|summary=Penelope is a socially awkward Harvard student, chronicling her first year at the famed institution. She has a thing for Hercule Poirot (don’t we all?), is allergic to cats, and quite worryingly believes that ''Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights'' is one of the best films of all times. She is determined to make friends but finds the options quite limited. Her roommates are either too studious (Emma) or too dubious (Lan) and the boys downstairs are peculiar creatures, to say the least. The dashing, mysterious foreigner Gustav is worth a second glance, but never seems to be where she wants him to be, when she wants him to be there, which is annoying.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844089266</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael White
|title=The Kennedy Conspiracy
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Kennedy assassination has been a topic of interest and conspiracy ever since it happened. A little while ago, Stephen King put his own take on that period of American history by using it as the basis for his novel ''11/22/63''. Now Michael White has done the same, taking a similar tack to King in wondering what would happen if people could go back to that period of time, but using the concept of rebirth instead of one of time travel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099569272</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip S Newey
|title=Maybe They'll Remember Me
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Gregory receives a letter from an ageing actress requesting his presence, he takes the only sensible action: he hops on a plane to Switzerland to visit her home. Whilst there, she reveals a multi-layered story that helps him understand more about his parents' life, and by association, his life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>148006632X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Erlend Loe
|title=Doppler
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Meet Doppler. He describes himself late in this as 'a failed man of my time. Or just a man of a failed time. Depending on how you look at it.' The typical Oslo resident, a diligent career man with a young family, he falls off his mountain bike one day and has a kind of epiphany, deciding to avoid everyone else and live alone in the forest. The book starts when he gains a companion however – he is short of food and drink and kills an elk, only to find the animal's baby latching on to him and forming an unbreakable bond…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851050</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Wayne Macauley
|title=The Cook
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Frasier’s Law states that if you flick through the TV channels long enough, no matter what time of day or night you will eventually stumble across Kelsey Grammar enjoying a cappuccino in Café Nervosa in the greatest sitcom spin off of them all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780876378</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=C J Sansom
|title=Dominion
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1952 and twelve years since Churchill became Minister of War and Halifax took over from Chamberlain as Prime Minister. Churchill had thought that he might be able to run the war from that position but, Halifax, the appeaser, held sway and Britain surrendered to Germany in the aftermath of Dunkirk. Russia fought on, but it was a war of attrition rather than one which looked to come to a clear conclusion. The British people are under a violent, authoritarian rule and British Jews face a grim future. Winston Churchill - aged and possibly infirm - is the head of the Resistance organisation, but he's forced to live his life in hiding and on the run.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744168</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=Trains and Lovers: The Heart's Journey
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Do you have a train journey to make? Will it take you several hours? If so, then I can't think of a better place to sit and read Alexander McCall Smith's new, standalone novel. It's all about four people travelling on a train you see, and it's all about love. I gorged on it one evening, reading it all in one go without stopping, and it's really rather lovely!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846972450</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Monica McInerney
|title=The House of Memories
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ella Fox's life would never have been described as easy. Her parents divorced when she was young and not long after, her father was killed in a light aircraft crash. Her mother remarried and although Ella loved her new and funny stepbrother, Charlie, she could not stem her feelings of jealousy when her half sister Jess is born not long after the marriage. Although she lived halfway across the world from him, she always turned to her Uncle Lucas in her lowest moments. It's hardly surprising then, that years later, after the tragic death of her twenty month old son, Felix, she ultimately runs to her uncle in London.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230763014</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=A K Hill
|title=A Mediocre Man
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Francis James Humbleton, the 'mediocre man' of the title is quiet and reserved, hardworking and a man of such regular habits that his neighbours can set their clocks by his departure to work each morning. His life was unassuming, unnoticed by all but a very few and his death only came to light because his employers knew that something must be wrong when he didn't return to work after the Christmas break. Mr Humbleton had been murdered, at precisely (what else could it be?) 3am in what looked to be a burglary gone wrong. Only Mr Humbleton had nothing that was worth stealing and it's down to Detective Inspector Johnson and Detective Constable Smith to investigate his life as well as his death.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B008YWQTME</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Grisham
