Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paula McGrathJenny Lecoat|title= Generation|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=How can we know the effect that our choices may have on the next generation? Even a seemingly minor decision has the potential to create ripples and waves of unforeseen repercussions in the future. This fascinating theme is explored in “Generation”, an intelligently-written début novel that approaches the subject from multiple perspectives over an eighty-year period.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147361483X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kerry Hudson|title= Thirst|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= London – Summer. Alena, a young siberian immigrant is caught stealing shoes. Dave, the man who catches her, is a security guard – surviving on a minimal income and with little drive to better his quiet, repetitive life. As Alena and Dave grow closer, Dave finds his life turned upside down. But will Alena ever let down her guard, and reveal the truth about her past?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099589893</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Lesley Pearse|title= Without a Trace|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=Cassie's arrival was bound to cause a stir in the sleepy Somerset village of Sawbridge. She had flaming red hair, a voluptuous figure accentuated by very tight clothing, towering heels, heavy make-up and no wedding ring. But the thing that really shocked the locals was the fact that she had a little mixed-race girl in tow. Petal, as she was called, soon melted the hearts of the residents, but no such courtesy was extended to Cassie, who was dubbed 'that red-headed whore' by some. Her only friend was the kind shopkeeper Molly Heywood, who would often visit Cassie and Petal at their isolated stone cottage on the outskirts of the village.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024196153X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Eva Rice|title=Love Notes for FreddieBeyond Summerland

|summary=Marnie is an innocent, mathematical genius schoolgirl who, unfortunately, gets expelled from Jean lives on Jersey with her fancy boarding school. Julie is her teacher, formerly a dancer, rigorously private about her past. Freddie is mother where they are celebrating the boy that both end of them fall in love withthe occupation. Revealed through During the eyes of two of the three main characterswar, this is a slow-moving, but rather beautifully told, love story. It has the same vintage feel that Eva Rice used so well in ''The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets'' and it cleverly winds its way through MarnieJean's story in the 1960's as well as Julie's past in pre-WW2 New York.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782064486</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kat Gordon|title= Artificial Anatomy of Parks|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary=One morning in 2002, twenty-one year old Tallulah Park is woken in her depressing bedsit by the phonecall announcing her father's heart attack. From this bleak beginning springs Kat Gordon's gripping debut novel of was arrested for listening to a dysfunctional upper middle class family with a history of papering over the cracks banned radio and ignoring the uncomfortable and unfitting. Tallulah has been doing her fair share of powering on and pretending things don't exist, but it seems like this might turn out to be the time to stop running soldiers took him away. With the reluctant help of two auntsone night, an old family friend leaving Jean and her own imperfect recollections, and with a vivid imagining mother waiting for years for news of her late grandmother as the voice of conscience, Tallulah sets out to answer some long-standing questions about her family and her own pasthim.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079867</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Dido Butterworth and Tim Flannery|title=The Mystery of As the Venus Island Fetish|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Meet Archie Meek. He's about to leave British finally free the Venus Islands, where he's lived for Channel islands from the last five yearsNazis, and return to Sydney, where he'll take his office in the museum and fill it with all the cultural artefacts he's found and wildlife he's plucked or pickled. That's not to ignore the fact he'll count as something quite alien himself, with his filled-out frame, nearly all-war is finally over suntan and totemic tattoo, in amongst other changes to his bodytheir hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But what's this? When he gets back, he finds one of will the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him to go there in the first place, truth come as a hugerelief, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artwork. And some of or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the curators he wishes to work alongside have vanished. war? Is Who was the weird society of informer who told the museum he's returning to, perchance, even weirder, stranger and more violent than Nazis about the cannibalistic society he's waving farewell toradio?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kate Hewitt|title= Rainy Day Sisters|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Amateur artist Lucy Bagshaw isn't exactly living And what other secrets have been kept throughout the American dream; she lives in Boston with her overbearing mother and works as a barista in a coffee shop, but things are about to get a lot worse. Her mother, a famous and controversial artist, writes an scathing editorial, publicly insulting Lucy's artwork just before her first exhibition. The editorial quickly goes viral and a humiliated Lucy flees the country, unsure of where her life is heading. She runs away where nobody can find her; a sleepy Cumbrian village by the sea, where her estranged half-sister runs a boarding house. Lucy quickly questions the wisdom of her decision when she receives a frosty welcome from her sister in a village that seems permanently cold, wet and rainy. Should Lucy try and make a new life for herself here, or should she return to Boston and face her demonsoccupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0451475585</amazonuk>1846976537

