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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Lecoat|title=Beyond Summerland|rating=4|genre=General fictionFiction|summary=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 banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As 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. 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?|isbn=1846976537__NOTOC__}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda JenningsOnyi Nwabineli|title=Sworn SecretAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A year ago Anna Thorne was found dead after presumably falling from Anuri spent her childhood on display to the roof of her school after drinking vodka. Twelve months laterworld, thanks to her parentsstep-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, Kate where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and Jon, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her sisterlife back, Lizziesuing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, are still trying failing to make sense of start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and come to terms with what has happenedreceiving money from them for doing so. They each have their own way of dealing with their grief which Most importantly, rather than unitingshe is desperately worried about her little sister, serves to isolate each who is the new focus of themOphelia's online empire. Ultimately Can she save her sister, they are becoming three sad strangers living under and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same roof.time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184901969X</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Corbin1529153298|title=Do Me No HarmThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dr Olivia Somers It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is minding her own businessPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, trying to raise two kids alone in the wake of her divorcehonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, when everything goes wrong and her sonthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, Robbiethey've been murdered, ends up in hospitalbut to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. It’s hard Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to work out what really happenedmove the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, or even if Robbie Down South is giving her the full storya frightening, foreign place, but when there’s a further incidentbest avoided. For Miv, this time involving a break in at their homethe move would mean leaving her best friend, it becomes clear that these are no random attacksSharon, and someone is out she'll do anything to get themprevent that. With the help of a friendly (and handsome) detective, Olivia tries to piece together the puzzle to work who is behind She's not worried about the trouble, and it’s a race against time dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to figure it out before the next unwelcome surprise from the culpritanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340918969</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian McEwan1035906708|title=Sweet ToothDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Ian McEwan's ''Sweet Tooth'' is part spy novel but more a love story and a tale We tend to think of deception and half truths. It's alsoMaria Callas as Greek, more subtlybut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, a book about the powerNew York, role and importance of fiction. Set in the 1970s, with frequent musical December 1923 and political references only moved to the UK at that time, Serena Frome is a beautiful, Cambridge-educated daughter of an Anglican bishop with a taste for unsuitable romancesAthens when she was thirteen. From an early affair with a man who turns out Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to be homosexual, 'Callas' to an affair with an older lecturer make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she moves on to a surprise job at MI5 where could get appropriate training for her voice - she had was raised under the Nazi occupation by a crush on one of mother who mercilessly exploited her bosses, again and awkward, repressed and unattractive individual before encountering talented author Tom Haley as part made no secret of her job with whom she once again falls in love. Few of these men are what they seem, and neither preference for that matter is Serena when she has to hide her job from Haleyelder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097377</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=The Uncommon Appeal of CloudsPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=So, here we are with Isabel Dalhousie The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in her ninth storyEdinburgh, run by Ness and I'm assuming that you know who she is by now because reallyoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if you don'tshe could come and look after the business, then you'd better not start as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with book number nine a bad boyfriend, and instead you should really go all so jumps at the way back chance to the beginning of the series and ''The Sunday Philosophy Clubcome home to Edinburgh.'' IfAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, on bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the other handIsabel Dalhousie novels, you are well acquainted but with Isabel then settle yourself down for another good read from the master of gentlesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, funny fiction.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408704145</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=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 really 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 bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So 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 good person. Spike is going to 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 who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Favel ParrettKatherine Howe|title=Past the ShallowsA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Harry Curren lives Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with Miles (one a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of his brothers) some pirates in the town, she decides to go and their widowed father in a small Tasmanian fishing communitywatch. Their mother has been killed Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a car accident but life goes on even if ityoung boy's more damaged and disjointed than beforedeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. Miles still goes out on his fatherShe hides away, so that they don's fishing boat to ensure their income t find and Harry spends his time at schoolkill her too, outside amusing himself or being with his other brotherand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, Joedressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, who, for some reason, lives with their grandfatherand