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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyJenny Lecoat|title=This Holey LifeBeyond Summerland|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Vicky's husband has found faith and since he's working as a curate now rather than a plumber Vicky has been dragged into church life whether she likes it or notJean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. SheDuring the war, Jean's struggling father was arrested for listening to raise a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her family whilst dealing with her own grief when suddenly into the mix come her irritating big brother and his little boymother waiting for years for news of him. As Vicky's patience is stretched paper-thin the lies woven within her family begin to unravel British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and she struggles to keep everything and everyone togetherthe war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a relief, 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>1908775971</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cath StaincliffeOnyi Nwabineli|title=Split Second|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=On a late December evening, Emma Curtis is on a bus travelling home from work when she becomes aware of a young lad being picked on by three others. Too scared Allow Me to intervene, she sits alone feeling guilty but taking everything in. To her shame, nineteen year old student, Jason Barnes, comes downstairs on the bus and immediately challenges the three youths. Luke, the young victim, leaps off the bus and a chase follows. Jason continues to try and defend Luke, and they end up in Jason's front garden where his parents witness the brutal attack. Eventually the trio run off leaving Luke unconscious on the snowy ground. Worse still, is the realisation that Jason has been stabbed and tragically it turns out to be fatal. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013462</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Heller|title=The Dog StarsIntroduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We are in North America in a near but post-Apocalyptic future. Those few humans Anuri spent her childhood on display to survive a pandemic have to be treated as carriersthe world, and/or armed and desperate, and so are particularly of note thanks to military-minded survivalist Bangley. And climate and ecoher step-problems have killed off many common species, something closer to narrator Higmother Ophelia's heartincreasingly popular presence on social media, as hewhere she posted every step of Anuri's a more placidchildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, huntin'basically, shootin' monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and fishin' guy. These two solitary men are an unlikely partnershipto get her life back, but both look out for each other in complementary wayssuing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Bangley has his watch-tower Anuri is battling alcoholism, while Hig takes off in his Cessna failing to get away from it allstart her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and his flights act as a first line of defensereceiving money from them for doing so. But Most importantly, she is it all life could bedesperately worried about her little sister, for Hig and his dog and Bangley? What who is Hig still to make the new focus of the last inviting contact he heard on his planeOphelia's radio - even if that was three years agoonline empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755392590</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Frayn1529153298|title=SkiosThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Set on a Greek islandIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, a cultural foundation is preparing for the biggest event in its year at which renowned academic Dr Norman Wilfred is due to give the keynote speechthough. Women have been disappearing. Also heading to the island on the same plane is Oliver Fox Well, a morally vacant but charming Lothariothey've been murdered, who has arranged an assignation with a girl who he has met for only five minutes but has invited to spend a week with him at have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the villa that he was due spend a week with his ex-girlfriend before she threw him outfamily 'Down South'. But when the girl sent to collect Dr Wilfred When you're from the airportYorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, Nikkibest avoided. For Miv, turns out to be irresistibly charming Oliver decides to play the role of Dr Wilfred and follow move would mean leaving her to the foundation while the real Dr Wilfredbest friend, Sharon, minus luggage is transported and she'll do anything to the villa at the other end of the islandprevent that. Someone still has to give She's not worried about the speech though dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - will it be the real Dr Wilfred or the fake Dr Wilfred?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571281419</amazonuk>to anyone.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ned Beauman1035906708|title=The Teleportation AccidentDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's hard We tend to know where think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to start Greek parents in reviewing Ned Beauman's Booker long-listed ''The Teleportation Accident''. Reading itManhattan, you feel like the parent of an ADHD-suffering child. At times it is lovableNew York, brilliant in December 1923 and entertaining, at others you just want only moved to reach for the Ritalin and tell Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to sit 'Callas' to make it more manageable in a corner quietly while it composes itselfthe States. A clue to both the brilliance and frustration of Beauman is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the vast range of writers to whom he has been compared in both this and his first novel [[Boxer, Beetle Nazi occupation by Ned Beauman|Boxer, Beetle]]. There are hints of people as wide ranging as [[:Category:David Mitchell|David Mitchell]], [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P G Wodehouse]], [[:Category:Douglas Adams|Douglas Adams]], Raymond Chandler even [[:Category:Angela Carter|Angela Carter]] to name just a few. Beauman takes a huge range mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of styles and genres and pushes them and bends them often to glorious effecther preference