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Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library 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 & self-published 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 plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: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' reviews on the sitell want to read here.Dig in!
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==New There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews==}}'''For new reviews by genre [[:Category:New Reviews|click herereviews]]at TheBookbag.'''
'''For new features Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|click hereabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Rick Yancey|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror Beneath|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=In late 19th century America, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of his parents, who were also employed by the doctor. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service to the monstrumologist - a specialist in monsters - but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of a young girl and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Stella Whitelaw|title=Midsummer Madness|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summaryThe Best New Books=You'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenes. She's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre company. It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrison, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her PrologueRead [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonukbr>}}
{{newreview'''Read [[:Category:Features|author=P J Parrish|title=Dead of Winter|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandlatest features]]. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaid. A troubled, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>}}'''
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Pwyll rules a medievalAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-style fiefdom mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in a posther twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-climate change Walesmother to take down the content about her. Life Anuri is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and horsepower receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the main means new focus of transport. But in many ways itOphelia's much online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same - people still fight one another, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in their lives. ?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersDavid Chadwick|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)Headload of Napalm
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=In the old taleIt's September 1973 in Hicks, Branwen California. Hicks is the sister a Mojave desert town of Bendigeidfran - the giant King a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of BritainLA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. She marries the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her wellNot much happens in Hicks. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling A silver mine and war and killings ensue. In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers whodefence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, in the wake there's not much of the devastating foot note other than dive bars and mouth outbreakJoshua trees. Life is quiet, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheepuntil... She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War II, and an equally doomed love affair. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer BohnetTom Percival|title=Follow Your StarThe Wrong Shoes|rating=3.5|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers|summary=ItWill's three years since Nanette Weston left Monacolife is difficult, in a multitude of ways. SheHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver , he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and had lived doesn't have enough money for even the life most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the wealthy but college, was working a serious car accident cash-in-hand job on a building site and had ended all that. The an accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by Throw into that mix the end of her engagement but shefact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's found some contentment life seems bleak in being every direction. And yet, he still has a nanny to two young childrentiny amount of hope. When her friend and employer, VanessaHe is good at art, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in clings to the Amazon Nanette moments of joy when he is asked to take drawing, that feel like a light at the children back to Monaco where their father livesend of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=J R StephensonSylvie Cathrall|title=Crooked Justice|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Barry Johns. You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounce. Just don't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages Letter to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revenge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your NumberLuminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceFiction|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you There are not few greater joys than a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing which lives up to dispel any of those worriesa compelling premise. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like And this is one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to saythem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Tope0008517061|title=Fear Death in the Cotswoldsa Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into their homes and looks after their animals and the propertyhis rustic life at Little Sky. This time it's winter and she's spending There’s perhaps a month in little uncertainty about the Cotswold village future of Hampnett. It wouldn't be his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a job for all lot of us but Thea delights compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in getting to know the local people and the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come Livia or does Livia move to an end as Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the relationship future she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. wants for herself and her daughter? For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps moment they’re enjoying life in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive present and putting the body has disappeared and future on the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it allback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tad Tuleja1786482126|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=Take a look at Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the cover design bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this booka ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, and youbut Nelson doesn'd be mistaken for thinking this was t, that she is pregnant with his child as a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever result of the one night they crossed over from their original homesspent together some three months ago. But the title is definitely honestHer condition will be obvious before long, for this not least because Ruth is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff secondprone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Rice0008551324|title=Angel TimeThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=24.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Toby OIt'Dare s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion for music, history struggling in prison and playing his beloved lute. Hehe's also something prepared to tell the police where the body of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years agomissing 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. One day while on a 'job' And what he wants is visited by to be transferred to an Angel who offers him a chance at redemptionopen prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Toby agrees Not much to become the Angelask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's human instrument even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and help save lives rather than take them. He anyone who works with him is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century Englandkept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mortimer0008405026|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=The medieval, in fact timeIt's sixteen years since nine-year-honoured, view of King Henry V as old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one of England's greatest heroes summer night. She was propagated though not originated by Shakespearenever found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and again more recently to some extent by Olivier's portrayal her father are dead in filmtheir bed. At least one historian has called him 'Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the greatest man bodies that ever ruled Englandmakes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Gregory0571379877|title=Dancing With The DeadKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with the Dead''his upper-class friends, because IRobert and Stanza. Robert'm interested in family historys a theatre director. The blurb on the back of the book He's also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up)run errands for him. I felt Edward has been in love with all these links, the novel could not fail Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to interest me – Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but this was he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the casetwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Miss ReadJo Callaghan|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Set When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the rural village of Thrush Greencase alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, this book Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and 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 latest case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a series surrounding familiar characterscareer?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=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. There Olivia is the feisty Ella Bembridgeruthlessly ambitious, who which is finally having a bonus when you aim to admit that old age be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is creeping up as her eyesight failsa perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Friends such as Dimity Anjali is the free spirit of the group and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, but she refuses becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to accept any helpend in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Albert Piggott has decided Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's time 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 retire now that think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his wifebackground is the East End, Nellywhere he was familiar with violence, is a successful cafe owner poverty and can afford injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to take care the London School of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite he has a number facility with numbers which most of set-backsus can only envy. Will everything He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>trader.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt and Dave1035021803|title=YuckThe Antique Hunter's Robotic BottomGuide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=It's concerned me for a while that it's relatively easy twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to pick the English country village where she grew up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toys, mermaids and pets abound – but there. She's back now because of a much smaller choice request for boyshelp from her beloved aunt, Carole. ItFreya's former mentor and Carole's important too with early readers that the content close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is ''interesting'' dead and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to do at school and moves into being funbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. Matt After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and Dave married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have found the answer in Yucknow divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</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.''
