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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!{{Frontpage|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD|title=Nowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, and his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.}}{{Frontpage|author=Virginie Despentes|title=King Kong Theory|rating=4|genre=Autobiography |summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.|isbn=191309734X}}

|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he meets in a gay bar. While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the novel arises not from his infidelity but from the deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|isbn=15439878770141186356}}{{Frontpage|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence|title=Learn Wild East|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to Love: Guide move to Healing Your Disappointing Love LifeNorwich and start at a mostly white school. The move is initiated by Ronny's mum who is worried for Ronny's safety after a tragic event, and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in a new town, a new school, and keep himself out of trouble. He listens to music constantly, and has always dreamed of being a rapper. But now, in this new school, his teacher encourages him to be part of a poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the power of creativity and crafting your words.|isbn=0241645441}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1635866847|title=The Lavender Companion|author=Dr Thomas JordanJessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Lifeimmediately'' feel that this is a the book about love relationships rather than a book about lovefor you. The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the opposite of grief: Before I started reading ''if you loveThe Lavender Companion'', Dr Thomas Jordan tells us, I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there'you will inevitably grieve's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. Your love relationships begin (There's a recipe in the moment youbook, which I're born m avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and end only when you dieI was told to make a mess of it. Whilst we all come into Notes in the world hoping to give and receive love there margins are many people for whom love is not quite so simplesanctioned. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating You get to fold down the same mistakes - and this eventually becomes resignationcorners of pages. For people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, self-preservation, in the form You suspect that smears of resignation is butter would not be a necessityproblem. I ''loved'' this book already.

|author=Chris HautyJenny Valentine|title=Deep StateUs in the Before and After|rating=35|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary= Hayley Chill Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a fighteronce in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. She is every kind of fighterBut then chance brings them back together, and well-trained in most of themthey are inseparable. She's army infantry Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and she boxes for fun – now they must work through their grief, and she winstheir friendship, together. Always. She wins because she |isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is focussed. She works hardGoing to Hurt}}, mentally and physicallya glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and she knows how autobiography. ''You Don't Have to deal with the painbe Mad.. She is not so much cold as controlled. This fight is against someone she is not expected '' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to beatmental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. And she I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is being watcheddirected at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|isbn=1471185605

|author=H G Parry Onyi Nwabineli|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5

|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to see eye Anuri spent her childhood on display to eye for years - Rob a sensible lawyer who exists in the "normal" world , thanks to her step- and Charley a man who is blessed with an ability he canmother Ophelia't fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into the real world. After years s increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of protecting CharleyAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, Rob wants monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to discharge his duties regain her confidence and leave Charley to his own devices get her life back, suing her step- but circumstances soon mother to take choices out of both their handsdown the content about her. As literary characters begin Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to appear everywherestart her PhD, it soon becomes clear that someone out there shares Charley's powers undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and intends to use receiving money from them for nefarious gainsdoing so. Rob and Charley must team up to stop Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the madness - in a battle to win before theynew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, the characters and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the world reach The End…same time?|isbn=03565137770861546873

|isbnauthor=1444776185David Chadwick|title=Haven't they Grown|author=Sophie HannahHeadload of Napalm

|summary=It was when Beth Leeson was ferrying her son's September 1973 in Hicks, Ben, to a football match that she found herself on Wyddial Lane in Hemingford AbbotsCalifornia. Actually, It's Hicks is a little disingenuous to say 'found herself' as Beth had made Mojave desert town of a deliberate detour on the grounds that she didn't find herself in this neck few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of the woods very often LA and she was curious to see where Las Vegas both a family who'd come into money had lived before they'd all lost contact twelve years agosignificant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. And it might have gone no further than that had Beth not seen A silver mine and a car draw up and her friend Flora get out along with two children she called Thomas and Emily. Beth remembered defence contractor are the names well - main local employers but these children were about three and five and Floraotherwise, there's children - Thomas not much of note other than dive bars and Emily - would now be fifteen and seventeenJoshua trees. Life is quiet, until....|isbn= B0D321VJ76

