Open main menu

Changes

no edit summary
[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Chamberlain1739526910|title=Secrets She Left BehindWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is the third novel I've read by Diane Chamberlain and I felt as if I was visiting 'One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an old friendunexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. I enjoyed the other two books But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and this one looked promisingsurprising romantic possibilities. Although many of the characters spill over from [[Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain|Before The Storm']] this current book is a stand alone. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830387X</amazonuk>'
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Priya BasilJenny Lecoat|title=The Obscure Logic of the HeartBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lina is from a devout Muslim family and Jean lives on Jersey with her aunt while she studies law at university; mother where she meets Anilthey are celebrating the end of the occupation. Anil is During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a Kenyan boy banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from a non-practicing Sikh family who dreams the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of becoming a ground-breaking architecthim. The two fall in love but But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the lies they war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have to tell their respective families become more and more elaborate they are forced to make some difficult decisions.been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0385611455</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana EvansOnyi Nwabineli|title=The WonderAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lucas and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on a canal boat in west Londonsocial media, after the death where she posted every step of their parentsAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now they are Anuri is in their 20s, her twenties and their grandmother Toreth she is gone. Denise is a practical slowly trying to regain her confidence and responsible young womanto get her life back, getting on with suing her job as a florist, but step-mother to take down the content about her younger brother Lucas . Anuri is a dreamerbattling alcoholism, still trying failing to establish what he wants to do with his lifestart her PhD, undergoing therapy and increasingly distracted by trying to find out more secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about his identityher little sister, about who his parents wereis the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, especially his and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father.at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099479052</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Henderson Smith1529153298|title=A Question The List of AnswersSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Harriet Glover lives with her partner whoIt's reluctant to commit himself to marriage1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) ItShe's not that he hasnwhat's worrying Miv't had time to make up his mind – their two children are at the stage where they might produce grandchildrens family, though. Women have been disappearing. His excuse is that he canWell, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't see the point as they already share a surname through chance, sound quite so what difference would marriage make? Markfrightening. Miv's not upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'entirelyDown South'. When you' insensitive (wellre from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, some of the time…) but he can't understand Harriet's need for that reassuring piece of paperbest avoided. Until then For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she's going ll do anything to be wondering if his eyes are wandering elsewhereprevent that. HarrietShe's not entirely immune either: she finds worried about the headmaster of the school where she teaches quite irresistibledangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845493281</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Tyler1035906708|title=Noah's CompassDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's always a red letter day We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to sit down Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to an unread Anne TylerAthens when she was thirteen. This is Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her eighteenth published novelfather changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. For any readers not already fans When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her bookspreference for her elder sister, this American writer observes the ordinary in order to excel at 'making the familiar, strange'Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539586</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bernie McGillAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Butterfly CabinetPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This novel has been based on fact. McGill moves back The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and forth with various characters' storiesoperating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. A child Ness has died in the family home asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the motherbusiness, Harriet has been tried in as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a court of law and found guiltywhile. The fact that she Katie is coming out of a practicalbreak up with a bad boyfriend, no-nonsense woman who does not wear her heart on her sleeve does not go down well with and so jumps at the majority of chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the juryIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. She Katie has also committed another crimeno experience in running a business, almost equally as graveor in match-making, she but Ness has sullied the family name of full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her husband. He is very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a prominent and respected member of the local community. Nothing will be the same again for either of them.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755370686</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean KwokDean Koontz|title=Girl in TranslationThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=When Kimberly Chang Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and her mother emigrate his house gets trashed. 