{{newreview|author=John E Smelcer|title=The Great Death|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I'As Western Europeans settled Alaskave heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, they brought I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of feeling that it's all Alaska natives perished getting away from a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenza. No community was sparedme. In most cases, half Some of a village's population died within a weekit is - frankly - quite frightening. In some cases Of course, there were no survivors. It was I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end of an ancient up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great DeathI could understand.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maxine BarrySunny Singh|title=River DeepHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=Two young women both have The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a love of the Thamesterrorist group. Melisande Ray's beloved hotelHiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, the Ray of Sunshine there is on Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the river bankhotel manager. It's here that guests come who want As Abhi continues to try to be pampered and looked after in care remotely for the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks residents who are still alive in to the hotel it's not pampering , heforms 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 looking forhappened through her photography. He's buying a piece of land not far from Although they only ever talk over the Ray of Sunshine phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – they both wait to see if his new hotel means that they will be rescued before they are discovered by the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eyeterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie 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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Gores1398524085|title=Spade and ArcherHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sam Spade decides, bravely, to set up his one-man detective agency. ItCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entailsfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Many localsHer children, of coursesons Niall, choose to disobey the lawPaul and Ollie and her daughter, stick two fingers upEtty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, so to speak and as a result there's lots of bootleg liquor. Straight awayAlec, it's evident that Sam is a man of few wordsnot. He has Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the mannerisms body of a cat - stealthy, quick on his feet. HeGreg's also a compulsive chain-smokerfather, but then againDuncan Ackerley, most people werein the river. In that era, holding a cigarette It was an elegant, almost essential accessoryeasy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. How times have changedThe Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark1035906708|title=The Best of TimesDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall Greek parents in loveManhattan, get married New York, in December 1923 and live happily ever after. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess Serafina, only moved to Athens when she becomes very sadwas thirteen. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but poor Prince Frederico is desperate her father changed it to find a cure for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides to offer his kingdom Callas' to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken heart. Lots of people come to the palace to try and help but it more manageable in the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersStates.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Shirley Jackson|title=We Have Always Lived In The Castle|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and lives with When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her older sister Constance in voice - she was raised under the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world Nazi occupation by a series of matter mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include preference for her elder sister and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else in her family is deadJackie. 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 of the village have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon WestonChristopher Edge|title=Nelson to the RescueBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk float, but he has now retired. He lives Lucas and his friends are all booked in the stable for a movie marathon at the back of the dairy along with a couple of tricky rats, Rhodri and Rhystheir local cinema, a pigeon who place that has no sense the nickname of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleepingThe Black Hole'. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on MikeAll big movie fans, they's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited re looking forward to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our herolots of exciting films, Nelsonand many, finds himself travelling down to Londonmany snacks! However, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview 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 situationmovie starts, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companions. In they very quickly realise that something about this novella, we meet a young mother who new film format is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basisvery different, growing their own fruit and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disprovedthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with him, begins they lurch from one film genre to let things slip at home and with the childrennext, yet finds she can they figure out what on earth is still continuously haunted by going on? Will they ever get back to the sense of an ever-present danger.cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844717216</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.''
{{newreview|author=Katherine May|title=Burning Out|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Violet has it all – Rosevear, a well-paid jobremote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and a luxurious apartment all to herselfplundering the wrecks. Everything is catered for; Mira, like her meals, mother before her clothes, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and her health are all how she would like them to beany treasure that lies within. But when the life she is leading is beginning Council Watch lays a trap to take its tollend the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. On the verge of snappingDesperate to save him from death, Mira makes a drained bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back with only coordinates to guide her home town. There, she meets someone familiarsets 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, a ghost reminding as her journey takes her from the watched streets of how she used foreign islands to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full the heart of life. Only this isnthe smuggler't a ghosts territory, but a girl living Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself future of her home and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girlones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>0008664730
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda DownumJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Drowning CityPlanet Storyland|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=In Things have been a nutshellbit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, youoften replacing jobs they're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocre. You've probably glanced at the rating paid to do and guessed the latter. I'm afraid it's not quite other tasks that simpletook time to accomplish. This is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings. I started off convinced that I was going Just as they were beginning to get used to love all this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness technological change and the backdrop is certainly evocative.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tove Jansson|title=The True Deceiver|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Most people starting to think of my age will have come across Jansson's work unwittinglyother, via the televised renditions of the Moomin tales. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago new ways to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into Englishspend time, first of The Summer Book along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and then of a collection of short stories , along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which were published as 'A Winter Book'they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>1736128426
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel Kehlmann Matthew Tree|title=Me and KaminskiWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=After reviewing several long booksTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, it's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski drunk and Me'chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves So Tim applied himself forward in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long agostudies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world and general publicachievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{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.''