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah WinmanOnyi Nwabineli|title=A Year of Marvellous WaysAllow Me to Introduce Myself

|summary=89 year old Marvellous Ways stands outside Anuri spent her secluded Cornish caravan looking across childhood on display to the landscape with world, thanks to her binocularsstep-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. She has a feeling something will happen Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and soonto get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Elsewhere American Francis Drake (he's heard all the jokes!) has come home Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from the war and looks up the girl he left behind with results that are beyond his nightmares but will feature in themfor doing so. MarvellousMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia' s online empire. Can she save her sister, and Drakes' lives will cross perhaps herself and then – Marvellous is right – something will happen.her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755390911</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Bourne 1529153298|title=Two LivesThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5

|summary=One late afternoon in January 2012It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Emma Elliot and Loretta Davidsonhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's lives collide – along with their carsfamily, though. Both are running late and driving too fast along this Surrey road Women have been disappearing. Emma is unharmed and flees the scene Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Little does Miv's upset because she know 's overheard that this incident will have long-term consequences further down her father wants to move the linefamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For LorettaMiv, the effects are more immediate. A social worker in move would mean leaving her fortiesbest friend, Sharon, and she has taken a career break 'll do anything to raise her and Martinprevent that. She's beloved son Ethan, born after an arduous IVF cycle just over four years ago. Ethan is in critical condition after not worried about the car accident and dies during surgery. In dangers or that her grief, Loretta turns Mum's stopped talking - to Scotch and Valium and drifts away from her husband and their familiesanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1505233682</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Hennessy1035906708|title=Not Far From DreamlandDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|summary=Ronald Tonks has reached that stage in life which I call upper middle age: you've qualified for your pension We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but not yet got she was born to the free television licence barrier. What Ronald ''has'' got is a roof that leaks (there's good reason why his home is called 'the shack')Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, a dog who is going bald (in patches) December 1923 and money that's in very short supply. On the plus side he has friends, mostly platonic and usually in much the same boat as Ronaldonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. But are they downhearted? Well, they are occasionally, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but mostly theyher father changed it to 'Callas're generously optimistic and out to make it more manageable in the most of what they've got, usually bought from charity shops and jumble salesStates. ''Not Far From Dreamland'' is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the story of Nazi occupation by a year (2012) in the life mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of Ronald Tonksher preference for her elder sister, his friends and relativesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo McMillanAlexander McCall Smith|title=Motherland: A NovelThe Perfect Passion Company

|summary=Jess The Perfect Passion Company is a teenage Communist which isn't dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a surprise since more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she comes from could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a Communist familywhile. Her late father was Katie is coming out of a card carrying member and Jess spends her weekends selling ''The Morning Star'' break up with her equally enthused mother Eleanor. It's not only a thankless taskbad boyfriend, it's not a very welcome sight for some citizens in their native Tamworth of and so jumps at the 1970schance to come home to Edinburgh. However Eleanor and Jess' lives are about And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to changean Edinburgh we already love, thanks to an all-expenses paid trip 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to the GDR – Communist East Germany; charm. Katie has no experience in running a place on the same side of the Berlin Wall as Jess' business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and Eleanorthere's hearts. However, they both learn that even a political heaven has its lessons always her very helpful (andrather handsome) neighbour, indeedWilliam, its downside.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473611997</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Eve ChaseDean Koontz|title= Black Rabbit HallThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary=At Black Rabbit HallBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, time goes “syrupy slowand his house gets trashed.” None of Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the clocks work properlything that has trashed his house! The thing is, but an hour at Black Rabbit Benny is said the very last person to last twice as long as deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a London onebad weather friend called Spike, and you don't get who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a quarter good person. Spike is going to take care of the things done. Every holidayBenny, the Alton family swap the hustle and bustle will certainly take care of London life for this secluded Cornish retreatBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a place that is theirs and theirs alonewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718182979</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michelle MillerKatherine Howe|title=The UnderwritingA True Account|rating=4.5

