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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Rachel Genn|title=The Cure|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We get the background on Eugene early on in the story; a troubled childhood with an alcoholic father who was often not at home. Instead he was working on a building site in London and drinking away much of his wages. His wife and children didn't appear to benefit much - either financially or emotionally. Eugene still bears plenty of invisible scars from that time and now grown up, would like to carve out his own path and thinks a fresh start would be a good idea. Although it's not altogether a fresh start as he chooses to work on the same construction site as his father and even lives in the same lodgings in the East End. Is this his own unique way of exorcising some ghosts?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184901583X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy GlassJenny Lecoat|title=Run, Mummy, RunBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Aisha is 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 youngbanned radio and soldiers took him away one night, beautiful leaving Jean and successful woman who has worked hard to get where she is. But there is one thing missing in her life: a manmother waiting for years for news of him. Still living with her parents at As the British finally free the Channel islands from the age of thirty Nazis, and inexperienced when it comes to menthe war is finally over, Aisha wonders if she their hopes rise that they will ever find a husbandfinally learn what became of him. But then she spots an ad in will the paper and plucking up all her courage and determinationtruth come as a relief, she decides to reply. This could be her only chance at love and she doesn't want to waste or will it.raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007299281</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Blake MorrisonOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Last WeekendAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens in the sunny month of June when Anuri spent her childhood on display to the invitation is given, via telephoneworld, from Ollie and Daisy thanks to Ian and Emily. Or Em as she's called throughout her step- theremother Ophelia's a lovely explanation increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of why Ian insists on shortening his wifeAnuri's namechildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. And even with this generous Now Anuri is in her twenties and seemingly innocent phone call, all hell seems she is slowly trying to break loose as Ian decides regain her confidence and to deget her life back, suing her step-cipher mother to take down the callcontent about her. Did they mean this? Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Did they really mean that? Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. And lots of undercurrents Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and negative feelings start to bubble up.her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009954234X</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Hogg1529153298|title=The Hummingbird and the BearList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sam Taylor seems to have a charmed life – a City job that brings him wealth It's 1979 and prestigeMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, a wonderful fiancée and a lovely London homethough. Women have been disappearing. But all this can Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't compensate for a childhood sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that contained great sorrow; he her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is haunted by a sense of being somehow incompletefrightening, foreign place, best avoided. When a chance encounter at a wedding brings a new woman into this life For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, he begins and she'll do anything to hope prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that he has found everything he really needsher Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184901647X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Jewell1035906708|title=The Making of UsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=LydiaWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, Robyn but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Dean are three completely different people with only one thing in common. According moved to an online donor registry, they were all fathered by the same sperm donorAthens when she was thirteen. Some have known of their heritage for a while, others are just finding out, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but none of them knew the other two existed. Until now. At the same time, their donor her father's life is slipping away. His last wish is changed it to know of the impact his 'nobleCallas' act may have had, the legacy to make it is leaving on more manageable in the worldStates. And When she was back in this information age it's not Athens - supposedly so that hard to trace your roots, unless, that is, you're searching she could get appropriate training for people her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who don't want to be foundmercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846055741</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenn AshworthAlexander McCall Smith|title=Cold Light|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''Cold Light'' is the story of three teenage girls who become involved in a predatory adult world. As the story opens we're looking back on what happened from a decade later and we know that one of the girls, Chloë, died in a Valentine's Day suicide pact. The town council has finally decided on a memorial to Chloë – it's to be a summerhouse at the side of the pond where she drowned, although it's difficult to understand quite why anyone would want to sit there. The ground-breaking ceremony is being televised when it becomes obvious that something has gone terribly wrong. But Lola, our narrator, knows that they've found a body. She also knows who it is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444721445</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kristina McMorris|title=Letters From HomePerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Liz Stephens accompanies The Perfect Passion Company is a couple of friends dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a GI social occasionmore personal, tailored service. She's content and already 'spoken for' so Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she wouldn't normally be here where essentially most people are foot-loose could come and fancy-free. But she's promised her good friend Betty look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to come alongget away for a while. As the evening progresses Katie is coming out of a break up with lots of singing and dancinga bad boyfriend, things become both interesting and just a little dangerousso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. But for whom? Who are And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we talking about here? Liz bumps into one of already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the many GIs presentIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. His name's Morgan. An instant spark is there - Katie has no experience in running a business, or so someone believes. But they both end the evening on a lessin match-than-satisfactory note. Liz returns to making, but Ness has full confidence in her life with abilities, and there's always her soon-to-be-fiance very helpful (and Morgan goes off rather handsome) neighbour, William, to war.