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 USA from Hong Kong they believe thing thathas trashed his house! The thing is, true to Benny is the American Dream, their lives are about very last person to get betterdeserve all this bad luck. However, although Kimberly's aunt paid their air fares and arranged their green cards she He is intent on getting her money back. She arranges their accommodation in a run-down part of Brooklyn in a building where they are the only tenantsnice person. Their apartment has broken windows, no heating and is rife with cockroaches and ratsA really nice person. The aunt arranges work So fortunately for Kim's mum in her husband's Chinatown factoryBenny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, paying her a pittance bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for piece work and then taking most of her salary away for repayments on their flights and their accommodationbeing a good person. Huddled around their oven for warmthSpike is going to take care of Benny, wearing layers and will certainly take care of clothing made from material they found in the trashBenny's enemies, their lives seem incredibly bleak. But Kimberly has brainsif he, and determinationBenny, and she is adamant that she will find Harper (a way to take care of her motherwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905490623</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helon HabilaKatherine Howe|title=Oil on WaterA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with two local journalists on a rather dangerous trip. Zaqfamily who run an inn, old-timer and cynic but still has the skills being made to seek out work there from a good story and apprentice Rufusyoung age. A British oil engineer's wife has gone missingWhen she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, believed kidnapped she decides to go and the two journalists are following her trailwatch. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; all-seeingEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, all-knowing albeit likes Hannah finds herself embroiled in a drink or young boy's death at the hands of twovicious pirates. HeShe hides away, so that they don's happy t find and kill her too, and then to impart years of knowledge escape them completely she runs away to Rufus sea, dressing as a boy and tells him that joining the notorious Ned Low' s pirate ship as a cabin boy... She soon finds herself in the story thick of things when there is not always the final goal.' What's really importanta mutiny on board, what the readers want to know and what sells newspapers is ' ... the meaning from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the storyocean waves.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144868</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Elliot1471180158|title=Stolen ChildMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The title of the book leaves us Jamie Matson works in no doubt as to what itan upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all about. It does exactly what it says on the tinsubtlety of a half brick. But those twoJamie's son, small words are wrapped up in plenty of emotions for the characters involvedBo, 'has his problems'. In some waysHe's asthmatic and the more you read, itthe more you'll suspect that he's worse than a deathon the autistic spectrum. With death, thereSometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's closure but with a baby being stolen therefrequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's living hellnot fit enough to go to school. And, as you would expect, some characters cope with all of this better than othersMissed 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 wrong. It was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561462</amazonuk>
}}
  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A L KennedyB0CKD1L5JL|title=What Becomes|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=You're three stories into this collection and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soup, and another, a greengrocer, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationship. But there is no pattern to that. Four stories in and there have been two bursts of non-sequitur comedy. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, and the thoughts of a woman in a flotation tank, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors - and the urban myths of gerbils. But there's still no pattern - and that's the point of these combined stories. Life and all of its emotions does not live to rule.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009949406X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewRadio Free Olympia|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Importance of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street)Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Evereyone's favouritePetr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, Bertiereclusive Bear, he is still struggling with his over-protectivebrought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, over-zealous mother Irenein the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga class, saxophone lessons, Italian lessonsAfter Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and he longs to go away to Scout camparmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as Petr goes on a helper. Andjourney through the forest, as broadcasting the title suggestsstrange, wild and rarely heard voices he is looking forward to being seven. His little brother, Ulysses, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene herself goes missing in a rather mysterious manner..encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846971454</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shannon BurkeSarah Marsh|title=Black FliesA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ollie Cross has failed to get After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into medical schoola world of silence, everything about her life changes. While he thinks about what he plans to Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, he takes Ellen is sent to a job as school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a paramedic on system called Visible Speech. At the tough streets of Harlemsame time, New York CityBell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning to shiftherself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535491</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances KayB0BC3YTCMR|title=MickaGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Micka and Laurie are two ten year old boys. They're in the same class at school and are friends, of a sort. They both have vivid imaginations, and Laurie's plans involve finding a magical bone and using it This story is not for murdereveryone. Micka lives with his mum (who can't read and is often drunk) and his two older brothers who get into fights, are involved in crime, and who abuse Micka physically and sexually. Laurie lives with his parents, until they suddenly break up, and he is left with his mum who seems to be having a breakdown. The book is told from the point of view of the two boys, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with them, we also read with horror their own descent into violence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513826</amazonuk>}}'