|title=The Racketeer
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Malcolm Bannister is forty-three years old and a lawyer. He's also in prison for a crime he didn't know he was committing and in which he had no criminal intent. Halfway through a ten-year stretch he's the only black man in the prison serving time for a white collar crime: that's what happens when you're just a bit naive and what looks like a genuine real estate deal turns out to be part of a massive money laundering operation. The prison he's in is relatively relaxed and he's the librarian, but he's lost his job, his wife's divorced him and he wonders if he'll ever see his young son again. Other than that, life's pretty much of a muchness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444729748</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dawn French
|title=Oh Dear Silvia
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Dawn French wrote her first novel [[A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French|A Tiny Bit Marvellous]] I was eager to read it, looking forward to plenty of silly humour and those elusive-when-reading out loud laughs. I was disappointed unfortunately, and actually came away from the book feeling annoyed with the characters and quite discouraged and depressed somehow. So, I approached her new novel with a little trepidation, unsure as to whether she deserved a second chance. I'm glad I gave her the benefit of the doubt!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156064</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Salley Vickers
|title=The Cleaner of Chartres
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Agnes is a mystery to the residents of Chartres, even as she goes about filling any shortfall in labour here, doing any odd job there, and cleaning for some of the people in and around the fabulous cathedral the town is so proud of – and, even in the end, cleaning the cathedral itself. There is an aged, dotty professor from Wales, two extremely curmudgeonly and bitter old gossips, and more than enough members of the order whose faith has lapsed. She seems perfectly willing to do anything one asks, so much so that one might ask why, although nobody seems to do so. The answers might be in the even-numbered chapters, which take us deeper into this character's extraordinary past, and to a linked series of quite tragic events…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670922129</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Meek
|title=The Heart Broke In
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In ''The Heart Broke In'', James Meek manages to combine some big and serious issues into a compellingly readable and entertaining moral thriller. At the centre of the book are two siblings who are very different. Ritchie is a former rock star, now working in the world of reality television producing a game show about teenage pop bands while his younger sister, Bec, is a devoted scientist working on a cure for malaria. On the one hand it's a story of family dynamics, but it's also a thoughtful and well constructed tale of morality and judgement. Setting science against religion it asks very modern day questions about who is the guardian of morality in today's world and who, if anyone, has the right to judge others' behaviour.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857862901</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Tissington
|title=Crocodile on the Carousel
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Cath Furnish's life has been so marked out by suffering to such an extent that she believes that's what life's about. Despite being married to Bill, raising her granddaughter Amanda and her daughter Marie being TV's 'Happy Lady', Cath is attracted to the biblical book of Job, a co-sufferer in her eyes. She's even bought a grotesque carousel for the back garden incorporating such jolly figures as a crocodile, a bleeding horse and the gates of death because it reminds her of him. As much as Amanda loves her grandmother, she doesn't want to continue living like this and so sets herself a mission. Despite opposition she ''will'' disprove her upbringing and find love and happiness, so help her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780950101</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=J K Rowling
|title=The Casual Vacancy
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's hard to know how to describe my experience reading JK Rowling's new book, and her first departure from the world of Hogwarts. 'Liked it' doesn't seem appropriate, because I didn't really. I found it very bleak, depressing and disturbing to be honest. I have a friend who is reading it at the moment and she says she's really enjoying it, which just makes me shake my head because, really, this isn't the sort of book you enjoy.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140870420X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Syd Moore
|title=Witch Hunt
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The history of witchcraft and the complexities of current social politics do not appear to be the easiest ingredients to blend smoothly into a novel. But Moore has achieved this, skilfully weaving the threads of the middle ages with the modern day. This achievement has also been mixed with some fascinating points about feminism, witchcraft and Essex stereotypes, all the while presenting them as the narrative of the protagonist, Sadie.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562698</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John E Flannery
|title=God's Gift
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=
