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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe GoresOnyi Nwabineli|title=Spade and ArcherAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravelyAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to set up his oneher step-man detective agency. Itmother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and all that that entails, basically, monetary gain. Many localsNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, of course, choose suing her step-mother to disobey take down the lawcontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, stick two fingers upfailing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor. Straight awayMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, it's evident that Sam who is a man of few words. He has the mannerisms new focus of a cat - stealthy, quick on his feet. HeOphelia's also a compulsive chain-smoker, but then again, most people wereonline empire. In that eraCan she save her sister, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed.and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>0861546873
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkDavid Chadwick|title=The Best Headload of TimesNapalm
|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 not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
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{{Frontpage
|author=Tom Percival
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Most children enjoy Will's life is difficult, in a good traditional tale multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to doesn't have all enough money for even the right ingredients – a handsome prince most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a beautiful princess who fall cash-in love, get married -hand job on a building site and live happily ever afterhad an accident. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries Throw into that mix the lovely Princess Serafinafact that his mum and dad are separated, she becomes very sadand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. Nobody knows what And yet, he still has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find a cure for his wife's miserytiny amount of hope. He tries everything in his power is good at art, and eventually decides clings to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a broken heart. Lots of people come to the palace to try and help but in light at the end the solution is of a simple one provided by some very kind travellerslong, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonSylvie Cathrall|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and There are few greater joys than a book which lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'up to a compelling premise. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else in her family And this is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world', shutting out other people, and they live near a village. Merricat believes that 'The people one of the village have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Weston0008517061|title=Nelson to the RescueDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk floatFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, but he has now retiredsettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. He lives in the stable at There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the back future of the dairy along his life with a couple of tricky ratshis vet girlfriend, Rhodri Livia and Rhysher daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most lot of compromise: does Jake give up his time sleeping. Rhodri off-grid and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited relaxing life to Buckingham Palace move in with Livia or does Livia move to receive an MBE. Somehow our hero, Nelson, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview Little Sky despite her reservations about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly you see the danger in every situation, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companions. In whether or not this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit the future she wants for herself and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world. daughter? She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and with putting the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by future on the sense of an ever-present dangerback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1786482126|title=Burning OutThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Violet has it all – a wellBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to be. But the life she is leading is beginning site was going to take its toll. On hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the verge bones of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home townchild beneath a doorway. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – was no skull. Was this a young carefree girlritual killing or murder? Inevitably, full of lifeDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Only this isn It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't a ghost, but that she is pregnant with his child as a girl living result of the life Violet once lived – exactly the sameone night they spent together some three months ago. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen againprone to sudden bouts of sickness. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Downum0008551324|title=The Drowning CityDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=In a nutshell, youIt're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or mediocrehas any respect for the other. YouBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he've probably glanced at s prepared to tell the rating police where the body of a missing person is buried and guessed the latterwho was responsible for her death. I'm afraid This person, he promises, is someone big and it's not quite that simplewill be worth the police doing what he wants. This And what he wants is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingsto be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. I started off convinced that I was going Not much to love this book. ask, is it? The cover art is effortlessly cool, new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the premise intriguing, the characters laden other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with potential for greatness and the backdrop him is certainly evocativekept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson0008405026|title=The True DeceiverA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Most people of my age will have come across JanssonIt's work unwittinglysixteen 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, via her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the televised renditions positioning of the Moomin talesbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a few years ago to discover complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then of a collection of short stories which were published explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'A Winter Book's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Kehlmann 0571379877|title=Me and KaminskiThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=After reviewing several long booksEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, itobsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as theatre director. He'Kaminski s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and Me'uses Edward to run errands for him. