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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].

|author=Margaret AtwoodOnyi Nwabineli|title=The TestamentsAllow Me to Introduce Myself

|genre=Dystopian General Fiction|summary= Finally! Almost forty years Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence onsocial media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, we have a sequel failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. [[The HandmaidCan she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873}}{{Frontpage|author=David Chadwick|title=Headload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's Tale by Margaret Atwoodnot much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The HandmaidWrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's Tale]]life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. I don He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't want to tell you too much about have enough money for even the plot most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because ithe lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a novel tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is entirely plot drivenone of them. Suffice it |isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to say that hold seventy-five 'luxury'The Testamentsapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn' takes place fifteen years latert, fifteen years after Offred gets into that she is pregnant with his child as a vanresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not knowing what will happen nextleast because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4. 5|genre=Crime|summary=It's told by three narrators: Aunt Lydiaunusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is secretly writing kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her memoirs father are dead in Ardua Hall; Agnestheir bed. Initially, it looks like a girl brought up in Gilead with straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the expectation she will marry a commander; Daisy, a rebellious teenage girl in Canada who knows positioning of Gilead only from school lessons the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and its Pearl Girl missionaries who occasionally call into the store owned by her parentsboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=17847423250571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.

|author=Anne BodenJo Callaghan|title=The Money RevolutionLeave No Trace

|genre= Business and FinanceCrime|summary= Money When a man is changingfound crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It might not be in the ways you think's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. We’re not But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly getting struggling with a 3p or £3 coin (potential serial killer and have you ever even found a country very high profile case that offers anything different to the 1, 2, 5 model?) We’re getting draws a lot more digital with payments, which seems of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to suit most people apart from charity collectors and solve the homeless on case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the streetcase and, but although this book has the subtitle that includes the word ‘’digital’’potentially, it’s not really about this either. Instead it’s about the ‘’management’’ out of your finances, and how to take control.a career?|isbn=1789660610139851120X

|isbn=147117316X1399613073|title=Guilty Not GuiltyMoral Injuries|author=Felix FrancisChristie Watson

|summary=The Honourable William Herbert Millgate Gordon-Russell (Bill Russell Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to those who knew him well) was acting as be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a volunteer steward at Warwick Racecourse when he was told trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the violent death of his muchgroup and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-loved wifefuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. It would get worse though: We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the successful insurance actuary would consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be accused an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of killing her someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and hounded by his background is the mediaEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. Then There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he would lose his job and his homehas a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. His best friends would turn against him, as they came He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to believe him guilty of the murderbe stupid. Yet there It was no really compelling evidence that he his ability at what was guilty, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.

|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=19087458191529153298|title=SurfacingThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Kathleen JamieJennie Godfrey

|genre=HistoryGeneral Fiction|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain bookIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, they tell you honestly...) She's not what'this one has your name on it's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Mostly we take them at their word Well, or notthey've been murdered, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didnto have 'disappeared' doesn't like the booksound quite so frightening. That Miv's upset because she's a rare experience. People who are sensitive overheard that her father wants to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case I was told why. The blurb speaks of move the author considering family 'Down South'an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. ThatWhen you's not re from Yorkshire, Down South is a bad description of where I amfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Add to that my love of For Miv, the natural worldmove would mean leaving her best friend, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not formSharon, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way she'll do anything to me eventuallyprevent that. I am pleased She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to have it fall onto my path so quicklyanyone.

Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingsummary="15" '' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