{{newreview|author=Louis Barfe|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of British Light Entertainment|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=Light entertainment witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is often looked down uponthe first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as if it's a bit naff, tepid steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and ignorablepotions. WhatWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's often forgotten is that itcousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's hugely popularleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, enjoyable right and much centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of it is a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the highest quality. Louis BarfeBriar witches's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainmentlegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>1803364548
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall1529900360|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Off, It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but just like himhe felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his tomatoes arenhelp on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't growing very big. He takes need the help of a psychologist only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes worked for a songwhile. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph Delaney |title=The Spook's Stories: Witches|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary='Warning: Not to be read after dark Finally, it was Robin,' are the only words on the back of ''The SpookDelaware's Stories''partner, and on who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us involvement was something that this book is 'seriously scary'the man she loved needed...   The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamelynext case did look simple, though, with . Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls remote property in love with a witch Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is forced married to bear the consequences when the witchan extremely rich man and it's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for not the neighbor-childrenItalian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger1529395224|title=Die For YouLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=CrimeAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus RaineSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Or so she thinks. But when her husband fails to return from work, she realises something is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to him, she gets attacked and ends up follow in hospital, while his co-workers are killed. Things get worse for her, howeverfootsteps, particularly when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals he considered the strain that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the man she married opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was using a false identityvet and was convinced this was the job for him. Infuriated by the betrayal Before long, and the realisation that shehe was at Liverpool University. It hadn's t - as with so many students - been living his dream since he was a lie for the past five yearschild. If anything, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied 'd wanted to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into be a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one of her novelsprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa McMann0861541774|title=WakeA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Janie is seventeen DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and studying hard for collegehe killed a Ghurka. She's also working lots Initially, he faced a charge of hours at a local nursing home manslaughter but evidence came to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going light that suggested that he might have planned to provide much in murder the man. Now he could be facing the way of resourcesdeath penalty. College is Janie's only chance at Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a life better than the one she's lived so far diplomatic incident and so you canwouldn't blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way..help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorPerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in with his girlfriend Edinburgh, run by Ness and they are adopted into operating as an alternative to all the Zing familyonline apps in providing a more personal, with all of its delightful eccentricities tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and unusual behaviour – look after the Zings meet every Friday night business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'a while. Marbie Zing Katie is terrified coming out of doing something wrong a break up with a bad boyfriend, and losing Nathaniel and Listenso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned with her home life And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and her daughter's year two teacher is coming the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to terms with a break upcharm. The stories of these people come together to create Katie has no experience in running a tale of lifebusiness, or in match-making, lovebut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and ultimatelythere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, what being part of William, to lend a family means.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>1846976596
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam0811771741|title=The Magdalena CurseInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=2.54|genre=HorrorCrafts|summary=Mark Hunter is the sort of father who would do anything Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for his son. After losing his wife and daughter in Baby'' gives us a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole worldcollection of knits from toys to blankets. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he's been channelling the voices cosy afternoons in front of the deadfire' variety. Plagued The projects are divided by horrific dreamsthe time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, able five to speak Russian in the ten hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam ten to be possessedtwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam All the projects are attractive, modern and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herselfuseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jon BerkeleyDean Koontz|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=I shall start with Benny is having a word of adviceterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. When you're being hounded by a circus masterOh, and someone has delivered a magicianreally weird, for the soul of a tiger thatdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's contained in a tiger's egg possible that's contained in whoever or whatever was inside is the brain of your teddy bearthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, and your best friend - a fallen angel - Benny is trying her best the very last person to make sure deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the other angels do not turn on you in delivery to his house is a new friend, a big way - then you're probably living the third book in bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a fantasy trilogygood person. Still - never mindSpike is going to take care of Benny, the angeland will certainly take care of Benny's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud citiesenemies, if he, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and backBenny, and friends new and old will be on board to helpHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue TownsendAdam Stower|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|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. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needs. And yet, the worst is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back Murray and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lauren Kate|title=FallenBun
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary=A 17 year old girl at Murray is supposed to be a new school meets a mysterious humble, tidy and impossibly good-looking boyfriendly cat, one who sheis able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's immediately drawn to. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to hera bad magician's cat, until he saves her lifeso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the two catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of them end up drawn togetherfrightening adventure and whiffs. This isn't Stephenie Meyertime round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.ll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>0008561249
}}

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