{{newreview|author=Susan Wiggs|title=Just Breathe|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Sarah may Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be struggling told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to make a living off hug her in case it, but she does enjoy her job as 's contagious. It's not easy being a cartoonistblack girl whose skin is 84% white. She's been through had a lot recently, including crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her husband's battle with cancer, . Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and her alter ego Shirl provides Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an outlet for a lot of the emotions extension. She went to his house and confusion he raped her. In shock, she's feelingeven allowed him to give her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303543</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J Cronin1472263936|title=Dr Finlay's CasebookThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Most people will have heard of Dr FinlayIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, although they may not be entirely sure why - A J Croninbut Mary and Hamish (Helena's stories of parents) felt that it would be a fictional doctor pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in preup-War Scotland have been televised over market Kolonaki would be the years, most recently in the nineties when David Rintoul starred as Dr Finlayfirst of several annual visits. Although fictional, A J Cronin, who died in 1981, was himself a doctor She grew to love her grandmother and has apparently based some of Finlaythe family's experiences on his own. This omnibus is made up of two books by Croninmaid, Dr Finlay of TannochbraeDina, published in 1978 but was wary - and Adventures frightened - of a Black Bagher grandfather, published in 1943, both collections retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of short storieshis close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841588547</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clancy MartinDean Koontz|title=How To SellAfter Death
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the 1980'sMichael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, 16 year old Bobby Clark gets expelled from his high school in Canada for stealing. This is among 55 people who die when a young boy so immoral that he pilfers his own mother's wedding ring to pawn for cash to keep virus is released in a girl happybio-hazard accident. After the girl turns out to be less interested Finding himself in him than he is a makeshift mortuary, covered in herplastic, he follows his older brother Jim has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to Texas, where him – and only him – as he gets a job working with Jim in a jewellery storesits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he falls into a life of scamsrecovers his senses, drugs, hookers, gorgeous women, and an obsession with Jimhe realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael's girlfriend Lisa, it's clear that this coming of age story is a tragedy waiting to happenanymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099532182</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick MarrinanB0BVDC2VWH|title=Degrees of GuiltThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Police broke into the apartment in Sandymount Village in Dublin village is isolated and woke Yuri Komarova rather roughlypoor. HeIt'd been drinking heavily, smoking dope and was difficult to arouse, but on the floor near his bed was the knife which he had apparently used to stab his mother to deaths surrounded by a Witching Forest. He seemed to have no memory of this but he spoke little English and had And the mental age of a twelvevillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-year oldlike fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. An interpreter helped with The black wood of the questioning forest provides heat and when the case came to trial his defence relied warmth, roofs on proving that he had been sleep-walking at the time of the murder homes, and had no intention even gallows, if needed. The fear of killing his mother. This being buried alive is an existential superstition in the most difficult defence to uphold village and there was the added problem that Yuri seemed to have lied to is the police when he told them that his mother had very little money as some Russian icons were found in reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a strongbox and they were worth several million Eurosman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090749</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katie KitamuraB0BYF82CXT|title=The LongshotSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Cal ''Bill and his longAmanda are living in a semi-time trainer Riley travel down to the town of Tijuana detached house, stuck in Mexico for a crucial rematch with the undefeated champion Rivera. Three years earlier Cal's promising career had been derailed following a close yet devastating defeat at the hands depressing rut of Riveraboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. After that defeat Cal carried Despite their different outlooks on fighting but never reached life, the same heights as before. Now he finally gets the chance couples befriend each other and life appears to face his nemesis once moreimprove for both pairs. The story takes place in the two days before the rematch as he But all is not what it seems, and Riley prepare their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for the biggest fight of his life, a fight that could once again end in tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374999</amazonuk>''