|isbnauthor=1529123763Tom Percival|title=Miss Austen|author=Gill HornbyThe Wrong Shoes

|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary=ItWill's long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of the letters which she and other members life is difficult, in a multitude of the extensive Austen family had exchanged with or about her sister Janeways. What is not known He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes'why, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn' she did this t have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at this stage the college, was working a cash-in- more than two hundred years after Janehand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's death - a definitive answer is unlikely to forthcominglife seems bleak in every direction. Gill Hornby And yet, he still has provided us with some possible answers in a book tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that proved to be far more emotionally complex than I was expectingfeel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=1398527122

|author=Rory ClementsSylvie Cathrall|title=Hitler's SecretA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=ThrillersScience Fiction|summary=So, Hitler had There are few greater joys than a secret? Two, if you include the reproductive detail mentioned in book which lives up to a certain sing-song aspersioncompelling premise. But And this is a secret that is counter to that, and in fact is a secret that Hitler himself doesn't even know about. His neice, Geli Raubal, the attractive young woman he seemed to be very close to in the early 1930s, had had his daughter behind his back. Protected under a false identity ever since, the girl is completely ignorant one of her past, and the truth is a very rare thing. Martin Bormann, the 'gatekeeper' to Hitler and his right hand man, knows – and is desperately intent on wiping the slate clean and removing all connected with her existence from the Reich. So it's down to Tom Wilde, an American history professor at Oxbridge, to go in and extract her, in this most shadowy race against timethem.|isbn=18387702750356522776

|isbn=02419851101786482126|title=All the Rage The Janus Stone (D I FawleyDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Cara HunterElly Griffiths

|summary=A very beautiful, but extremely distressed teenage girl Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was picked up by a minicab driver on going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the outskirts bones of Oxforda child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. She didn't want to go to the police station Was this a ritual killing or the hospital: she just wanted to be taken home. murder? The driver wasn't so certain though - and after dropping the girl at home he went to the policeInevitably, which is why DI Adam Fawley found himself talking to Faith Appleford and her motherDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Both were adamant that this was nothing more than an April FoolIt's joke which had gone wrong. No crime had been committed and Faith didndifficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't want to take , that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the matter any further. Fawley and his team weren't prepared to leave it at that and one night they began investigatingspent together some three months ago. What they found strange was that Faith Appleford didn't seem Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to have much sudden bouts of a historysickness.

|author=Joan Didion|title=The Year of Magical Thinking|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wear.|isbn=0007216858}}{{Frontpage|author=Alba de Cespedes |title=Forbidden Notebook|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This Italian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, Valeria Cossati, purchases her forbidden notebook, and learns about herself in the most intimate and revealing ways.|isbn=1782278222}}{{Frontpage|author=Ottessa Moshfegh|title=My Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the fragility of human relationships; at worst, it is the cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of an unlikeable protagonist. This unlikely heroine, a slim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is disillusioned with the world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation.|isbn=1784707422}}{{Frontpage|isbn=15294002790008551324|title=Six Wicked ReasonsThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Jo SpainNeil Lancaster

|summary=It was early summer 2018 and Adam Latimer returned home to Spanish Cove after an absence of ten years. The family had thought him dead - in fact, that's what unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the private detective his mother had insisted upon had told thempolice. He was cagey about exactly where he'd been but he seemed content, if not happy, to be homeNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. What brought him? Well, nine years ago his mother died But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he'd seen s prepared to tell the ''in memoriam'' in police where the paper: this body of a missing person is buried and who was the first he'd heard about what had happenedresponsible for her death. His three sisters and two brothers had mixed feelings about his returnThis person, he promises, but his father is delightedsomeone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. In fact, And what he's determined wants is to be transferred to an open prison to have a party. Only, with Frazer Latimer, what happens has serve the remainder of his sentence and to be about himget an early parole date. He has an announcement Not much to make - ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn's nine years since Kathleen died t think so and heshe's been lonely. Heeven prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's met Ana, a Polish immigrant, and they're getting marriedhappening.

