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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kim EdwardsJenny Lecoat|title=The Lake of DreamsBeyond Summerland|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens Jean lives on Jersey with a lovely and intriguing sentence - 'My name is Lucy Jarrett and before I knew about her mother where they are celebrating the girl in end of the window occupation... I found myself living in a village near During the sea in Japan.war, Jean' Who could fail s father was arrested for listening to be drawn into a story after reading thatbanned radio and soldiers took him away one night, I thoughtleaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. I was hooked immediatelyAs the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. Edwards gives us But will the truth come as a fleeting taste of life in Japanrelief, particularly or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the importance (almost reverence) of nature and gardens, public and private. war? This sets Who was the tone for informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the novel which is captivating and interesting, but put together beautifully, unhurried.occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0142428396</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nikesh ShuklaOnyi Nwabineli|title=Coconut UnlimitedAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It is Anuri spent her childhood on display to the early 1990world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and Amit, Anand and Nishant are three young Asian boys in an all white private schoolbasically, monetary gain. As such they are considered massively uncool by default. Too bad then that their Asian peers Now Anuri is in 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 North London Gujarati enclave known as Harrow think that they are a bunch of stuck up toffscontent about her. Soft Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Weak. No street cred whatsoever. Worst of all they are labelled as 'Coconuts' (brown on the outside Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, white on who is the inside). Therenew focus of Ophelia's only one thing for it - start a hip-hop bandonline empire. The fact that they don't have any songs Can she save her sister, talent or initially any idea what hip-hop actually sounds like isn't really a problem. As everyone knows, forming a band makes you 'pretty cool' and after that perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the girls simply fall at your feet.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704372045</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1529153298|title=Into The Darkest CornerList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=The book didnIt't actually look that appealings 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. The cover is on the sepia side of dull(A woman? I mean, honestly... ) I didnShe't know the authors not what's name and the title didnworrying Miv't really grab mes family, though. When I started reading we were straight into the transcript of a court case in which it seemed that a police officer was being questioned in court about his relationship with a womanWomen have been disappearing. He was accused of being violent to herWell, they've been murdered, but it seemed to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the boot was really on the other footfamily 'Down South'. Then we were into a story – or even two stories – with two time lines some four years apart. Within ten minutes I couldnWhen you't put it down.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956251579</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ben Pastor|title=Lumen|rating=4|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Cracowre from Yorkshire, PolandDown South is a frightening, October 1939: The Germans have recently occupied Poland and are seeking to establish their authority. Captain Martin Bora of the Wehrmacht (the German army) has just arrived in the city from the battlefield to take up a posting to Intelligence. His boss asks Bora to drive him to a convent every day to see the renowned Abbessforeign place, rumoured to have mystic and healing powersbest avoided. A few days later For Miv, though, she is found shot dead in the grounds of move would mean leaving her convent. Bora is asked to investigate and report back. He proceeds to investigate who shot her and whybest friend, but as his investigation continuesSharon, there are more questions for Bora and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the readerdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone. Where does this case fit in with the priorities of the occupying forces?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738664</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jake Wallis Simons1035906708|title=The English German GirlDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When it began it wasn't pleasantWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but there she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was hope that it would get betterthirteen. Rosa's father, Otto Her original surname was a doctor and she lived with him, Kalogeropoulos but her mother, Inga, elder brother Heinrich and younger sister Hedi father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in a pleasant flat in Berlinthe States. The turn of opinion against Jews When she was slow – an antiback in Athens -Jewish pin handed to Rosa as supposedly so that she went shopping, friends who felt that they couldn't remain such obvious friends – certainly could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the time being – Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and a change made no secret of employment her preference for Otto. It was better for the patients if they didn't have contact with himher elder sister, even if he was a good doctorJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971764</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nathacha AppanahAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Last BrotherPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're on the south coast of England in the middle of The Perfect Passion Company is a hot summer dating agency in a very upmarket enclaveEdinburgh, not dissimilar run by Ness and operating as an alternative to Sandbanks, along all the coast online apps in providing a bitmore personal, tailored service. The locals are going about their Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, about their daily lives and Bale obligingly introduces them as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to us one by one and also gives us an idea get away for a while. Katie is coming out of their respective backgroundsa break up with a bad boyfriend, their family members and even some of so jumps at the house designs ' ... each chance to come home had a private jetty' for example.to Edinburgh. New money is also apparent along 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 ostentatious tastesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. WhatKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's also apparent is that trouble's afoot. Big time.