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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Liz FenwickJenny Lecoat|title= Under a Cornish SkyBeyond Summerland|rating= 3.54|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Under a Cornish Sky'' is Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the story end of two very different women who are forced to work together to complete a common goalthe occupation. Their personalities couldn During the war, Jean't be more different, so expect fireworks along the way! Shy Demi is as timid as s father was arrested for listening to a mouse banned radio and although she is a skilled architectsoldiers took him away one night, she is never able to succeed in leaving Jean and her career because others take credit mother waiting for her workyears for news of him. In relationships, she is easily manipulated into doing things she doesn't always feel comfortable with; a fact that is not lost on her sleazy current boyfriend, Matt. Lady-of- As the British finally free the Channel islands from the-Manor VictoriaNazis, on and the other hand, simply oozes self confidence. Although she war is in her sixtiesfinally over, she has the body their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of a much younger woman and has no trouble getting men to do exactly what she wantshim. Despite a long list of younger lovers providing But will the truth come as a pleasurable distractionrelief, her one true love is or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the family home of Boscawen, a glorious estate set in Nazis about the picturesque Cornish countryside, not far from radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the sea.occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409148289</amazonuk>1846976537

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Alison UmmingerOnyi Nwabineli|title= My Favourite Manson GirlAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Fifteen year old Anna has had an excruciating year, topped off with new stepparents and a new school. So she ''borrows'' Anuri spent her family's credit cardchildhood on display to the world, and runs away thanks to LA to crash with her sister. But Hollywood isnstep-mother Ophelia't the escape she needss increasingly popular presence on social media, and it soon dawns on her: where sheposted every step of Anuri's trapped in a town full of lost souls childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and wannabes, with no friendsbasically, no cash monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and no return ticket. When to get her sister's obsessive ex offers life back, suing her a job researching step-mother to take down the murderous Manson girls content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for his next indie filmdoing so. Most importantly, she accepts – albeit reluctantly. This is not quite the summer Anna had in mind; but the more she learns desperately worried about the girls and her fatelittle sister, who is the more new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she comes to understand save her family – sister, and perhaps herself. and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472150848</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author= Louise CandlishJennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=The Swimming PoolDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=''The Swimming Pool'' is the story We tend to think of a woman - Natalie - whose eyes are dazzled by a glamorous couple who live nearby. Natalie and husband Ed have a 13-year-old daughterMaria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, MollyNew York, in December 1923 and are the kind of parents you'd steer clear of at the school gates for fear of offending their politically correct sensibilitiesonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Molly has a phobia of water. Rather than keep her away from rivers and pools, they subject Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to a childhood of therapy. They keep up with changes to Molly's phone code so they can check up on her messages. They donCallas't believe to make it more manageable in private education and they eat nutritionally supplemented pizzasthe States. Louise Candlish pokes delicious fun at this couple, particularly at dull When she was back in Athens -assupposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice -ditchwater Ed whose moral rectitude stifles poor Natalie, desperate to break out of her mould. Enter Lara Channing. Lara is she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a champion synchronised swimmer and former starlet. Her beauty, wealth and warmth have a magnetic attraction for Natalie mother who proves powerless to resist Lara's charms, although she is less sure of Lara's enigmatic husband, Miles. The novel charts Natalie's journey as she is enticed away from Ed mercilessly exploited her and into Lara's web, and there is an increasing sense made no secret of unease as events unfold. Add to this heady mix a few additional ingredientsher preference for her elder sister, a heatwave, an outdoor pool and a gaggle of teenagers, and you have a recipe for disasterJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405927321</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kit de WaalAlexander McCall Smith|title=My Name is LeonThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5

|summary=Everything that The Perfect Passion Company is precious a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to Leon gets taken awayall the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. His Action Man toysNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, his home, his mum, and his brotheras Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. The world seems utterly unfair, and so he sneaks 20p here, and 50p there, Katie is coming out of people's purses, whilst building a break up with a rucksack full of all bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the things he's going chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to need when he finds his baby brotheran Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and reunites his familythe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Through all his planning he still manages to find enjoyment Katie has no experience in small things, like running a Curly Wurlybusiness, or riding his bikein match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, or planting seeds with his new friends on the allotmentsWilliam, but how will he cope when he finally faces the truth of his new life without his family.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241207088</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rufi ThorpeDean Koontz|title= Dear Fang, With LoveThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary= After seventeen yearBenny 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-old Verasized object to his home, and it's mental breakdownpossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, her father Lucas takes her on Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a trip nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to the tiny Lithuanian town 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 Vilnius to recover Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and reconnect with their family historyHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472152158</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Simon BillKatherine Howe|title= Artist in ResidenceA True Account|rating= 4.5

