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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from the many walks of literary life - fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>
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<metadesc>Expert, full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, non-fiction, children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>
Hello from The Bookbag, a book review 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 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.
 
  
There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' reviews at TheBookbag.
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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!
  
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]?
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There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews]] at TheBookbag.
  
==New Reviews==
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Want to learn more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]].'''
 
  
'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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==The Best New Books==
__NOTOC__
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{{newreview
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'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
|author=Charles Dickens
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|title=The Mystery of Edwin Drood
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'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Jen Beagin
 +
|title=Big Swiss
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Humour
|summary=
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|summary=I found the premise of this book totally original and addictive. Greta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, there's a confidentiality agreement, as the sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, but that just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the safety of the wall and buzz far too close to the sun. The sun in this analogy is the sex coach's newest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and irresistible to Greta. Suddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to Om, fly out of the window. She's in too deep.
If you have never come across 'Drood' before, there are certain significant factors which make this a 'must read'. It is Dickens' last work, and he died without completing it. Given that this is a detective story, one of the very first in that tradition, it is doubly intriguing, because although we are clearly being fed clues and hints throughout, at the point where the text ends we aren't even fully sure even if a crime has been committed. So as the basis for endless speculation about what really happens this novel could hardly be bettered. We certainly have potential villains and victims, but we also have a number of likely red herrings; complex threads of romantic interest, but again it is by no means clear exactly which way these will resolve; and a shadowy detective figure, whose speculations certainly have no sense of conclusion.
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|isbn=0571378579
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849904278</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529077745
|author=Maria V Snyder
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|title=The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)
|title=Touch of Power: Avry of Kazan Book 1
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|author=Ann Cleeves
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
 
|summary=The game is up. Despite the risk that she would be betrayed Avry couldn't stop herself from healing a sick child, and after years on the run she is in a cell awaiting execution. Then a band of misfit companions offer her freedom, in return for healing their prince. Unfortunately, said prince is the one who spread the idea of the healers' guilt in the first place, and as such he is Avry's sworn enemy.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848450656</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Henning Mankell
 
|title=The Troubled Man
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Hakan von Enke was a retired naval officer and a man of routine.  Each morning he went for a long walk in the forest near his Stockholm home, but one day he failed to returnIt's a long way from Ystad, Kurt Wallander's home town and the only reason he became involved in the case was the fact that von Enke's son Hans was the partner of Wallander's daughter Linda.  Wallander became concerned about von Enke some months before when they had a long discussion at his seventy-fifth birthday partyHe'd seemed worried and wary of a stranger in the streetVon Enke's disappearance hit the family hard - and then his wife disappeared as well.
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|summary=A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teensThe dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned upD I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe SpencerSome people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548402</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1399613073
|author=Francesca Beauman
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|title=Moral Injuries
|title=Shapely Ankle Preferr'd: A History of the Lonely Hearts Advertisement
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|author=Christie Watson
|rating=5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=History
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=You might think the Lonely Hearts ad a trivial matterYou might think it should appear in lower case and not be capitalised, but you'd be in disagreement with Ms Beauman, who gives a big L and a big H to it every time she writes of it in her survey of its historyWhat's more, she gets to write about a lot more than just the contents of the adverts in this brilliant book.
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|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a centuryOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, 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 group and she becomes a GP.  When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedyWe don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences.  Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends.  This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009951334X</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241636604
|author=Jamie Oliver
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|title=Jamie's Great Britain
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|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Cookery
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The Royal Wedding in 2011 and 2012's Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Games mean that ''anything'' which can be adorned with a Union Jack will beBarbour do waxed Union Jack dog coats, so it should come as no surprise that Jamie Oliver is here with a large plate of good old roast beef in front of said flagIt's a splendidly chunky book and beautifully presentedFlick the book open at any page and you're likely to find a double-page spread of pictures (shooting on the country estate, making traditional cakes, foraging for food... you get the picture) or a recipe accompanied by a full-page photograph of the end product.
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|summary=If 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 East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injusticeThere was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics.  Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envyHe also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupidIt was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156811</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Leanne Egan
|author=Katherine Roberts
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|title=Lover Birds
|title=Pendragon Legacy: Sword of Light
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
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|genre=Teens
|summary=From the very first pages of this book we are left in no doubt about the character of Rhianna Pendragon, daughter of King Arthur. As we watch her in a horse race through the woods with her elfin companions we see that she is brave to the point of foolhardiness, stoic in pain and an excellent rider. Furthermore, as the only human on Avalon she has had to endure teasing and even pity her whole life long for her inability to perform magic, not to mention her large size and clumsiness when compared with the slight, delicate Avalonians. The experience has not made her bitter or resentful, however, but rather a determined young woman who can stand up for herself and make her own decisions.
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|summary=When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. 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 that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it?  Because Lou is straight, isn't she?  Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them?  So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848773900</amazonuk>
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|isbn=000862657X
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Jacqueline Rose
 +
|title=Women in Dark Times
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|rating=4
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|genre=Biography
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|summary=''The world of the unconscious is not the antagonist of political life, but its steadfast companion, the hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…''
  
