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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]].

|authorisbn=Anne Boden1529428289|title=The Money RevolutionA Grave in the Woods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Martin Walker

|genre= Business and FinanceCrime|summary= Money is changing. It might not be in Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the ways you thinkgrave but when they found it, it came with three sets of bones. We’re not suddenly getting a 3p or £3 coin ( They dated back to World War II and have you ever even found a country that offers anything different it fell to Bruno, the 1Chief of Police for St Denis, 2, 5 model?) We’re getting a lot more digital with payments, which seems to suit most people apart from charity collectors and discover the homeless on identities of the streetbodies and establish whether or not a crime had been committed. As if this isn't enough to worry about, but although this book has the subtitle Dordogne River - normally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. It's not just the local autumn rains that includes have caused the word ‘’digital’’problem: various dams upstream on another river have had to release water and St Denis faces the possibility of a devastating flood.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=152919640X|title=The Suspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=The nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, Jessica Holby, it’s was murdered live on television and it seems that there's only one suspect. He's celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not really about this eitherserve anything containing miso to Jessica Holby. Instead it’s about the ‘’management’’ She's seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in case of your financesemergencies. Everything seemed as normal - as normal as they can be in a busy, live television studio - and how Brooks served a ragout to Holby. Her EpiPen was nowhere to take controlbe found and she was dead within minutes. It was soon clear that this was no accident.|isbn=1789660610

|isbn=147117316X0008385068|title=Guilty Not GuiltyThe Midnight Feast|author=Felix FrancisLucy Foley

|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Honourable William Herbert Millgate Gordon-Russell (Bill Russell to those who knew him well) was acting as a volunteer steward at Warwick Racecourse when he was told of the violent death of his much-loved wifeManor. It would get worse though: the successful insurance actuary would be accused of killing her 's their opening weekend and hounded splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by the mediaFrancesca Meadows. Then he would lose his job The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and his homefamous. His best friends would turn against himHer husband, Owen, as they came to believe him guilty was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the murdersite. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Yet there was no really compelling evidence that he was guiltyOld scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.

|isbnauthor=1908745819Jenny Valentine|title=Surfacing|author=Kathleen JamieUs in the Before and After

|genre=HistoryTeens|summary=Sometimes when people suggest Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that you read even, their friendship is a once in a certain book, they tell you ''this lifetime connection. They meet as children one has your name day on ita trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. Mostly we take But then chance brings them at their wordback together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, or notsomething terrible and tragic, but rarely do we ask them why and now they thought somust work through their grief, unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your nameand their friendship, rarely get it wrongtogether. In this case I was told why|isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Kit. The blurb speaks Like most of the author considering ''people in his world, it seems, he is an olderavid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, less tethered sense of herselfperhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way.'' Older. Less tethered. ThatUnfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's not seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a bad description new trio of where I amquestors is needed. Add Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to that my love the goading from the token bully of the natural his worldand stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that are about style not form, and substance most how could he possibly hope to succeed?|isbn=1839945184}}{{Frontpage|author=Saima Mir|title=Vengeance|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers|summary= I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this novel – an organised crime syndicate in the north of all, about connectionEngland run by a Muslim woman. Of course this book had my name The fact that it was the second in a series I hadn't read didn't stop me – I've jumped midway into a few series before (on page and screen) and it needn't be a hindrance if it's good enough. It was written for meAnd that wasn't a problem here. It would have found its way Vengeance swiftly brings you up to me eventually. speed, and I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quicklynever felt lost.|isbn=0861541561

{{Frontpage|author=Stuart Douglas|title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir. The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?|isbn=1803368209}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CYV674G2|title=Swanton Morley (John Tanner)|author=David Blake|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It seemed like an open-and-shut case. A man, covered in mud and blood - and carrying a knife, comes into the police station shouting that he hasn't killed the man. A body at the bottom of a freshly dug grave at Swanton Morley church - he's been stabbed to death. DCI John Tanner is just back from his honeymoon, which coincided with the birth of his daughter Samantha. You would think he'd be grateful for an easy answer but the words 'perverse' and 'John Tanner' were made for each other. He's sleep-deprived to the point of falling asleep at work but he's determined to keep going - probably because he can't get any sleep at home.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. }}{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-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 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, 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. Can 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 not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76}}{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he 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 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 one of them.|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 hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - 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't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least 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 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 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 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 father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|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-classfriends, 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.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is found 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'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, 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 case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|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. 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 the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-"wikitable" cellpaddingfive years later there will be 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 someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the 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 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 most rich people expect poor people to be 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 trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and 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 be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary="15" ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''