|summary= The nameless protagonist of artist Simon Bill's first novel Hannah Masury is almost instantly dislikeable. He's living in Boston, having been sent to live with a slob with family who run an alcohol problem whose endeavours in the art world appear lackadaisical inn, and who seems being made to have behaved questionably to his ex-girlfriend Susanwork there from a young age. In his antihero, Bill gives himself an uphill struggle When she hears there is to keep be a hanging of some pirates in the reader turning pagestown, let alone engage their sympathyshe decides to go and watch. And yet Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Artist Hannah finds herself embroiled in Residence is a funnyyoung boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, thought-provokingand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, informative read which is all dressing as a boy and joining the more enjoyable for notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the mental thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and emotional demands it places from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the readerocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908745576</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Paul Cornell1471180158|title= Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= Fantasy General Fiction|summary=The Great Detecitve's ghost has walked London's streets for Jamie Matson works in an ageupper-class grocery store, given shape by peoplefor a man who's memoriesa control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Now someone Jamie's put a ceremonial dagger throug son, Bo, 'has his chestproblems'. But what He's asthmatic and the motive? And who - or what - could kill a ghost? When policing Londonmore you read, the more you'll suspect that he's supernatural underworld, eliminating on the impossible is not an optionautistic spectrum. DI James Quill and his detectives have learnt this the hard way. Gifted with the Sight, they'll pursue a criminial genius Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - whoshe'll lure them into s a Sherlockian maze of clues frequent flier in the local A&E and evidencesometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. The team also have thier own demons Missed shifts or the need to fight. They've been be away on time to Hell pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and back (literally) but now put in the unit is falling apartwrong. It was going to come to a head..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447273265</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Veronica HenryB0CKD1L5JL|title=How to Find Love in a Book ShopRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=It Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a heavy heart that Emilia Nightingale returns home to journey through the forest, broadcasting the pretty Cotswold town strange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of PeasebrookHer Own|rating=3. Her beloved father Julius has just passed away; his legacy, 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a well-loved bookshop that serves bout of scarlet fever as a beating heart to the communitychild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Julius was loved by all: he always had time to listen to his customers and share Suddenly plunged into a recuperative cuppa in times world of needsilence, everything about her life changes. However, his finances were another matter entirely and Emilia wonders how she can keep Living in a time when the bookshop open with an ever-mounting pile use of debt. Greedy property developer Ian Mendip would be sign language was seen as something only ''too'' happy savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to help outlip read, but can Emilia really give physically restrained from signing. From here, 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 same time, Bell is working on her father's dream?other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140914688X</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy KoomsonB0BC3YTCMR|title=When I Was InvisibleGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|summary=Veronika Harper met Veronica Harper aged 8''This 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, form the start both deciding theyand suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it'd stay firm friendss contagious. Nika and Roni did everything together including their beloved ballet… until something goes terribly wrongIt's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. This leads to She had a series of events that don't just tear their friendship crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but also the lives they never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would otherwise leadtutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. They wish for invisibility She went to his house and choose different ways he raped her. In shock, she even allowed him to accomplish it for the sake of their survival; physical as well as emotionalgive her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780893361</amazonuk>