|summary= Todd Kent Hannah Masury is youngliving in Boston, rich, stupidly handsomehaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and well on his way being made to the top of Wall Streetwork there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a new dating app called “Hook” hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go publicand watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Todd is handpicked by Hook’s eccentric founder to lead Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the project teamhands of two vicious pirates. Taking brainy analyst Neha She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, spoilt party-dressing as a boy Beau, and old flame Tara Taylor with him – joining the team find themselves thrust into the hectic circumstances of notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a $14 Billion dealcabin boy. As Silicon Valley and Wall Street clash, She soon finds herself in the death thick of things when there is a young girl will find the team at odds with each other – mutiny on board, and spinning wildly out from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of controllife on the ocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922182974</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alena Graedon1471180158|title= The Word ExchangeMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Welcome to Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the world subtlety of the ''Meme''; the next-generation mobile device. Imagine technology so sophisticated that it could anticipate your needs as soon as they come into your mind. Need to get home? Your Meme will hail a cabhalf brick. Feeling unwell? The Meme has an app for that. Negative thoughts? The Meme will intercede on your behalf to call family and friends or even 911 Jamie's son, if needed. YesBo, the Meme is a truly indispensable aid that 'has revolutionised the way that humans communicatehis problems'. Critics say that it He's destroying human language asthmatic and verbal interaction, but don't worry: the Meme has an app for that too. If more you are lost for wordsread, the more you'll suspect that he'Word Exchanges on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo' will supply you with s not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the word you requirewrong. For It was going to come to a small fee of coursehead...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780225628</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cornelius MedveiB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Making of Mr BolsoverRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=Meet Andrew LynchPetr is an orphan. He's a graduate civil servantRescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, then he isn't. He's marriedis brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, then he isn't. Hein the forests of Washington's a librarian, then he isn’tOlympic Peninsula. He starts, of all things, to live in After Bear dies and a handmade camp brief sojourn in the Sussex countrysidehuman company, and gets armed with only a job writing nature notes for pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a local magazine – until it's clear he's shootingjourney through the forest, killing and eating too many of his subjects for his audience's tastes. He turns his efforts to writing politicised letters to broadcasting the local newspaperstrange, where his nephew is a jobbing hack, which inspires further, more campaigning activitieswild and rarely heard voices he encounters. Yes, it seems that Andrew Lynch's path to the top is foretold – but his fate is most definitely anything but natural…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548690</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alison Jean LesterSarah Marsh|title=Lillian on LifeA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5

|summary=Lillian is in her late fifties, single and childless but you shouldn't - for After a moment - allow yourself to think that she has bout of scarlet fever as a rather sad lifechild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. She's lived through periods Suddenly plunged into a world of tremendous change in post-war Munichsilence, Paris, London and she's now come to rest, smart and independent, in New Yorkeverything about her life changes. Born Living in a time when the expectations use of her parents - and of society - were fairly standard sign language was seen as to what a woman should something only savages do with her life, she seems always Ellen is sent to have had a sense that school where she would disappoint both if she was is taught to be true to herselflip read, but physically restrained from signing. She's hot blooded From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and sexually uninhibited and certainly ahead of her time in her viewsusing a system called Visible Speech. When we first meet her she's waking At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up next to her married lover and taking stock in a complicated tangle of her life. Amongst other thingsespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848549520</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert CromptonB0BC3YTCMR|title=BunderlinGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=As ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a child Martin had been fascinated bit too nerdy if truth be told, and entranced by his neighbour Mrs Bundysuffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's household menagerienot easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. Her son Peter She readily agreed: tutoring was there too but on the periphery; Martin something she gladly did at church: this was just there to visit the animalsan extension. In adulthood their paths cross again but this time Peter Bunderlin (as he's now known) isn't so easy She went to avoid – his house and Martin's tried! he raped her. Perhaps if Martin could understand what the heck Peter is up In shock, she even allowed him to?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784078549</amazonuk>give her a lift home.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eve Makis1472263936|title=The Spice Box LettersFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=4.5

