalvillage matriarch, A J Croninshe is not sure what she has done, who died in 1981, was himself a doctor nor how to redeem herself and has apparently based some of Finlay's experiences put her final investigations for her book back on his ownthe right track. This omnibus is made up of two books by Cronin Enter Wendell Bambleby, Dr Finlay of Tannochbraeher dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, published in 1978 all charm and Adventures of a Black Bagdelight, published in 1943, both collections of short storiesmuch to Emily'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>1841588547</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clancy Martin1398515388|title=How To SellThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In First of all, it was the 1980'searthquake, 16 year old Bobby Clark gets expelled from his high school deep in Canada for stealing. This is a young boy so immoral that he pilfers his own mother's wedding ring to pawn for cash to keep a girl happy. After the girl turns out to be less interested in him than he is ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in herturn, he follows his older brother Jim to Texascaused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, where he gets and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a job working with Jim in dog outside a jewellery convenience store. As he falls into He wasn't a life of scams, drugs, hookers, gorgeous women, and an obsession with Jim's girlfriend Lisa, itdog person but the convenience store owner's clear comment that this coming of age story is a tragedy waiting he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to happenopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532182</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick MarrinanChristopher Bowden|title=Degrees of GuiltMr Magenta|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Police broke into the apartment in Sandymount Village in Dublin and woke Yuri Komarova rather roughly. HeChristopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman'd been drinking heavilys life, smoking dope carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and was difficult a little bit of indulgence to arouse, but on the floor near his bed was the knife which he a young nephew had apparently used to stab his mother to death. He seemed to have no memory of this but he spoke little English and had the mental age of a twelve-year old. An interpreter helped with the questioning and when the case came to trial his defence relied on proving much more interesting life than that he had been sleep-walking at the time of the murder and nephew Stephen had no intention of killing his mother. This is the most difficult defence to uphold ever realised and there was the added problem that Yuri seemed it seems to have lied him an obligation to the police when he told them that his mother had very little money as some Russian icons were found in a strongbox and they were worth several million Eurosfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090749</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katie KitamuraJennifer Mason|title=The LongshotPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Cal Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and his long-time trainer Riley travel down to the town of Tijuana unintentional detective in Mexico for [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a crucial rematch with the undefeated champion Riveraseries of disappearances. Three years earlier CalIn ''Partitions of Unity's promising career had been derailed following ', she sets her mind to solving a close yet devastating defeat at the hands of Riveramurder. After that defeat Cal carried on fighting but never reached the same heights as before. Now he finally gets the chance to face his nemesis once more. The story takes place in the two days before the rematch as he and Riley prepare for the biggest fight of his life, a fight that could once again end in tragedy.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847374999</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laurie GrahamWill Carver|title=At SeaThe Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've already read Graham's 'The Future Homemakers of AmericaFive strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line.' It was goodAs their fates overlap, but not particularly memorable so I was keen to read this novel. The reader the story is introduced to two vastly differing opposites told in the shape of Mr and Mrs Finch. Well, Lady Enid (English) and Professor Bernard (American) Finchbackwards order, leading up to be precise. And we're transported straight away onto the decks of the liner 'Golden Memories' and Graham starts to have her fun: with the language, the characters and the whole set-upfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849162182</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura BartonJennifer Mason|title=Twenty-One LocksPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This debut novel's central character is 20 year old sales girl'A struggling poetry zine, Jeannie. She lives a very humdrum life mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a rather uglyyen for bullwhips, downa billionaire with a state-atof-heel town the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in the north. And straight away Barton treats the reader to her lovelyAlabama, descriptive prose. For examplean enigmatic signature, when the reader is given some detail about Jeannie'K(s workplace at the perfume and cosmetics counter where ... 'the lipsticks ... all lined up like chorus girls , x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...' Barton's writing style is very easy to read, very fluid and I found myself getting right into the story straight away - and caring about Jeannie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161747</amazonuk>}}
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