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laurie GrahamShalini Boland|title=At SeaThe Silent Bride|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've already read Graham's 'The Future Homemakers of AmericaAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven.' It was goodHe is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, but not particularly memorable so I was keen to read this novelfunny; total and utter husband-material. The reader She is introduced to two vastly differing opposites all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the shape of Mr inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and Mrs Finch. Well, Lady Enid (English) the wedding is planned and Professor Bernard (American) Finch, to be preciseset. And we're transported straight away onto When the decks of much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the liner 'Golden Memories' and Graham starts to have aisle by her fun: father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the languagecongregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the characters and man at the whole set-upaltar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849162182</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Barton1787636003|title=Twenty-One LocksThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This debut novelIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn's central character is 20 year old sales girlt exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, Jeannie. She lives a very humdrum life in a rather uglynaive, downso when thirty-four-atyear-heel town old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in the northher, she was flattered rather than wary. And straight away Barton treats the reader It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her lovely, descriptive proseand by that time she was obsessed by him. For exampleAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, when looking after his interests on the reader is given some detail about Jeannie's workplace at island and in particular in the perfume and cosmetics counter bar where ... 'all the lipsticks ... all lined up like chorus girls either worked or partied...' Barton's writing style is very easy to read, very fluid and I found myself getting right into the story straight away - and caring about Jeannie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161747</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne PeileAmanda Craig|title=Repeat It Today With TearsThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Repeat Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it Today , crafting an image of the 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 Tears follows the story genre of Susanna, contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a sixteen year old girl from a broken and loveless home who obsessively collects information in gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the back lives of her characters in a notebook about the father she has never met. When by chance she discovers way that he still lives nearby she sets out deliberately to find feels natural and seduce himlived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687462</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francine Prose152915118X|title=GoldengrovePineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=On a hot day Nico ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and her older sister Margaret take a boat out onto Mirror LakeSasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, but only Nico returns after Margaret dives off the boat and doesnSasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't resurfacereadily accepted into the tribe. MargaretThe problem's sudden death tears through Nico exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and her parentsSasha if they' livesd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, and each mourn for her in their a street or so away, which they own way. Unable to find They won't need any of the help she needs furniture from her parentsPineapple Street, who are both consumed by their own grief to help Nico to come to terms with her lossso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, Nico turns they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the vast array of books gold digger'. She's living in Goldengrove, her father's bookshop, for answers, and soon embarks on a dangerous relationship with Margaret's boyfriend Aaron, their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the only person who seems to understand her griefGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848870361</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Emily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|isbn=1804181250}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julie OrringerMadelaine Lucas|title=The Invisible BridgeThirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a story that takes us from the elegance of Paris, through the streets of Budapest and on into the Hungarian countryside and the Ukraine this is an epic tale, masterfully told. It is 1937 and Andras Levi, a young Hungarian Jewish student, is about to leave his brother Tibor to go and study architecture in Paris. Andras' story unfolds first amongst the beautiful buildings of Paris, the theatres and the bars, as he struggles in his studies and falls in love with a beautiful ballerina who has a terrible secret to hide. As the tragedy of World War 2 edges ever closer to Andras, the book moves back to Hungary, to the little village where Andras and his brothers grew up, to Budapest where his new family live and then on into the forced labour camps across Hungary.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670914584</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Maureen Gibbon
|title=Thief
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It’s summer''Love, and school teacher Suzanne is renting a cabin by a lake. Spending her days reading and swimmingI'd read, she also finds time was supposed to engage in some old fashioned letter writing with be a stranger who responded to a personal ad she placed. He’s currently an inmate at the state penitentiarylight and weightless feeling, but Suzanne’s not one to judge, and agrees to give their correspondence a shot. Then she finds out what he’s in I had always longed for – and it’s not pretty. Breville is a convicted thief and rapist, and Suzanne herself was raped as a teenager, by a friend’s brother. That should be the end of it: any sensible person would cut off all communication and turn their back on the situation. But Suzanne is different and though she’s acknowledges that it might not be the healthiest of relationships, she maintains the back and forth with Breville.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848871821</amazonuk>}}gravity''