from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848547501</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charity Norman1471180158|title=After The FallMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It’s Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the middle subtlety of the night when five year old Finn falls from the balcony at his home in a remote part of New Zealandhalf brick. Leaving Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his twin brother problems'. He's asthmatic and older sister in the care of a neighbourmore you read, his mother Martha stays with him as a helicopter races him to the nearest hospitalmore you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. But as he is rushed into surgery, Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she is taken to one side for questioning, with first nursing staff then 's a frequent flier in the police local A&E and social workers raising concernssometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Was Finn really sleep walking, something he is prone Missed shifts or the need to do? But if so, how did he come be away on time to have suspicious bruises on one side of his body, not pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in keeping with how he landed? And if it wasn’t the accident Martha is saying it wrong. It was, was his mother involved or is she covering for someone?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>174331096X</amazonuk>going to come to a head.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy KoomsonB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Rose Petal BeachRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Tamia Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and Scott met at school and they were friends before they were anything else although it wasn't to busy human society, in the liking forests of either family. ScottWashington's brother referred to Tamia as ''that'' - a reference to the colour of her skinOlympic Peninsula. Tamia's family weren't racially prejudiced but they knew the Challey family After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and their reputation for criminality. It wasn't what they wanted for their daughter: they saw armed with only a university educationpirate radio transmitter, but were to be disappointed Petr goes on both counts. It looked to be working well: a journey through the forest, broadcasting the marriage seemed stable and they had two beautiful daughtersstrange, but then one night it all fell apart. Scott was arrested in front of his wife wild and children for a dreadful crimerarely heard voices he encounters. As if this wasn't bad enough, Tami's world disintegrated even further when she discovered that Scott's accuser was someone whom she regarded as a close friend.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780874960</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris WorthingtonSarah Marsh|title=Setting The Record StraightA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When he was twelve Geoff Dealer returned to his Texas home and walked in on what looked like After a bout of scarlet fever as a frightening situationchild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. A manSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, trousers round his ankles was pushing his mother up against a wall and she was squealingeverything about her life changes. Mindful Living in a time when the use of his father's advice about using sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a gun Geoff grabbed it school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from the gun cabinet and injured the man with his first shotsigning. The second killed him. It was their neighbour and his father's best friend - From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who'd obviously has been more than teaching the deaf and using a friend to his mothersystem called Visible Speech. Lizzie Dealer took At the blame - saying that she'd been attacked same time, Bell is working on other inventions and had grabbed the gun from her son - but her husband was arrested ideas, and was killed Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in prison a couple complicated tangle of days laterespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848767080</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Herman KochB0BC3YTCMR|title=The DinnerGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Serge Lohman, presidential candidate, ''This story is not the kind for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of man to frequent the cafés of ordinary people, and so her fifteenth birthday when his brother Paul and his wife Claire join Serge and wife Babette for dinnerThe Incident happened. She was a very bright student, it can only a bit too nerdy if truth be at the fanciest of localestold, and for suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it'fanciests contagious. It' read poshest, snootiest, and most overpriceds not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. And while they may be in Holland, going Dutch is not She had a crush on the menuseventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. This is not Serge’s story, however Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. It is Paul’s, She went to his house and what he lacks in terms of incomeraped her. In shock, power and influence compared she even allowed him to his brother, he more than makes up for with dry humour and astute observationsgive her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848873824</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine|author=Kim BarnesVictoria Hislop|titlerating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=In It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the Kingdom family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of Menhis close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After Death
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book begins beautifully with all the characters springing to life through fantastically spare and creative description. By the time we reach GinMichael Mace, living with her her grandfather in the stifling atmosphere Head of Security, at a strict Methodist minister’s hometop secret biological research facility, the story is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in full swing a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and we follow Gin through her teenage years only him – as she tries hard to rebel against all he sits up and looks around at the limitations placed upon hershrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|amazonuktitle=<amazonuk>009194421X</amazonuk>The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's 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. