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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Harrington1739526910|title=PenelopeWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Penelope is a socially awkward Harvard student, chronicling her first ''One year at the famed institution. She has after a thing for Hercule Poirot (don’t we all?)suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, is allergic he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to catsrecover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, and quite worryingly believes that ''Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights'' is one he dreams of the best films of all times. She is determined to make friends but finds the options quite limited. Her roommates are either too studious (Emma) or too dubious (Lan) and the boys downstairs are peculiar creatures, to say the leastreconnecting with everything he has lost. The dashingBut as those tentative plans falter, mysterious foreigner Gustav is worth he becomes swept up in a second glancelocal world of unlikely friendships, but never seems to be where she wants him to be, when she wants him to be there, which is annoyingmobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844089266</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael WhiteJenny Lecoat|title=The Kennedy ConspiracyBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Kennedy assassination has been a topic of interest and conspiracy ever since it happened. A little while ago, Stephen King put his own take Jean lives on that period Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of American history by using it as the basis for his novel ''11/22/63''occupation. Now Michael White has done During the samewar, taking Jean's father was arrested for listening to a similar tack to King in wondering what would happen if people could go back to that period of timebanned radio and soldiers took him away one night, but using the concept leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of rebirth instead of one of time travelhim.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099569272</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip S Newey|title=Maybe They'll Remember Me|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=When Gregory receives a letter As the British finally free the Channel islands from an ageing actress requesting his presencethe Nazis, he takes and the only sensible action: he hops on a plane to Switzerland to visit her home. Whilst therewar is finally over, she reveals a multi-layered story their hopes rise that helps they will finally learn what became of him understand more . But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about his parents' life, and by association, his life.the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>148006632X</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erlend LoeOnyi Nwabineli|title=DopplerAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Doppler. He describes himself late in this as Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia'a failed man s increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of my time. Or just a man of a failed time. Depending on how you look at it.Anuri' The typical Oslo residents childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, a diligent career man with a young familybasically, he falls off his mountain bike one day monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and has a kind of epiphanyto get her life back, deciding suing her step-mother to avoid everyone else and live alone in take down the forestcontent about her. The book starts when he gains a companion however – he Anuri is short of food battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and drink secretly abusing people online and kills an elkreceiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, only to find she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the animalnew focus of Ophelia's baby latching on to him online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and forming an unbreakable bond…her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781851050</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Wayne Macauley1529153298|title=The CookList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Frasier’s Law states 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 if her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you flick through 're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the TV channels long enoughmove would mean leaving her best friend, no matter what time of day Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or night you will eventually stumble across Kelsey Grammar enjoying a cappuccino in Café Nervosa in the greatest sitcom spin off of them allthat her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780876378</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=C J Sansom1035906708|title=DominionDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1952 and twelve years since Churchill became Minister We tend to think of War and Halifax took over from Chamberlain Maria Callas as Prime Minister. Churchill had thought that he might be able Greek, but she was born to run the war from that position butGreek parents in Manhattan, HalifaxNew York, the appeaser, held sway in December 1923 and Britain surrendered only moved to Germany in the aftermath of DunkirkAthens when she was thirteen. Russia fought on, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it was a war of attrition rather than one which looked to come 'Callas' to a clear conclusionmake it more manageable in the States. The British people are When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a violent, authoritarian rule mother who mercilessly exploited her and British Jews face a grim future. Winston Churchill - aged and possibly infirm - is the head made no secret of the Resistance organisationher preference for her elder sister, but he's forced to live his life in hiding and on the runJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744168</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=Trains and Lovers: The Heart's JourneyPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Do you have The Perfect Passion Company is a train journey dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to make? all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Will it Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take you several hours? a trip to Canada to get away for a while. If so, then I can't think Katie is coming out of a better place break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to sit and read Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's newalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, standalone