{{newreview
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Women in Dark Times is Jacqueline Rose's homage to courageous women throughout history, particularly women of the 21st, 20th and 19th centuries. Her historical and political backdrop is, thus, expansive, yet she navigates it with intelligence and an acknowledgment that feminism's lengthy mission is a testament to its successes, and not its failures: ''the ongoing force of feminism''.
|author=Sam Bourne
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|isbn=1804271713
|title=Pantheon
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Sally Rooney
 +
|title=Intermezzo
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
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|genre=General Fiction  
|summary=The year is 1940. Oxford don James Zennor wants to serve his country, but due to an injury sustained while fighting in the Spanish Civil War he's rejected as unfit. When his wife and young son disappear, though, the trail leads to America in a journey which will plunge him into a world of secret societies, clandestine deals, and the chance to play his part in the war effort after all. If he survives...
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|summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007413637</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0571365469
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1009473085
 +
|title=The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024
 +
|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Politics and Society
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|summary=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 looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you.  If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics.  ''The Conservative Effect'' is an entirely different beast.  It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024.
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Mark Lingane
|author=James Treadwell
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|title=Chimera
|title=Advent
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=A December Night 1537:  the greatest magus in the world packs everything up and heads down to the harbour. He's booked his passage to England under a new name, heading for a new life. But it is a stormy night, and when the jumble of rags that follows him, speaks in the voice of one he once loved and demands back what he took from her, he refuses. Inside the box he carries, wrapped in wool, in a calfskin pouch warded with every spell he could conjure is a ring apparently made out of wood. 'Inside the ring was all the magic in the world.'
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|summary=''The survivor stumbles forward, her steps echoing in the oppressive silence. Her heart pounds like a jackhammer. She doesn’t know where she’s heading. All she remembers is running. Terror chasing. Everything lost.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444728466</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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''Broken and fragmented recollections tumble around her head. Fear courses through her body. Her breaths come in shallow, ragged gasps as desperation claws at her throat. Dehydration consumes her, and a raging thirst feels unquenchable.''
|author=Michael Grant
 
|title=BZRK
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When Sadie witnesses the private jet in which her father and brother are flying crash into the packed football stadium where she is also present, and narrowly escapes with her life, she might think that the world can't get any crazier. Yet, without any time to grieve the loss of her only remaining close family, she is thrust into the middle of a global conflict. One that involves nanobots and microscopic biots being used to fight for control over the minds of the world's most important figures. While BZRK, a resistance group, fights for sustained freewill and freedom, the Armstrong twins head a movement towards a collective human identity, which will make free will a thing of the past but also, they promise, will bring universal happiness.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405259930</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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''There must be a way out. As she moves through the foreign area, memories begin to gel. Disaster had ploughed through her life—not just hers, everyone’s.''
|author=Alexander MacLeod
 
|title=Light Lifting
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Short Stories
 
|summary=Short stories may not be everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes, particularly with first time authors, there is an annoying tendency to be overly experimental. Not so with Alexander MacLeod's stunningly assured debut. True he has genetic 'form' in that he is the son of novelist and short story writer [[:Category:Alistair MacLeod|Alistair MacLeod]], but even so, the quality of this collection, is remarkable. The collection of seven stories is not overly themed, although certain issues and concerns do reappear, but what binds the stories together is a very human approach to adversity.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093940</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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As our survivor struggles to orient herself, she's guided by a robot, which looks human-made, but she can't be sure. It says it is. It says she must try not to injure herself. Guided to an interview with an eerie, terrifying group of aliens, she desperately tries to make sense of flashes of memory - environmental degradation, deals done and then betrayed, horrifying rituals covering desperate attempts to survive - and to attempt to explain how she came to be here, apparently the last human being alive.
|author=Sarah Rayner
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|isbn=B0DNVWMYP2
|title=The Two Week Wait
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Women's Fiction
 