for her elder sister, but it can be a challenge keeping up with him at timesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340998423</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Howard L AndersonAlexander McCall Smith|title=Albert of AdelaideThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Albert The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the Duck-Billed Platypus lives online apps in an Adelaide zoo but knows there's 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 life than thisget away for a while. There must be as he's heard Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the storieschance to come home to Edinburgh. Somewhere beyond the cages is Old AustraliaAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, a land of dreams where there are no zoos thanks to 44 Scotland Street and no human captorsthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, just animals but with some new characters who are free quickly begin to govern themselves and live charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in perpetual peace her abilities, and happiness. Thatthere's a world that Albert wants always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be lend a part of and so he escapes, realising that for the first time in his short life his future is in his own webbed paws.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184668840X</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Manu JosephDean Koontz|title=The Illicit Happiness of Other PeopleBad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=Meet what the first chapter calls ''the underdog family''Benny is having a terrifically bad day. Tamil immigrants to MadrasHe loses his job, they are below the breadline due to Ousep's constant drinkinghe loses his fiancee, and by him being a failed writer and mediocre journalisthis house gets trashed. His wife Mariamma Oh, and someone hasdelivered a really weird, shall we saydisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, problemsand it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, their younger son Benny is fixated on the beautiful girl next doorvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. But their other son Unni He is a ''cartoonist hottie'' - nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a handsome prodigy of the comic strip world - or he was until he took new friend, a nosedive off their roof three years agobad weather friend called Spike, aged 17who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Ousep Spike is still tracking through his son's friends and output, trying going to seek the cause take care of this suicideBenny, and what we have here is the journey will certainly take care of the family as Benny's enemies, if he struggles towards the truth, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848543093</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charles McLeodKatherine Howe|title=American WeatherA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jim Haskin Hannah Masury is a very odd manliving in Boston, doing having been sent to live with a very odd jobfamily who run an inn, in and being made to work there from a very odd country if this book young age. When she hears there is to be believeda hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. An advertising guru Enthralled and horrified in San Franciscoequal measure, he owns Hannah finds herself embroiled in a touchy feely company which boasts such wonders as a ‘Dream Pod’young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, a room for his team and then to escape them completely she runs away to relax in with sleeping bagssea, TVs dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cooler brimming with organic fruit teacabin boy. That’s for their down time She soon finds herself in between saving the world, promoting one eco-friendly item after another and doing other worthy thick of things. Except behind the scenes, Jim Haskin when there is not that man. While his team are organising poetry slams to help homeless prostitutes, he’s coming up with fight-back campaigns, showing that bleach makes a beach better, chemical spills aren't as bad as you first might thinkmutiny on board, and other quite inexplicable thingsfrom there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099542226</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1471180158|title=Sunshine on Scotland StreetMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I can hardly believe this is Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the eighth book about Scotland Streetsubtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, and it'has his problems'. He's so nice to just pick up where we left off asthmatic and discover whatthe more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's been happening to all our friendson the autistic spectrum. This Sometimes Jamie needs to take time we have Angus and Domenicaoff at short notice - she's wedding, Cyrila frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's adventures whilst they're not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on their honeymoon, Bruce encounters a rather strange gentleman time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and of course there's plenty of Bertie put in the wrong. It was going to come to entertain us!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972329</amazonuk>a head.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael PalinB0CKD1L5JL|title=The TruthRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Keith Mabbutt was at one of those points in life when everything seemed to be changingPetr is an orphan. His marriage was on Rescued by the rocks. His relationship with his children was not good. He knew that strange, reclusive Bear, he was a writer - he had a British Gas Award to prove it - but is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the investigative journalist which he once was had been replaced by someone who did corporate vanity projectsforests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. He skated over the unpalatable After Bear dies and accentuated what there was that was positive a brief sojourn in human company, and he was paid passably well for doing it. When he was offered the chance to write armed with only a biography of Hamish Melvillepirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the influential humanitarian activistforest, he seized broadcasting the chance strange, wild and not just because the money on offer was beyond his wildest dreamsrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297860216</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven AmsterdamSarah Marsh|title=What the Family NeededA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Steven Amsterdam's first novel [[Things We Didn't See Coming by Steven Amsterdam|Things We Didn't See Coming]] won several awards including The Guardian First Boom Award. His second book, 'What the Family Needed', is similar in that it too contains After a large dose bout of the strangescarlet fever as a child, yet it doesn't quite work as wellEllen Lark loses her hearing. The book is centred around the families Suddenly plunged into a world of two sisterssilence, with each member having their own chapter told at different stages of their liveseverything about her life changes. In each one Living in a time when the various family members are facing problems use of some sort or other and each mysteriously achieves some sort of super-power that they 'need' sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to partly overcome theselip read, although not always with the desired resultsbut physically restrained from signing. From early onhere, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the reader suspects that Aleksame time, elder sister Natalie's younger son who appears as an imaginative kid when we first meet himBell is working on other inventions and ideas, is at the heart of the weirdness and sure enough he has the final chapter Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in the book. Just don't expect everything to be explaineda complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846555809</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=Simon Rich1472263936|title=What in God's NameThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In ''What It was in God's Name''1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Simon Rich imagines Heaven Inc as a corporate entityGreek by birth, with all had left the dysfunctional trappings of many a large company. At the head of the operation, as you might expect, is Godfamily home and refused to return, although he seems to have lost his interest in planet Earth but Mary and certainly in the operation of heaven. In fact, heHamish (Helena'd rather s parents) felt that it would be watching the religious channels on satellite television a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or opening a restaurantunderstanding her Greek heritage. Although he would like Her trip to see rock group ''Lynyrd'' ''Skynyrd'' rethe family apartment in up-form before he's done with market Kolonaki would be the planetfirst of several annual visits. In fact the only two who really care about what goes on down here are a workaholic angel named Craig who works in the Miracles Department She grew to love her grandmother and the recently promoted Eliza who has been labouring awayfamily's maid, somewhat fruitlessly it seemsDina, in the Prayers Department. When Eliza finds that but was wary - and frightened - of her work on preparing prayers for God has been for nothinggrandfather, her anger threatens the end retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the world, unless Craig Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and Eliza can help a couple of hopeless humans find love with each othergreen eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846688485</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon CanterDean Koontz|title=WorthAfter Death
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=RichardMichael Mace, an Ad manHead of Security, and Sarahat 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 city lawyer meetmakeshift mortuary, get marriedcovered in plastic, and decide to leave London behind for an idyllic country life instead. He’ll do some drawinghe has a sense that something very, maybe look into illustrating. She’ll do voluntary work. They will start very bad has happened to Enjoy Life a bit more. They will become Better People. They will be him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the envy shrouded bodies of all their his dead friends still toiling away in the big smoke.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546825</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Melanie Gideon|title=Wife 22|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Alice and William Buckle have been married for quite a few years and have two teenage children and a dogformer colleagues. With their busy lives As he recovers his senses, they end up having little time for each other and rarely get the opportunity to talk about the things he realises that matter. In order to do there is something different about her feelings of discontent, Alice googles him; he can ''feel'happy marriage?' and although there seem to be no magic secrets for success, a little later she is invited to take part in an online survey about modern marriageeverything. She is given the label, Wife 22, and is assigned to her caseworker, Researcher 101, who sends her questions periodically, and is also available through email to answer any queries ''Everything''. Alice soon enjoys being able to pour her heart out through the questions that she has to answer but also finds that she is becoming more than a little attracted to her faceless caseworker Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore. They start chatting through facebook and Alice finds it quite exciting to mildly flirt with her new friend. However, the more she does so, the more disgruntled she becomes with her own husband. There comes a point though where Alice has to decide whether to take things further and if she does, what will become of her marriage?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007481772</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ivo StourtonB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Book Lover's TaleGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Matt will admit that his writing career failed, The village is isolated and so he had to join his wife in interior design, where he can use his love of books to arrange poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - at a cost its bread- the contents, design like fruit provides nutrition and most importantly the colours, its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of upper class people's home libraries for them. He'll concede that it's a good way to get into the houses, forest provides heat and bedswarmth, of rich womenroofs on homes, such as his latest flameand even gallows, Claudiaif needed. But why The fear of being buried alive is thisan existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, his confessionself-indulgent, talking lazy lout of murder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552773875</amazonuk>a man is tolerated.