'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Elen Caldecott
|title=How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Elen Caldecott has done it again! Hard to believe she's managed another book as amusing and insightful as [[How Kirsty Jenkings Stole the Elephant by Elen Caldecott|How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant]], but here it is! Ali Ferguson has just moved into a new flat with his mum. He loves her very much, but he also misses his dad, who left them two years before. He desperately hopes his dad will come back to them one day from his travels in Asia: his mum is sure that will never happen. But Ali is a cheerful boy with a positive outlook on life, and he sees moving to their new home as an adventure. And it isn't long before he finds himself in a real-life mystery, every bit as engrossing and dangerous as the ones he loves to imagine.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880574X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=This literary novel is a slow burner. But the very first page gives an insight into the beautiful language used throughout such as 'Medical people rarely used adjectives. They don't need to.' And later on there's another lovely sentence loaded with meaning and originality - 'Blood is a terrible gossip, it tells everything, as any laboratory technician knows.' The opening chapter is located in a consulting room where a rather tense conversation is taking place. The answer is extremely important to one man.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694508</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anita Diamant
|title=Day After Night
|rating=5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=First of all, I really liked the unusual pitch for a Second World War novel, set in a detention camp in Palestine in October 1945, soon after the liberation of Europe. The war machine has ground to a halt, leaving millions of bewildered refugees to find their way out of chaos. With huge effort, hundreds of Jewish men and women reach their promised land, albeit as illegal immigrants. Though imprisoned again, Atlit camp is emotionally a halfway house between the past and the future for them. They are at least well-fed and humanely treated by their British captors. With no particular duties and in limbo for an indeterminate period, the women start to come to terms with how life will be for them in the future, safe at last from Nazi persecution, but having lost all their loved ones.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847398618</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Wendy Kremer
|title=No Matter What
|rating=3
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Wealthy American Jason Tyler needs a wife fast to stop his cousin Calvin from taking over the family oil business. After responding to his advert English girl Amy Courtland meets Jason in London to discuss his proposal. Amy is desperate for the money Jason is offering her to be his wife so she can pay off the debts her father has left behind. Her feet barely touch the ground in Los Angeles before Amy finds herself with a new surname and new life as Jason's fake wife. But unlike the rest of Jason and Amy's families, Calvin is not convinced by the marriage and is determined to prove it is a sham. When Jason decides to take Amy into the Venezuelan jungle with him on a business field trip Amy soon finds her life in danger on more than one occasion, leaving Jason to wonder if someone is behind these strange events.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090757</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maureen Gibbon
|title=Thief
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It’s summer, and school teacher Suzanne is renting a cabin by a lake. Spending her days reading and swimming, she also finds time to engage in some old fashioned letter writing with a stranger who responded to a personal ad she placed. He’s currently an inmate at the state penitentiary, but Suzanne’s not one to judge, and agrees to give their correspondence a shot. Then she finds out what he’s in for – and it’s not pretty. Breville is a convicted thief and rapist, and Suzanne herself was raped as a teenager, by a friend’s brother. That should be the end of it: any sensible person would cut off all communication and turn their back on the situation. But Suzanne is different and though she’s acknowledges that it might not be the healthiest of relationships, she maintains the back and forth with Breville.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848871821</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Guy Fraser
|title=Avenging the Dead
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1863 and the Superintendent covering the inner city area of Glasgow has his hands full. First off an alarming forgery scandal has just been discovered and no sooner has he drawn breath than one, two and counting suspicious deaths occur. Instinctively, I want to say that it's all good, clean fun. Because it is. The language Fraser uses is very much of that era which lends the book a particular old-fashioned and rather twee, charm. It's all over the book in spades. On almost every page. Let me give you just one endearing example of the flavour of the book 'None of Mrs Maitland's four regulars at her superior guest house for single gentlemen would even dream of taking another's seat ...'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090684</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Grindley
|title=Bitter Chocolate
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Pascal and Kojo are best friends in a place where friendship is scarce. The boys work on a cocoa plantation in West Africa, far from their families. It's brutal work overseen by brutal men and the boys labour from dawn 'til dusk, rewarded by beatings, a wooden pallet to sleep on, and a bowl of corn paste. They're always hungry and tired. Kojo tries to keep up his spirits, looking forward to the day he can take his wages home and make a difference to his family. But Pascal isn't so optimistic. He knows they'll never be paid, and he suspects they'll never be allowed to leave. He's probably right.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074759502X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julia Franck
|title=The Blind Side of the Heart
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=When I read ''the international bestseller'' on the front cover, as in this novel, my expectations are raised a notch or two. So, would this book meet those expectations? Franck gives the reader a short prologue and we see Helene, the main character of the novel, living in her middle-years. We know she has a husband who is carrying out some very important and crucial work for his country; his beloved Germany. The book is set in 1945 and Germany is in chaos. And Helen's young son has seen sights no 7 year old should witness. It's the stuff of nightmares. Their lives are also in chaos not to mention extreme danger and as a single parent who's at her wit's end she makes a monumental decision.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099524236</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Peter Ackroyd
|title=Venice: Pure City
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=Among Peter Ackroyd's recent works are 'biographies' of London and of the river Thames. Now he gives similar treatment to Venice, basically a history but enlivened with his elegant, literary style, and what a previous reviewer has called his love of 'psychogeographical investigation'.x
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099422565</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Camilla Reid and Michael Foreman
|title=The Littlest Dinosaur and the Naughty Rock
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=After the littlest dinosaur's [[The Littlest Dinosaur by Michael Foreman|earlier]] [[The Littlest Dinosaur's Big Adventure by Michael Foreman|adventures]], Camilla Reid takes hold of the writing reins, whilst Michael Foreman offers up his beautiful illustrations as always. This time, the dinosaur is in a bit of a bad mood, being rude to his dad, shouting at his siblings, and ruining his meal. His mum sends him to sit on the naughty rock, but he's in for quite a surprise when he gets there...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140880266X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul Bloom
|title=How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=How much would you pay for a jumper that used to belong to Brad Pitt? What about if I had it dry cleaned for you first? Chances are, if you were considering the first offer, you've just been put off somewhat. But why? The jumper hasn't changed, after all. Do you honestly and rationally, believe that dry cleaning would destroy some of Brad's 'essence', thus making the item less valuable?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847921434</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jodi Compton
|title=Hailey's War
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At the beginning of the book, Hailey Cain is a 23 year old cycle courier
living in San Francisco. The story then takes a step back in time and we
discover that she had to leave West Point Military Academy during her
final year, for reasons she prefers to keep to herself. I continued to read under the assumption that Hailey had done something which forced her to leave. Her
next move is to L.A, where she spent the latter part of her childhood.
During these years, her mother with whom she has, at best, a very strained relationship is no source of comfort and Hailey develops a very close attachment to her cousin CJ. Aspects of this relationship make for uncomfortable reading at times.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847373577</amazonuk>
}}