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848090765</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daphne KalotayDean Koontz|title=Russian WinterThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=The novel's structure goes back and forth from the past to the present Benny is having a terrifically bad day. The book opens with NinaHe loses his job, he loses his fiancee, now elderlyand his house gets trashed. Oh, in pain and in someone has delivered a wheelchair: waiting really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to die basically. And even although shehis home, and it's lived an interesting lifepossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, now Benny is the very last person to deserve all she has for company this bad luck. He is a daily home-helpnice person. I was struck straight away by how prickly Nina is and I could feel all those emotions seething underneath the surfaceA really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the question delivery to his house is - why a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has she decided been sent to sell some of her exquisite jewelleryhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Is it Spike is going to help pay the bills? Or some other reason? We find take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out by degreeswho exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099553244</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott MarianiKatherine Howe|title=The Lost RelicA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ben Hope went Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to Italy live with a family who run an inn, and being made to visit work there from a former SAS comrade and offer him young age. When she hears there is to be a jobhanging of some pirates in the town, but he's got marriage she decides to go and happiness – watch. Enthralled and Benhorrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's trade is far from death at the front hands of his mindtwo vicious pirates. It's whilst he's driving She hides away , so that Ben nearly they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs down away to sea, dressing as a small boy and unwittingly walks into joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a deadly heist which will see the cabin boy and his mother – and many others – brutally murdered. It's only She soon finds herself in the beginning for Ben though as he find himself fleeing for his life thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and accused from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of murder. When life on the state needs to act people – even heroes – are disposableocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561977</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Janes1471180158|title=Why Don't You Come For Me?Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Over Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a decade ago Joman who's daughter was abducted from in front a control freak with all the subtlety of a shop whilst she and her husband were on holidayhalf brick. The pushchair was found on a cliff edge but there was no trace of LaurenJamie's son, Bo, even on the beach below'has his problems'. Occasionally Jo receives postcards with an old picture of her daughter on He's asthmatic and the more you read, the front simply saying more you'll suspect that he's on the writer still has Laurenautistic spectrum. The police, Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the people who know what happened believe local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the cards need to be a hoaxaway on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. Jo believes differently. She also realises that as she has moved house and remarried and the story has faded from press attention someone is It was going to come to a great deal of trouble to keep track of herhead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849011257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=G S Mattu|title=Sons and Fascination|rating=3Frontpage|genreisbn=General FictionB0CKD1L5JL|summary=This book concentrates on emotions. Take an impressionable young man, add in a chance (?) encounter with an attractive older woman and then stand well back as the fireworks explode and as family, friends and colleagues get sucked in to their deepening relationship. I must say I'm not keen on the title (a little pretentious for a work of fiction in my opinion and more suited to poetry) and even when it was ever so gently explained later on in the book (twice) I still didn't warm to it. All in all, not off to the greatest of starts. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907756000</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewRadio Free Olympia|author=Philip Wilding|title=Cross Country Murder SongJeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the (unnamed) central character in a therapy session in downtown New York. The air strange, reclusive Bear, he is charged brought up far from bustling cities and tension is presentbusy human society, big-timein the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. This is one troubled After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human being. And of coursecompany, childhood issues and experiences are dominant in this question and answer session. We soon find out that this individual has secrets in his basement. It all becomes too mucharmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, he packs Petr goes on a bag and hits journey through the forest, broadcasting the road strange, wild and so the story starts properrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539934</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Asa JonesSarah Marsh|title=The Illustrated Mind A Sign of Mike ReevesHer Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=Mike Reeves doesn't have his troubles to seekAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. His wife Living in a time when the use of sign language was brutally raped some four or five years ago and whilst she might seem seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to