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward Edward has been in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will relove with Stanza since their university days -ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivionhe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. So the second-rate writer is on Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a loser unless relationship had begun between them but he can dig up some juicy details 's not like most men: Edward is left to hook stumble upon the art world and general publictwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis BarfeJo Callaghan|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=EntertainmentCrime|summary=Light entertainment When a man is often looked down uponfound crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, as if itDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's a bit nafftheir first live case together, tepid and ignorablehaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. What's often forgotten But when there is that it's hugely populara second body found crucified a few days later, enjoyable Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and much of it is a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the complete story case and, potentially, out of British light entertainment.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall1399613073|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Marvin 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 be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is entering the Great Grislygust Growfree spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-Off, but just like him, his tomatoes arenfuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't growing very bigknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. He takes Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes a songthree friends. The results This time, it's their teenage children who are spectacular. Victory is surely within his graspinvolved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 0241636604|title=The Spook's StoriesTrading Game: WitchesA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary='Warning: Not If you were to be read after darkbring up an image of a city banker in your mind,you' are re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the only words on pin-stripe suit and his background is the back of ''The Spook's Stories''East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the inside flap, 'The Times' warns London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that this book is 'seriously scary'most rich people expect poor people to be stupid... The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely It was his ability at what was, thoughessentially, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-childrentrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger1035021803|title=Die For YouThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so the English country village where she thinksgrew up. But when She's back now because of a request for help from her husband fails to return from workbeloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, she realises something is wrongdead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Going Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to his office to try to find out what happens to himthe village: Arthur, she gets attacked and ends up in hospitalfeels, while his co-workers are killedlet her down badly. Things get worse for her Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine she has been dead for several years, and not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she married was using a false identityloved. Infuriated by After the betrayalsplit, and the realisation that she's been living worked in a lie for the past five yearscafe, Izzy takes matters into her own hands met and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to married James (on the rebound from the love of her for so long. Ignoring police warningslife, she delves deeper who was murdered) and deeper into a nasty underworld, Freya and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could James have plotted in one of her novelsnow divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Sunny Singh|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=Listen Taylor's father The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has just moved in with his girlfriend and they suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are adopted into the Zing familyrampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, with all of its delightful eccentricities a wartime photographer and unusual behaviour – Abhi, the Zings meet every Friday night hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on residents who are still alive in the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned hotel, he forms a bond with her home lifeSam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her daughterroom to try to capture what's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break uphappened through her photography. The stories of these people come together Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to create a tale of life, love, help her keep safe and ultimately, what being part of a family meansthey both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam1529153298|title=The Magdalena CurseList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=2.5|genre=HorrorGeneral Fiction|summary=Mark Hunter It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is the sort of father who would do anything for his sonPrime Minister. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident (A woman? I mean, his surviving son Adam has become his whole worldhonestly... And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been channelling the voices of the deaddisappearing. Plagued by horrific dreams Well, able to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodlesthey've been murdered, Hunter believes Adam but to be possessedhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until Miv's upset because she meets Adam, and witnesses 's overheard that her father wants to move the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jon Berkeley|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I shall start with a word of advicefamily 'Down South'. When you're being hounded by a circus masterfrom Yorkshire, and Down South is a magicianfrightening, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy bearforeign place, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogyprevent that. Still - never mind, She's not worried about the angeldangers or that her Mum's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board stopped talking - to helpanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend1398524085|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. ItCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's not quite how life was supposed to turn outfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform Her children, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believesons Niall, Paul and Ollie and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' showdaughter, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needsEtty. And yetare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, the worst is still to comenot. Think a crumbling economy Shortly afterwards, redundancyEtty and Greg, affairsfind the body of Greg's father, deathDuncan Ackerley, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and a query over the big C – itthen committed suicide when he couldn's going to be a tough year for t stand the Moles, and guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little that ol' Adrian else they can do except sit back but get on with their lives and watch his life spin out of control around himwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Kate1035906708|title=FallenDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Set in India, familiar territory for Theroux, ''A Dead Hand'' tells the story We tend to think of a travel writer suffering from writer's block (also known Maria Callas as 'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-patGreek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, the mysterious Mrs UngerNew York, relating a story of a mystery of a dead body in a hotel leads him December 1923 and only moved to release his creativity in very unexpected waysAthens when she was thirteen. The story is Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as manageable in the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charmsStates. But does When she have more to hide than was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.