 {{Frontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=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 family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his 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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithDean Koontz|title=After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded 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|title=My Italian BulldozerThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4.5

|summary=I do love to sit down with The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a new book Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by AMS, farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the excitement was doubled forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on this occasion since a new standalone story meant lots homes, and even gallows, if needed. The fear of brand new characters to meet, being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and also that is the book has a very intriguingly bizarre title! In this story we get to meet Paulreason Volushka, a food writer whodrunken, after a rather upsetting breakself-up with his girlfriendindulgent, heads to Tuscany to finish writing his book. So far, so normal, but lazy lout of course things soon get a little unusual, beginning with Paul’s arrest on his arrival in Italy and moving swiftly on to the point where instead of a hire car he finds himself with a hired bulldozer…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973554</amazonuk>man is tolerated.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Grady HendrixB0BYF82CXT|title= My Best Friend's ExorcismSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 54|genre= HorrorGeneral Fiction|summary=1988''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, Charlestonstuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, South Carolinasuccessful and very much in love – move in next door. High school sophomores Abby Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth gradelife appears to improve for both pairs. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrongall is not what it seems, Gretchen begins to act...different. She's moody. She's irritableand their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abby's investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frederic Dard and David Bellos (translator)Shalini Boland|title=Bird The Silent Bride|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a Cagewife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|isbn=1662507089}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=A man returns to It was the flat he grew up in summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and where his mother died without his knowledge, Caroline went backpacking around Greece and finds it too desolate for arrived on the time of year it is – Christmas Eveisland. Bursting for more lifeRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, despite being a solitary characterperhaps, he goes to a restaurantnaive, and finds a connection with a mother with her daughter. They dine, then go so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to the cinema, and sit together, and things happen from there – take an interest in a gentleher, no-pressure, no-names-no-packdrill wayshe was flattered rather than wary. If this isn't It was quite a reasonable start while before he made any sort of physical approach to a novella, consider the tag it has as a noir classicher and by that time she was obsessed by him. And consider Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the fact island and in particular in the strange woman is bar where all the spitting image of the man's dead wife…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271996</amazonuk>girls either worked or partied.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer DonnellyAmanda Craig|title=These Shallow GravesThree Graces|rating=34.5|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=Jennifer Donnelly wrote one Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of my all-time favourite books, 'the-nation novel. There'A Gathering Light'', s something so I was very excited to read her latest novel utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and see how capture it, crafting an image of the country as it comparedstands in one particular moment. Like To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she''A Gathering Light'', ''These Shallow Graves'' is a historical novel s practically synonymous with a murder mystery the genre of contemporary social fiction at its heart and this point. She has such a feisty heroine who challenges gift for weaving the standards ongoing issues of the dayinto 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. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471405176</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Virginia Ironside152915118X|title=No, Thanks! I'm Quite Happy Standing!: Marie Sharp 4Pineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5

|summary=Retired art teacher Marie Sharp ''Pineapple Street'' is wondering whether it's time the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to move house to be nearer her son Jack and grandson Genetheir brother Cord. The wondering doesnThey're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't take up all her time thoughreadily accepted into the tribe. For a start thereThe problem's exacerbated when the newclan matriarch, new-age lodger Robin Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda andChip have renovated and downsized to another property, talking about mena street or so away, Marie is getting on really well with her ex-husband Davidwhich they own. This single life They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in which . Nominally, they dib into each otherhad a choice but that wasn's worlds on a regular basis seems t the perfect way forwardreality. However not all is rosy: friend PennyDarley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's drinking too much plus a holiday living in India has unexpected conclusion''their'' family home. Oh and thereThey use it so often that they abbreviate it to 's the burglaries tooGD'. Who says that retirement is relaxing and uneventful?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782069321</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>1782069321</amazonus>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= William ThackerEmily Critchley|title= Lingua FrancaOne Puzzling Afternoon|rating= 2.54|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= Clichéd 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as it may soundher son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, language finds itself at as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the very core memory of human existence her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and experience. On the one hand, it defines individual cognition and thoughts and serves as worry that there was a way secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of communicating these thoughts to others; on what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the otherhigh street, it defines just as she was the social spherelast time she saw her, giving social values she starts to things, reflecting historyfind pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and constructing a common identitymore in her day to day life. It is also what William Thacker Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's second noveldisappearance before her move, ''Lingua Franca'', revolves around.and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079743</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice AdamsMadelaine Lucas|title=Invincible SummerThirst for Salt|rating=3.5