be recovered a school where she cannot stand is taught to be touched by a man – any manlip read, Mike includedbut physically restrained from signing. Quite suddenly Mike was aloneFrom here, she ends up in every way – until he found himself drawn to the darker arts and began to dabble in Tarot, another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the Runes deaf and I Ching. He's guided by two spirits. Sean is using a wise and benevolent older man and Debbie, well she… isn'tsystem called Visible Speech. She's At the one who satisfies Mike's sexual needs. If that's all sounding rather goodsame time, then hesitate a momentBell is working on other inventions and ideas, for with the good comes the bad and the bad is Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in the form a complicated tangle of Tony a (very) real-life gangster who's been doing his own dabbling in the spirit world. When their worlds clash Mike has a problem which could well be more than he can handleespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>160693905X</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret ForsterB0BC3YTCMR|title=Diary of an Ordinary WomanGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=After reading the introduction, I couldn't help but sneak a sly read at the author's note right at the end of the novelThis story is not for everyone. I don't usually do this. I'm glad I did as the information is both surprising and revelatory Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. Back to the beginning and Chapter 1 ... We meet the 13 year old Millicent in 1914. By her written statements and recorded mannerismsShe was a very bright student, we see that she's a girl who knows bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her own mind. For example, she thinks writing in her diary every single day could be dull and boring so shecase it's made a golden rule that she's only going to write something down when she feels like it. Some may call her precocious but I liked Millicent right from the startcontagious. Courtesy of her diary we find out that sheIt's part of not easy being a large and boisterous familyblack girl whose skin is 84% white. She doesn't appreciate all the noise and chatter from had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her siblings. She craves peace Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and quiet to think and to readReggie asked if she would tutor him. She's a prolific readerreadily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She also believes that she's smart went to his house and clever and wants to 'do' something with he raped her life when she grows up. She's not sure what exactly but In shock, she certainly doesn't want even allowed him to be give her a mere housewife and motherlift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099449285</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt Dunn1472263936|title=The Accidental ProposalFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Edward Middleton seems like a pretty decent guy. He always stops It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to buy a Big Issues from Billy, a local homeless man and he takes his elderly widowed neighbour shopping once a weekGreece. These are some of the reasons why his girlfriend She was alone: her mother, SamGreek by birth, loves him so much. One nighthad left the family home and refused to return, after a friendbut Mary and Hamish (Helena's wedding, Sam asks Ed if he parents) felt that it would also like to get married to which Ed enthusiastically replies 'yes'. However, the following morning, whilst nursing his hangover, he cannot work out be a pity if it was a hypothetical question Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or an actual proposalunderstanding her Greek heritage. His best mate Dan is no help at all and is quite incredulous that anyone should ever want Her trip to marry Edthe family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847395244</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=William Styron|title=The Suicide Run|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=A WW2 naval soldier, guarding a prison island for those found guilty at courtmartials, is forced She grew to wonder if he is winning his own battles against those arriving love her grandmother and leaving. A soldier remembers calming memoriesthe family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and those causing tensionfrightened - of her grandfather, as he rests up before actionretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. And for a highly-charged young man, there may be too much risk He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to be found in uphold his highvalues but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes -octane downtimeinherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Molly CarrDean Koontz|title=The Sign of FearAfter Death
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Mary Watson - Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a distant second to John Watsontop secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who of course was die when a virus is released in a distant second to Sherlock Holmesbio-hazard accident. Fed up with staying at home while her new husband spends too much time at 221b Baker Street Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, or away with Holmes sleuthinghe has a sense that something very, she gets very bad has happened to dabble her own feet in him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the underworld waters when a certain Professor Moriarty comes callingshrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685006</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jon Stephen Fink|title=A Storm In The Blood|rating=3 As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= ''A Storm In The BloodEverything'' is based on a true story involving the police force and the government of the day trying to suppress racial tensions in early 20th century London. It has resonance for our modern times as we grapple with similar situations and problemsMichael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956544517</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Allegra GoodmanB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Cookbook CollectorGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Cookbook Collectorvillage is isolated and poor. It'' is all about emotionss surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. Concentrating The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on twohomes, youngand even gallows, American women who are vastly different if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in many