|summary=Katerina's Armenian grandmother Mariam dies leaving It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her and first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother a journal in Armenian , Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a spice box full of mysterious letterspity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. They're special Her trip to them both because they're the legacy family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of a much loved relative but totally indecipherable several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the monolingually English pairfamily's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. However a holiday abroad He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to get over a recent break up brings a random encounter for Katerinaaccommodate them. When Katerina meets Ara she also meets the key to His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her grandmotherfather's secret pastScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124087</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert CromptonDean Koontz|title=Leaving GileadAfter Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank

|summary=Tom Sparrow finally does what heThe village is isolated and poor. It's always dreamt of: buying surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the former Ridley house near his old childhood homevillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. As Tom explores he finds his new house isn't The black wood of the only link with his pastforest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. There's something The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the outhouse village and that takes him back to is the days of young love and Susanreason Volushka, the Ridley's daughter. She had been raised in her parents' prohibitive faith as a Gilead Jehovah's Witness which didn't seem drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a problem to them but they were young and experience wasn't on their side…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784077623</amazonuk>man is tolerated.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emma CraigieB0BYF82CXT|title= What Was Never Said Semi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|summary= This story is narrated by Zahra''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a teenage girl who spends her early years depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in her home country of Somalia before her family love – move to the UK to escape civil warin next door. InevitablyDespite their different outlooks on life, some traditions travel with them and in the novel Zahra recounts her efforts to protect herself couples befriend each other and her younger sister, Samsam, against FGM, a practice that claimed the life of her older sister in Somalia several years previouslyappears to improve for both pairs. Zahra intersperses her account with flashbacks to Somalia and the civil war that drove them awayBut all is not what it seems, thus giving a clear picture of the trials that she and her family have facedtheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178072179X</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= David FinkleShalini Boland|title= The Man With The OvercoatSilent Bride|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Why would anyone - he was soon to ask himself innumerable times - take Alice and Seth are a coat from a complete stranger only because it had match made in heaven. He is everything she has been offered?'' searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. Skip Gerber steps off the elevator after She is all he could possibly want in a long day at workwife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the foyer of his office building inevitable proposal is busy eagerly accepted by Alice and buzzy the wedding is planned and he does not notice set. When the man holding much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the overcoat until aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the man hands it congregation – their friends assembled to Skip telling him celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice''take very good care of it''. Skip unthinkingly grasps s world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the coat and before he has man at the chance to realise what he altar is doing - and that he , who is now holding an overcoat of unknown providence - the man disappears out of the exit door waiting for her to the buildingbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0992618525</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fredrik Backman1787636003|title=My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and ApologisesThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn''Every 7t exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old needs a superheroAlistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. That's just how it is…'' It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and for Elsa it's her Granby that time she was obsessed by him. When Gran diesAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, Elsa is surprised looking after his interests on the island and devastatedin particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.}}{{Frontpage|author=Amanda Craig|title=Three Graces|rating=4. Granny can't be old 5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the- Elsa has only known her for 7 years! Elsa still has to carry out Grannation novel. There's last wish though; there are letters to be delivered and with each delivery Elsa learns something more so utterly compelling about Gran any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, crafting an image of the person behind Gran country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the superherogenre of contemporary social fiction at this point. Will it enforce She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her hero status or destroy it?characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444775839</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neil Smith152915118X|title=BooPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5

