'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Anita Shreve
|title=Rescue
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When we meet Peter Webster he's a rookie paramedic who takes an emergency call to help a drunk driver who's been badly injured in a car crash. It was touch and go as to whether or not Sheila Arsenault made it, but she did and afterwards Webster can't get her out of his thoughts. Every instinct tells him that he shouldn't get involved with her – that it'll mean trouble – but perhaps it was the long, shining, dark hair that tipped the balance and Webster is involved in an intense love affair. He's also involved in Sheila's life – for better or for worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408700735</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=The 'Green Living Guide' is a Magbook - so the format is like that of a magazine - and although it initially seems a little expensive for something that looks just like a magazine you quickly find, on opening, that it contains an enormous amount of interesting and useful information. Even already determined eco-warriors should find something of interest in this wide-ranging guide.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907232060</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Karen Armstrong
|title=In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis
|rating=4
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
|summary=Armstrong's background (there's a page right at the beginning) is certainly diverse and interesting so I was looking forward to reading what she had to say. And thankfully, I didn't have to rummage around looking for my own copy of the bible (I've now located it) as Armstrong obligingly provides Genesis (in beautiful, old-fashioned typeface) here. So roughly two thirds is given over to her investigative prose and the remaining third is the actual book of Genesis, for handy reference.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555476</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=M C Beaton
|title=The Travelling Matchmaker: Emily Goes to Exeter
|rating=3
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Emily Goes to Exeter is by way of 'Being the First Volume of the Travelling Matchmaker' as the subheading has it on the frontispiece: the beginning of a new series obviously.
If like me you have come to Beaton by way of Hamish Macbeth this might seem like something of a diversion. A little research shows you that in fact Marion Chesney, who writes under a number of pseudonyms (including Beaton) has a prolific work-rate. Having produced upwards of 130 books since starting writing full time in the 1980s, focussing on crime and historical romance, there can be few avenues down which she has yet to wander.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849014795</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Margaret Dickinson
|title=Forgive and Forget
|rating=3.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=Straight away I got the sense of this book because of its language and style. Lots of adjectives such as Polly has a ' ... fiery personality' and 'Cold fear ran through the girl's slim body.' This book is very easy to read, to get into as the tone is conversational. There are lines like 'The young girl's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in a horrified gasp. She clutched her throat as she uttered hoarsely, 'no, oh, no!' ' This book will appeal to those readers who like a rather uncomplicated yarn but also with a good dash of romance. True escapism. Personally, the title is too slushy for me but I appreciate that it fits in nicely with the genre and also with Dickinson's style. But, I have to say, there's an awful lot of 'hearts thumping' and 'eyes blazing' - too many for me, I'm afraid.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>033051623X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elizabeth Chandler
|title=Evercrossed (Kissed by an Angel)
|rating=3
|genre=Teens
|summary=''Evercrossed'' picks up where ''Kissed by an Angel'' left off. After her boyfriend Tristan was killed in a car accident, Ivy took up with Gregory, who turned out to be a serial murderer and all-round bad guy. She was saved from him by a combination of Tristan in angel form, her psychic best friend Beth and stalwart admirer Will. Now the three of them are working at a holiday inn for the summer, alongside Beth's cousin Kelsey and her friend Dhanya. Will is now Ivy's boyfriend but it's almost a year since Tristan died and Ivy is finding herself thinking about him more and more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389171</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Wildsmith
|title=Cat on the Mat and Friends
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=The first story in this book of four, 'Cat on the Mat', is a very simple tale in which each sentence is 'the (animal's name) sat on the mat', the first animal being the cat, with accompanying pictures showing the mat getting more and more crowded. Finally the cat hisses and spits and so we return to just the cat sitting alone on the mat!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192789813</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat and Euan Cameron
|title=The Life of Irene Nemirovsky
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Irene Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 to a wealthy Jewish family. Even as a child she was used to travel and regularly spent time in the South of France, but the family was forced to flee Russia when they were threatened by the revolution. They lived for a time in Finland and Stockholm, eventually settling in France. Nemirovsky's father was something of a rough diamond and her mother selfish and unfaithful, vain and difficult – her mother, particularly would form the basis for several characters in Nemirovsky's books.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523981</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ann Bonwill and Layn Marlow
|title=Bug and Bear
|rating=4
|genre=For Sharing
|summary=Bug really, really wants to play a game with Bear, but Bear is tired and she wants a nap. Bug follows Bear around everywhere, pestering and pleading until, finally, Bear loses her temper and tells Bug to go away and leave her alone. She finally settles down for her nap but then discovers that she can't sleep...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192729853</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ed Siegle
|title=Invisibles
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The closest Brighton usually gets to Brazil is in the pages of a dictionary, but in ''Invisibles'' the two are drawn together in the life of Joel Burns, a thirty-five year old dentist who lives in Brighton as does his mother, Jackie, and partner Debbie from whom he is separated. When Joel sees a news clip of a bus hijack in Rio de Janeiro, where Joel and Jackie lived until Joel was ten, he is convinced that one of the bystanders is his Brazilian father. What makes this more unusual is that Jackie has always told Joel that his father is dead, although Joel has never quite bought into this story which is at least part of the cause of his problems with Debbie. The solution? Head off to Rio and see if he can track down this person.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956559913</amazonuk>
}}
{{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
|title=The Cuckoo Parchment and the Dyke
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Tristan Jarry is the world's most famous artist but he's rather moved on from selling his work for millions and has just kidnapped Angelique Burr, the step-daughter of the President of the United States. She's not an innocent child but an abused and abusing woman, now a journalist and at times well able to hold her own with Jarry. He's got helpers though - and forward planning - and it's not long before Angelique finds herself involved in a trail of destruction and death as Jarry works towards his purpose. He intends to resurrect Dada, the iconic movement founded in 1916 in Zurich with the intention of protesting against the war. He'll tell Angelique so much – but not what he finally intends to do.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849235104</amazonuk>
}}