areas of their lives the village and also on their outlook on lifethat is the reason Volushka, a drunken, Goodman digs deeper to find out what makes them tick self- what makes them get up in the morningindulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848875398</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Craig SmithB0BYF82CXT|title=Cold RainSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Life was pretty good for Dr David Albo. He'd just had fifteen months away from his job as an associate professor of English at a university 'Bill and Amanda are living in the mid-western USA. He lived on a plantationsemi-style farmhouse with a beautiful and intelligent wife and a step-daughter who adored him. He was even going back to work detached house, stuck in the expectation that he might well be offered a full professorship in the not-too-distant future and just to put the icing on the cake he's been clear depressing rut of alcohol for two years. Yes; life was very good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190580234X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anna Gavalda|title=Consolation|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We meet Charles, the main character right at the start. And straight away, it's no secret that, as a middle-aged professional (he's an architect boredom and a successful one at that) he's jaded. Been-theredisappointment, done-that when Terry and got-the-bloody-tee-shirt just about sums him up pretty well. He's acquired (somehow) a beautifulFiona – glamorous, witty successful and clever partner and also a step-daughter whom he adores. As the story deepens, I soon acknowledged that the step-daughter seems to be about the only true very much in love – move in his next door. Despite their different outlooks on life. He's luke-warm about , the rest of his family and that includes his partner couples befriend each other and his ageing parents. Is this man going through some mid-life crisis, would be an obvious question appears to askimprove for both pairs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531925</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sam Hawken|title=The Dead Women of Juarez|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Although the story related here But all is a work of fictionnot what it seems, the situation is based on fact. The Mexican border city of Juárez has a shocking problem with female homicides (usually young and invariably pretty). Official statistics put the number of murders at 400 since 1993 while, we their increasingly interconnected relationships are told, residents believe that the true number of disappeared women is closer to 5000fated for tragedy. But attention to this problem is diverted by drug crime, although the two may not be entirely unrelated. Anything that raises public awareness of this terrible situation, such as Hawken's book, is to be encouraged. So much for the fact, what about the fiction?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668773X</amazonuk>'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pamela KlaffkeShalini Boland|title=SnappedThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=They say that Alice and Seth are a good idea is to write about what you knowmatch made in heaven. WellHe is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, Klaffke seems to have heeded that piece of adviceclever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She writes here about is all he could possibly want in a fictional fashion writer called Sara B (note wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the pretentious second capital letter) who inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the central character. And although Sara B wedding is now in her middle years, she's still acting like a teenagerplanned and set. She's got When the younger boyfriend/lovermuch-anticipated day arrives, got Alice is walked down the latest fashion look which she can deftly put aisle by her stamp onfather, got beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the invites congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the best parties in man at the best venues with the must-be-seen-with minor celebrities. But - altar is she happy? I know, it seems a silly question, but who is it?waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0778304337</amazonuk>1662507089
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Chamberlain1787636003|title=Breaking the Silence|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=As I've reviewed several The Girls of Chamberlain's previous books and enjoyed them, I was looking forward to getting stuck in to this one. We meet the central character; wife and mother to five-year-old Emma, Laura. She's distraught. Her father (Emma's grandfather) has just passed away but his dying wish has really upset Laura. It's a strange request and she doesn't know what to make of it. She confides in her husband thinking that two heads are better than one. He's a brilliant academic and could give some much-needed advice. But he doesn't. In fact, he behaves like a five-year-old himself and almost has a tantrum. Odd. Now poor Laura's doubly confused, upset and doesn't know how to handle her grief. Tough times.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304140</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSummer|author=Lola Shoneyin|title=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's WivesKatie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives is one of those books It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that you read with a smile on your face. It's full of gloriously unsavoury characters caught in a terrible web of deceit. We are promised 'four women, one husband she and a devastating secret' Caroline went backpacking around Greece and it delivers arrived on all three countsthe island. Sure the secret is quite well signposted and Shoneyin doesn Rachel wasn't really make much of an effort to divert the reader from putting two and two togetherexactly innocent but she was, although it takes wife number fourperhaps, Bolanlenaive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an inordinate amount interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the penny to drop, but it's not about discovering island and in particular in the deception - it's about bar where all the glorious journey of how things unfoldgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687497</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cornelius MedveiAmanda Craig|title=Caroline: A MysteryThree Graces|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Mr ShawFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. HeThere's