|authorisbn=Penny Chrimes1739526910|title=Tiger HeartWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=''Fly never meant One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to end recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in the cage with a man-eating tiger. She just saw her chance to skedaddle, and she took it. And even when the cloud of soot cleared and she saw the golden eyes local world of a killer staring into hersunlikely friendships, she still didn't turn round mobile discos and climb back up the chimney straightaway. 'Cos there was worse waiting for her back on the roofsurprising romantic possibilities.''What an opener! And there's plenty more to come!|isbn=1510107045

|authorisbn=Tanya Landman0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Eyre: a RetellingCasey

|genre=TeensCrime|summary=A young woman, fresh It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from living with horrid relatives who could care less about her, bed one summer night. She was never found and years in the investigation ground to a dreary schoolhalt. Now, moves into Thornfield Hall with only one intent – to have something like the life she wants – and with only one jobher mother, to tutor a young half-French girlHelena, whose and her father is almost always absentare dead in their bed. When he does turn up he seems to be darkInitially, brooding and troubled – it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but thatthere's nothing compared something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to the darker, more broody be an open-and even more troubled secret in the house-shut case is now a complex double murder. Yes, if you know Jane Eyre then you know Kerrigan is convinced that the rest – but if you donexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'ts boss, for whatever reason, this is a wonderful book to turn toUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=1781129126

|author= T R HendrickJo Callaghan|title= What if They KnewLeave No Trace|rating= 4|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's 2025their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Underneath But when there is a lodge in the Blue Mountain resort in Pennsylvaniasecond body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a secret facility. Here, Dr Benton potential serial killer and his team are making some critical scientific advances on behalf a very high profile case that draws a lot of the Benefactor, unwanted attention to their anonymous funderAI Future Policing project. Already, Will they be able to solve the team have succeeded case in teleporting small primates from one place to another. Buttime, unbeknownst to or will Kat find herself taken off the Benefactorcase and, Dr Benton has also coded for another type potentially, out of teleportation altogether - travel through time. And he's ready to test. If successful, Benton has a very specific use for his technology in mindcareer?|isbn=1734277211139851120X

|authorisbn= Catherine Steadman1529077745|title= Mr NobodyThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating= 4.5|genre= ThrillersCrime|summary= Don't you just hate it when people are multi-talented? Author Catherine Steadman is both a successful actress and writer, with this her second novel. I think A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a way her acting background shows man in her writing as to my mind the 'fight scene' at park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the end care workers who was somewhat unrealistic – you know the kind where the hero has been hurt so many times that it's virtually impossible they'd still be alive let alone able due to fight off an attacker. The story also unfolded at work a steady pace throughout until shift the ending which felt overstuffed night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in a frenetic bid to wrap everything up in investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the last few chaptersresidents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. It Some people believe that Chloe was almost responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as if the author wanted girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to keep the suspense until the last possible moment (which I liked) but then was somewhat left with too much discover what happened to do in the closing stagesJosh.|isbn=1984890646

|isbn=14736818471399613073|title=In Her EyesMoral Injuries|author=Sarah AldersonChristie Watson|rating=4.5

|summary=Ava lives Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a charmed lifecentury. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, but those things sometimes rub other people up which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the wrong way. One evening group and she returns from becomes a night out with GP. When we first meet them they're at a friend, drug and before she can finish her bedtime routine, her home, alcohol-fuelled party and her life, are under attack: masked men have broken it's going to end in and are demanding money from her husband, while her young daughter cowers beside himtragedy. In We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the scuffle than ensues, Ava is hurt, badlyconsequences. When she wakes up in hospital she can barely remember what happened, but she knows it was life Twenty-changingfive years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. With her daughter still fighting for her life in a room down the corridor This time, Ava has a lot to contend with as she tries to recover, wills her daughter to recover, and attempts to piece together what happened and whyit's their teenage children who are involved.

