'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Kathleen Winter
|title=Annabel
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=The back cover blurb has praise for this debut novel from two of my favourite authors: [[:Category:Joseph O'Connor|Joseph O'Connor]] and [[:Category:A L Kennedy|A L Kennedy]] so things were definitely off to a good start. The front cover is rather unsettling (as it's meant to be) - some may say disturbing: it's of an adolescent, but neither male nor female but rather a fusion of the two sexes. And the question is right up there before I've even opened the book - how would such an individual (and family members and society as a whole) deal and interact with such a person. It's not an easy question to answer, if I'm honest.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091271</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Dhillon
daughter Sophia 'garbage', an acquaintance of hers burst into tears. The thought of praising one of the girls for getting a B, as many American parents do, would no doubt have a similar affect on Chua. Mother – or monster?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408812673</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Diana Wynne Jones
|title=Power of Three
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Gair's father is the chief of their mount. Gair's mother is famous for being incredibly wise. His brother and sister, Ceri and Ayna, both have special gifts, and so it is just Gair who is left feeling ordinary and out of place. However, when a powerful curse begins to affect the livelihoods not just of his people but also their enemies, the Dorig, and the Giants, it is up to Gair to find a way for them all to survive...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007113706</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Manuel Rivas
|title=Books Burn Badly
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I normally start with a brief summary of the novel I’m reviewing, but Rivas’ sprawling epic is close to impossible to do anything ‘brief’ with. While it starts in 1881, it’s the book burning witnessed by Hercules the boxer during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 which gives this novel its title and it floats through several other eras, eventually finishing more than a century after it started. Along the way, we meet a young washerwoman who sees souls in the river, Olinda the matchgirl, Gabriel the stammerer, and the Judge of Oklahoma, star of a series of Western novels Gabriel’s father reads.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520338</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mark Robson
|title=The Devil's Triangle
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=A rebellious boat journey into the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, prompted by Sam's annoyance at his father's obsession with the area's notoriety, turns out to be very ill-advised as Sam and his friend, Callum, find themselves lost and stranded on an island that is terrifyingly different from anything they have witnessed before. Meanwhile, Sam's twin sister Niamh is caught up in the search for the boys, co-ordinated by their father, Matthew, who is desperate to rescue Sam and Callum from the same mysterious phenomenon that took his wife nine years ago. As the search for the boys threatens to disintegrate under allegations that Matthew may be responsible for their disappearance, Niamh goes on the run, desperate to keep searching for her brother, but with only their rather ambiguous twin bond to guide her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389783</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Aimee Bender
|title=The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The title of this novel first caught my eye. How can food feel emotions?
Actually, it is Rose who discovers that when she is eating she can taste the feelings of the person who cooked or prepared the food. I was a bit worried that this initial gimmick of the book from which the title is taken would become annoying, but really this is another very well-written and readable novel about growing up in a dysfunctional family. Rose is about to turn 9 at the beginning, and comes home to find her mother making her birthday cake. She can't resist tasting the cake, and at first it is delicious: 'Warm citrus-baked batter lightness enfolded by cool deep dark swirled sugar'. But then she has 'the sensation of shrinking, of upset, tasting a distance I somehow knew was connected to my mother'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009953827X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dudley Green
|title=Patrick Bronte: Father of Genius
|rating=4.5
|genre=History
|summary=There have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë and her siblings, but very little about their father. It is tempting to speculate whether he would be quite so deserving of one if he had not been the father of such a famous family. Yet Dudley Green, a retired Classics teacher, has demonstrated here that he did lead an interesting life himself. Born in rural Ireland in 1777, he spent his early years there before arriving in England in 1802 and settled in Yorkshire seven years later, where he remained the rest of his days.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454455</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Bill Knox
|title=Stormtide
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Webb Carrick is a Chief Officer in the Scottish Fisheries Protection Service and he's out in the North Atlantic where he strays into the middle of a feud between shark hunters and local fishermen. It's a little time since it happened but they're still angry about the death of a young woman. The consensus of opinion is that she discovered she was pregnant and committed suicide from the pier. One of the shark hunters is held to be responsible. It all threatens to come to a head when Carrick boards a fishing boat and finds her skipper dead on the deck.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014574</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robin Cook
|title=Cure
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=New York City Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery is returning to work after her maternity leave. It's been longer than usual because her son had a potentially fatal neuroblastoma but this is now in complete remission, but leaving him and going back to work is not going to be easy. It's not going to be easy for whoever is looking after JJ either. Laurie is just a little bit neurotic about leaving him. She's lost a bit of confidence with regard to the job too so it's perhaps fortunate that her first case is what looks like an open and shut case of a natural death. Laurie's not so certain though – although quite a few people would like her to make up her mind that no further investigation is needed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230750648</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Edward Hogan
|title=The Hunger Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=We're plunged into a crisis straight away. Some of the animals from the wildlife park have escaped and are now running amok. They are Maggie's responsibility and she has to try to round them up without danger to either human or themselves. It's a tough, physical duty so it's a good job she can rely on her neighbour Louisa as an extra pair of hands. Christopher is unreliable to say the least, he's never there when you need him. But is Louisa any better?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847371248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Guillaume Musso
|title=Where Would I Be Without You?
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I love the cover, which I think angles this book firmly towards women. With that old Beach Boys hit from the Sixties as the title, it encapsulates everything you need to know when choosing this book. It's not really crime fiction, in that it lacks a whodunnit aspect in favour of following the protagonists, a French cop and a Scottish master criminal, through a romantic entanglement and into the jaws of death. The interest is in which of the two men will gain command of the other – and who is really driving the action – when both their attentions are focused on the same girl.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040346</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Scarry
|title=Best Bedtime Stories Ever
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Richard Scarry's style is instantly recognisable. I grew up reading his books so this collection is a trip down memory lane! Here there are six stories, about Huckle the cat, Lowly the worm, Mr Raccoon and Mr Frumble the pig, plus a counting section at the back. The stories are a mix of the usual text plus picture format as well as those full page spreads that Scarry is known for where he labels different parts of the picture and there are hundreds of little details to spot.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007413564</amazonuk>
}}