an insurance worker something so utterly compelling about any writer who takes his wife can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and son off on their annual vacation one yearcapture it, and finds himself indulging crafting an image of the country as it stands in a surprisingly platonic holiday romanceone particular moment. The subject of his infatuation, Caroline, has eyes, ears, hair and more To say that easily combine with Mr ShawAmanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's fondness practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for classical Persian love poetry. At weaving the end ongoing issues of the holiday he lets his wife and son depart while he takes day into the lives of her characters in a further week off to walk all the way home with Caroline. Who isthat feels natural and lived-in, as it happensnever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, a donkeygrappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553881</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve Martin152915118X|title=An Object of BeautyPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Leave aside ''Pineapple Street'' is the title story of the book for a minutethree women: Sasha, the book itself is also 'an object of beauty' with its striking front cover Darley and primary colours artfully arrangedGeorgiana. And then I turned the book over Darley and George are sisters and said Sasha is married to myself, ohtheir brother Cord. They're Stocktons, itonly Sasha isn's t a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem'thats exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'' Steve Martind like to move into the Pineapple Street property. I knew he was - Tilda and is - Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a very funny actor but I didnstreet or so away, which they own. They won't know that he was also a writerneed any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. SoNominally, before Ithey had a choice but that wasn'd even opened t the book I was thinking - will he be as good a writer as he is an actorreality. I was about Darley and Georgiana start to find out call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home.They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297863290</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom CampbellEmily Critchley|title=FoldOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Five men 84 year old Edie has lived in Reading circulate their monthly poker evenings around their respective housesthe 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. None However, Edie is tormented by the memory of them like all her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the others, none of them seem to completely like worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the game, but they're more-or-less happy with thing that reveals the habittruth of what happened all that time ago. ItAfter 's seeing' Lucy in the way the five different personalities approach the evenings that we are concerned with, and enjoy principallyhigh street, especially when just as she was the poorest playerlast time she saw her, Nick, decides she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to clash with his polar opposite, Dougher. And what might happen if a non-playing character were yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to enter thingsday life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and make them even feistierbefore her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408807602</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=Edward Wright0008506337|title=From BloodThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=While IThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'm not mad about the titleLeary was all-consuming, the bookapparently 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 cover is atmospherically good influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - it says going to the reader 'please pick me up Oxford and read mehaving a glittering career.' So I did. In the event, The book opens in 1960s America with they eloped and Richard took her away from the Prologue. A bunch Isle of radical thinkers are angryWight. They turn this pent-up anger into Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-oiled, well-ordered act of violencerespected journalist. Lives are lostThe couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. But Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the perpetrators are clever and most Isle of them escape justiceWight. They do what many around Even then the world have done before them; they go underground. But several key members are still at large ..doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752891774</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Lorber1914585402|title=Benny Allen Was A Star: A New York Music StoryDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Alan Lorber has written a fictional and I suspect a semi autobiographical account of his years as a top music arranger in the 1950reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's and early 1960Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's, Only One Danny Garvey]] a period couple of huge change in the music industry culminating with the breakthrough of the Beatles in Americayears back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. Rather than simply writing It was a factual narrative of his involvement during this period he decided to tell the story of the fictional Benny Allengripping, emotionally wounding read, a classically trained musician who almost by accident gets involved in the music publishing business and then goes rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on to produce some hugely successful orchestrations on many of the top hit records of the timeit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0041VXCTA</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah HarknessLucy Ashe|title=A Discovery of WitchesClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In Poland in The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the early 1990soutside but not, we learn, a violin singson the inside. The maestro who owns it produces such a music from itAnd not on stage, people are forced to take noteeither. TheyBecause there'd s a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be even more amazed if she could bring herself taught or learnt – discipline, attention to state exactly how detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the instrument came to beclassroom. For this was the work of DanielA stage presence, a charm, suffering in a subsidiary camp to Auschwitz-Birkenau''joie de vivre''. Stumbles, chances, halfThe difference between a hard-liesworker, all conspire to allow Daniel to take time off his enforced labour and engage in his real-world careera star. But is there a price to pay in doing something you love, just for a man you can only hate?