}}
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, Lucas and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber his friends are all booked in for a day movie marathon at the seasidetheir local cinema, Mr Gum falls out with his best friend, causing carnivorous carnage all over a place that has the placenickname of 'The Black Hole'. Meat is getting thrown around like itAll big movie fans, they's going out re looking forward to lots of fashionexciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and we have they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to doubt whether Polly and her companions the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever utilise get back to the power of love cinema, and put things to rights. Especially as this book does not contain a magic unicorn called Elizabeth.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreJames Sherwood Metts|title=Fortune CookiePlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of Things have been a certain film then you'd be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got bit sticky for the idea fromEarthlings. TheyAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're actually chalk paid to do and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but the combination worksother tasks that took time to accomplish. They've just started at secondary school Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and Cupcake has rather a lot on her platestarting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy Life was pretty much shut down and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldn't cope , along with it, all the problems and he now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of moneymany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenifer RobertsMatthew Tree|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=Born in 1734 in LisbonTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving any of his artistic passions all but one of them), failed miserably and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she who had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age endless crises of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacyself confidence. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach So Tim applied himself to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Greathis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and wore her crown rather reluctantlyset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' 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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1529900360|title=The Wild ThingsGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Meet MaxIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. When I say he sometimes gets His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the wrong end help of the stick about adultsa psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, or dislikes his motherDelaware's new boyfriendpartner, or gets a bit feisty when he feels who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the need for revengeman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, I am certainly understating though. Two lovers were murdered in the factsswimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is a bit of a rascal married to say an extremely rich man and it's not the leastItalian. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to a strange land which of roisterous animals, and ends up installed as their king.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>them was the primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Strong1529395224|title=Christmas Chaos for Letting the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Trevor's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppies. They were fathered, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one of his Alsatians. Trevor would ideally like to keep them, at least until Christmas, but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled to half Cat Out of the money from the sale Bag: The Secret Life of the puppies, but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and it's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewa Vet|author=Sarah Beth Durst|title=IceSion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Cassie lives on an Arctic research station in AlaskaSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. She loves the ice His father was a GP and the wilderness of her remote home and sheRowlands didn'd definitely prefer t want to spend her time follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than -call put on mixing his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with her peers a family friend who was a vet and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbankswas convinced this was the job for him. However Before long, things arenhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she - as with so many students - been his dream since he was just a baby and she canchild. If anything, he't help feeling d wanted to be a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote and unloving and her grandmother left the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngprofessional footballer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry0861541774|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frog? You must have heard it. ItDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a classic. It's one that you really need short holiday in Singapore to tell in person, meet up with your fingers pulling your mouth wide openan old ally, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wideGuy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl -mouthed frog introduces himself to he would later maintain that he was facing a number of animals until he finally comes across man armed with a crocodile who eats wideknife -mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying ''Ooh, you don't see many of those round here, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justice, but it's very cheesy and funnykilled a Ghurka. Anyway Initially, this is he faced a book charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that joke.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary='''BANG'''suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. That's Now he could be facing the sound of copious urban myths being shot downdeath penalty. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK''any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Annie TaylorAlexander McCall Smith|title=VioletThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Violet The Perfect Passion Company is a very special hippodating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. She Katie is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and Mavis so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love her any , thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the lessIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. However Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, they are slightly worried that Violet but Ness has a full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very unusual habit of turning pink without warning helpful (and for no explicable reason.rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary Dixon0811771741|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrafts|summary=Arthur Transcombe is Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a middle-aged, grey-haired, self-effacing poetcollection of knits from toys to blankets. Unremarkable really Some will be quick knits - on others are of the outside'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. He hasThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, howeverfive to ten hours, managed ten to achieve some success with his poemstwenty hours and more than twenty hours. (Being a guest speaker at All the Cheltenham Literary Festival is no mean feat)projects are attractive, modern and useable. He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A J HealyDean Koontz|title=Tommy Storm and the Galactic KnightsThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=Meet Tommy StormBenny is having a terrifically bad day. Heloses 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 one of five teenagers snapped up from around possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the universe very last person to be deserve all this bad luck. He is a gang of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destructionnice person. A really nice person. Not just So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the planetdelivery to his house is a new friend, or the solar systema bad weather friend called Spike, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHINGwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Nobody seems Spike is going to know whattake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's going to cause this destructionenemies, if he, or whenBenny, but he and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the day. So it's Harper (a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony waitress slash Private Investigator whofinds herself roped into Benny's about to kill themwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham McCannAdam Stower|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyConfident Readers |summary=When I was in my early teensMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film aroundtwo. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable But he'Hel-lo!s a bad magician's cat, 'Hard cheese!'so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and best of allthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Jay Parker|title=Stop Me|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoyingregular back garden, but most into a world of us will have had to deal with themfrightening adventure and whiffs. Fortunately, we can hit the delete button and forget about This time round it drops them as quickly as they came. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish oninto a Viking land, no matter how bad my luck where a troll hunter is supposed to become if I don't. But I wonder how many of us would react if a spam E-Mail actually expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was a matter of life and death, rather than just claiming to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeanette Winterson|title=The Battle of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busyhonest, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because itbut he's his birthday turned up and his present is his hearthe's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking and a running and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging and a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''. ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>0008561249
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