<!-- Adele Parks -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008284660.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008284660/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks]]=== [[image:4.5star.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 the years it would become a habit and then a need. By 2016 and with a wife and child of his own he was a functioning alcoholic - a fact known by everybody except Simon. HeI's concentrating on wanting another child to complete his family. His wife, Daisy, isn't worried. 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 ve heard it's at a fertility clinic said that he receives the news that will change all their lives: he's sterile. [[Lies Lies Lies by Adele Parks|Full Review]] <!-- Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:099334030X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/099334030X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Can You Draw the Dragosaur? by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crafts|Crafts]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] Youtechnology're going to get a hint of is what this bookhappens after you's about very quicklyre eighteen. When you see the title pageWell, you'll find out what the book's called and I must confess that it's there have been written by Peter Lynas. Then we move on to who has done the illustration - and there's more than a gapfew decades of technology in my lifetime. I''You'' are going to put your name there. Itve kept up reasonably well with what's ''your'' responsibility advantageous to provide the pictures for this book about one of the largest creatures ever to roam the earth. Thereme but I's some help available, but your name is on the title page - and you have work to do! [[Can You Draw the Dragosaur? by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts|Full Review]] <!-- Abercrombie -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0575095865.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0575095865/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: m left;"|===[[A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever. On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezalfeeling that it's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specialises in disappointments. Savine dan Glokta - socialite, 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 a rage that all the money in the world cannot controlgetting away from me. The age Some of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isernit is -ifrankly -Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another . . .[[A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie|Full Review]] <!-- Peter Lynas and Clare Lindley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993340334.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340334/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bunny by Peter Lynas 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 livedfrightening. Like many beaches it was full of sand and Bunny didn't like sandOf course, not least because it got between his toes and ''scratched''. What he really liked was juicy green grass. All the other rabbits lived on the top of the cliff, where Bunny I could see a lot of tasty-looking grass. But research the cliff was very high. [[Bunny by Peter Lynas possibilities and Clare Lindley|Full Review]] <!-- Thomas Knauer -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1635860334.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1635860334/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crafts|Crafts]] I've often wondered about the story that patchwork quilting began as a way for women (probabilities and myth would have it that it was always women) to make an extra blanket out of material which would otherwise go to waste. This undoubtedly end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they'did'' happen but when you think re talking about it, you need an awful lot of material to make a quilt and or the time could have been better spent if all that was required was beddinglatest conspiracy theorist. Like Thomas Knauer I've come to the conclusion that it began as an art needed people I knew I could trust and has largely continued down that same road with fluctuations who could deliver information in popularity over the yearsa way I could understand. [[Why We Quilt by Thomas Knauer|Full Review]]}}<!-- Nicci French -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sunny Singh| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Hotel Arcadia[[image:1471179230.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471179230/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Thrillers |summary===[[The Lying Room by Nicci French]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] When we meet Neve Connolly it's pretty obvious Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that she has something to hidesuddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She crept into Hiding from the house after midnightterrorists who are rampaging through, carefully putting her clothes into the washing machine and she can't wait to get husband Fletcher and children Mabel, Connor and Rory off killing everyone on their various ways the next morning when she gets a text telling her to come to the flat. He has a few hours to spare and can't wait to see her. Onlysite, when she gets to the flat she finds Saul Stevensonthere is Sam, her boss a wartime photographer and loverAbhi, dead on the floorhotel manager. The hammer that's been used on his brain is at his side. [[The Lying Room by Nicci French|Full Review]] <!-- Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993340342.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340342/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Madeleine Goes As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the Moon by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Madeleine is a very lucky girl: in her room she has all a girl could ask for residents who are still alive in the way of toyshotel, bookshe forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, games and dollies. She's a very lucky girl in another way too: she has imagination and everything in keeps on venturing out of her room can be used to take her on adventures. She spends all day there: Dad thinks that she likes try to be alone, but Madeleinecapture what's not alone on all happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the trips she takes. We'll find out that yesterday she was told phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to tidy help her room, but instead of doing that she went keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the moonterrorists. [[Madeleine Goes to the Moon by Peter Lynas and Charlie Roberts|Full Review]] <!-- Ann Patchett -->|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526614960.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526614960/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]086154742X}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|1529153298===[[The Dutch House by Ann Patchett]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linktitle=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 List 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 -->Suspicious Things|-| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Jennie Godfrey[[image:0993340350.