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847562418</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve HelyDean Koontz|title=How I Became a Famous NovelistThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=With an uncompromising title like 'How I Became Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a Famous Novelistreally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's 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 deserve all this clearly isn't intended to be bad luck. He is a subtle booknice person. A really nice person. So I can hardly complain when fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a cynical look at the writing industry swings raw punches in every directiongood person. It just isn't my sort Spike is going to take care of humourBenny, but equallyand will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if you rave about he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny'The Office' you will likely enjoy this book far more than I have dones wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015724</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul BressKatherine Howe|title=The Dysfunctional FamilyA True Account|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Societies are constantly changing Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and sociology students are presented with theories being made to help them to comprehend what's happeningwork there from a young age. Here we have a different approach: When she hears there is to be a family has been paid a small amount hanging of money some pirates in the town, she decides to write diaries which they would keep secret from other members of the family go and which would be available for publicationwatch. This book is Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the result hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and we follow Phil kill her too, and Sue Brown and their two sonsthen to escape them completely she runs away to sea, Jack dressing as a boy and Theo though joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a traumatic period which lasts for just over two monthscabin boy. The entries She soon finds herself in the diaries are made daily thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we read what has happened to each member are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the 'dysfunctional family'ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B0048ELN32</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Quindlen1471180158|title=Every Last OneMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mary Beth Latham is contemplating her averageJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, ordinary life where every day is more for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of less a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the same. Would things be better if life were more excitingyou read, varied, newsworthy? Is the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a legitimate thing frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to hope for? They say school. Missed shifts or the need to be careful what you wish for, away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and Mary Beth never comes right out and says this is what she wants, but there are hints put in the wrong. It was going to come to this effecta head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099537966</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John LawtonB0CKD1L5JL|title=A Lily of the FieldRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens in the early 1930s in Vienna where we meet one of the main characters; ten year old MeretPetr is an orphan. She's gifted musically and in particular in playing Rescued by the cello. Even at this tender agestrange, reclusive Bear, people are talking about her starry future on the world stage. She he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the apple forests of her father's eye and soon sheWashington's being given extra musical tuition by a kind but much older manOlympic Peninsula. He's old enough to be her grandfather but nevertheless they strike up After Bear dies and a rather unusual friendship brief sojourn in human company, and armed with music being the common denominator. But some of their conversations are serious and quite grown-up for only a young girlpirate radio transmitter, not yet into puberty. The tutorPetr goes on a journey through the forest, Viktor Rosen is Jewish and has already suffered at the hands of broadcasting the Germans. Meret progresses at such a pace that before you know itstrange, she's performing in public. Her life appears to be wonderful wild and full of future promiserarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1611856019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kim NewmanSarah Marsh|title=Anno DraculaA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the year 1943 and Sicily has been invaded (along with other parts After a bout of Europe). The menfolk have gone (will they return?) and the women, children and old people left behind are scarlet fever as a sorry sight. Impoverishedchild, ragged and with barely enough food to eatEllen Lark loses her hearing. A British company Suddenly plunged into a world of soldiers rolls into town ... and silence, everything about her life changes. The men are foot-soreLiving in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, exhausted and dirtyEllen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. They are also glassy-eyed with From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the horrors of wardeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. And as if that were not enoughAt the same time, the Sicilian sun beats down Bell is working on them mercilessly. But there's some good news - they're here to rest other inventions and ideas, and recuperate for Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a whilecomplicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956308600</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Raj KumarB0BC3YTCMR|title=SharafGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With its subtitle "Forbidden love in the kingdom of faith and honour", I expected something entirely different from ''SharafThis story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to what hug her in case it delivered's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. For the second time in as many weeks I She had misjudged a book by, crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if not its cover exactlyshe would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his house and he raped her. In shock, certainly by its setting and its blurbshe even allowed him to give her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802331</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Watson1472263936|title=ElevenThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book's title has been well thought outIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. Xavier IrelandShe was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the