noveland his house gets trashed. It's all about four people travelling on Oh, and someone has delivered a train you seereally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all about lovethis bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. I gorged on So fortunately for Benny it one eveningturns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, reading it all in one go without stoppingwho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and itHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's really rather lovely!wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846972450</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Monica McInerneyKatherine Howe|title=The House of MemoriesA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ella Fox's life would never have Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been described as easy. Her parents divorced when she was young sent to live with a family who run an inn, and not long after, her father was killed in being made to work there from a light aircraft crashyoung age. Her mother remarried and although Ella loved her new and funny stepbrother, Charlie, When she could not stem her feelings hears there is to be a hanging of jealousy when her half sister Jess is born not long after some pirates in the marriage. Although she lived halfway across the world from himtown, she always turned decides to her Uncle Lucas go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in her lowest moments. Ita young boy's hardly surprising thendeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that years later, after the tragic death of they don't find and kill her twenty month old son, Felixtoo, and then to escape them completely she ultimately runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her uncle in Londonrip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230763014</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A K Hill1471180158|title=A Mediocre ManMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Francis James HumbletonJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, the 'mediocre for a manwho' s a control freak with all the subtlety of the title is quiet and reserveda half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, hardworking and a man of such regular habits that 'has his neighbours can set their clocks by his departure to work each morningproblems'. His life was unassumingHe's asthmatic and the more you read, unnoticed by all but a very few and his death only came to light because his employers knew the more you'll suspect that something must be wrong when he didn't return s on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to work after take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the Christmas breaklocal A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Mr Humbleton had been murdered, at precisely (what else could it Missed shifts or the need to be?) 3am in what looked away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be a burglary gone controlled and put in the wrong. Only Mr Humbleton had nothing that It was worth stealing and it's down going to Detective Inspector Johnson and Detective Constable Smith come to investigate his life as well as his deatha head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B008YWQTME</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John GrishamB0CKD1L5JL|title=The RacketeerRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Malcolm Bannister Petr is forty-three years old and a lawyeran orphan. He's also in prison for a crime Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he didn't know he was committing is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in which he had no criminal intentthe forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Halfway through After Bear dies and a ten-year stretch he's the only black man brief sojourn in the prison serving time for a white collar crime: that's what happens when you're just a bit naive human company, and what looks like armed with only a genuine real estate deal turns out to be part of pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a massive money laundering operation. The prison he's in is relatively relaxed and he's journey through the librarianforest, but he's lost his jobbroadcasting the strange, his wife's divorced him wild and rarely heard voices he wonders if he'll ever see his young son again. Other than that, life's pretty much of a muchnessencounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444729748</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dawn FrenchSarah Marsh|title=Oh Dear SilviaA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Dawn French wrote After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her first novel [[A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French|A Tiny Bit Marvellous]] I hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was eager seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read it, looking forward to plenty of silly humour and those elusive-when-reading out loud laughsbut physically restrained from signing. I was disappointed unfortunatelyFrom here, and actually came away from she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the book feeling annoyed with the characters deaf and quite discouraged and depressed somehowusing a system called Visible Speech. SoAt the same time, I approached her new novel with a little trepidationBell is working on other inventions and ideas, unsure as to whether she deserved and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a second chancecomplicated tangle of espionage. I'm glad I gave her the benefit of the doubt!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718156064</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Salley VickersB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Cleaner of ChartresGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Agnes ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a mystery to the residents of Chartresvery bright student, even as she goes about filling any shortfall in labour here, doing any odd job therea bit too nerdy if truth be told, and cleaning for some of the suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in and around the fabulous cathedral the town case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is so proud of – 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and, even in the end, cleaning the cathedral itselfReggie asked if she would tutor him. There is She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an aged, dotty professor from Wales, two extremely curmudgeonly and bitter old gossips, and more than enough members of the order whose faith has lapsedextension. She seems perfectly willing went to do anything one asks, so much so that one might ask why, although nobody seems to do sohis house and he raped her. The answers might be in the In shock, she even-numbered chapters, which take us deeper into this character's extraordinary past, and allowed him to give her a linked series of quite tragic events…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670922129</amazonuk>lift home.