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather GudenkaufB0BYF82CXT|title=One Breath AwaySemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mrs Oliver has spent her ''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life in , the classroom. Educating. Guiding. Nurturingcouples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But on the last day of term all she really wants is to get to the afternoon bell without any drama. A gunman walking in to her classroom really does not fit in with her planswhat it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848451326</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Timeri N MurariShalini Boland|title=The Taliban Cricket Club|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=We all know, or think we know, how oppressive life was for Afghans, particularly Afghan women, under the Taliban regime, but when you read this novel, boy do you get a sense of how tough it really was.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742378846</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kerry Hudson|title=Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My MaSilent Bride|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Janie Ryan Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is born into everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a definitely underprivileged familywife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. Despite a mother who tries to make When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the right decisionsaisle by her father, growing up becomes a fight for survival (both figuratively beaming with pride and literally) excitement as Janie encounters social services, tough schoolsshe surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, domestic violence and an array of 'unclesAlice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, all promising a better future that seems as tangible as the holy grailwho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701186399</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen MacInnes1787636003|title=Above Suspicion|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In the summer The Girls of 1939 Oxford professor Richard Myles and his wife Frances were preparing for their annual European holiday when they were visited by an old friend who had a request for them. Would they start their holiday in Paris, meet a man there and then continue their holiday as he directed? There was a great deal of tension in Europe and Richard Myles was reluctant to undertake the task, mainly because he didn't want to put his wife at risk. Frances had other ideas, but not even they were above suspicion. At first they were watched but the attentions of some shadowy figures became more pressing as they realised that pre-war Germany was not a comfortable place to be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781161534</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSummer|author=Drew Thomas|title=CurtainsKatie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Danny is a performer It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on London’s cabaret circuitthe island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, but his hard work isn’t doing much for his status. When he meets Veronicaperhaps, who promises to make him a starnaive, he never guesses that this might be too good so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to be true. Rapidly falling take an interest in love with her – or so , she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he thinks – soon his life revolves around doing made any sort of physical approach to her biddingand by that time she was obsessed by him. But Veronica is a more complex individual than Danny could ever have imagined - Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and her forcefulness will lead them both down an unimaginable pathin particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957187807</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanna KavennaAmanda Craig|title=Come to the EdgeThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you are fortunate enough to own a rural second home hideaway in Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the UK, this beautifully written book will probably give you nightmares-nation novel. For There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the rest atmosphere of usthe day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as itstands 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 great read. The target gift for Joanna Kavenna's satire is weaving the unused property, owned by ongoing issues of the wealthy, depriving day into the local population lives of anywhere to live her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in the places they have grown up, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780872135</amazonuk>140871468X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Denman152915118X|title=ConnectedPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Doug''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, a maths Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and computing undergraduate at Essex UniversitySasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, has just pulled only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the most amazing girltribe. So he The problem's not really that interested in exacerbated when the file of fractals research best friend Kal has just sent him. But while Doug and Cindy are busily getting it onclan matriarch, Tilda, something has gone horribly wrong for Kal asks Cord and Doug emerges from afternoon delight Sasha if they'd like to move into the horrific discovery that his friend has committed suicidePineapple Street property. Miles Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away in the countryside, Peter is attending his brother's funeral. Martin was a musician but not a tortured artist and it seems inconceivable that he too would take his which they own life. But They won't need any of the tripfurniture from Pineapple Street, for Peterso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, is more than they had a family obligation - itchoice but that wasn's t the chance of a break from a stale marriage reality. Darley and an opportunity