132,814
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Kerry Young|title=Pao|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good story. Set in Jamaica, the time period covers 1938 to almost present day, it is the political backdrop of independence and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while the politics of Jamaica resound throughout the book, it's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang Pao. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' - are skilfully woven into the mix to make this a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881207X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gavin James Bower|title=Made in Britain|rating=2|genre=General Fiction|summary=The settings of the intertwined tales of Russell, the working class swot trapped by his conditions, Charlie, the heroic 'lad' who gets caught in the drugs scene and Hayley the naïve wannabee with a single parent father are the school rooms and backstreets, flats, pubs and clubs of Every Town, the vision of twenty-first century deprivation that Bower conjures. Or rather fails to conjure, for the device of making the 16 year olds tell the story from their own first person narrative deprives the reader of a genuine sense of the physical reality in which this story unfolds.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704372290</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Wilkinson1739526910|title=Bloodmining|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Although Wilkinson has placed her story in the near future, for the most part, you wouldn't necessarily be aware of that fact. Personally, I was delighted as Where I'm not a fan of futuristic fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907335145</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewve Not Been Lost|author=Kerry Jamieson|title=The Forgotten LiesGlen Sibley
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the mid-thirties, the golden age of Hollywood, three aspiring starlets shared a studio house on Lantana Drive as they waited to hear if they were going to have a career in the movies – or not. Charlotte (soon to be Carlie for acting purposes), Verbena, known to her friends (and ''only'One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley' her friends) as Bee and Ivy were desperate for the role of a lifetimes life, which would put their name he arrives in lightsan unfamiliar Devon town to recover. There was Living with an added appeal. Whoever won would star opposite Liam Malone – good lookingunexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, charismatic and ''very'' married he dreams of reconnecting with six childreneverything he has lost. It wasn't just But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a case local world of being able to actunlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities. Their lives would be under intense scrutiny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141026049</amazonuk>''
}}
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I first read Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the title (I hadnoccupation. During the war, Jean't yet read the back cover blurb) I glibly thought that it s father was about two sisters arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and their marriagesher mother waiting for years for news of him. WrongAs the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. This debut novel by Connor is about two very different women (one is no more than But will the truth come as a girl really) relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who just happen to 'marry' told the Nazis about the same man. radio? I use And what other secrets have been kept throughout the word marry very loosely indeed. Their community, their rules, their descriptions etc can be rather quirky. Marriages are normally called 'sealings'.'occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0946745587</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil ForsythOnyi Nwabineli|title=Why Allow Me? The Very Important Emails of Bob Servantto Introduce Myself|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Catchy title Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and catchy front cover graphics, basically, monetary gain. What's not Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to like? take down the content about her. It takes a lot Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to make me laugh generallystart her PhD, but as I had an initial flick through this book, things looked promisingundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. And I was also thinking that itMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's a pleasant change to see another location (other than online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airing.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=D. J. Connell1529153298|title=Sherry Cracker Gets NormalThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Whilst itIt's wrong to judge a book by its cover1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, a mere sight of Dhonestly.. J. Connell) She's not what's worrying Miv's second novel family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared'Sherry Cracker Gets Normaldoesn' is enough t sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to make me smilemove the family 'Down South'. The title When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is amusing; a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the colourful design enticing move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the effusive praise for Connelldangers or that her Mum's debut 'Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar' encouragingstopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000733219X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gavin James1035906708|title=Ariadne's ThreadDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Ariadne's Thread'' is the story We tend to think of Elena Avgoulas who decided in May 1941 that she would have to leave ChiosMaria Callas as Greek, the Greek island where but she was bornto Greek parents in Manhattan, until the war New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was overthirteen. German soldiers had occupied the island and whilst they were there Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it would not be home to her, her mother and sister and brothers. The brothers were 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the Greek army. Her mother would run the family bakery and her sister would support their motherStates. Elena When she was a medical student back in Athens and had a nursing qualification; - supposedly so that she decided that could get appropriate training for her voice - she would make use of this in was raised under the war effort. And so began Nazi occupation by a journey that would take mother who mercilessly exploited her to Cyprus, Palestine, Egypt, Italy and Germany in the course made no secret of the warher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005FRG8P4</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Javier MariasAlexander McCall Smith|title=While the Women are SleepingThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Holmes embarks on The Perfect Passion Company is a journey towards the Northern Islesdating agency in Edinburgh, we are treated run by Ness and operating as an alternative to a comprehensive background of the ways of witches all over the world; all points are pertinent online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the history business, as Ness is fascinating as well as necessaryplanning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. The introduction to the ways Katie is coming out of witchcraft demonstrates a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the worldwide links that will become highly significant laterchance to come home to Edinburgh. Revill weaves in 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 relevant history and all its complications Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with easesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and the novel flows in spite of having there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to accommodate this.