An ex-soap actor, Tommy Armstrong now hosts a successful Saturday night chat show. It covers entertainment and current affairs. Recently divorced, single Tommy enjoys bedding his researchers and then firing them. It's something to do, after all, no? And particularly enjoyable if they're willing to take it up the bum. Tommy likes bums. Irritatingly, the ''Dirty Bitch'', aka Susan, Tommy's ex-wife, has forgotten all about bums and become a born-again Christian. Her new partner is a 21st century Mary Whitehouse, leading a campaign to clean up the media.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B009AEUOFS</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rowan Coleman
|title=Dearest Rose
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Rose has finally escaped. For years she has put up with her bullying husband and lived with the sadness of her mother's suicide after her father left when she was a young girl. Only once, when she was heavily pregnant with her daughter Maddie, did anyone show her any warmth and kindness and treat her like a human being in her own right. That person was Frasier McCleod, an art dealer who had been trying to trace Rose's father, John Jacobs,who happened to be a very exciting artist. Although she couldn't help him, Frasier sent a postcard to thank her and it is the village pictured on that postcard that she makes her way to nine years later when she can put up with her husband's cruelty no more.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551276</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Anthony Capella
|title=Love and Other Dangerous Chemicals
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Just when you thought you’d seen (read?) everything, comes this book, the story of the chemistry of Chemistry. Dr Steven J. Fisher is an Oxford scientist whose special area of interest is the female orgasm. His latest work is attracting interest from drug companies and the public alike for it’s an elusive subject: a pill that will do for women what Viagra did for men (and I don’t mean help their cardiac problems). Currently in the clinical trial stage, the results are looking promising until there’s a new addition to his group of guinea pigs in the form of Annie, a literature post-grad from the same university. Her lover (also her PhD supervisor) is keen for her to take part in the hope that Dr Fisher can fix her problem (and it is ‘her’ problem, not theirs). Simply put, Annie would rather read a good book than have a good… well, you can fill in your own rhyme here.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857890255</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lucy Dawson
|title=Little Sister
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Kate Palmer’s life has been blighted with tragedy. Her sister Emily died at the age of thirteen in a freak accident. Her parents could not cope with the grief and subsequently divorced leading to her mother living in America and her father suffering a breakdown. Years later, she is married to Rob and struggling to cope with being a new mother to two month old Mathias. Kate’s always been the sensible one whereas her younger sister, Anya, has always had a tendency to run away from her troubles and has never managed to settle down. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to Kate that Anya has taken off once again and has gone diving in Mexico. That would have been OK but Anya is now missing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751542512</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Peter Hoeg
|title=The Elephant Keepers' Children
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Danish writer Peter Høeg is best known for his third novel [[Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by Peter Hoeg|Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow]], partly because it was made into one of the more beautiful movie adaptations of modern fiction. While his latest book, ''The Elephant Keepers' Children'' is unlikely to change that association, it is a magical, story told through the eyes of the charmingly precocious fourteen year old Peter, full of farcical events, zany chases and brilliantly named characters. If you are looking for a gritty, realistic novel, this won't fit the bill, but for all its madcap events, Høeg continues his arch view of events and has surprising depth in the form of philosophical consideration of religions and faith.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846555841</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Amanda Jennings
|title=Sworn Secret
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A year ago Anna Thorne was found dead after presumably falling from the roof of her school after drinking vodka. Twelve months later, her parents, Kate and Jon, and her sister, Lizzie, are still trying to make sense of and come to terms with what has happened. They each have their own way of dealing with their grief which, rather than uniting, serves to isolate each of them. Ultimately, they are becoming three sad strangers living under the same roof.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184901969X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Julie Corbin
|title=Do Me No Harm
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dr Olivia Somers is minding her own business, trying to raise two kids alone in the wake of her divorce, when everything goes wrong and her son, Robbie, ends up in hospital. It’s hard to work out what really happened, or even if Robbie is giving her the full story, but when there’s a further incident, this time involving a break in at their home, it becomes clear that these are no random attacks, and someone is out to get them. With the help of a friendly (and handsome) detective, Olivia tries to piece together the puzzle to work who is behind the trouble, and it’s a race against time to figure it out before the next unwelcome surprise from the culprit.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340918969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian McEwan
|title=Sweet Tooth