main character has the number ''Eleven'family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena' s parents) felt that it would be a pity if you take his initials as Roman numbers (XI) and there are eleven individuals who are involved Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in this chain reaction up-market Kolonaki would be the first of eventsseveral annual visits. When I read She grew to love her grandmother and the blurb on the back coverfamily's maid, Dina, what caught my eye above all else but was the line 'whether the choices we don't make affect us just as powerfully as those we dowary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis.' And He was proud of course, when we take his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no action about something in our lives, itreason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's a form of action in effectScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184983136X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mavis CheekDean Koontz|title=The Lovers of Pound HillAfter Death|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Archaeologist Molly Bonner had something about herMichael 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. She definitely wasn't dressed for the country when she arrived Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in Lufferton Boney plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and she'd captured looks around at the heart shrouded bodies of one young man before she'd even walked down the streethis dead friends and former colleagues. She captured another when she offered money to work on the Gnome of Pound HillAs he recovers his senses, but Miles Whittington was ruled by his wallet and he was keen to make money out of the Gnomerealises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. The Gnome, you see, was what might euphemistically be called 'well endowed' and Miles had visions of charging visitors to make use of the, er, fertility ritesEverything''. One thing was certain – none of the villagers of Lufferton Boney would be the same by the time that Molly Bonner (not only an archaeologist but also the archaeologistMichael isn't ''Michael''s granddaughter) had finished her workanymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091931665</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan WarnerB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Stars in the Bright SkyGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=In 1999, Alan Warner introduced us to a wonderful set of characters in 'The Sopranosvillage is isolated and poor. It' when s surrounded by a school choir from a backwater town in Scotland went on a trip to Witching Forest. And the big cityvillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. Much debauchery ensuedThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. 'The Stars fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the Bright Sky' once again reunites most of the original gang village and there that is no need to have read the first book to pick up on the diverse characters. Now thoughreason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, they've grown up (or at least got older!) and are gathered at Gatwick Airport to set off on lazy lout of a girls' holidayman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009946182X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Geraint AndersonB0BYF82CXT|title=Just BusinessSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The inside cover blurb tells us that the author himself has worked in the square mile in London, so presumably he'll have first-hand experience 'Bill and Amanda are living in the world of finance. The book is bang up-toa semi-datedetached house, as it mentions the first whiff stuck in a depressing rut of the sub-prime disaster which seemed to start the whole collapse of the (up till then) safe boredom and often extremely well-paid banking sector.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755381726</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Linda Gillard|title=House of Silence|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Gwen Rowland was a sensibledisappointment, cautious kind of girl, but then the only family she'd ever known were all dead from a surfeit of unprotected sexwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, drink successful and the sort of drugs that don't come very much in a child-proof bottle. So love – her relationship with an actor was a little out of the ordinary, but they seemed to be friends before they were loversmove in next door. The crunch came at Christmas when Alfie said that he was spending it with his family – which would have left Gwen Despite their different outlooks on her own. She did ''slightly'' twist his arm to take her with him life, the couples befriend each other and he was obviously reluctant life appears to complyimprove for both pairs. When they arrived at Creake HallBut all is not what it seems, home of author Rae Holbrook and her daughters, Gwen sensed a change in Alfie, a lack of warmth towards his familytheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. Then there was the family photo which didn't fit the known facts and the complication of the gardener who said little but was a very good listener.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B004USSPN2</amazonuk>'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annalena McAfeeShalini Boland|title=The SpoilerSilent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Several things about this novel intrigued meAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven. It He is about two female journalists of very different generationseverything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. Also She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, it confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set in . When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the recent past – 1997. While newspaper production had been computerisedaisle by her father, it was just before internet access at home beaming with pride and work became affordable excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and accessible when Seth turns to far more people and so became mass mediaface his approaching bride, and newspapers were almost entirely a print medium – newspaper websites were just around the corner. Annalena McAfee has an insiderAlice's knowledge of the newspaper world as implodes because she was a journalist has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for many years, and her career included founding the Guardian's review section in its current formto become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846554357</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Megan Abbott1787636003|title=The End Girls of EverythingSummer|author=Katie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=On It was the surface this book is about summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the disappearance of a thirteenisland. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old girlAlistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. Her best friend It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and neighbour Lizzie relates how by that time she searches was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for cluesHenry Taylor, how she discovers that a local man may be involved, and how Evie looking after his interests on the island and Lizzie's families struggle to cope. But look again at the title. What really unfolds here is in particular in the story of bar where all the effect a single incident has on three families, not two, how that one event came about, and why nothing will ever be the same for everyone involvedgirls either worked or partied. It is a book which is complex, deep and very, very intense.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330535455</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=C J BoxAmanda Craig|title=Back Three Graces|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of Beyondcontemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|isbn= 140871468X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=152915118X|title=Pineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Connolly ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and [[Tell No One by Harlan Coben|Harlan Coben]], both of whom I've readGeorgiana. So, it was off Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to a pretty good starttheir brother Cord. The front cover graphics and large print scream out They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn'thrillert a Stockton by birth so she isn'. We get t readily accepted into the essence of Cody early ontribe. HeThe problem's a man who likes to do his own thing exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and doesnSasha if they't take kindly d like to orders or red tapemove into the Pineapple Street property. All that red tape is shitTilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, is probably how Cody would describe it in his which they own colourful and down-to-earth fashion. He looks older than his years. Maybe thatThey won's down to a messy domestic life t need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and also to the hours he puts Cord can move straight in on the job. He lives on his own and has Nominally, they had a teenage son he doesnchoice but that wasn't see often enoughthe reality. Oh, Darley and he smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fishGeorgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. In short, he She's a messliving in ''their'' family home. But somehow he stumbles through his police work - with a lot of help and support from a long-suffering colleagueThey use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872984</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hans Werner Kettenbach and Anthea Bell (Translator)Emily Critchley|title=The Stronger SexOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=After reading 84 year old Edie has lived in the various comments on the back coversame small town for almost her whole life, I was looking forward but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to reading this book live with his family, as I love a story with a psychological elementEdie is starting to lose her memory. Young Alex However, Edie is driven to tormented by the home memory of his latest client; her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a man called Klofft. The reader soon finds out secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that Klofft has plenty reveals the truth of baggage, as well as plenty of moneywhat happened all that time ago. HeAfter 'seeing's elderly and very ill and mobility is also an issue for him. SoLucy in the high street, while he may have set out to impress others with his large home and beautiful thingsjust as she was the last time she saw her, sadly he seems no longer she starts to be able find pockets of memories coming back to enjoy lifeher. His illness confines him to just a couple of rooms. It's apparent that Alex is rather taken with his wifeAnd yet as she remembers the past, Cilly Klofft, who she is still rather beautiful - for forgetting more and more in her ageday to day life. The reader assumes Will sheuncover the truth about Lucy's in disappearance before her move, and before her late sixties or early seventies. But what is it they say about age being only a number for some of usmemories are gone forever? And age plays a big part, a very big part, in this novel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904738672</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''
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=Robert Jackson Bennett0008506337|title=The Company ManGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|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'The Timess mother as 'an older man' says on the front cover . Her parents worried that Bennett is Richard'clearly s influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a writer to watch' so I had high hopes for this novelglittering career. We meet two of In the central charactersevent, American policeman Garvey they eloped and Englishman HayesRichard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Garvey's working cv is straightforward enough Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well- he carries out police workrespected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, some of which is pretty grislyImogen and Sasha. But what about Hayes? He appears to be all things to all men but Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the end Isle of Wight. Even then the day well, hedoubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: 'The Company Man' which gives the book its title. And so a complex scenario starts she would never be able to unravel .leave him in charge''. Then Richard left them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497924</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justine Kilkerr1914585402|title=Advice for StraysDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you have ever fancied a grown up version of I reviewed David F Ross's book [[The Tiger Who Came to Tea There's Only One Danny Garvey by Judith KerrDavid F Ross|The Tiger who came to TeaThere's Only One Danny Garvey]], the cover a couple of this Vintage edition should hook you into reading Justine Kilkerr's first novel. Here sits a sad years back and patient-looking lion, and the female figure beside him, hidden remember being absolutely floored by an umbrella, has that same vulnerable look of mother how powerful and child in Judith Kerr's classic children's picture bookaffecting it was. At first this seems like It was a ridiculous connectiongripping, but thinking about emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it later my main takeaway was that I'm struck with the analogy, might not to mention the similarity in authors' nameshave lavished enough praise on it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535262</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Heather GudenkaufLucy Ashe|title=These Things HiddenClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Golden girl Allison Glenn was living The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the perfect teenage life until she was imprisoned for a monstrous crimeoutside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Now sheBecause there's twenty-one and has been released from prison to live in a halfway houselot that builds a dancer. Allison is keen Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to put detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the past behind herclassroom. A stage presence, a charm, but when she returns to her home town of Linden Falls she soon discovers that no one has forgotten her crimea ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, least of all her parents and her little sister, Brynna star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>077830437X</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg WolitzerHeather Fawcett|title=The UncouplingEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dory Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and Robby Lang had one of those marriages that everyone envies. They're not just loversshe has travelled extensively, they're best friends too and they never seem researched meticulously, to tire write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of each otherfaeries. They're both popular teachers Whilst she is brilliant at Eleanor Roosevelt High School ('Elro' research and speaking to those who know it well) where their daughter faeries, she is a studentnot so good with people. It's sometimes difficult to have your parent teaching at your schoolSo when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, but everything seems nor how to rub along reasonably well redeem herself and Dory was delighted when daughter Willa got a part in put her final investigations for her book back on the school playright track. It's ''Lysistrata'' Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and whilst the drama teacher has to tone it down a little it still the play about the women insufferable rival who refuse arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to have sex Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with their men until they call a halt to the war they're fighting.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701186216</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha Solomons1398515388|title=The Novel in Boy and the ViolaDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Elise Landau arrived in England in 1938First of all, it was the earthquake, a refugee from Vienna where she and her family had had a good lifestyle. In England she's destined for Tyneford deep in Dorset where she'll be a parlour maid at the big house. She's not exactly looking forward to itocean floor, but she's escaped Vienna with some of her mother's jewels sewn into which created the seams of her dresses tsunami and her father's latest novelthis, in manuscriptturn, is hidden in caused the body of her violanuclear meltdown. Her sister is leaving for the USA The result was complete and her parents hope to followutter devastation. Surely Elise will be able to join them before too long? The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. She knows The fact that she wonmany 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 like Englanda 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034099567X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul MagrsChristopher Bowden|title=The Bride That Time ForgotMr Magenta|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Christmas Christopher Bowden's latest novel is approaching in the seaside town a patient untangling of Whitby and Brenda is busy sprucing up her B&B. She hasn't seen her best friend, neighbour and investigating partner Effie for a few weeks, since Effieseemingly ordinary woman's strange gentleman friend Alucard life, carried out by her nephew after she has reappeareddied. Brenda The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and Effie are the guardians a little bit of the gateway indulgence to Hell which just happens a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to be right on their doorstep in Whitby, but since Effie has shut herself away, Brenda has turned him an obligation to her friend Robert, the owner of the local hotel to help her with her investigations into the ever present strange goings on in the town, involving vampires, monsters and a rather strange carfind it all out. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755359453</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Naomi WoodJennifer Mason|title=The Godless BoysPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Britain. 1986. The country became Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a theocracy during the 1950s and since then outbreaks series of secular terrorism have been dealt with by exiledisappearances. The atheists have been sent In ''Partitions of Unity'', she sets her mind to the Island where they can burn churches as they pleasesolving a murder.. Aside from a weekly boat bringing donated supplies, the exiled must shift as best they can on a remote snippet of land in the North Sea. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330530127</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James Patterson and Neil McMahonWill Carver|title=ToysThe Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel has Five strangers come together in one moment as a very glamorous opening. We're at President Jacklin's inauguration party and the easy flow of narration gets me seamlessly and effortlessly into the story. There are plenty of comments and observations pertaining suicide bomber prepares to the super-duper hi-tech times of the story, so as early as page 10 Hays and detonate his beautiful wife Lizbeth, who are invitees, are attended to by vest on a well-trained and well-programmed ''iJeeves butler.'' I loved that phrase. It made me smile. The Bakers are an impressive and influential coupleLondon tube line. As part of the 'elite' society they expect a flawless, ordered life for themselves and their family. And Patterson then informs us that mere human beings have been relegated to menial work and most of them live pitiful lives and serves them rightfates overlap, apparently. They're despised but their labour is necessary to oil the wheels of the important daily lives of the elites. But the elites have extremely ambitious plans. Can they pull them off?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846057701</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Welsh|title=Naming the Bones|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Murray Watson story is a Doctor of English Literature embarking on a year-long sabbatical to pursue his long-held dream of writing the definitive biography of Archie Lunan andtold in backwards order, as a specifically intended by-product, restore Lunan's poetry leading up to its rightful place in the high canon of Scots creativityfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847672566</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anita ShreveJennifer Mason|title=RescuePreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When we meet Peter Webster he's 'A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a rookie paramedic 400-meter hurdler who takes an emergency call to help just missed the 2004 Olympics, a drunk driver whowomen's been badly injured in track coach with a car crash. It was touch and go as to whether or not Sheila Arsenault made ityen for bullwhips, but she did and afterwards Webster can't get her out a billionaire with a state-of his thoughts. Every instinct tells him that he shouldn't get involved with her – that it'll mean trouble – but perhaps it was -the long-art S&M dungeon, shininga man serving a life sentence in Alabama, dark hair that tipped the balance and Webster is involved an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in an intense love affairGeorgia... He's also involved in Sheila's life – for better or for worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408700735</amazonuk>}}
}}