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Meek1472263936|title=The Heart Broke InFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In ''The Heart Broke In''It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, James Meek manages had left the family home and refused to combine some big return, but Mary and serious issues into Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a compellingly readable and entertaining moral thrillerpity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. At Her trip to the centre of the book are two siblings who are very different. Ritchie is a former rock star, now working family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the world first of reality television producing a game show about teenage pop bands while his younger sister, Bec, is a devoted scientist working on a cure for malariaseveral annual visits. On She grew to love her grandmother and the one hand itfamily's a story of family dynamicsmaid, Dina, but it's also a thoughtful was wary - and well constructed tale frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of morality his close connections to the Junta and judgementexpected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. Setting science against religion it asks very modern day questions about who is the guardian of morality in today His prejudices included Helena's world red hair and who, if anyone, has the right to judge othersgreen eyes - inherited from her father' behaviours Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857862901</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sally TissingtonDean Koontz|title=Crocodile on the CarouselAfter Death|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Cath Furnish's life has been so marked out by suffering to such an extent that she believes that's what life's about. Despite being married to BillMichael Mace, Head of Security, raising her granddaughter Amanda and her daughter Marie being TV's 'Happy Lady'at a top secret biological research facility, Cath is attracted to the biblical book of Job, among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a cobio-sufferer in her eyeshazard accident. She's even bought Finding himself in a grotesque carousel for the back garden incorporating such jolly figures as makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a crocodilesense that something very, a bleeding horse very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the gates shrouded bodies of death because it reminds her of himhis dead friends and former colleagues. As much as Amanda loves her grandmotherhe recovers his senses, she doesnhe realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''t want to continue living like this and so sets herself a mission. Despite opposition she Michael isn't ''willMichael'' disprove her upbringing and find love and happiness, so help heranymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780950101</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J K RowlingB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Casual VacancyGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's hard to know how to describe my experience reading JK Rowling's new book, surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and her first departure from its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the world of Hogwarts. 'Liked it' doesn't seem appropriateforest provides heat and warmth, because I didn't really. I found it very bleakroofs on homes, depressing and disturbing to be honesteven gallows, if needed. I have a friend who The fear of being buried alive is reading it at an existential superstition in the moment village and she says she's really enjoying itthat is the reason Volushka, which just makes me shake my head becausea drunken, reallyself-indulgent, this isn't the sort lazy lout of book you enjoya man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140870420X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Syd MooreB0BYF82CXT|title=Witch HuntSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The history of witchcraft ''Bill and the complexities of current social politics do not appear to be the easiest ingredients to blend smoothly into Amanda are living in a novel. But Moore has achieved thissemi-detached house, skilfully weaving the threads stuck in a depressing rut of the middle ages with the modern dayboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. This achievement has also been mixed with some fascinating points about feminismDespite their different outlooks on life, witchcraft the couples befriend each other and Essex stereotypes, life appears to improve for both pairs. But all the while presenting them as the narrative of the protagonistis not what it seems, Sadieand their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562698</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John E FlanneryShalini Boland|title=God's GiftThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=An ex-soap actor, Tommy Armstrong now hosts Alice and Seth are a successful Saturday night chat showmatch made in heaven. It covers entertainment and current affairs. Recently divorced He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, single Tommy enjoys bedding his researchers funny; total and then firing themutter husband-material. It's something to do She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, after allsuccessful, no? And particularly enjoyable if they're willing to take it up confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the bumwedding is planned and set. Tommy likes bums. Irritatingly When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the ''Dirty Bitch''aisle by her father, aka Susanbeaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, TommyAlice's ex-wife, world implodes because she has forgotten all about bums and become a born-again Christian. Her new partner absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is a 21st century Mary Whitehouse, leading a campaign who is waiting for her to clean up the mediabecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B009AEUOFS</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rowan ColemanAmanda Craig|title=Dearest RoseThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Rose has finally escaped. For years she has put up with her bullying husband and lived with Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the sadness state-of her mother-the-nation novel. There's suicide after