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993340350/ref=nosim?tagrating=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|General Fiction===[[The Very Rude Toytoise by Peter Lynas and Andy S Gray]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] It was one of those blissful days in the forest's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. Mrs Rabbit was collecting carrots because she wanted to make a cake. (A woman? Mrs Blue Bird was gathering twigs to build a nestI mean, honestly. Mrs Spider was busily spinning a web to catch juicy flies. Mrs Squirrel was piling up acorns. ) And Mr Bear sat comfortably in a chairShe's not what's worrying Miv's family, fishing for lunchthough. 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:4starWomen have been disappearing.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! MumWell, Dad and the two children are absolutely meticulous though: they're going to get everything rightve been murdered, even down but to doing some mining to get the coal for the eyes, searching through the bits have 'n bobs jar for buttons for the snowmandisappeared's coat and picking out the perfect piece of headgear. Theredoesn's t sound quite a choice available, but the family decide on the bobble hat, presumably to keep the snowman warmso frightening. 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 familyMiv'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 upset because she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised s overheard that her own father wants to move the family's stories were equally fascinatingDown South'. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported When you're from the city during the war yearsYorkshire, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in Down South is a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupationfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Most people believed that For Miv, the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they move would soon be pushed backmean leaving her best friend, Sharon, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened and she'll do anything to escalate in the way prevent that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. ItShe's an atrocity on a vast scale, but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. [[War and Love: A familynot worried about the dangers or that her Mum's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin|Full Review]]stopped talking - to anyone.}}<!-- Sedgwick -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1398524085| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?[[image:1788542347.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788542347/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Nicci French| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"5|===[[Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick]]==genre=Crime [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=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 novelCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband'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, fiftieth birthday party but it's not a sickness you've heard ofnever turned up. Instead, they're environmentally ill – affected by household chemicals and fabrics Her children, pesticides, static electricitysons Niall, Paul and radiation – Ollie and their only ''cure'' is to stay in the town away from the real world. Though it's about a real placeher daughter, the people in it are fictionalEtty. 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 - worried 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; textstrangely -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 unravelhusband, fast. From that very momentAlec, her life is flooded with magic, loss, expectation and particularly, betrayalnot. As everything around her shifts, all that she knows, all that she thinks she knows Shortly afterwards, 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 Etty and a half centuries agoGreg, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered find the crown. Today, the House body of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. BeatriceGreg's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and father, Duncan Ackerley, in the time for her reign is imminentriver. [[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 an easy assumption for the police to Dr Sian Love (make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and the rest of the relatives) then committed suicide 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 shehe couldn'd even got settled in - and managed to break a bone in her foot in t stand the course of making the discoveryguilt. They'd been The Salter children are not convinced but there for some time, but who - exactly - were the man and the woman, wrapped in each other's arms? Having spent ten years little else they can do but get on the Murder Squad, ending up as a DCI she knows with their lives and wonder about what's going to happen next, but she's not prepared for quite how personal it's all going to getreally happened. [[Dead Flowers (Dr Sian Love) by Nicola Monaghan|Full Review]]}}<!-- Renee Watson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1035906708| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin[[image:1526613689.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526613689/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|General Fiction===[[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Amara's twelfth birthday is coming up and We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she wants nothing more for it than a trip was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York , in December 1923 and only moved to meet her father's side of the familyAthens when she was thirteen. But Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father hasn't spoken changed it to Amara's grandfather for many years - Amara doesnCallas't know why - and both her parents are resistant to make it more manageable in the ideaStates. But Amara is nothing if not persistent and a school family history project provides When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her with voice - she was raised under the perfect wedge. Eventually, her parents give in and off she goes... with Nazi occupation by a secret mission from her mother: to bring who mercilessly exploited her father and Grandpa Earl back together again. [[Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson|Full Review]] <!-- Graves -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:194927201X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/194927201X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lakes made no secret of Mars by Merritt Graves]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Aaron Sheridan doesn't want to live anymore. His entire family is dead by his own hand, killed in a shuttle crash. Unable to deal with the guilt, he signs up her preference for the Fleet expecting a fatal deployment to the Rim War, but instead ends up at their most prestigious command schoolher elder sister, Corinth StationJackie... [[Lakes of Mars by Merritt Graves|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}}