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920091</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin GosselinDean Koontz|title=Hunt for the Blower BentleyThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Connecticut innkeeper Faston Hanks Benny is obsessivehaving a terrifically bad day. He's very keen on food but it's cars – loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and particularly old cars – which drive himhis house gets trashed. This time heOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's involved in possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the search for thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the only one of the fifty Blower Bentleys made which remains unaccounted forvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. SM3912 was originally purchased by Lord Brougham and Vaux and ownership can be traced So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to one D H Sessionshis house is a new friend, after which the trail goes colda bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. We know something which Faston doesn't know though – the Bentley came into the hands Spike is going to take care of Stephan SidlowBenny, who was high up in the APR during World War IIand will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, by less than honest means. But then Sidlow was less than honest about which side if he was supporting in the war, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920180</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ernest ClineKatherine Howe|title=Ready Player OneA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A short while agoHannah Masury is living in Boston, I stumbled across having been sent to live with a highly enjoyable film called ''Fanboys''family who run an inn, about and being made to work there from a bunch young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of ''Star Wars'' fans trying some pirates in the town, she decides to break into George Lucasgo and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy' mansion to get a sneak preview s death at the hands of the new filmtwo vicious pirates. I didnShe hides away, so that they don't pay much attention find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the name of the writer, until I came across Ernest Clinenotorious Ned Low's author bio pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in ''Ready Player One'' the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and realised it was written by from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the same person. This immediately gave me high hopesocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846059372</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Harris1471180158|title=The Fear IndexMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop Jamie Matson works in yearsan upper-class grocery store, turmoil on for a man who's a control freak with all the bond markets subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the prospect of economic meltdown and more you read, the possible disintegration of more you'll suspect that he's on the euro zone, Robert Harrisautistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she' new thriller couldns a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo't 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 more timelycontrolled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom BaleB0CKD1L5JL|title=Blood FallsRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and reviewed Bale's [[Terror's Reach by Tom Bale|Terror's Reach]]and enjoyed it. What would I think of his latest? Joe Petr is doing his level best to live an unremarkable (almost invisible) life in Bristolorphan. He uses his brawn to pay his modest bills for rentRescued by the strange, food etc. But you could sayreclusive Bear, once a copper, always a copper so his brain he is not idlebrought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, it's in constant use. Whirring away in the background and itforests of Washington's just as wellOlympic Peninsula. Joe soon senses imminent danger when After Bear dies and a couple of blokes stroll bybrief sojourn in human company, stop and ask his gaffer armed with only a couple of questions. Joe needs to be somewhere else - pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, broadcasting the strange, wild and fastrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809325X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John O'ConnellSarah Marsh|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelSign of Her Own|rating=43.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1900After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, and a man on Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a ship coming back from the Boer War to edit the Daily Express meets one world of his heroes silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the form use of Arthur Conan Doylesign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. With similar experiences and interests yet different enough to bounce off each other they take From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the idea of collaborating on deaf and using a plotsystem called Visible Speech. When they do fix on At the same time to do so, it leads to literary prospects, which lead to a week's research together Bell is working on Dartmoorother inventions and ideas, which leads to ''The Hound of the Baskervilles''. But perhaps and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a way that only one complicated tangle of them intendedespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Syd MooreB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Drowning PoolGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with a group of young women out on the town, letting their hair down and having fun. Moore describes all of them in a fresh and modern voice which I really liked. It came across as a breath of fresh air. The story, Sarah's 'This story is told by Sarah herselfnot for everyone. But it's told from the perspective of looking back after it's all happened so there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-that-coming language. Hindsight, in a word.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562663</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine
|author=Victoria Hislop
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and enjoyed Hislop's 'The Island' so I It was looking forward in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to reading this bookGreece. The Prologue is May 2007 She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and readers are treated refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a vivid coastal description of pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the area which is to play such a big part family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the novelfirst of several annual visits. Lines such as She grew to love her grandmother and the family'With the lifting hazes maid, Dina, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across the Thermaic Gulf but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the restful blues of sea Junta and sky shrugged off their pale shroudexpected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>s red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After 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}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William GiraldiB0BVDC2VWH|title=Busy MonstersThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his GillianThe village is isolated and poor. HeIt's proved it to ussurrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, if not to herroofs on homes, by going after her possessiveand even gallows, jealous state trooper