|summary=As Alice Adams's debut novel opens in the summer of 1995, four university friends are lounging on Bristol's Brandon HillLove, drinking and contemplating what the future holds. ThereI's Eva Andrewsd read, raised in Sussex by was supposed to be a single father; siblings Sylvie light and Lucien Marchantweightless feeling, neglected by their alcoholic mother; and Benedict Waverleybut I had always longed for gravity'' Told from a retrospective view, a rich kid whose parents have young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a holiday home on Corfuman twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Eva has a crush 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 Lucien, while Benedict is besotted with Evaboth romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509814701</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catherine Banner0008506337|title=The House at the Edge of NightGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=''The House at the Edge of Nightlove affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'' is an epic family sagaLeary was all-consuming, spanning some 95 years and several generationsapparently on both sides. The story begins Margo was just sixteen when Amedeo Esposito arrives at the isolated Sicilian island of Castellamare to serve as the first doctor they fell in the islandlove. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's historymother as 'an older man'. He is immediately captivated by this strange little community; Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a heady mix of traditionglittering career. In the event, superstition they eloped and ritualRichard took her away from the Isle of Wight. An island so small is naturally Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a hotbed of gossip, with 'overheard' confessions being dutifully relayed across the fivewell-mile island within minutes of being heardrespected journalist. The benevolent Saint Agata watches over her people couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and bestows holidays were spent at Sandcove, the odd miracle upon family home on the fortunateIsle of Wight. This is Even then the place that Amedeo chooses doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to make his home and together with his resourceful wife Pina, they slowly restore the leave him in charge'cursed' House at the Edge of Night to its former glory as a bar and meeting place for the locals.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091959322</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chuck Palahniuk1914585402|title=Make Something UpDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories General Fiction|summary=What are we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on the front cover – I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There'stories you cans Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There't unread''? Does that not apply to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation s Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of the author, years back and the baggage his name brings to the page. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink backaffecting it was. But It was a lot of the contents don't quite go that far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfectgripping, simple, care- (''The Price is Right''-emotionally wounding read, and Kardashian-) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes the plot summaries of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking rereading my review of which, don't turn to the three-page entrant here as a taster, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story). A call centre worker can't convince people he's my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back to himit. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violations, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festival, in a very clever couple of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nick BantockLucy Ashe|title=Griffin Clara and Sabine 25th Anniversary Edition: An Extraordinary CorrespondenceOlivia|rating=4|genre=General Fiction |summary=Oh Griffin and Sabine, where have you been all my life? I've loved epistolary novels and ones that take the narrative two-and-fro of letters and bring us closer to the sender than any omniscient narrator can hope to do. I've still got the childlike love of picking at an envelope stuck in a book to pull out a sheet of something else – not only is there the wonder at the handmade construction of something so bluntly and undeservedly called 'a book', but there is the frisson of being the first person to see this artefact ever. So how have I never seen this book before, and its cycle of sequels, concerning the correspondence between two completely different people?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>145215595X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lisa Jewell|title=The Girls|rating=45

|summary=When Clare takes her two tween daughters Pip The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Grace to live in leafy Virginia TerraceOlivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, she is hoping for anonymityon the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's a blank slate and lot that builds a fresh startdancer. Not so long agoSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, her story was in all of attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the newspapers when her paranoid-schizophrenic husband burned down the family homeclassroom. Her new house seems A stage presence, a world away from her previous lifecharm, a ''joie de vivre''. The crescent has difference between a communal garden at its hearthard-worker, where friendly neighbours socialise and children can run freea star. But does this new freedom come with a price?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099599473</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell MardellHeather Fawcett|title=Cold CallingEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

|summary=Five years Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar onfaerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, Ray still canto write her life't get over s work, the loss very first encyclopaedia of his girlfriendfaeries. Five years Whilst she is a long, long time to pine brilliant at research and mourn but Ray just doesn't seem speaking to be able to get off the treadmill of it all. The only meaningful relationships he has are faeries, she is not so good with his therapist and best friend Dannypeople. And it's not as though his job provides much So when she finds herself far, far North in the way small village of escape - Ray works Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for an insurance company as a cold callerher book back on the right track. This is how Enter Wendell Bambleby, one dayher dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, he comes all charm and delight, much to speak to AnyaEmily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785891219</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenni Fagan1398515388|title=The Sunlight PilgrimsBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=Dylan walks away from First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this family's small London indie cinema , in 2020 to live on a Scottish caravan siteturn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. His new neighbours Constance The deaths were uncountable, and her transgender 12 year old Stella have troubles the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their own, owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the odd British winter isntsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't helping. As a dog person but the country faces true Arctic temperatures life goes on… or at least it tries convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa toopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023302</amazonuk>|amazonus=<amazonus>0434023302</amazonus>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tarjei Vesaas, Torbjorn Stoverud and Michael Barnes (translators)Christopher Bowden|title=The BirdsMr Magenta|rating=4.5