|authorisbn=Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit Seaton0241636604|title=Wonder WomanThe Trading Game: Warbringer: The Graphic NovelA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=34.5|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary=Diana, being unique on her islandIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the victim of a lot of tauntsEast End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and claims injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of nepotismEconomics. It's only her unique status, Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and her mother being Queen, that he has her a facility with any standing at all, her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be a strong young womanstupid. Perhaps too strong for the islandIt was his ability at what was, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for the World of Menessentially, and this Diana is the heroine of yet another Wonder Woman origin storya card game which got him an internship with Citibank. A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running raceEventually, but the survivor she drags from the waters is only going to disturb this turned into permanent employment as a lot more..trader.|isbn=1401282555

|isbn=1786075695B0DB64PYV5|title=When the Dead Come Calling (Burrowhead Mysteries 1)The White Rose|author=Helen SedgwickDave Baines|rating=54|genre=CrimeDystopian Fiction|summary=It began with the discovery of In 2033, a body under superstorm known as the swings in White Rose devastates the childrenNorthern Hemisphere. And it's playground. It was Dr Alexis Crosse and he was found by PC Simon Hunternot a storm that gathers, who loved him deeplywreaks havoc, but who had reason to mistrust himthen dissipates. Crosse was a psychotherapist who grew up in GreeceInstead, but such professions are misunderstood in Burrowhead (along it hovers across half the Earth with foreigners)its octopus-like tentacles, a community which regards anyone not born and brought giving up there as an outsider. DI Georgie Strachan is an outsider - you've only got to look at her skin to realise that, and her husband, Fergus, well, he's a little strange too, not entirely ''here''never going away.

|author=Alastair ChisholmLeanne Egan|title=Orion LostLover Birds

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Thirteen-year-old Beth and When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her parents board the transport ship Orion ready for a new life on Eos Five. Their new home is still being terra-formed A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, and life there that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't going to be easy, but it ''? Because Lou isstraight, isn'' going to be a fresh start. As Beth's mum puts itt she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, ''Thereand she's never had a future waiting for us. A chance good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to make our own decisionshang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, create our own lives.'doesn't she?|isbn=1788005929000862657X

|isbn=07535532361009473085|title=Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change EverythingConservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=B J FoggAnthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)

|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=Go on, admit Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. If you're not quite perfect. You still have those oddlooking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, quirky, even loveable (to then this isn't the book for you) habits that seem to annoy other people. Other peopleIf that's what you're looking for, of courseI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, are sorely afflicted with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correct{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, if only they would make just a little bit of effortcan be bettered for those tumultuous years. Or put another way, I get cross with myself because I forget to do things or do some actions more than I It's a compelling read and should and no matter how I try to make what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to get to grips with the conceptspolitics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast. I constantly fail It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and then I get cross with myself for failingco-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. Lack This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of willpower is another burden to add to the listnation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.

|author= B T KeatonMax Boucherat|title= Transference|rating= 4|genre= Science Fiction|summary= Barrabus Madzimure is about to die, stranded on a mining planet millions of light-years from home, executed for high crimes against the Church, the ruling body of Earth. Except he's not Barrabus Madzimure, he's Thaniel Kilraven in Barrabus Madzimure's body. Such is the magic of Transference, the ability to transplant a person's soul or consciousness into a different body - and a power that the Church has exclusive control over. As if Thaniel doesn't have enough things to worry about, a Church employee named Corvus has arrived from Earth to interrogate him. All Thaniel wants is to see his family again, and he'll stop at nothing to accomplish this, but the Church isn't going to give in without a hell The Last Life of a fight...|isbn=B082WPHTHH}}{{Frontpage|author=Christine Brown|title=Bucket Showers and Baby Goats: Volunteering in West AfricaLori Mills

|genre=TravelConfident Readers|summary=In We meet Lori on the summer of 2008, this bookfirst evening she's author was spending her days working got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in , babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an office job in the USA while spending avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something elselonesome. Long story short What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she ended up volunteering in Ghanahas one main intention, West Africa. Now coincidentallyand that is to log on to Voxminer, in the summer of 2010world-building, this reviewcritter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's author was spending 'world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her'' days working in an office job (albeit in own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the UK) while spending ''server she and her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere else, doing something bestie and nobody elseshould be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and ''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering her safe place in Sierra Leonethe game has been doctored – well, West Africa. So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted where is a girl to have the opportunity to read and critique it.turn?|isbn=171024299X0008666482

|author=Mark LinganeJenny Lecoat|title=Degrade (Tesla Expansion)Beyond Summerland