if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an ex with existential superstition in the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat instead. But lo village and behold, she's declared she's off to discover that is the real love of her life - the giant squid. Failing to stop thisreason Volushka, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessivedrunken, then goes on a hunt of his own self- for Bigfoot, all the while, chapter by chapterindulgent, sending his narrative lazy lout of the same to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas SparksB0BYF82CXT|title=The Best of MeSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching the film of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to it until I saw this, his newest offering. Here we have the tale of two childhood sweethearts whose love was always threatened by the fact that they were from opposite sides of the tracks Bill and Amanda are living in a semi- he from the roughdetached house, poor family that is forever on the wrong side stuck in a depressing rut of the lawboredom and disappointment, when Terry and she from one of the betterFiona – glamorous, respected families successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the town. After couples befriend each other and life forces them apart they go on appears to live very different lives, but improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced to look at the choices they've made in their lives and where they go to from here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marius BrillShalini Boland|title=How to ForgetThe Silent Bride|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you Alice and Seth are a fan of the BBC's 'Hustle' seriesmatch made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'. It’s a funnyaccomplished, clever , funny; total and twisted tale of grifters and con tricks with a bit of magic thrown utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in for good measure. Brill gives us a cast of strange characters: there's an ethically dubious brain scientistwife; beautiful, a dodgy Derren Brown-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugssuccessful, an equally violent FBI agent confident… and a female British copper. At so the heart of inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the story though wedding is an apparently naïve British magicianplanned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, PeterAlice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and a supreme grifterwhen Seth turns to face his approaching bride, KateAlice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, in whose life Peter finds himself entangledwho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S G Browne1787636003|title=FatedThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Clever It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and very funnyarrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, this is the perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of book physical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where you immediately feel in safe handsall the girls either worked or partied. S}}{{Frontpage|author=Amanda Craig|title=Three Graces|rating=4.G5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. Browne has gone to town (New York), satirising just There's something so utterly compelling about every aspect any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of modern lifethe day and capture it, 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 the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly lived-in recognition in my head, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Titania Hardie152915118X|title=The House of the WindPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved ''Pineapple Street'' is the intriguing title story of the book three women: Sasha, Darley and was hoping that Hardie explains itGeorgiana. She does: Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. not They're Stocktons, only that but Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervalstribe. A nice touchThe problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, I thought Tilda, asks Cord and not over-played eitherSasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. The short Prologue describes Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a young girl on street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the eve of her furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn'terrible fatet the reality.' But fate seems Darley and Georgiana start to have changed its mind at call Sasha 'the very last minutegold digger'. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the Casa al Vento - GD'The House of the Wind.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane SandersonEmily Critchley|title=NetherwoodOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=The cover 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 Netherwood features her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a bold promise - 'Perfect secret she was keeping for fans Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of Downton Abbey'what happened all that time ago. The basic features of a reliable After 'upstairs/downstairsseeing' saga are all present; Lucy in the high street, just as she was the landed gentry enjoying their estatelast time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the staff servicing it past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the localstruth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, all relying on the fortunate family for their own income.and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008506337|authortitle=Jennifer HaighThe Garnett Girls|titleauthor=FaithGeorgina Moore|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As a The 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 love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo'New York Times Bestsellers mother as 'an older man' I was expecting great things from this book; coupled with the fact that I really enjoy American fiction, I was itching to get reading. The story is told Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from the perspective of Sheila, sister what they felt she could achieve - going to Mike Oxford and half-sister to Arthur (he's normally called Art)having a glittering career. Art is In the priest event, they eloped and who is at Richard took her away from the centre Isle of the stormWight. We Margo did go back in time to Oxford and discover went on to become a rather pious woman who has well-respected journalist. The couple had a hard start to married lifethree children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. She's now left to bring up her young son, ArtLife was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on her ownthe Isle of Wight. But things pick up pretty quickly Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from here and as an attractive woman itMargo's not long before mind: ''she meets someone else. Two more children are born and they all settle down into a normal, American family unitwould never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1914585402|title=Unusual Uses for Olive Oil: A Von Igelfeld NovelDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Following on from I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There'The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There' which was s Only One Danny Garvey]] a compilation of three shorter volumes, this book sees Professor Dr Von Igelfeld still dealing with his academic colleagues but also with the prospect couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. It was a love interestgripping, a recently widowed ladyemotionally wounding read, Frau Benz, who has inherited the large Schloss in Regensburgand rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it. Is love in the air? Or will his arch rival, Unterholzer interfere once again?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316027545</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyLucy Ashe|title=The Generation GameClara and Olivia|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV show, with old Brucie and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? Where were you when Charles and Di got married? What about when Diana died? There's plenty of reminiscing to be done in this book as Sophie Duffy takes us from the 1960's to 2006 through the life of her character, Philippa, in a book that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments to real sadness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248017</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Larry Pontius|title=Future King|rating=35