|summary=WeChristopher Bowden're somewhere in rural Scandinavia, on the shores s latest novel is a patient untangling of a large lake, but in a community relying on the farmland that is scattered in amongst the woods. Our chief concerns are brother and sister – Mattis and Hege. He, Mattis, is what the other villagers call 'simpleseemingly ordinary woman' – sure, he knows a few things about s life, and what makes carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a clever person safe harbour and what makes a well-turned phrase, and how little bit of indulgence to talk to girls a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and when to not stare at them, but he is definitely not quite as the others would wish. Those others include his sister, who is seeing her life waste away in listening it seems to his chatter, knitting jumpers him an obligation to make ends meet, and regretting in her own small way what has got her to middle-age in this situation. But from this galling introduction, you should take away the bigger picture – even if there is no way find it all out, the life in this countryside is brilliantly conveyed, full of sun as well as shade, of labour and of idleness, and wit and charm as much as hardship. I defy you to read this and think this corner of Scandinavia bleak.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0914671200</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Diney CosteloeJennifer Mason|title= The Girl With No NamePartitions of Unity|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction |summary= Thirteen year old Lisa escapes from Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and arrives unintentional detective in England in August 1939. She can't speak [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a word series of English and her only belongings are crammed into a small suitcasedisappearances. Among them is one precious photograph In ''Partitions of the family she has left behind in Germany. Lonely and homesickUnity'', not knowing if she will ever see sets her family again, Lisa is adopted by mind to solving a childless couple, and then bullied at school for being Germanmurder. But worse is to come when the Blitz blows her new home apart, and she wakes up in hospital with no memory of who she is, or where she came from. The authorities give her a new name and despatch her to a children's home. With the war in full swing, what will become of Lisa now?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784970050</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Phaedra PatrickWill Carver|title=The Curious Charms of Arthur PepperDaves Next Door|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=On the first anniversary of Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his wife Miriam's death, Arthur Pepper feels he might finally be up to the task of clearing out her wardrobe. He hasn't got far when he stumbles across vest on a gold charm bracelet he doesn't recogniseLondon tube line. If he hadn't been feeling so out of sorts because of the anniversary he would never have rung the phone number he found engraved on As their fates overlap, the golden elephant. That would have been a shamestory is told in backwards order, because then he would never have set out on his peculiar quest leading up to find out who his wife used to be before she met him. From York to London, Paris and beyond, Arthur pursues Miriam's past and learns things about his wife, his children and himself that he never imaginedthe fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848454368</amazonuk>1914585186}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonas Jonasson and Rachel Willson-Broyles (translator)Jennifer Mason|title=Hitman Anders and the Meaning of It AllPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=34

|summary=There's feeling on edge'A struggling poetry zine, and there's feeling on edge. Per is a hotel receptionist partly because his father mom-and grandfather didn't give him -pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a better destiny400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, and partly because he was working there when it was a shoddy knocking joint. Hewomen's feeling on edge because someone has decided to live theretrack coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in room sevenAlabama, and proudly announced that it'an enigmatic signature, K(s about the first place he's had as an adult to live in that isn't a prison – the man, Hitman Andersx), has killed three people in separate fits of rage. And now Per is feeling even more on edge because Johanna, a woman in a dog-collar has turned upcheap oil painting, tried to blag twenty kronor for a badly-worded prayer an erotic art dealer in PerGeorgia...'s favour (even though she's been sacked as  This is just a priest sample of the cast of characters and is settings in fact a rampant atheist)Preposterous. As you can see, and has now colluded to jointly with Per become Hitman Anders' criminal hit-job agentssome keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this... But could anything make a newly rich Per – and Johanna – feel more on edge, than Hitman Anders gaining a conscience…?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008152071</amazonuk>B09STS96HS