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary= ''Degrade'' opens as it means to go Jean lives on - Jersey with inyerface, banging actionher mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. Poor Arid, alone in During the desert since his parents were killedwar, has Jean's father was arrested for listening to a narrow escape as two mega-rigs fight it out banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and his is pretty much destroyedher mother waiting for years for news of him. He finds himself rescued by As the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard British finally free the ''Moonlight'' under Channel islands from the suspicious eyes of its leaderNazis, Queen Bea. Bea's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before he can find out why that and the war isfinally over, there's an assassination attempt and Arid is under suspicion and imprisonedtheir hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea's daughter - sees Arid and her But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other daughter, Frey, stranded in secrets have been kept throughout the desert...occupation?|isbn= 099461649X1846976537

|isbn=B07XLM3SM61529428289|title=Murder at A Grave in the Dolphin HotelWoods (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)|author=Helena DixonMartin Walker

|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven Because of various property transactions, people were searching for the grave but when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916they found it, leaving her daughter, Kitty, in the care it came with three sets of her grandmotherbones. A great deal of money had been spent They dated back to find out what happened World War II and it fell to her and Bruno, the conclusion was that she was deadChief of Police for St Denis, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this discover the identities of the bodies and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother establish whether or not a crime had to leave to look after her sister who was illbeen committed. She was reluctant As if this isn't enough to leave Kitty in charge worry about, the Dordogne River - and Kitty could not understand whynormally tranquil - is flowing at record levels. SheIt's always coped with not just the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and local autumn rains that have caused the naval college problem: various dams upstream on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotel. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother's friends another river have been roped in had to keep an eye on things ''release water and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired to take charge St Denis faces the possibility of security at the hotela devastating flood.

|authorisbn=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)152919640X|title=The Honjin MurdersSuspect|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5

|summary=To many readersThe nation's favourite daytime TV presenter, the phrase Jessica Holby, was murdered live on television and it seems that there'locked room murder mysterys only one suspect. He' is enough to make the book one s celebrity chef Sebastian Brooks and his contract stated that he must not serve anything containing miso to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'Jessica Holby. For those who need more, here is the extra background – weShe're s seriously allergic and carries an EpiPen in rural Japan in the 1930scase of emergencies. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although the whole affair is really not Everything seemed as normal - as ostentatious normal as it might they can be – hardly anybody has turned upin a busy, what with it being arranged at great hastelive television studio - and Brooks served a ragout to Holby. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the wedded couple Her EpiPen was nowhere to be slashed to death in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriagefound and she was dead within minutes. What with a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, It was soon clear that this case has a lot of the peculiar about itwas no accident.|isbn=1782275002

|authorisbn=Cixin Liu0008385068|title=Death's EndThe Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=Science FictionThrillers|summary= If IIt'd been paying more attention when I picked this book up, I would have put it back s midsummer on the shelfDorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. Not because I didnIt't want to read it, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of a trilogy. Coming in partway through a saga is never the easiest thing to do s their opening weekend and it's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing the back-story there splendid celebrations are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when itpromised. It's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understandall headed up by Francesca Meadows. This latter is particularly true of Cixin LiuThe Manor was her ancestral home and she's work – his range is phenomenalconverted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. George R R MartinHer husband, who knows a thing or two about world-creationOwen, described it as ''a unique blend was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of scientific the site. The heat is oppressive and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology''amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. All of that Old scores are going to be settled and moreit won't be long before a body is found.|isbn=1784971650