<!-- Adele Parks -->|-| style="width: 10%Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008284660a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008284660/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbagThough she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks]]=== [[image:4witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Simon Barnes had his first taste of beer in 1976 when he was just six years old. Over When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the years it would become a habit town's leader, and then a needEllie takes her place beside her. By 2016 As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a wife and child of his own he was a functioning alcoholic - a fact known by everybody except Simonmaelstrom of chaos. He's concentrating on wanting Reeling from one family secret to another child , Ellie must decide who to complete his family. His wifetrust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, Daisyeverything they have sacrificed to survive, isn't worriedis under threat. They took a long time to conceive Millie, who's perfect in every way, so why tempt fate? Simon's not inclined to let matters rest though and it's at a fertility clinic that he receives the news that will change all their lives: he's sterile. [[Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks|Full Review]]|isbn=1803364548}}<!-- Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1529900360| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman[[image:099334030X.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/099334030X/ref4|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Can You Draw the Dragosaur? by Peter Lynas It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and Charlie Roberts]]=== [[image:4even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crafts|Crafts]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] You His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn're going to get t need the help of a psychologist only worked for a hint of what this book's about very quicklywhile. When you see the title pageFinally, it was Robin, you'll find out what the bookDelaware's called and that it's been written by Peter Lynaspartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. Then we move on to who has done She knew that the involvement was something that the illustration - and there's a gapman she loved needed. ''You'' are going to put your name thereThe next case did look simple, though. It's ''your'' responsibility to provide Two lovers were murdered in the pictures for this book about one of swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the largest creatures ever heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to roam an extremely rich man and it's not the earthItalian. There's some help available, but your name is on But which of them was the title page - and you have work to do! [[Can You Draw the Dragosaurprimary target? by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts|Full Review]]}}<!-- Abercrombie -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1529395224| styletitle="widthLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands[[image:0575095865.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co3.uk/dp/0575095865/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Animals and Wildlife|summary===[[A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie]]===Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] The chimneys of industry rise over Adua His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the world seethes with new opportunitiesstrain that being on-call put on his father's life. But old scores run deep as ever. On When he was seventeen he took the blood-soaked borders opportunity of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for help from the crownhim. But King Jezal's son Before long, the feckless Prince Orso, is he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a man who specialises in disappointmentschild. Savine dan Glokta - socialite If anything, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union - plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with he'd wanted to be a rage that all the money in the world cannot controlprofessional footballer. The age }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-PhailPheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, Rikke struggles has taken a short holiday in Singapore to control the blessingmeet up with an old ally, or the curseGuy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, manslaughter but with evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the guiding hand of man. Now he could be facing the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all. . .[[A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie|Full Review]]}}<!-- Peter Lynas and Clare Lindley -->{{Frontpage|-author=Alexander McCall Smith| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Perfect Passion Company[[image:0993340334.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340334/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] General Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bunny The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Peter Lynas Ness and Clare Lindley]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] You might have seen Bunny on the beach where he livedoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Like many beaches it was full of sand Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Bunny didn't like sandlook after the business, not least because it got between his toes and ''scratched''as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. What he really liked was juicy green grass. All the other rabbits lived on the top Katie is coming out of the cliffa break up with a bad boyfriend, where Bunny could see a lot of tasty-looking grass. But and so jumps at the cliff was very highchance to come home to Edinburgh. [[Bunny by Peter Lynas And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and Clare Lindley|Full Review]] <!the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-- Thomas Knauer -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…[[image:1635860334.jpg|linkisbn=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1635860334/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=[[Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer]]=== [[image:4starMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crafts|Crafts]] I Some will be quick knits - others are of the 've often wondered about long, cosy afternoons in front of the story that patchwork quilting began as a way for women (and myth would have it that it was always women) fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to make an extra blanket out of material which would otherwise go complete - less than five hours, five to wasteten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. This undoubtedly I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'didbut that'' happen but when you think about it, you need an awful lot of material to make a quilt and the time could have been better spent if all that was required was beddings me being picky. Like Thomas Knauer I've come to the conclusion that it began as an art and has largely continued down that same road with fluctuations in popularity over the years. [[Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]] <!-- Nicci French -->author=Dean Koontz|-title=The Bad Weather Friend| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|4.5[[image:1471179230.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471179230/ref=nosim?taggenre=thebookbag-21]] Paranormal| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; textBenny 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-align: left;"|===[[The Lying Room by Nicci French]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]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, [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] When we meet Neve Connolly it's pretty obvious that she has something Benny is the very last person to hidedeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. She crept into A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house after midnightis a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, carefully putting her clothes into the washing machine and she can't wait who has been sent to get husband Fletcher and children Mabel, Connor and Rory off on their various ways the next morning when she gets help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a text telling her to come to the flatgood person. He has a few hours Spike is going to spare take care of Benny, and canwill certainly take care of Benny't wait to see her. Onlys enemies, if he, when she gets to the flat she finds Saul StevensonBenny, her boss and lover, dead on the floor. The hammer thatHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's been used on his brain is at his sidewild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. [[The Lying Room by Nicci French|Full Review]]isbn=1662500491}}<!-- Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts -->{{Frontpage|-author=Adam Stower| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Murray and Bun[[image:0993340342.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340342/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Confident Readers | stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Madeleine Goes Murray is supposed to the Moon by Peter Lynas be a humble, tidy and Charlie Roberts]]=== [[image:4starfriendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Madeleine is But he's a very lucky girl: in her room she bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has all been turned into a girl could ask for in hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the way of toyscatflap they both use can chuck them out, booksnot into the regular back garden, games but into a world of frightening adventure and dollieswhiffs. She's This time round it drops them into a very lucky girl in another way too: she has imagination and everything in her room can Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be used to take her on adventures. She spends all day there: Dad thinks that she likes to be alone, but Madeleine's not alone on all the trips she takes. Wehonest, but he's turned up and he'll find out that yesterday she was told have to tidy her room, but instead of doing that she went to the moon. [[Madeleine Goes to the Moon by Peter Lynas and Charlie Robertsdo…|Full Review]] <!-- Ann Patchett -->isbn=0008561249|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526614960.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526614960/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] When we first meet Danny and his elder sister, Maeve Conroy, they're both living at The Dutch House with their parents and under the gaze of the portraits of the former owners whose oil paintings still hang on the walls. It's a strange family dynamic: Cyril Conroy is distant and the closest Danny seems to come to him is when he goes out with him on a Saturday collecting rents from properties the family owns. Elna Conroy is loving, but absent increasingly often until the point comes when the children are told that she will not be returning. In other circumstances this might have affected Maeve and Danny deeply, but their primary relationship is with each other. It's a bond which only death will break. [[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett|Full Review]] <!-- Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993340350.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340350/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] It was one of those blissful days in the forest. Mrs Rabbit was collecting carrots because she wanted to make a cake. Mrs Blue Bird was gathering twigs to build a nest. Mrs Spider was busily spinning a web to catch juicy flies. Mrs Squirrel was piling up acorns. And Mr Bear sat comfortably in a chair, fishing for lunch. What could be better? And then... [[The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray|Full Review]] <!-- Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993340318.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340318/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Recipe for Making a Snowman by Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Who knew it? You can even get a recipe book which tells you how to make a snowman - and there's no cooking involved! Mum, Dad and the two children are absolutely meticulous though: they're going to get everything right, even down to doing some mining to get the coal for the eyes, searching through the bits 'n bobs jar for buttons for the snowman's coat and picking out the perfect piece of headgear. There's quite a choice available, but the family decide on the bobble hat, presumably to keep the snowman warm. The moth-eaten pair of mittens simply won't do and a pair with purple and pink stripes are chosen. [[Recipe for Making a Snowman by Peter Lynas and Rosie Alabaster|Full Review]] <!-- Melanie Martin -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789016304.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016304/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale, but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. [[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin|Full Review]] <!-- Sedgwick -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788542347.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542347/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] This is a deep, interesting read unlike any book I've read in quite some time. The novel's story follows a young man named Ash in the process of joining a community of sick people in the curiously named town of Snowflake, Arizona. These people are sick, but it's not a sickness you've heard of. Instead, they're environmentally ill – affected by household chemicals and fabrics, pesticides, static electricity, and radiation – and their only ''cure'' is to stay in the town away from the real world. Though it's about a real place, the people in it are fictional. It really is a place apart, quite literally cut off from the outside world – people are even required to decontaminate themselves thoroughly before becoming fully integrated. [[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick|Full Review]] <!-- Moyer -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178747920X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178747920X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Robin Hood is gone – denouncing both his former life and his love Marian, and retreating to a monastery – although no-one knows quite what led him to abandon all that he had built. Marion's life since has been relatively quiet - but when her friends start dying, Marion is tasked by Father Tuck to break the curse surrounding them and to save their lives. Setting off with a soldier, a Fey Lord and a sullen Robin Hood, she becomes tangled in a maze of betrayals, complicated relationships, and a vicious struggle for the throne…[[Brightfall by Jaime Lee Moyer|Full Review]] <!-- Hewitt -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1509896465.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509896465/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] ''The Nightjar'' is an unusual and exciting story. Alice Wyndham lives a normal life in London until she finds a box on her doorstep one morning and her life begins to unravel, fast. From that very moment, her life is flooded with magic, loss, expectation and particularly, betrayal. As everything around her shifts, all that she knows, all that she thinks she knows, must change. Who can she trust? Who must she trust? Who will she trust? More importantly, can she even trust herself? [[The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt|Full Review]] <!-- McGee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[American Royals by Katharine McGee]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Two and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, the House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and the time for her reign is imminent. [[American Royals by Katharine McGee|Full Review]] <!-- Nicola Monaghan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857308025.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VRSX3SN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was more than a little bit of a surprise to Dr Sian Love (and the rest of the relatives) when her uncle Bobby left her his home - a former pub called The Loggerheads in the Narrow Marsh area of Nottingham. Then it was a shock when she found two bodies in the cellar before she'd even got settled in - and managed to break a bone in her foot in the course of making the discovery. They'd been there for some time, but who - exactly - were the man and the woman, wrapped in each other's arms? Having spent ten years on the Murder Squad, ending up as a DCI she knows what's going to happen next, but she's not prepared for quite how personal it's all going to get. [[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan|Full Review]] <!-- Renee Watson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526613689.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526613689/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Amara's twelfth birthday is coming up and she wants nothing more for it than a trip to New York to meet her father's side of the family. But her father hasn't spoken to Amara's grandfather for many years - Amara doesn't know why - and both her parents are resistant to the idea. But Amara is nothing if not persistent and a school family history project provides her with the perfect wedge. Eventually, her parents give in and off she goes... with a secret mission from her mother: to bring her father and Grandpa Earl back together again. [[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}}