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849016437</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bethan DarwinHeather Fawcett|title=Two Times TwentyEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=You can tell from Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the beginning very first encyclopaedia of this novel that you're in Walesfaeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. The young Anna (as we travel back So when she finds herself far, far North in time) the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is meeting not sure what will be long-term friendsshe has done, Bob nor how to redeem herself and Janeput her final investigations for her book back on the right track. We find Anna rather proudly introducing Enter Wendell Bambleby, her two young sons dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and Bob butting in with delight, much to Emily'Duw, good-sized boys for their age ... Make good rugby players one days frustration.' But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the Welsh location and all things Welsh is given a subtle touch.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190678423X</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Dawson1398515388|title=CODEXThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I read First of all, it was the resume on earthquake, deep in the back cover I immediately thought that it was going to be one of those high-octaneocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, action every second paragraphin turn, type of thrillerscaused the nuclear meltdown. All action The result was complete and perhaps very little substanceutter devastation. I The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was happily proved wrongwidespread. And very early on 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 dog outside a convenience store. 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 Tamon the dog jumped in the novel, as well, which was good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956577008</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter DurantineChristopher Bowden|title=The Chocolate AssassinMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the final days Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of the Second World War as the allied guns came ever closer a young German was sent on a secret mission to Americaseemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. He was only in his late teens but still resisted telling anyone, including the U-boat captain The aunt who took him across the Atlantic, about the nature always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of his mission. Fifty five years later the U-boat captain, Eric Hoest, long settled in the States, was murdered at his beach home. Samuel Grey, police detective and part-time student was called in indulgence to investigate the murder. The local police chief thought a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that the most likely murderer was the neighbour who nephew Stephen had reported the crime, but Grey suspected that the truth was hidden somewhere in Hoest's backgroundever realised and it seems to him an obligation to find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1451579527</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sheila O'FlanaganJennifer Mason|title=A Season to RememberPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We Here at Bookbag Towers, we first meet the Lodge ownersmet Elizabeth Cromwell, a likable couple. They find running their upmarket country house type hotel both exhilarating dominatrix and exhausting. The novel is bang up to date so O'Flanagan gets unintentional detective in the whole recession/banker-bashing thing early on. As the festive season looms[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], the unthinkable has happenedwhen she investigated and unravelled a series of disappearances. Empty rooms. TheyIn ''Partitions of Unity''re not used , she sets her mind to empty rooms, at any time of the yearsolving a murder. Normally the Lodge is a full house. But then a slow and steady trickle starts as our characters book in - and the story starts proper, so to speak.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755375157</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jack Everett and David ColesWill Carver|title=Last Mission: the last hours of the Third ReichThe Daves Next Door|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We first meet Five strangers come together in one moment as a couple of characters living in the United States. A husband and wife and suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a relation of theirs called PaulLondon tube line. On As their fates overlap, the surfacestory is told in backwards order, they appear leading up to be enjoying happy, normal lives. But all is not what is seems. We soon find out that the husband, Carl has some secrets. Pretty big ones. He keeps a picture of Adolph Hitler on display - somewhere - in his home, for example. Links with Germany and his past life are often talked about, or rather whispered about, with a handful of trusted 'acquaintances' over a beer or twofateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095653421X</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary E MartinJennifer Mason|title=The Drawing LessonPreposterous: The First in the Trilogy of RemembranceAn Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Alexander Wainwright is the UK's premier artist. He's A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just won missed the Turner 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with ''The Hay Wagon'' – a painting yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a luminousstate-of-the-art S&M dungeon, moonlit landscape. He should be at the peak of his powersa man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, but he'K(s about to lose his muse and, more worryinglyx), there seems to be something wrong with his sight and the year to come is going to be traumatic. The story of it is told by his friendon a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, who has pieced together what he knows, what he's heard – and used a little artistic licence to fill in the gapsGeorgia... It's a most unusual story which will take you deep into the world of artists and writers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1450229360</amazonuk>}}'
}}