{{newreview|author=Guy Fraser|title=Avenging Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the Dead|rating=3year-long relationship that once defined her.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1863 and Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the Superintendent covering affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the inner city area of Glasgow has his hands full. First off an alarming forgery scandal has just been discovered and no sooner has he drawn breath than one, two and counting suspicious deaths occur. Instinctively, I want summer after finishing university – to say that it's all good, clean fun. Because it is. The language Fraser uses is very much of that era which lends its sorrowful end the book a particular old-fashioned and rather twee, charmsummer after. It's all over Set against the book in spades. On almost every page. Let me give you just one endearing example backdrop of the flavour of the book an isolated Australian coastal town 'None of Mrs Maitland's four regulars at her superior guest house Thirst for single gentlemen would even dream of taking anotherSalt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's seat deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably...'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709090684</amazonuk>0861546490
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jodi Compton0008506337|title=Hailey's WarThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At the beginning of the bookThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, Hailey Cain is a 23 year old cycle courierliving apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in San Franciscolove. The story then takes a step back in time Richard was twenty-one and wediscover described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that she had to leave West Point Military Academy during Richard's influence would take herfinal year, for reasons away from what they felt she prefers could achieve - going to keep to herselfOxford and having a glittering career. I continued to read under In the assumption that Hailey had done something which forced event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to leave. Hernext move is Oxford and went on to Lbecome a well-respected journalist.A The couple had three children: Rachel, where she Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the latter part Isle of her childhoodWight.During these years, her mother with whom Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she has, at best, a very strained relationship is no source of comfort and Hailey develops a very close attachment would never be able to her cousin CJ. Aspects of this relationship make for uncomfortable reading at timesleave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847373577</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Andrew Grant|title=Die Twice (David Trevellyan)|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The title is very much at home and in keeping with the thriller genre and it's both eye-catching and also has a perfectly reasonable explanation which comes right at the very end of the storyThen Richard left them. I must admit to thrillers generally not being my most favourite reading material. Some can be a bit flashy, a bit trashy even. But not this novel. Right from the start I felt I was in for a good, intelligent read. There were pointers to this all over the place. For starters, David Trevellyan has a nice line in witty humour. There are numerous snazzy one-liners. It all went down very well.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230747582</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Lee1914585402|title=Who Is Mr Satoshi?Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens somewhere in the Home Counties and Rob Fossick is attending his motherI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's funeral. The event in itself is extremely distressing and also depressing for him; factor in that heOnly One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's become Only One Danny Garvey]] a bit couple of a recluse lately years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and I could feel the sheer loneliness creeping into Rob's very bonesaffecting it was. Lee describes the event as 'Zimmer framesIt was a gripping, bifocalsemotionally wounding read, trifocals, dark grey coats with yawning shoulders. The apparatus and rereading my review of old ageit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020419</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hazel McHaffieLucy Ashe|title=Remember RememberClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The story starts at the end year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and works back in timeOlivia are sisters, twins no less. This works extremely well as Identical on the outside but not, we see Doris Manneringlearn, motheron the inside. And not on stage, grandmother and great-grandmother now living in a residential homeeither. The decision to Because there'put mother' into s a home was very, very difficult and had been put off time and time again. We come to realize lot that this was builds a heart-wrenching decisiondancer. The daughter Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and carersome things, Jessicathat ''je ne sais quoi'', will always be asking herself if shethat don'd done t come from the right thing, made the right decision for the right reasonsclassroom. A veritable minefieldstage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. And here is where many an ethical dilemma lies for many families in realThe difference between a hard-life similar situationsworker, and a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906817294</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John NivenHeather Fawcett|title=The AmateursEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Gary Irvine only wants two things out Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of lifefaeries. He'd like to have children Whilst she is brilliant at research and he wants speaking to reduce his golf handicapfaeries, she is not so good with people. Nothing extraordinary thereSo when she finds herself far, you might think except for far North in the fact that his wifesmall village of Hrafvsnik, Paulinehaving somehow offended the village matriarch, she is planning not sure what she has done, nor how to leave him redeem herself and put her final investigations for a self-made carpet millionaire her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and Gary is a dreadful golferdelight, much to Emily's frustration. His handicap But why is eighteen – but I'm not entirely certain how he got it down to that level in the first place. here? His family doesn't give him much solace either. What does he want? His brother Lee And what exactly is going on the fringes of the local criminal underworld and hasn't the wit to keep himself out of trouble with Ranta Campbell, the local overlord. Ranta could be quite likeable if it wasn't for his penchant for a certain type of violence designed to keep the others in line rather than to teach the victim a lesson.