Georgiana start to indulge call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in some guilty proximity ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to his newly-bereaved sister-in-law'the GD'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0089YQPI0</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane FeaverEmily Critchley|title=An Inventory of HeavenOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Mavis Gaunt was evacuated 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to Shipleigh in Devon during World War II another house and went bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her auntmemory. It wasn't just an escape from However, Edie is tormented by the dangers memory of London - it was a welcome relief from her parents' loveless marriage childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and in her mind it became the worry that there was a heavenly retreatsecret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. In her twenties and with her mother dead there After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was nothing to keep the last time she saw her in London so , she headed starts to find pockets of memories coming back to Shipleighher. She struck up an unlikely friendship with Frances UpcottAnd yet as she remembers the past, one of three children of a reclusive farmer she is forgetting more and, almost against more in her will, found herself drawn into the day to day life of the farm. It gave Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her a sense of belonging but it ended in tragedy.memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780330006</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Martin AmisMadelaine Lucas|title=Lionel AsboThirst for Salt|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Martin Amis can be relied upon to create some pretty nasty''Love, self-centred central characters. Usually they are upper class cads and bounders but in Lionel Asbo his central character is at the polar opposite in terms of class. HeI's violentd read, uncouth and ignorant. He's a criminal whose usual sidekicks are a pair of vicious pit bulls. His 'manner' is a fictitious down trodden area of London called Diston Town where he lives in was supposed to be a tower block with his nephew, Des, who in fact is the central character in the book. Des, in contrast is far more sympathetic - intelligent light and kindweightless feeling, that is if you overlook the fact that as a 15 year old he but I had an affair with his grandmother, Lionelalways longed for gravity's mother. Hey, no one's perfect. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224096206</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shams Uddin0008506337|title=The Year from JahannamGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Wright family begin a blog 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 January 2011love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. They all want Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to celebrate Oxford and having a new start after the turmoil of recent yearsglittering career. Father Richard had been a casualty of In the financial crisisevent, working for Lehman Brothers at they eloped and Richard took her away from the time Isle of its collapse, Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and the ensuing chaos went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had affected the entire family one way or another. But Richard retrainedthree children: Rachel, secured a new job Imogen and has recently earned a huge bonusSasha. At last Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family are back home on track and enjoying the fruits Isle of hard labourWight. 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''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957175205</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasa Dragnic and Liesl Schillinger (translator)1914585402|title=Every Day, Every HourDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=HumourGeneral Fiction|summary=Dora and Luka meet and become firm friends. In normal situations one might add I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There'and s Only One Danny Garvey]] a whole lot more'' to that sentence, but Dora couple of years back and Luka are in Kindergarten, which makes their intense relationship hard to define. As they grow into adults, however, it becomes obvious that there is something between them remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and no matter how much they, or their circumstances, try to fight this affecting it is there and is not going to fade awaywas. Dora’s parents move her across the continentIt was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, careers develop and flourish, out rereading my review of nowhere they are enveloped by family lives, but still there is an invisible bond it my main takeaway was that draws them back to one anotherI might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186941</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gerry WellsLucy Ashe|title=Kicking the Hornets' NestClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesGeneral Fiction|summary=WWII books about The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the RAF and outside but not, we learn, on the Navy are quite commoninside. And not on stage, either. Books about Special Operations Executive and similar organisations proliferateBecause there's a lot that builds a dancer. Stories about the army are fewer Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and try as I might I really couldn't think of one which was other than incidentally about tank crewsome things, so when the opportunity came I that ''hadje ne sais quoi'' to read , that don'Kicking t come from the Hornetsclassroom. A stage presence, a charm, a '' Nestjoie de vivre' particularly as it's written by an author who crewed a Sherman tank in Operation Overlord, back in June 1944. I had just The difference between a couple of nagging doubts. It's a book of short stories. Would I find it easy to pick up hard- worker, and out down again? The big worry was whether or not this was going to be a macho action story, which wouldn't really be my cup of tea at allstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780881568</amazonuk>0861544080