|summary=Oliver Dalrymple ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is deadmarried to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. He realised this The problem's exacerbated when the moment he woke up in clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the rebirthing bedPineapple Street property. His friends Tilda and tormentors had always called him Boo because of his ghostly pale complexion Chip have renovated and now he's finally earned the nickname fullydownsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. What he hasnThey won't realised is need any of the way in which he died; he thinks he died of holey heart problems furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in front of his locker while reciting the periodic table. The location is correct Nominally, they had a choice but, meeting Johnny (an equally dead former classmate) reveals, he was actually murderedthat wasn't the reality. WhatDarley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's worse, living in ''their murderer has been spotted there in 13 year olds' heaven' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023493</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Minette WaltersEmily Critchley|title= CellarOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= To my mind84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, ''The Dark Room'' but now she is the most perfect psychological thriller ever written (and I've read lots in this genre). In facing a move as her later works, Minette Walters seemed son wants to move to veer away from this particular path another house and bring Edie to glory live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her novels became steadily darker childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and with increasingly dislikeable characters. So it the worry that there was a secret she was quite refreshing to discover keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that ''The Cellar'' was written from reveals the point truth of view of a rather likeable protagonistwhat happened all that time ago. Muna is an African child living After 'seeing' Lucy inthe high street, shall we say, somewhat unusual and very cruel conditions: just as she was stolen and now lives in captivity. Her voice is compelling and from the first page I found myself wanting last time she saw her , she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to make good her escape from . And yet as she remembers the dreadful - past, she is forgetting more and sadly all too believable - circumstances more in which her day to day life. Will she finds herself. Souncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, naturallyand before her memories are gone forever?|isbn=1804181250}}{{Frontpage|author=Madelaine Lucas|title=Thirst for Salt|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= ''Love, I admired her cunning 'd read, was supposed to be a light and resourcefulnessweightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity'' Told from a retrospective view, knowing a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that these attributes would serve once defined her well. ButOverlaid with later wisdom, of course, this is Minette Walters and nothing is as simple as it first appearsthe narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. As Set against the story unfolded I found myself questioning who exactly were backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the victims and who24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, if anyonedepicting its all-consuming nature, was innocenthow it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099594641</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Naomi Novik0008506337|title=UprootedThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|genre=FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=Many years agoThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in a village deep in Eastern Europe, the locals live a life of relative peace and happiness love. Richard was twenty- knowing to always avoid the wood that borders their land, one and safe in the knowledge that they are guarded described by a powerful wizard - the DragonMargo's mother as 'an older man'. Aware Her parents worried that he is the one thing keeping them safe Richard's influence would take her away from the dangers of the wood, the villagers take part in a ritual called 'The Choosing' every ten years what they felt she could achieve - when a young girl is sent going to serve the wizard for Oxford and having a decadeglittering career.Agnieszka is of age for In the choosingevent, but nobody fears that she will be picked - they eloped and Richard took her best friend Kasia is pretty away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and gracefulwent on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and sure to catch the eye of the immortal DragonSasha. However Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, Agnieszka is not aware of the talents she holds that may attract family home on the wizard - talents that the safety Isle of Wight. Even then the entire kingdom may come doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to depend on for their survival.leave him in charge''. Then Richard left them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447294130</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara Lamplugh1914585402|title=Secrets of the PomegranateDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5

|summary=Home in Bristol, Alice gets the news from her sisterI reviewed David F Ross's partner, Paco. Her sister, Deborah Hardy, was on board one of the trains bombed at Madridbook [[There's Atocha station on 11 March. No one can yet confirm whether she is alive or dead. Deb had moved to Granada nearly 20 years ago, after her divorce from MarkOnly One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's father, Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. It was starting to make a name for herself as a scholar of women in Andalusia's history. Alice and her nine-year-old son Timmy fly to Spain to find that Deb is alivegripping, but in a coma in hospital. Over the weeks she keeps vigil for Debemotionally wounding read, Alice lives in her sister's home in Granada and reads her diaries, which proves to be a way rereading my review of feeling closer to her and learning more about her than she ever knewit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it. Meanwhile, Mark and Paco keep their distance, working through their complicated grief in their own ways.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781323690</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Menna Van PraagLucy Ashe|title=The House At The End Of Hope StreetClara and Olivia|rating=4.5