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516667</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Ross1398515388|title=Mr PeanutThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The main couple who tend to take centre stage here are called David result was complete and Alice Pepinutter devastation. They live a kind of comfortableThe deaths were uncountable, middle-class life in busy and bustling Manhattanthe loss of livelihoods was widespread. After more than a decade The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of generally happy married life together, they want to take priorities but - six months after the next step and have tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a familyconvenience store. Easy to say He wasn't a dog person but things donthe convenience store owner't quite work out according s comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to plan. We are taken on various 'dark' journeys within their marriage. These are situations which most of us can identify with. Some of these situations are painful, stressful, unhappyopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087738</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas ShakespeareChristopher Bowden|title=InheritanceMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Andy LarkhamChristopher Bowden's life and career are going nowhere. He works for latest novel is a small publishing house, Carpe Diem, that specialises in publishing self-help books, his fiancée is about to dump him and he has no money and mountains patient untangling of debt. And thata seemingly ordinary woman's before we begin to talk about his dysfunctional family. His only real role model was the Montaigne-loving teacherlife, Stuart Furnivall, whose funeral he is late forcarried out by her nephew after she has died. But an unexpected inheritance The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of £17 million has indulgence to a young nephew had had a habit of changing one's outlook on much more interesting life. But while he trades self-help for help yourself, Andy also realises than that he has inherited a mysterynephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an obligation to find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553156</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cath StaincliffeJennifer Mason|title=The Kindest ThingPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Imagine that your partner of twenty or so years discovers that they are dying from a terminal disease. Now imagine that they've asked you to help them to die a little soonerHere at Bookbag Towers, on their own terms. What would you do? This is the dilemma that faced Deborah andwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, after she went ahead dominatrix and helped her husband Neil to dieunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she found herself charged investigated and standing trial for murder with her own teenage daughter, Sophie, testifying against herunravelled a series of disappearances.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849012083</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Eliza Graham|title=Jubilee|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=As the village celebrates the QueenIn 's Golden Jubilee two people can't help but think back to the Silver Jubilee. Evie Winter and her niece Rachel have vivid memories Partitions of the day when EvieUnity''s daughter Jessamy wandered off and the mystery of her disappearance has never been solved. She was eleven years old, bright, athletic and loved by she sets her mother and cousin. There would seem mind to be no explanation as to why she might have disappeared of her own free will and no evidence that she was abductedsolving a murder. Life has carried on, but it has not been the same. It has not been easy.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330509268</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael RobothamWill Carver|title=Bleed For MeThe Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=An ex-detective is found dead Five strangers come together in one moment as a pool of blood in suicide bomber prepares to detonate his teenager's bedroomvest on a London tube line. She runs from As their fates overlap, the scene of the crime. Is this the easiest cut-and-dried case ever? This novel story is told in the first person by the investigating psychologistbackwards order, Professor Joe O'Loughlin. He's got a lot going on in his life right now. His health is not good so he's leading up to keep popping pills to try and get through another working day. He's also newly separated and his daughters seem to talk a completely different language. He feels old and very ragged round the edges. Into this mix, he discovers that the teenager everyone is talking about, the teenager who's been discussed and described as a cold-blooded killer, is his daughter's best friend. Could his life get any worse, he thinks. Yes. Big-timefateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847442188</amazonuk>1914585186}}
{{newreview|author=Catherine O'Flynn|title=The News Where You Are|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The main character in this novel is Frank Allcroft. Husband, father, son and also a bit of a minor celebrity as he's beamed into the region's television screens nightly, presenting the local news. Make that minor with a small 'm'. He comes across as a likeable, middle-aged man, content with his lot and with his home life. But he does have some personal issues Move on to attend to. In particular, his grumpy, sometimes forgetful, elderly mother who is now living in a retirement home. Mother and son give each other lots of grief on a regular basis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918555</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]]