==General fiction==
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{{newreview
|author=Stella Gibbons
|title=Westwood
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I was instantly attracted to this novel as it's set largely in Hampstead and Highgate, which is territory I'm fortunate enough to be familiar with. I was also instantly attracted to Margaret – a young woman with the worries of the world on her shoulders. Continually concerned with politics and the impact of war on those far away as well as close by, Margaret has genuine warmth and concern for her fellow human beings, and this pulls the reader into her story straight away.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952872X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Esi Edugyan
|summary=Lydia, Robyn and Dean are three completely different people with only one thing in common. According to an online donor registry, they were all fathered by the same sperm donor. Some have known of their heritage for a while, others are just finding out, but none of them knew the other two existed. Until now. At the same time, their donor father's life is slipping away. His last wish is to know of the impact his 'noble' act may have had, the legacy it is leaving on the world. And in this information age it's not that hard to trace your roots, unless, that is, you're searching for people who don't want to be found.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846055741</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jenn Ashworth
|title=Cold Light
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''Cold Light'' is the story of three teenage girls who become involved in a predatory adult world. As the story opens we're looking back on what happened from a decade later and we know that one of the girls, Chloë, died in a Valentine's Day suicide pact. The town council has finally decided on a memorial to Chloë – it's to be a summerhouse at the side of the pond where she drowned, although it's difficult to understand quite why anyone would want to sit there. The ground-breaking ceremony is being televised when it becomes obvious that something has gone terribly wrong. But Lola, our narrator, knows that they've found a body. She also knows who it is.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444721445</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kristina McMorris
|title=Letters From Home
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Liz Stephens accompanies a couple of friends to a GI social occasion. She's content and already 'spoken for' so she wouldn't normally be here where essentially most people are foot-loose and fancy-free. But she's promised her good friend Betty to come along. As the evening progresses with lots of singing and dancing, things become both interesting and just a little dangerous. But for whom? Who are we talking about here? Liz bumps into one of the many GIs present. His name's Morgan. An instant spark is there - or so someone believes. But they both end the evening on a less-than-satisfactory note. Liz returns to her life with her soon-to-be-fiance and Morgan goes off to war.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562418</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Steve Hely
|title=How I Became a Famous Novelist
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With an uncompromising title like 'How I Became a Famous Novelist', this clearly isn't intended to be a subtle book. So I can hardly complain when a cynical look at the writing industry swings raw punches in every direction. It just isn't my sort of humour, but equally, if you rave about 'The Office' you will likely enjoy this book far more than I have done.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015724</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul Bress
|title=The Dysfunctional Family
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Societies are constantly changing and sociology students are presented with theories to help them to comprehend what's happening. Here we have a different approach: a family has been paid a small amount of money to write diaries which they would keep secret from other members of the family and which would be available for publication. This book is the result and we follow Phil and Sue Brown and their two sons, Jack and Theo though a traumatic period which lasts for just over two months. The entries in the diaries are made daily and we read what has happened to each member of the 'dysfunctional family'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0048ELN32</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anna Quindlen
|title=Every Last One
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mary Beth Latham is contemplating her average, ordinary life where every day is more of less the same. Would things be better if life were more exciting, varied, newsworthy? Is that a legitimate thing to hope for? They say to be careful what you wish for, and Mary Beth never comes right out and says this is what she wants, but there are hints to this effect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099537966</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Lawton
|title=A Lily of the Field
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens in the early 1930s in Vienna where we meet one of the main characters; ten year old Meret. She's gifted musically and in particular in playing the cello. Even at this tender age, people are talking about her starry future on the world stage. She is the apple of her father's eye and soon she's being given extra musical tuition by a kind but much older man. He's old enough to be her grandfather but nevertheless they strike up a rather unusual friendship with music being the common denominator. But some of their conversations are serious and quite grown-up for a young girl, not yet into puberty. The tutor, Viktor Rosen is Jewish and has already suffered at the hands of the Germans. Meret progresses at such a pace that before you know it, she's performing in public. Her life appears to be wonderful and full of future promise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1611856019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kim Newman
|title=Anno Dracula
|rating=3.5
|genre=Horror
|summary=The story begins in London. It is 1888 and Queen Victoria is on the throne. She has recently remarried, taking as her husband the infamous vampire Count Dracula. Dracula's influence is all around London as more and more of its citizens turn willingly to vampirism, whilst others resist its temptations. A distinct sense of social and political unrest is in the air as factions speak out against the race of vampires, somehow spurred on by the serial killer at large. Known at first as the Silver Knife, but later as Jack the Ripper, this killer targets young vampire women in Whitechapel, prostitutes who have recently turned to vampirism, known as new-borns.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857680838</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexander Baron
|title=There's No Home
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the year 1943 and Sicily has been invaded (along with other parts of Europe). The menfolk have gone (will they return?) and the women, children and old people left behind are a sorry sight. Impoverished, ragged and with barely enough food to eat. A British company of soldiers rolls into town ... and everything changes. The men are foot-sore, exhausted and dirty. They are also glassy-eyed with the horrors of war. And as if that were not enough, the Sicilian sun beats down on them mercilessly. But there's some good news - they're here to rest and recuperate for a while.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956308600</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Raj Kumar
|title=Sharaf
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With its subtitle "Forbidden love in the kingdom of faith and honour", I expected something entirely different from ''Sharaf'' to what it delivered. For the second time in as many weeks I had misjudged a book by, if not its cover exactly, certainly by its setting and its blurb.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802331</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mark Watson
|title=Eleven
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book's title has been well thought out. Xavier Ireland, the main character has the number ''Eleven'' if you take his initials as Roman numbers (XI) and there are eleven individuals who are involved in this chain reaction of events. When I read the blurb on the back cover, what caught my eye above all else was the line 'whether the choices we don't make affect us just as powerfully as those we do.' And of course, when we take no action about something in our lives, it's a form of action in effect.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184983136X</amazonuk>
}}