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura SolomonHeather Fawcett|title=Hilary and DavidEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=HilaryEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, a single mother the very first encyclopaedia of two troublesome boys meets Davidfaeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, an elderly writer she is not so good with problems people. So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of his ownHrafvsnik, through Facebook. It’s an odd beginning – they have a mutual friendhaving somehow offended the village matriarch, so one adds the othershe is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and then they start chatting quite spontaneously – but sets put her final investigations for her book back on the scene well for their atypical relationshipright track. Hilary’s in New Zealand Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, David’s in London. They are many decades apart in age but are clearly both quite lonely all charm and looking for someone to talk delight, much toEmily's frustration. So, But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the vague anonymity of social networking on their side, they reach out to one another.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>9881993296</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lionel Shriver1398515388|title=The New RepublicBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Lionel Shriver adds a beard-shaped appendage to Southern Portugal First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The New Republic result was complete and immediately has it fighting for independenceutter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, taking a wry look at terrorism as well as and the ethics loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the international press corps. After a series list of international terrorism acts, priorities but - six months after the Os Soldados Ousados De Barba, or the SOB for short, have gone quiet at the same time as charismatic journalist Barrington Sadler has vanished without tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a traceconvenience store. Insecure former lawyer Edgar Kellogg steps into Barrington He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's post: Kellogg on comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the hunt for serial killers, as it weredog jumped in. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007459807</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne SwardChristopher Bowden|title=Breathless|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=There are those who say that, on an individual level, books are like Marmite: you love it or you hate it. Oh, if only it were so easy. ''Breathless'' is one of those that I neither love nor hate, and yet am not totally uninspired by either. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857051032</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Cleave|title=GoldMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Novels that feature sport often put people off reading them, particularly if you are not au fait with the sport in question. However, while the characters in Chris CleaveChristopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman''Gold'' are athletes, specifically cyclists aiming for the 2012 London Olympicss life, it's more about the characters themselvescarried out by her nephew after she has died. In fact, if you are looking for The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a book little bit of indulgence to read a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to avoid the brouhaha of the Olympics this year but still want him an obligation to get a taste of what find it all the fuss is about, this would be a superb choiceout.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340963433</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan LeeJennifer Mason|title=JoyPartitions of Unity|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Very stylishHere at Bookbag Towers, observant we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and oh so spikyunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], this is an incrediblewhen she investigated and unravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity'', often uncomfortable novel that you just can't put downshe sets her mind to solving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434020427</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Miranda FranceWill Carver|title=That Summer at Hill FarmThe Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you were Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to pass Hill Farm you would think it the perfect country idyll with lambs in the fieldsdetonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, children playing and the farmhouse nestled story is told in the folds of the hills. The truth though is different. Farmer Hayes loves the landbackwards order, but he's no farmer. His wife is neglected and it's not that long since Isabel miscarried her fourth child. She loves her children but she's not a particularly good housewife - or wife. She and Hayes were rather bounced into marriage by her aging and doting parents. Now she's trapped in a house with death-watch beetle and a husband who is struggling leading up to keep the farm goingfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099555131</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sylvie NickelsJennifer Mason|title=The Other Side of SilencePreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Pippa Eastman went to Australia to get away from her domineering father''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the historian Joseph Eastman and it was there that she met JudeNorthern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the son of two Ten Pound Poms. Their relationship was good2004 Olympics, but not exactly committed on either side. It was about having fun. Familial ties were surprisingly strong though and when Joseph Eastman developed Alzheimera women's Disease Pippa returned to the UK to care track coach with a yen for him. Slightly to her surprisebullwhips, Jude followed her a billionaire with a state-of- determined to track down the alcoholic father who had left him and his mother -art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Australia. It'Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s only after her father's death that Pippa finds herself , x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in search of her fatherGeorgia...'s life - and trying to establish that he wasn't a murderer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781762686</amazonuk>}}
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