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Ian McEwan's ''Sweet Tooth'' is part spy novel but more a love story and a tale of deception and half truths. It's also, more subtly, a book about the power, role and importance of fiction. Set in the 1970s, with frequent musical and political references to the UK at that time, Serena Frome is a beautiful, Cambridge-educated daughter of an Anglican bishop with a taste for unsuitable romances. From an early affair with a man who turns out to be homosexual, to an affair with an older lecturer she moves on to a surprise job at MI5 where she had a crush on one of her bosses, again and awkward, repressed and unattractive individual before encountering talented author Tom Haley as part of her job with whom she once again falls in love. Few of these men are what they seem, and neither for that matter is Serena when she has to hide her job from Haley.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097377</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=So, here we are with Isabel Dalhousie in her ninth story, and I'm assuming that you know who she is by now because really, if you don't, then you'd better not start with book number nine and instead you should really go all the way back to the beginning of the series and ''The Sunday Philosophy Club.'' If, on the other hand, you are well acquainted with Isabel then settle yourself down for another good read from the master of gentle, funny fiction.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408704145</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Favel Parrett
|title=Past the Shallows
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Harry Curren lives with Miles (one of his brothers) and their widowed father in a small Tasmanian fishing community. Their mother has been killed in a car accident but life goes on even if it's more damaged and disjointed than before. Miles still goes out on his father's fishing boat to ensure their income and Harry spends his time at school, outside amusing himself or being with his other brother, Joe, who, for some reason, lives with their grandfather.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848547501</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charity Norman
|title=After The Fall
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It’s the middle of the night when five year old Finn falls from the balcony at his home in a remote part of New Zealand. Leaving his twin brother and older sister in the care of a neighbour, his mother Martha stays with him as a helicopter races him to the nearest hospital. But as he is rushed into surgery, she is taken to one side for questioning, with first nursing staff then the police and social workers raising concerns. Was Finn really sleep walking, something he is prone to do? But if so, how did he come to have suspicious bruises on one side of his body, not in keeping with how he landed? And if it wasn’t the accident Martha is saying it was, was his mother involved or is she covering for someone?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>174331096X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dorothy Koomson
|title=The Rose Petal Beach
|rating=4
|genre=Women's Fiction
|summary=Tamia and Scott met at school and they were friends before they were anything else although it wasn't to the liking of either family. Scott's brother referred to Tamia as ''that'' - a reference to the colour of her skin. Tamia's family weren't racially prejudiced but they knew the Challey family and their reputation for criminality. It wasn't what they wanted for their daughter: they saw a university education, but were to be disappointed on both counts. It looked to be working well: the marriage seemed stable and they had two beautiful daughters, but then one night it all fell apart. Scott was arrested in front of his wife and children for a dreadful crime. As if this wasn't bad enough, Tami's world disintegrated even further when she discovered that Scott's accuser was someone whom she regarded as a close friend.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780874960</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Chris Worthington
|title=Setting The Record Straight
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When he was twelve Geoff Dealer returned to his Texas home and walked in on what looked like a frightening situation. A man, trousers round his ankles was pushing his mother up against a wall and she was squealing. Mindful of his father's advice about using a gun Geoff grabbed it from the gun cabinet and injured the man with his first shot. The second killed him. It was their neighbour and his father's best friend - who'd obviously been more than a friend to his mother. Lizzie Dealer took the blame - saying that she'd been attacked and had grabbed the gun from her son - but her husband was arrested and was killed in prison a couple of days later.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848767080</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Herman Koch
|title=The Dinner
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Serge Lohman, presidential candidate, is not the kind of man to frequent the cafés of ordinary people, and so when his brother Paul and his wife Claire join Serge and wife Babette for dinner, it can only be at the fanciest of locales, and for 'fanciest' read poshest, snootiest, and most overpriced. And while they may be in Holland, going Dutch is not on the menu. This is not Serge’s story, however. It is Paul’s, and what he lacks in terms of income, power and influence compared to his brother, he more than makes up for with dry humour and astute observations.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848873824</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kim Barnes
|title=In the Kingdom of Men
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book begins beautifully with all the characters springing to life through fantastically spare and creative description. By the time we reach Gin, living with her her grandfather in the stifling atmosphere of a strict Methodist minister’s home, the story is in full swing and we follow Gin through her teenage years as she tries hard to rebel against all the limitations placed upon her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009194421X</amazonuk>
}}