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Luis SepulvedaB0BYF82CXT|title=The Shadow of What we WereSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Chile''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, the modern day. Four elderly men meet for one last timestuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, planning something suspiciously underhandwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, having made arrangements - successful and discussed Internet dating - onlinevery much in love – move in next door. We're let into Despite their different outlooks on life, the fact that the grandfather of one was a bank robber in a classic tale of Robin Hood-style wealth distribution, but as couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what the outcome of it seems, and their plans might be weincreasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.'re forced to wait. Elsewhere a domestic incident leads to a bizarre death - by record player. And you can just tell I'm suggesting you wait to discover the link...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1609450027</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyShalini Boland|title=This Holey LifeThe Silent Bride|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Vicky's husband has found faith Alice and since he's working as Seth are a curate now rather than a plumber Vicky match made in heaven. He is everything she has been dragged into church life whether she likes it or notsearching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She's struggling to raise her family whilst dealing with her own grief when suddenly into is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the mix come her irritating big brother wedding is planned and his little boyset. As Vicky's patience When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is stretched paper-thin walked down the lies woven within aisle by her family begin father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to unravel celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she struggles has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for her to keep everything and everyone togetherbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908775971</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cath Staincliffe1787636003|title=Split SecondThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=On a late December evening, Emma Curtis is on a bus travelling home from work It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she becomes aware of a young lad being picked and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on by three othersthe island. Too scared to intervene Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, she sits alone feeling guilty but taking everything in. To her shamenaive, nineteen so when thirty-four-year -old studentAlistair Wright started to take an interest in her, Jason Barnes, comes downstairs on the bus and immediately challenges the three youthsshe was flattered rather than wary. Luke, the young victim, leaps off the bus and It was quite a chase follows. Jason continues while before he made any sort of physical approach to try her and defend Lukeby that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and they end up in Jason's front garden particular in the bar where his parents witness the brutal attack. Eventually all 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 fatalgirls either worked or partied. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013462</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter HellerAmanda Craig|title=The Dog StarsThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We are in North America in a near but postFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-Apocalyptic future. Those few humans to survive a pandemic have to be treated as carriers, and/or armed and desperate, and so are particularly of note to military-minded survivalist Bangleythe-nation novel. And climate and eco-problems have killed off many common species, something closer to narrator HigThere's heartsomething 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 heit 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 more placid, huntin', shootin' and fishin' guy. These two solitary men are an unlikely partnership, but both look out gift for each other weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in complementary ways. Bangley has his watcha way that feels natural and lived-towerin, while Hig takes off in his Cessna to get away from it allnever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, and his flights act as a first line of defensegrappling with issues far larger than themselves. But is it all life could be, for Hig and his dog and Bangley? What is Hig still to make of the last inviting contact he heard on his plane's radio - even if that was three years ago? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755392590</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Frayn152915118X|title=SkiosPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Set on a Greek island, a cultural foundation ''Pineapple Street'' is preparing for the biggest event in its year at which renowned academic Dr Norman Wilfred story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is due married to give the keynote speechtheir brother Cord. Also heading to the island on the same plane is Oliver Fox They're Stocktons, a morally vacant but charming Lothario, who has arranged an assignation with a girl who he has met for only five minutes but has invited to spend Sasha isn't a week with him at Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the villa that he was due spend a week with his ex-girlfriend before she threw him outtribe. But The problem's exacerbated when the girl sent to collect Dr Wilfred from the airportclan matriarch, NikkiTilda, turns out to be irresistibly charming Oliver decides asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to play move into the role of Dr Wilfred Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and follow her downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the foundation while the real Dr Wilfredfurniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, minus luggage is transported to the villa at the other end of they had a choice but that wasn't the islandreality. Someone still has Darley and Georgiana start to give call Sasha 'the speech though - will gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it be to 'the real Dr Wilfred or the fake Dr Wilfred?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571281419</amazonuk>GD'.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ned BeaumanEmily Critchley|title=The Teleportation AccidentOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It's hard 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to know where live with his family, as Edie is starting to start in reviewing Ned Beauman's Booker long-listed ''The Teleportation Accident''lose her memory. Reading it However, you feel like Edie is tormented by the parent memory of an ADHD-suffering child. At times it is lovableher childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, brilliant and entertaining, at others you just want to reach the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the Ritalin and tell it to sit in a corner quietly while it composes itself. A clue to both thing that reveals the brilliance and frustration truth of Beauman is what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the vast range high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of writers memories coming back to whom he has been compared in both this and his first novel [[Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman|Boxer, Beetle]]her. There are hints of people And yet as wide ranging as [[:Category:David Mitchell|David Mitchell]]she remembers the past, [[:Category:P G Wodehouse|P G Wodehouse]], [[:Category:Douglas Adams|Douglas Adams]], Raymond Chandler even [[:Category:Angela Carter|Angela Carter]] she is forgetting more and more in her day to name just a fewday life. Beauman takes a huge range of styles Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and genres and pushes them and bends them often to glorious effect, but it can be a challenge keeping up with him at times.