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{{newreview
|author=James Aitcheson
|title=Sworn Sword
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical Fiction
|summary=The novel is set in the turbulent years following the Battle of Hastings. We follow the Normans as they set out to quell the restless and rebellious factions in the North of England. An ambush in Durham sees the Normans decimated and determined on revenge - this precipitates the events which follow.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093241</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Alan Hollinghurst
|summary=Spring is in the air at Mercy Falls, and for Sam Roth that means a chance to be reunited with his girlfriend Grace, who has spent the cold winter as a wolf in the forests near the town. Grace's transformations are tied to the temperature – and Sam knows only too well how hard it can be to hold on to your humanity, because he was once a wolf too, before he was cured.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407121111</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Tina Brown
|title=The Diana Chronicles
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=''The Diana Chronicles'' was first published in 2007, ten years after Diana's untimely death (forgive me if I proffer information that you already know, but prior to reading this book, I was one of the small group of people in this country happily oblivious to the Princess Diana industry). The book has been re-released in shocking pink, white and gold livery, as a 'commemorative edition' to coincide with The Royal Wedding. A fanciful Foreword now imagines Diana's life and reaction to Will and Kate's marriage, had she survived.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099568357</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Julian Barnes
|title=The Sense of an Ending
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='The Sense of an Ending' is almost more of a novella - it's a slim volume but exquisitely written, as you might expect from Julian Barnes. It starts off describing the relationships between four friends at school, narrated by one of the friends, Tony Webster, but quickly it becomes clear that this is written many years later. Barnes has long been a terrific observer of the English middle classes and his style invariably contains satire and dry humour. And this being Barnes, this school clique is intellectual in interest, as the narrator recalls English and History teachers and student philosophising.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224094157</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Adam Levin
|title=The Instructions
|rating=2.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Now, I know that size isn't everything, but the first thing that strikes you about 'The Instructions' is that it is a brick of a book. It comes in at a wrist-challenging 1030 pages that almost encourages me to invest in an e-reader. It's also hugely ambitious for a first time writer not least that the book's action takes place over just a few days and the narrator is a ten year old child. While it starts encouragingly, it too rapidly becomes repetitive and dull and I found it a slog to get through. There are some great passages but these get too easily lost in this huge tome.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857861360</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Shirin Ebadi
|title=The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Dr Ebadi is currently living in exile, fearing for her safety, should she return to Iran in the foreseeable future. Her Prologue describes a violent and bloody reaction to what was a peaceful situation involving wives, mothers and sisters. Boulders and large stones were thrown at elderly, defenseless women without a moment's hesitation. A taste of things to come?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0979845645</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Laura Kasischke
|title=The Raising
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Craig is returning to university, where he is widely viewed as being responsible for the death of his girlfriend Nicole, in a road accident. Suffering from post-traumatic stress and memory loss as a result of the accident, Craig is an obvious candidate to fall victim to the hauntings that start to occur around the campus. But it's not just Craig who is seeing inexplicable things happen at the university.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857891545</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Tracy Revels
|title=Shadowfall: A Novel of Sherlock Holmes
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)
|summary=You remember Sherlock Holmes, yes? Deerstalker, pipe, leetle grey cells… (Oh, sorry, that was Poirot, but same kind of deductive ability), naked winged-woman on, or at least floating above, the sofa in Baker Street… wait a minute? Seriously?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218258</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Anne Marsella
|title=The Baby of Belleville
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Jane de Rochefoucault, an expat living in Paris with her aristocratic husband, is just an ordinary mother fighting her way through the challenges of early parenthood from nursing to itsy-bitsy-spidering. However, Jane's life certainly isn't all about diaper-changing and Tupperware. Far from it. When three of her Muslim friends decide to organise a highly dangerous slave emancipation Jane is forced to rely on her family's history of law-breaking and dodgy contacts to make sure the plan succeeds. And on top of all her maternal and culinary responsibilities Jane becomes the interpreter/secretary/personal shopper for a celebrity intellectual employer which isn't all it's cracked up to be.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846272246</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Rosie O'Hara
|title=No More Bingo Dresses: Using NLP to cope with breast cancer and other people
|rating=2.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I'd love to meet Rosie O'Hara. She sounds like a full-on, earthy lady who has more than a few tales to tell about her life to date. Rosie is a professional neuro-linguistic programming trainer in the Highlands of Scotland, and has already published an NLP-based self-help book. At the beginning of 2009, a routine mammogram turned up 'a little breast cancer'. Rosie set out in her very direct and determined way to put the cancer in its rightful place as a challenge in her life rather than a defining disaster and this feisty diary is the result.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908218347</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Kevin J Anderson
|title=Terra Incognita: The Key to Creation
|rating=4
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=As the two opposing armies of Tierra and Uraba, both fighting for control of the holy city they each believe belongs to their religion, march towards a final battle, two Arkships – one Tierran, one Uraban – are having their own race to the legendary land of Terravitae.
 
Both armies and both Arkships have suffered much in their time. From run ins with powerful witches, mutinies and sabotage, the Arkships are battered and their crews weary. The armies have both suffered and delivered atrocities and hate in the decades-long war that has gone on between them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496618</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=A L Kennedy
|title=The Blue Book
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Despite not being 'quoits and gin slings and rubbers of bridge people' Elizabeth and Derek have embarked on a cruise. Derek is probably hoping to propose, but things do not go as planned. From the moment they encounter a stranger as they board the ship, the cruise proves to be revelationary for all concerned.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091409</amazonuk>
}}