her father left when she was a young girl. Only once, when she was heavily pregnant with her daughter Maddie, did anyone show her something so utterly compelling about any warmth writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and kindness and treat her like a human being capture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in her own rightone particular moment. That person was Frasier McCleod, an art dealer who had been trying to trace RoseTo say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's father, John Jacobs,who happened to be a very exciting artistpractically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. Although she couldn't help him, Frasier sent She has such a postcard to thank her and it is gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the village pictured on that postcard that she makes lives of her characters in a way to nine years later when she can put up that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with her husband's cruelty no moreissues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099551276</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Capella152915118X|title=Love and Other Dangerous ChemicalsPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Just ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when you thought you’d seen (read?) everythingthe clan matriarch, comes this bookTilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the story of the chemistry of ChemistryPineapple Street property. Dr Steven J Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. Fisher is an Oxford scientist whose special area They won't need any of interest is the female orgasm. His latest work is attracting interest furniture from drug companies Pineapple Street, so Sasha and the public alike for it’s an elusive subject: Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a pill choice but that will do for women what Viagra did for men (wasn't the reality. Darley and I don’t mean help Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their cardiac problems)'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'. Currently }}{{Frontpage|author=Emily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=84 year old Edie has lived in the clinical trial stagesame small town for almost her whole life, the results are looking promising until there’s but now she is facing a new addition move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his group of guinea pigs in family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the form memory of Annieher childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a literature post-grad from secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the same universitytruth of what happened all that time ago. Her lover (also her PhD supervisor) is keen for her to take part After 'seeing' Lucy in the hope that Dr Fisher can fix high street, just as she was the last time she saw her problem (and it is ‘her’ problem, not theirs)she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. Simply put And yet as she remembers the past, Annie would rather read a good book than have a good… well, you can fill she is forgetting more and more in your own rhyme hereher day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857890255</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucy Dawson0008506337|title=Little SisterThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Kate Palmer’s life has been blighted with tragedyThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Her sister Emily died at the age of thirteen Margo was just sixteen when they fell in a freak accidentlove. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could not cope with the grief and subsequently divorced leading achieve - going to her mother living in America Oxford and her father suffering having a breakdownglittering career. Years later In the event, she is married to Rob they eloped and struggling to cope with being a new mother to two month old Mathias. Kate’s always been the sensible one whereas Richard took her younger sister, Anya, has always had a tendency to run away from her troubles the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and has never managed went on to settle downbecome a well-respected journalist. Therefore The couple had three children: Rachel, it should come as no surprise to Kate that Anya has taken off once again Imogen and has gone diving Sasha. Life was lived in MexicoLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. That Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would have been OK but Anya is now missingnever be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751542512</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Hoeg1914585402|title=The Elephant Keepers' ChildrenDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Danish writer Peter Høeg is best known for his third novel I reviewed David F Ross's book [[Miss SmillaThere's Feeling For Snow Only One Danny Garvey by Peter HoegDavid F Ross|Miss SmillaThere's Feeling For SnowOnly One Danny Garvey]], partly because it was made into one of the more beautiful movie adaptations of modern fiction. While his latest book, ''The Elephant Keepers' Children'' is unlikely to change that association, it is a magical, story told through the eyes couple of the charmingly precocious fourteen year old Peter, full of farcical events, zany chases years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and brilliantly named charactersaffecting it was. If you are looking for It was a grittygripping, realistic novelemotionally wounding read, this won't fit the bill, but for all its madcap events, Høeg continues his arch view of events and has surprising depth in the form rereading my review of philosophical consideration of religions and faithit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846555841</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda JenningsLucy Ashe|title=Sworn SecretClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A The year ago Anna Thorne was found dead after presumably falling from the roof of her school after drinking vodkais 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Twelve months laterBallerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, her parentstwins no less. Identical on the outside but not, Kate and Jonwe learn, and her sisteron the inside. And not on stage, Lizzieeither. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, are still trying attention to make sense of detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come to terms with what has happenedfrom the classroom. They each have their own way of dealing with their grief whichA stage presence, rather than unitinga charm, serves to isolate each of thema ''joie de vivre''. UltimatelyThe difference between a hard-worker, they are becoming three sad strangers living under the same roofand a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184901969X</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julie CorbinHeather Fawcett|title=Do Me No HarmEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dr Olivia Somers Emily Wilde is minding her own businessan expert academic scholar on faerie lore, trying to raise two kids alone in the wake of her divorceand she has travelled extensively, when everything goes wrong and her sonresearched meticulously, Robbie, ends up in hospital. It’s hard to write her life's work out what really happened, or even if Robbie is giving her the full story, but when there’s a further incident, this time involving a break in at their home, it becomes clear that these are no random attacks, and someone is out to get themvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. With the help of a friendly (and handsome) detective, Olivia tries to piece together the puzzle to work who Whilst she is behind the trouble, brilliant at research and it’s a race against time speaking to figure it out before the next unwelcome surprise from the culprit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340918969</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian McEwan|title=Sweet Tooth|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Ian McEwan's ''Sweet Tooth'' faeries, she is part spy novel but more a love story and a tale of deception and half truthsnot so good with people. It's also So when she finds herself far, more subtly, a book about far North in the power, role and importance small village of fiction. Set in the 1970sHrafvsnik, with frequent musical and political references to having somehow offended the UK at that timevillage matriarch, Serena Frome she is a beautifulnot sure what she has done, Cambridge-educated daughter of an Anglican bishop with a taste nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for unsuitable romancesher book back on the right track. From an early affair with a man who turns out to be homosexual Enter Wendell Bambleby, to an affair with an older lecturer she moves on to a surprise job at MI5 where she had a crush on one of her bossesdashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, again all charm and awkwarddelight, repressed and unattractive individual before encountering talented author Tom Haley as part of her job with whom she once again falls in lovemuch to Emily's frustration. Few of these men are But why is he here? What does he want? And what they seem, and neither for that matter exactly is Serena when she has to hide her job from Haley.going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224097377</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1398515388|title=The Uncommon Appeal of CloudsBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=SoFirst of all, it was the earthquake, here we are with Isabel Dalhousie deep in her ninth storythe ocean floor, which created the tsunami and I'm assuming that you know who she is by now because reallythis, in turn, if you don'tcaused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, then you'd better not start with book number nine and instead you should really go all the way back to loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the beginning list of priorities but - six months after the series and ''The Sunday Philosophy Clubtsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner' If, on s comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the other hand, you are well acquainted with Isabel then settle yourself down for another good read from the master of gentle, funny fictiondog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408704145</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Favel ParrettChristopher Bowden|title=Past the ShallowsMr Magenta|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Harry Curren lives with Miles (one Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of his brothers) a seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and their widowed father in a small Tasmanian fishing community. Their mother has been killed in little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had a car accident but much more interesting life goes on even if than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it's more damaged and disjointed than before. Miles still goes seems to him an obligation to find it all out on his father's fishing boat to ensure their income and Harry spends his time at school, outside amusing himself or being with his other brother, Joe, who, for some reason, lives with their grandfather.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848547501</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charity NormanJennifer Mason|title=After The FallPartitions of Unity|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It’s the middle of the night when five year old Finn falls from the balcony Here at his home Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a remote part series of New Zealanddisappearances. Leaving his twin brother and older sister in the care In ''Partitions of a neighbourUnity'', his mother Martha stays with him as she sets her mind to solving a helicopter races him to the nearest hospitalmurder.. But as he is rushed into surgery, she is taken to one side for questioning, with first nursing staff then the police and social workers raising concerns. Was Finn really sleep walking, something he is prone to do? But if so, how did he come to have suspicious bruises on one side of his body, not in keeping with how he landed? And if it wasn’t the accident Martha is saying it was, was his mother involved or is she covering for someone?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>174331096X</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dorothy KoomsonWill Carver|title=The Rose Petal BeachDaves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When he was twelve Geoff Dealer returned Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his Texas home and walked in vest on what looked like a frightening situationLondon tube line. A manAs their fates overlap, trousers round his ankles was pushing his mother the story is told in backwards order, leading up against a wall and she was squealing. Mindful of his father's advice about using a gun Geoff grabbed it from the gun cabinet and injured the man with his first shot. The second killed him. It was their neighbour and his father's best friend - who'd obviously been more than a friend to his mother. Lizzie Dealer took the blame - saying that she'd been attacked and had grabbed the gun from her son - but her husband was arrested and was killed in prison a couple of days laterfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848767080</amazonuk>1914585186}}