|summary= Alba Ashby The year is a wallflower of a girl; studious, bookish 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and excruciatingly shy, so when tragedy wields its ponderous boltOlivia are sisters, she is twins no less able than most to adjust to life as she now knows it. In one of her midnight walks around historical CambridgeIdentical on the outside but not, she finds herself at we learn, on the door to Number 11 Hope Streetinside. And not on stage, either. It is house Because there's a lot that she has never before seen; quirky and turreted with builds a wild garden dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and grandly Victorian in hue and Alba is enchanted by itsome things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the classroom. So she does something that she would never normally doA stage presence, a charm, in a million years''joie de vivre''. She knocks on the doorThe difference between a hard-worker, and a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749018623</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sara GruenHeather Fawcett|title=At The WaterEmily Wilde's EdgeEncyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=54

|summary=An indiscretion at a party causes Ellis HydeEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's parents work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to disown himfaeries, comingshe is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, as it doesfar North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, hot on having somehow offended the heels of his father village matriarch, she is not understanding why Ellis sure what she has been turned down done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for war serviceher book back on the right track. To prove he's not a cowardEnter Wendell Bambleby, Ellisher dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, his new wife Maddie all charm and best friend Hank leave the US for Scotland. Hedelight, much to Emily's determined they will succeed where Ellis' father failed years before: they will find the Loch Ness monsterfrustration. Maddie isn't as convinced but then she also thinks she knows Ellis. But why is he here? What does he want? She and the locals at the inn where they're stranded by And what exactly is going on with the global conflict will discover a lot more about him, and indeed themselves.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473604702</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Leipciger1398515388|title=The Mountain Can WaitBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=Tom Berry is a quiet man - one who lives for First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and in naturethis, spending a half of his year running a small team in remoteturn, isolated forestscaused the nuclear meltdown. The other half he spends tending to his family - a small group whom he brought up almost single handedlyresult was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, following and the departure loss of his wifelivelihoods was widespread. A good, determined man, we learn The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of Tompriorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's life running forestry teams in remote wilderness, before an accident forces Tom comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to leave his routine and seek out open his son - car door and both become troubled by Tamon the events dog jumped in.}} {{Frontpage|author=Christopher Bowden|title=Mr Magenta|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of the accidenta seemingly ordinary woman's life, as well as ghosts carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of the past that may cause indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more pain interesting life than either man that nephew Stephen had anticipatedever realised and it seems to him an obligation to find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472223896</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth RenzettiJennifer Mason|title=Based on a True StoryPartitions of Unity

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Augusta PriceHere at Bookbag Towers, middle-agedwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, washed updominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], substance-addicted actress has just left rehab for the innumerable time. Her only friend in the world is her equally washed-up former mentor. Augusta has recently received a sudden upsurge of interest when she investigated and income when her tell all memoir became unravelled a baffling best-seller. Frances Bleeker is an American journalist who came to London with high hopes, that were quickly dashed by the reality series of the British magazine marketdisappearances. The two meet when Frances is sent to interview Augusta about her book where Frances realises there’s far more to the story In ''Partitions of Augusta’s life than she’s cared to put in words. Needless to say, young, optimistic Frances and self-obsessedUnity'', drunk Augusta don’t exactly hit it off at once. But when Frances loses she sets her job and Augusta needs a ghost writer for her new book, the two offer each other mind to solving a lifeline ..murder. or enough rope to hang themselves. As Frances will learn by delving into her past, people close to Augusta don’t come away unscathed. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782395539</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Xavier LeretWill Carver|title=The Romeo and Juliet KillersDaves Next Door|rating=34|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, the story is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4

|summary=This is a book that suggests love across the tracks – all the while making the reader ask 'just how chuffing wide are those tracks supposed to be?!' Franky is A struggling poetry zine, a hardmom-doneand-by schoolboypop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, whose ultraa 400-Catholic parents are stifling him in all aspects of lifemeter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, so much so ita women's likely that when he gets into trouble by witnessing some porn on track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a friend's mobile phone at school it was really state-of-the hardware that he was gawping at -art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in amazement. Hardware is nothing to DaizeeAlabama, the underage street hookeran enigmatic signature, who knows what hard stuffs she likes and what she doesn'tK(s, and what her punters – and her motherx), back when they had on a connection – enjoyedcheap oil painting, or needed, en route to itan erotic art dealer in Georgia... Their unlikely connection '' This is just a sample of the subject cast of characters and settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this gritty novellamystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910213187</amazonuk>B09STS96HS