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'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkTom Percival|title=The Best of TimesWrong Shoes|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Most children enjoy Will's life is difficult, in a good traditional tale multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to doesn't have all enough money for even the right ingredients – a handsome prince most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a beautiful princess who fall cash-in love, get married -hand job on a building site and live happily ever afterhad an accident. Or do they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries Throw into that mix the lovely Princess Serafinafact that his mum and dad are separated, she becomes very sadand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. Nobody knows what And yet, he still has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find a cure for his wife's miserytiny amount of hope. He tries everything in his power is good at art, and eventually decides clings to offer his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a broken heart. Lots of people come to the palace to try and help but in light at the end the solution is of a simple one provided by some very kind travellerslong, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonSylvie Cathrall|title=We Have Always Lived In The CastleA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and There are few greater joys than a book which lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'up to a compelling premise. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series of matter of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else in her family And this is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world', shutting out other people, and they live near a village. Merricat believes that 'The people one of the village have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Weston0008517061|title=Nelson to the RescueDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk floatFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, but he has now retiredsettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. He lives in the stable at There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the back future of the dairy along his life with a couple of tricky ratshis vet girlfriend, Rhodri Livia and Rhysher daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a pigeon who has no sense of direction, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most lot of compromise: does Jake give up his time sleeping. Rhodri off-grid and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited relaxing life to Buckingham Palace move in with Livia or does Livia move to receive an MBE. Somehow our hero, Nelson, finds himself travelling down to London, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview Little Sky despite her reservations about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly you see the danger in every situation, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companions. In whether or not this novella, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit the future she wants for herself and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world. daughter? She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and with putting the children, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by future on the sense of an ever-present dangerback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1786482126|title=Burning OutThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Violet has it all – a wellBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -paid job, and a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to be. But the life she is leading is beginning site was going to take its toll. On hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the verge bones of snapping, a drained and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home townchild beneath a doorway. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used to be ten years earlier – was no skull. Was this a young carefree girlritual killing or murder? Inevitably, full of lifeDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Only this isn It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't a ghost, but that she is pregnant with his child as a girl living result of the life Violet once lived – exactly the sameone night they spent together some three months ago. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen againprone to sudden bouts of sickness. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Downum0008551324|title=The Drowning CityDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=In a nutshell, youIt're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad s unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or mediocrehas any respect for the other. YouBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he've probably glanced at s prepared to tell the rating police where the body of a missing person is buried and guessed the latterwho was responsible for her death. I'm afraid This person, he promises, is someone big and it's not quite that simplewill be worth the police doing what he wants. This And what he wants is a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingsto be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. I started off convinced that I was going Not much to love this book. ask, is it? The cover art is effortlessly cool, new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the premise intriguing, the characters laden other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with potential for greatness and the backdrop him is certainly evocativekept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson0008405026|title=The True DeceiverA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Most people of my age will have come across JanssonIt's work unwittinglysixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, via her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the televised renditions positioning of the Moomin talesbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a few years ago to discover complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then of a collection of short stories which were published explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'A Winter Book's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Daniel Kehlmann 0571379877|title=Me and KaminskiThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=After reviewing several long booksEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, itobsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's been refreshing to read such a fluent yet pared down story as theatre director. He'Kaminski s also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and Me'uses Edward to run errands for him. In it, Sebastian Zollner, the obnoxious main character, shoves himself forward Edward has been in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will relove with Stanza since their university days -ignite his career as an art critic. Kaminski, the proposed subject, was a fashionable painter long ago, but now, ancient and chronically ill, has virtually slid into oblivionhe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. So the second-rate writer is on Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a loser unless relationship had begun between them but he can dig up some juicy details 's not like most men: Edward is left to hook stumble upon the art world and general publictwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis BarfeJo Callaghan|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=EntertainmentCrime|summary=Light entertainment When a man is often looked down uponfound crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, as if itDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's a bit nafftheir first live case together, tepid and ignorablehaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. What's often forgotten But when there is that it's hugely populara second body found crucified a few days later, enjoyable Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and much of it is a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the highest quality. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the complete story case and, potentially, out of British light entertainment.a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall1399613073|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Marvin Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is entering the Great Grislygust Growfree spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-Off, but just like him, his tomatoes arenfuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't growing very bigknow who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. He takes Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the only sensible course of action: he sings his tomatoes a songthree friends. The results This time, it's their teenage children who are spectacular. Victory is surely within his graspinvolved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 0241636604|title=The Spook's StoriesTrading Game: WitchesA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary='Warning: Not If you were to be read after darkbring up an image of a city banker in your mind,you' are re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the only words on pin-stripe suit and his background is the back of ''The Spook's Stories''East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the inside flap, 'The Times' warns London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that this book is 'seriously scary'most rich people expect poor people to be stupid... The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely It was his ability at what was, thoughessentially, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a witch and is forced to bear the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for the neighbor-childrentrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger1035021803|title=Die For YouThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so the English country village where she thinksgrew up. But when She's back now because of a request for help from her husband fails to return from workbeloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, she realises something is wrongdead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Going Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to his office to try to find out what happens to himthe village: Arthur, she gets attacked and ends up in hospitalfeels, while his co-workers are killedlet her down badly. Things get worse for her Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine she has been dead for several years, and not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she married was using a false identityloved. Infuriated by After the betrayalsplit, and the realisation that she's been living worked in a lie for the past five yearscafe, Izzy takes matters into her own hands met and sets out to find her husband and work out why he lied to married James (on the rebound from the love of her for so long. Ignoring police warningslife, she delves deeper who was murdered) and deeper into a nasty underworld, Freya and finds a tale which has its roots in Prague and rivals anything she could James have plotted in one of her novelsnow divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Sunny Singh|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=Listen Taylor's father The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has just moved in with his girlfriend and they suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are adopted into the Zing familyrampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, with all of its delightful eccentricities a wartime photographer and unusual behaviour – Abhi, the Zings meet every Friday night hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on residents who are still alive in the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned hotel, he forms a bond with her home lifeSam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her daughterroom to try to capture what's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break uphappened through her photography. The stories of these people come together Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to create a tale of life, love, help her keep safe and ultimately, what being part of a family meansthey both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=F G Cottam1529153298|title=The Magdalena CurseList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=2.5|genre=HorrorGeneral Fiction|summary=Mark Hunter It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is the sort of father who would do anything for his sonPrime Minister. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident (A woman? I mean, his surviving son Adam has become his whole worldhonestly.. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he.) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been channelling the voices of the deaddisappearing. Plagued by horrific dreams Well, able they've been murdered, but to speak Russian in have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the hours after he wakesfamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, drawing occult symbols when he doodlesDown South is a frightening, Hunter believes Adam to be possessedforeign place, best avoided. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, until she meets AdamSharon, and witnesses she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the horrors the poor boy endures for herselfdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Berkeley1398524085|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magician, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg that's contained in the brain of your teddy bear, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogy. Still - never mind, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to help.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Sue Townsend|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. ItCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's not quite how life was supposed to turn outfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform Her children, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believesons Niall, Paul and Ollie and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' showdaughter, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really the last thing he needsEtty. And yetare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, the worst is still to comenot. Think a crumbling economy Shortly afterwards, redundancyEtty and Greg, affairsfind the body of Greg's father, deathDuncan Ackerley, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and a query over the big C – itthen committed suicide when he couldn's going to be a tough year for t stand the Moles, and guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little that ol' Adrian else they can do except sit back but get on with their lives and watch his life spin out of control around himwonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Kate1035906708|title=FallenDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boyWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, who but she's immediately drawn was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved toAthens when she was thirteen. He seems determined Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to either ignore her or be outright rude 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her, until he saves voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her life, and the two made no secret of them end up drawn together. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight''her preference for her elder sister, but it certainly has striking similaritiesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gareth HindsChristopher Edge|title=King LearBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=34|genre=Graphic NovelsConfident Readers|summary=Hound me out of town Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a most appropriate mannermovie marathon at their local cinema, but I do not like King Leara place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. For meAll big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, even as a trained actorthe movie starts, the language they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is too dense very different, and rich, the set-they are swept up too archly unfeasible to create the great tragedy itinto an adventure they couldn's thought to bet even imagine. To my mind But as they lurch from one film genre to the acclaim and esteem in which it's held next, can they figure out what on earth is only mirrored by its own over-longgoing on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, over-blown blustering.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Toby LesterJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=In 2003 Things have been a map was bought for $10 million, the highest price ever paid publicly bit sticky for a historical document, by the Library of Congress, where it is now on permanent public displayEarthlings. No ordinary mapAI and automation have been proceeding apace, this is sometimes described as Americaoften replacing jobs they's birth certificatere paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. It is the sole survivor Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of a thousand copies printed early in the 16th centuryother, new ways to spend time, and along came an awful pandemic. Life was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. The sale pretty much shut down and story behind , along with it intrigued Toby Lester so much that he was inspired to discover more, and this book is all the resultmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur Matthew Tree|title=Is it Just Me or Has the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global MiseryWe'll Never Know|rating=34.5|genre=HumourLiterary Fiction|summary=''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a wet kitchen floor.'' Surely that is the wackiest, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch drunk and all it has done for the world. You won't get chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authors, instead with quite a potty mouth on them they will lambast the modern world, the entire banking system, of his artistic passions all those failed miserably and who failed had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to see it cominghis studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all to revert to set himself high-interest, high-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on the expenses train, and back up the rich listsbut achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847443656</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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose Women1529900360|title=Here Come the GirlsThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This is the second volume by the panelists from It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that nice ITV seriesAlex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on the cover, this book is an entertaining night with the girlsdifficult cases. It turns out His assertions that they're just like us. The faces are already familiar there were only open-and even if you don-shut cases which didn't know them yetneed the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, with nine contributorsit was Robin, youDelaware'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of s partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the celebrity facesman she loved needed. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a lonely woman who reads this book remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and feels as if she sat down with a group is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of friends for them was the evening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>primary target?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1529395224|title=Fortune CookieLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friendsSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. If the names remind you of His father was a certain film then youGP and Rowlands didn'd be spot t want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on as thathis father's where Fudge's father got life. When he was seventeen he took the idea from. They're actually chalk opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – but was convinced this was the combination worksjob for him. They've just started Before long, he was at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plateLiverpool University. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldnIt hadn't cope - as with the problems and so many students - been his dream since he now has another familywas a child. ItIf anything, he's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not d wanted to be a lot of moneyprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts0861541774|title=The Madness A Nye of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalPheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=Born in 1734 in LisbonDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, at that time the richest and most opulent city has taken a short holiday in EuropeSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Maria Guy Trueman. Maik was destined to become the first female monarch involved in Portuguese historya street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Married to her uncle Infante PedroInitially, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all he faced a charge of manslaughter but one of them), and became Queen in 1777evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to Now he could be born in during facing the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacydeath penalty. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, diplomatic incident and wore her crown rather reluctantlywouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HughesAlexander McCall Smith|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet MaxThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end of Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the stick about adultsbusiness, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriend, or gets as Ness is planning to take a bit feisty when he feels the need trip to Canada to get away for revenge, I am certainly understating the factsa while. He Katie is coming out of a bit of break up with a rascal bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to say 44 Scotland Street and the leastIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to Katie has no experience in running a strange land of roisterous animalsbusiness, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and ends up installed as their king.there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Strong0811771741|title=Christmas Chaos InstaKnits for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrafts|summary=TrevorMelissa Leapman's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppies''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. They were fathered Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one cosy afternoons in front of his Alsatiansthe fire' variety. Trevor would ideally like The projects are divided by the time they'll take to keep themcomplete - less than five hours, at least until Christmasfive to ten hours, but his parents have other ideas ten to twenty hours and put them up for salemore than twenty hours. Charlie Smugg declares that he's entitled to half of the money from All the sale of the puppiesprojects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but before they can be sold the three puppies go missing in the park and itthat's up to Trevor and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>me being picky.
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=Do you know the joke about the wideBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-mouthed frog? You must have heard sized object to his home, and it. 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 this bad luck. He is a classicnice person. A really nice person. It's one So fortunately for Benny it turns out that you really need the delivery to tell in personhis house is a new friend, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide opena bad weather friend called Spike, but who has been sent to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to a number take care of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogsBenny, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying will certainly take care of Benny''Oohs enemies, you don't see many of those round hereif he, do you?'' I'm hardly doing it justiceBenny, but itand Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's very cheesy and funny. Anyway, this is a book of that jokewild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel VreemanAdam Stower|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary='''BANG'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Annie Taylor|title=VioletMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Violet Murray is supposed to be a very special hippo. She humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is extremely small but that does not make her adoptive parents Albert able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and Mavis love her any , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the lesstwo. However But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they are slightly worried that Violet has both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a very unusual habit world of turning pink without warning frightening adventure and for no explicable reasonwhiffs. This time 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'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary DixonB0C47LV1PC|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Arthur Transcombe is Can you make a middle-aged''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on is the question should you make it? Or is the outside. He hasquestion if you did, however, managed to achieve some success with his poems. (Being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Literary Festival would it land? The catch is no mean feat). He is also a babe magnet!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm and that the Galactic Knights|rating=3answer for both could well be.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with rescuing EVERYTHING from destruction. Not just the planet, or the solar system, or even the galaxy, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems to know what's going to cause this destruction, or when, but he and his friends and their ship seem to be the only people proactively going about saving the day. So it's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about to kill themno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Jay Parker1529431735|title=Stop MeThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Spam E-Mails can be incredibly annoyingIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, but most of us will have had to deal with themwhich made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. Fortunately, we can hit He'd been exiled on the delete button and forget about them Costa del Sol as quickly as they camea wanted drug smuggler for a decade. I certainly prefer not to torture my friends by sending such rubbish on, no matter how bad my luck is supposed to become if I donThe return has come about because he't. But I wonder how many of us would react if s had a spam Eletter from his ex-Mail actually was a matter of life wife, saying that she's ill and death, rather than just claiming hasn't long to be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeanette Winterson|title=The Battle of the Sun|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=London 1601live. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill the streets. Jack is happy because it It's his birthday and his present hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Max, who's a ''licking underwear and sent to a running and watery grave in the boot of a leaping and a jumping and stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a tummy in the air and warning from a tail wagging and Spanish gang or a barking, racing, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>}}problem closer to home?