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=ItThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's the near future Wells. Ballerinas Clara and King Charles III has ascended Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the throne of outside but not, we learn, on the United Kingdom with Camilla as his Queen Consortinside. And not on stage, either. The country is in Because there's a lot that builds a mess with rampant inflationdancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, unemploymentattention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a crumbling infrastructure and riots: the people have taken to calling this time ''The Troublesjoie de vivre''. Such situations breed powerThe difference between a hard-hungry politicians and Prime Minister Alistair Saxon has plans to become the dictator of the country. When the King refuses to give his assent to the Emergency Powers Actworker, Saxon and his fellow-conspirators kidnap the Royal family to prevent Charles speaking against the EPAa star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1463766297</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kirsten TranterHeather Fawcett|title=The LegacyEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This Emily Wilde is quite a chunky book so Tranter an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has given herself plenty of space travelled extensively, and time researched meticulously, to build up a nice level of suspense here as well as putting some flesh on write her life's work, the bones very first encyclopaedia of her central charactersfaeries. The book opens - towards the end of the storyWhilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. So we have firmwhen she finds herself far, but platonic friendsfar North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, Julia and Ralph both very concerned about their mutual friendhaving somehow offended the village matriarch, Ingrid. She supposedly died on 9/11 - but with no remains, no burialshe is not sure what she has done, their grief hasn't an outlet. They need (nor how to quote that much used word) closure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857380621</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joe Simpson|title=The Sound of Gravity|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Patrick is climbing in redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the Alps with his girlfriendright track. They are taking an unusual Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and difficult ascentinsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and it is winter. A storm blows up. Whilst they are camping overnightdelight, Patrickmuch to Emily's girlfriend loses her footingfrustration. He manages to catch her hand, and then she slips through his fingers and falls into a chasm. But why is he here? What does he want? The novel details the days and hours in And what exactly is going on with the run-up to this tragedy, and the aftermath, both immediate and long term.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224072641</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Wilson1398515388|title=The Family FangBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought they'd ever be again. But First of all, it has come to this - her film actress career is on was the earthquake, deep in the rocks with ocean floor, which created the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writerstsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and he - wellutter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, he's here because and the loss of a jumbo spud gunlivelihoods was widespread. Neither want life back at home, as throughout their childhood they The fact that many pets were used by separated from their parents owners came far down the list of priorities but - without much planning, without any consideration of feelings, or consent six months after the tsunami - in Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a whole career of performance art pieces, designed dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to enact a point of life or just cause havocopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip RothChristopher Bowden|title=NemesisMr Magenta|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1944Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, Newark, New Jerseycarried out by her nephew after she has died. Summer. Hot. Bucky Cantor, The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of indulgence to a young Jewish man, is gym teacher nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and playground attendant-cum-sports instructor for the district, helping all those interested become fit young men, able it seems to do what his eyesight prevents him from doing - serving in the forces. Things would be fine if his girlfriend were closer at hand, if it were cooler, and if there were no polio epidemic happening. But there is, and nobody knows what is causing it. Is it flies? Is it a gang of taunting Italian kids spreading it from neighbourhood an obligation to neighbourhood? Is find it blacks, germs on money - is it in fact Cantor himself, draining all the youthful vigour from his charges under a blistering sun?out. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099542269</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nina BellJennifer Mason|title=The Empty NestersPartitions of Unity|rating=34
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With their children all off to university (most from the same school yearHere at Bookbag Towers, plus an erroneous one who took a handy-for-the-sake-of-the-story gap year)we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, it's all change for the parents dominatrix and unintentional detective in this book – for Clover and George[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and Laura and Tim, and Aliceunravelled a series of disappearances. Though some of the fathers are present, as youIn ''d expect this is a tale told mainly from the eyes Partitions of the mothers. Clover and Laura have been friends forever, while Clover and AliceUnity's relationship is more recent. As for Laura and Alice, well they really don't get on, making life she sets her mind to solving a little tricky at times for Clover, stuck somewhere in the middlemurder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751543667</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susan HillWill Carver|title=The Shadows in the StreetDaves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=This is the fifth novel Five strangers come together in Susan Hill's series about the detective Simon Serrailler. Although you could probably follow the story without knowing the previous books I think it does help one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to have some background detonate his vest on who all the characters area London tube line. I really love As their fates overlap, the way Hill weaves her story around some wonderful character studies. Simon is actually hardly told in this novelbackwards order, and leading up to the focus instead is on the 'extras', with a lot of details being put into characters who will only be around for this particular novel but who live and breathe through it wonderfully wellfateful moment. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099499282</amazonuk>1914585186}}