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340998423</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=Howard L Anderson0008506337|title=Albert of AdelaideThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Albert the DuckThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-Billed Platypus lives consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an Adelaide zoo but knows thereolder man's more to life than this. There must be as heHer parents worried that Richard's heard the storiesinfluence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. Somewhere beyond In the cages is Old Australiaevent, a land they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of dreams where there are no zoos Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and no human captorswent on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, just animals who are free to govern themselves Imogen and live Sasha. Life was lived in perpetual peace London and happinessholidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. ThatEven then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's a world that Albert wants mind: ''she would never be able to be a part of and so he escapes, realising that for the first time leave him in his short life his future is in his own webbed pawscharge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668840X</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Manu Joseph|title=The Illicit Happiness of Other People|rating=3Then Richard left them.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Meet what the first chapter calls ''the underdog family''. Tamil immigrants to Madras, they are below the breadline due to Ousep's constant drinking, and by him being a failed writer and mediocre journalist. His wife Mariamma has, shall we say, problems, their younger son is fixated on the beautiful girl next door. But their other son Unni is a ''cartoonist hottie'' - a handsome prodigy of the comic strip world - or he was until he took a nosedive off their roof three years ago, aged 17. Ousep is still tracking through his son's friends and output, trying to seek the cause of this suicide, and what we have here is the journey of the family as he struggles towards the truth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848543093</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles McLeod1914585402|title=American WeatherDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Jim Haskin is a very odd man, doing a very odd job, in a very odd country if this I reviewed David F Ross's book is to be believed. An advertising guru in San Francisco, he owns [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a touchy feely company which boasts such wonders as a ‘Dream Pod’, a room for his team to relax in with sleeping bags, TVs couple of years back and a cooler brimming with organic fruit tea. That’s for their down time in between saving the world, promoting one eco-friendly item after another remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and doing other worthy thingsaffecting it was. Except behind the scenesIt was a gripping, Jim Haskin is not that man. While his team are organising poetry slams to help homeless prostitutesemotionally wounding read, he’s coming up with fight-back campaigns, showing and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that bleach makes a beach better, chemical spills aren't as bad as you first I might think, and other quite inexplicable thingsnot have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542226</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithLucy Ashe|title=Sunshine on Scotland StreetClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I can hardly believe this The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the eighth book about Scotland Streetoutside but not, we learn, and iton the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's so nice a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to just pick up where we left off detail – and discover whatsome things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don's been happening to all our friendst come from the classroom. This time we have Angus and DomenicaA stage presence, a charm, a ''s wedding, Cyriljoie de vivre's adventures whilst they're away on their honeymoon. The difference between a hard-worker, Bruce encounters and a rather strange gentleman and of course there's plenty of Bertie to entertain us!star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846972329</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael PalinHeather Fawcett|title=The TruthEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Keith Mabbutt was at one of those points in Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life when everything seemed to be changing. His marriage was on 's work, the rocksvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. His relationship with his children was Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so goodwith people. He knew that he was a writer - he had a British Gas Award So 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, nor how to prove it - but redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the investigative journalist which he once was had been replaced by someone who did corporate vanity projectsright track. He skated over the unpalatable Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and accentuated what there was that was positive insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and he was paid passably well for doing itdelight, much to Emily's frustration. When But why is he was offered the chance to write a biography of Hamish Melville, the influential humanitarian activist, here? What does he seized the chance and not just because want? And what exactly is going on with the money on offer was beyond his wildest dreams.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297860216</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven Amsterdam1398515388|title=What The Boy and the Family NeededDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5
