'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Graham Davies
|title=The Presentation Coach: Bare Knuckle Brilliance For Every Presenter
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and Finance
|summary=With plaudits all over the covers like a rash; plaudits from well-known people such as Nick Robinson, Political Editor of the BBC, Daniel Finkelstein of the Times and Boris Johnston, current Mayor of London, this book's bar is set pretty high. Straight away and yes, I was asking the usual question - why another one of these seemingly endless 'how-to' manuals? My first impression is of no-nonsense, time is precious but also a little in-your-face, American style er, presentation of the book. But that's good. I like that. It's all the wishy-washy books in this genre and similar that I don't like.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085708044X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Las Vegas Showgirl Sienna Starr has got it made. Her career is set to flourish when she lands her dream role in Vegas' top show, she has great friends, a fabulous home, and a red hot sex life with her rich and gorgeous boyfriend Max. But as Sienna starts her new job at the Follies Casino under the eyes of Vegas' most powerful showgirl Brandy Alexander, she soon becomes surrounded by people who are not only envious of her, but are more ruthless and ambitious than she could ever be.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091930073</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Janet Evanovich
|title=Wicked Appetite
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Take one rather ditzy girl. Add a funny, extrovert friend, and another, more sensible one. Stir in two seriously attractive men, an unhinged pet or two, a slapstick plot and an unending series of cars. What have you got? A Janet Evanovich novel! This has been the formula for the winning 'Stephanie Plum' series for years, about a hopelessly incompetent bounty hunter who never quite manages to choose between the two hunks in her life, and it has given much pleasure and amusement. But even the best formulas get stale, so this year Ms Evanovich has branched out into something new. Well, almost.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755352769</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alan Hamilton
|title=Two Unknown
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The story is based 'between the wars', the 1920s to be exact. We're introduced to the main characters: a small family unit of mother, father and two children. On the surface this normal, middle-class set-up all appears fine - but underneath, things are far from fine. The father, Ian is actually the step-father to the twins. And through various detailed and sometimes unusually lengthy parent-child conversations and chats the reader is filled in with the background story. A bit staccato in places, I have to admit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907230130</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Mortimer
|title=Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal Conspiracies
|rating=4
|genre=History
|summary=Over the last few years Dr Mortimer has established himself as one of the foremost writers of British historical biography covering the 14th and early 15th centuries. However his previous books have been quite accessible to the general as well as the scholarly reader. This present volume is aimed more at the latter audience, assuming as it does a detailed knowledge of King Edward II and his successors. This is hinted at in his introduction, in which he points out that 'history is the most conservative of all professions, and a radical historian is generally branded a maverick by the mainstream.'
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065899</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Muchamore
|title=Shadow Wave (CHERUB)
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=A shadow wave is a tidal flow that happens after a tsunami, and it can be deadly because it travels in the opposite direction and is often unexpected. Robert Muchamore's latest book in the CHERUB series is named after this phenomenon, and tells what happens when a bunch of young CHERUB secret agents and their teachers get caught up in the chaos in Malaysia which follows the 2004 earthquake and tsunami. They rescue impoverished villagers and help them begin rebuilding their homes, only to see all their hard work destroyed by government officials who use the disaster as an excuse to take away the fishermen's land and use it to build hotels for rich foreigners. Muchamore pulls no punches as he shows how greed and corruption win out over people's right to keep to their traditional lifestyles.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095647X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Howard Jacobson
|title=The Finkler Question
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Julian Treslove is a middle aged former BBC radio producer now working as a professional look alike but quite who he looks like varies. Although never married, he has fathered two sons, neither of whom he sees regularly. Dismissed from the BBC for being too morbid on his late night Radio 3 programme, he is given to depressing levels of self-analysis in his small flat that's not quite in Hampstead. What Treslove lacks is a sense of belonging and this, he notes his Jewish friends have in spades, particularly his old school friend and rival, the best-selling philosopher and TV personality, Sam Finkler. Treslove, by contrast, always feels on the outside of life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408808870</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tony Ross
|title=The Three Sillies
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=If your children like silly things, they will definitely enjoy the story of The Three Sillies, written and illustrated by Tony Ross, who is perhaps best known for his wonderful [[I Want a Sister (Little Princess) by Tony Ross|Little Princess]] stories. The story of The Three Sillies is indeed very silly and you can tell that it is going to be just that by looking at the front cover and seeing three very strange people standing on their heads looking, unsurprisingly, very red faced.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709607</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Van Allsburg
|title=The Polar Express
|rating=5
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=It's Christmas Eve, and a young boy is waiting up to catch a glimpse of Santa. When a train pulls up instead, he soon finds himself on the Polar Express, chuffing away to the North Pole, with scores of other children. With hot chocolate in hand, and snowy landscapes whizzing past the windows, he's having a fabulous journey. At the North Pole, he meets the elves and Santa, and waits to see which child will be given the first gift of Christmas.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849390983</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ross Laidlaw
|title=Theoderic
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=This is a historical tale with a capital 'H'. A Glossary, Historical Note, Prologue plus a map entitled 'The Barbarian Kingdoms and the Roman Empire' are all for the reader's maximum interest and (hopefully) maximum enjoyment and all before settling down to the first chapter. This very much sets the tone of the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697111X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Freeman
|title=The Bone House
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with one of the central characters, Mark. And straight away we see that he has an eye for the girls - young girls, it would seem. He's a married man, so tongues start to wag. The book's front cover depicts a house going up in flames and on the very first page there's another mention of fire, Billy Joel's hit song 'We Didn't Start The Fire.' So, fire seems as if it's going to play an important part in this book. And it does. Big-time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755348788</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Shona Maclean
|title=A Game of Sorrows
|rating=4
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Two years have passed since [[The Redemption of Alexander Seaton by Shona Maclean|Alexander Seaton]] found his redemption. He is comfortably settled in his life at the University, about to be sent on the academic expedition of a lifetime, and wondering how best to ask the woman he loves to be his wife. Then a case of mistaken identity, which almost costs him his love and the respect of his friends leads Alexander to discover he has a cousin in town – the son of his late mother's brother, come from Ireland to seek his help.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849162441</amazonuk>
}}