|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 bookof all, 'What it was the Family Needed'earthquake, is similar deep in that it too contains a large dose of the strangeocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, yet it doesn't quite work as wellcaused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The book is centred around deaths were uncountable, and the families loss of two sisters, with each member having livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their own chapter told at different stages of their lives. In each one owners came far down the various family members are facing problems list of some sort or other and each mysteriously achieves some sort of superpriorities but -power that they 'need' to partly overcome these, although not always with six months after the desired resultstsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. From early on, He wasn't a dog person but the reader suspects that Alek, elder sister Natalieconvenience store owner's younger son who appears as an imaginative kid when we first meet him, is at the heart of the weirdness comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and sure enough he has Tamon the final chapter dog jumped in the book. Just don't expect everything to be explained.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846555809</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrey KurkovChristopher Bowden|title=The Milkman in the NightMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If youChristopher Bowden're going to go sleepwalking, there are better places to do so than in Kiev in the grip of its usual snowy, cold and bleak winter - even if there s latest novel is a lovely blonde at the end patient untangling of your journeya seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. Semyon is living this reality, unaware of the strange consequences, just as others around him are unaware of the strange consequences of their actions - such as the airport security men The aunt who purloin some impounded drugs always provided a safe harbour and test them on the cat. We also have a little bit of indulgence to a young single mother selling herself - just not in nephew had had a much more interesting life than that way - commuting into a capital where some are rich enough nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to try and stave of ageing, and him an obligation to cheat death in various ways..find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099548860</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon RichJennifer Mason|title=What in God's NamePartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In ''What in God's Name''Here at Bookbag Towers, Simon Rich imagines Heaven Inc as a corporate entitywe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, with all the dysfunctional trappings of many a large company. At the head of the operation, as you might expect, is Goddominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], although he seems to have lost his interest in planet Earth when she investigated and certainly in the operation unravelled a series of heavendisappearances. In fact, he'd rather be watching the religious channels on satellite television or opening a restaurant. Although he would like to see rock group ''Lynyrd'' ''Skynyrd'Partitions of Unity' re-form before he's done with the planet. 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 and the recently promoted Eliza who has been labouring away, somewhat fruitlessly it seems, in the Prayers Department. When Eliza finds that her work on preparing prayers for God has been for nothing, she sets her anger threatens the end of the world, unless Craig and Eliza can help mind to solving a couple of hopeless humans find love with each othermurder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846688485</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon CanterWill Carver|title=WorthThe Daves Next Door|rating=34
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard, an Ad man, and Sarah, Five strangers come together in one moment as a city lawyer meet, get married, and decide suicide bomber prepares to leave detonate his vest on a London behind for an idyllic country life instead. He’ll do some drawing, maybe look into illustrating. She’ll do voluntary worktube line. They will start to Enjoy Life a bit more. They will become Better People. They will be the envy of all As their 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 dog. With their busy livesfates overlap, they end up having little time for each other and rarely get the opportunity to talk about the things that matter. In order to do something about her feelings of discontent, Alice googles 'happy marriage?' and although there seem to be no magic secrets for success, a little later she story is invited to take part told in an online survey about modern marriage. She is given the labelbackwards order, Wife 22, and is assigned leading up to her caseworker, Researcher 101, who sends her questions periodically, and is also available through email to answer any queries. 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. 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 husbandfateful moment. 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>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ivo StourtonJennifer Mason|title=The Book Lover's TalePreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Matt will admit that his writing career failed''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and so he had to join his wife -pop mobile diner in interior designthe Northern California redwoods, where he can use his love of books to arrange - at a cost 400- meter hurdler who just missed the contents2004 Olympics, design and most importantly the colours, of upper class peoplea women's home libraries track coach with a yen for them. He'll concede that it's bullwhips, a billionaire with a good way to get into state-of-the houses-art S&M dungeon, and bedsa man serving a life sentence in Alabama, of rich womenan enigmatic signature, such as his latest flameK(s, Claudia. But why is thisx), his confessionon a cheap oil painting, talking of murder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552773875</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Heather Gudenkauf|title=One Breath Away|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Mrs Oliver has spent her life an erotic art dealer in the classroomGeorgia. Educating. Guiding. Nurturing. 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 plans.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848451326</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Timeri N Murari|title=The Taliban Cricket Club|rating=4This is just a sample of the cast of characters and settings in Preposterous.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 As you read this novelcan see, boy do you get a sense some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of how tough it really wasthis mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1742378846</amazonuk>B09STS96HS
}}
{{newreview|author=Kerry Hudson|title=Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Janie Ryan is born into a definitely underprivileged family. Despite a mother who tries Move on to make the right decisions, growing up becomes a fight for survival (both figuratively and literally) as Janie encounters social services, tough schools, domestic violence and an array of 'uncles', all promising a better future that seems as tangible as the holy grail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186399</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]]

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