|summary=Up in Yorkshire , Cath and Rich aren’t sure their future can include children following her major illness, which would be ok if she didn’t want a baby so badly. In Brighton, Lou hasn’t had quite the same infertility issues but has problems of her own that might get in the way of the tick tock of her body clock. The two women don’t know each other, and in spite of what you might expect, don’t get to know each other, but their stories sit side by side in this tale of the trials and tribulations of fertility treatment.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330544098</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1784745758
|author=Bethan Roberts
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|title=Three Days in June
|title=My Policeman
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|author=Anne Tyler
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The story opens with two schoolfriends Sylvie and Marion doing what teenagers do best - talking and giggling about boysSylvie has a rather dishy and handsome older brother called Tom - and Marion has developed a bit of a crush on himBut it's nothing to worry about, she'll grow out of itExcept she doesn'tEven although, deep down, she has misgivings about this rather lukewarm romance.  She's actually sizzling hot for some action, a bit of kissing, a bit of harmless snogging - but Tom's the one who is lukewarm. Why?
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|summary=The day before your daughter's wedding will always be busy but Gail Baines got far more than she asked for.  First, it was her job as assistant head at the local schoolThere was a moment when she hoped that she would be promoted to head but the discussion moved into the subject of 'people skills' and before she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, depending on who was explaining the situationWhen she got home (in the middle of the day: who would have thought that could happen?) her ex-husband was there with a catHe thinks that he'll be staying and that Gail will be adopting the catAnd that's before Gail discovers that the groom hasn't been entirely honest about his personal life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701185848</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Eowyn Ivey
|author=Matt Dickinson
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|title=Black Woods Blue Sky
|title=Mortal Chaos
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=''Mortal Chaos'' is a powerful name, and it's perfectly apt for a book that describes a day in the lives of many characters, some from different countries, some adults and some children, some set for a typical mundane day while for others the day will be the definition of chaos. As the narrative rapidly alternates between the stories of these varied characters, it soon becomes apparent that they are all connected. How, you would think, could the day of a jockey, an airline pilot, a mountain climber on Everest, two boys exploring a forest, a boy in Africa, a thief, a gambler, a television crew, and an insane man with murder in his mind, all be connected? They don't know each other but the lives of all of these characters on this fateful day, depends on the actions of each other. Some will find themselves in life-threatening situations, while others will inadvertently end up causing them!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019275713X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=James Craig
 
|title=Never Apologise, Never Explain - An Inspector Carlyle Novel
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
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|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Agatha Mills and her husband lived in a flat near the British Museum and her body was found in the kitchen one morning.  There were no signs of a forced entry or of doors being left unlocked as an intruder left so her husband Henry was arrested and charged with her murder. His only defence is that Agatha had enemies: she had been pursuing the disappearance of her brother in Chile in 1973 and was hoping that there would be a trial which would provide an answer as to what happened to William. The defence is outlandish and impossible to investigate, but could it, just possibly, be true?
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|summary=''Black Woods Blue Sky'' tells the story of Birdie, the young mother of toddler Emaleen, who longs for a life beyond the Alaskan lodge where she works as a bar waitress, a setting which enables her bad habits and her accidental neglect of Emaleen. Described as a ''wild card'', she feels stuck in her day-to-day life, and yearns to cross the Wolverine river and live on the North Fork to fulfil her desires of a simple life surrounded by nature. When she meets Arthur Nielson, a strange, taciturn and solitary man, who says he has a cabin over there, she feels called to go - and bring Emaleen with her. Without realising it, this calling will transform hers and Emaleen's lives forever.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015848</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1472279042
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Max Boucherat
|author=Caroline Lawrence
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|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|title=The Sewer Demon: The Roman Mystery Scrolls
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|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Fans of Caroline Lawrence's earlier series of mysteries set in Ancient Rome have enjoyed both the thrilling adventures of the four young friends, and the authentic detail which brought those stories so vividly to life. And now, with the adventures of Threptus, readers from about six or seven years of age can enjoy the same delights.
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|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome.  What could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world.  But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky.  For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444004557</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0008666482
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008385068
|author=Terri Armstrong
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|title=The Midnight Feast
|title=Standing Water
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|author=Lucy Foley
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Dom has made the long flight from London to Australia and he's shattered, physically and emotionallyHe's been busy getting on with his shiny new life in cosmopolitan London and has barely spared a thought for the folks back homeHe's not relishing meeting up again with his brother NealNeal took over the family farm and land when their father diedThe two brothers are like chalk and cheeseThey had nothing in common as young boys growing up and when Dom left for Europe, Neal was relievedBut there is still an unsolved issue between them and it's a biggy. Now that they're older and hopefully wiser, will they manage to talk about it and even resolve it.  Time will tell.
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|summary=It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The ManorIt's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promisedIt's all headed up by Francesca MeadowsThe Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famousHer husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the siteThe heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friendsOld scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908136006</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=James Baldwin
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|title=Giovanni's Room
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Literary Fiction
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|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.
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|isbn=0141186356
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Ashley Hickson-Lovence
|author=Andrea Gillies
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|title=Wild East
|title=The White Lie
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
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|genre=Teens
|summary=One scorching hot summer's afternoon Ursula Salter hurls herself into the drawing room of her parents' house and delivers the devastating news that she's killed her nephew, Michael, and that he's in the loch.  But is this what's happened?  Ursula might be in her late twenties but she has the mind and understanding of a child and – crucially – there's no body to be found.  There are contradictions and inconsistencies in what Ursula says – and evidence from someone else who might have this own agenda – all of which allows the Salters to close ranks and construct a version of what happened designed to protect Ursula and allow themselves to avoid the truth.
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|summary=Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780720394</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0241645441
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1635866847
|author=Julianna Baggott
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|title=Pure
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Fantasy
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=A Hiroshima-like event called ''the Detonations'' has transformed life on earthShortly after the Detonations, when the survivors were still hoping for some form of help to arrive, a cloud of leaflets were released all bearing the same message:
+
|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for youBefore I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there'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. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it.  Notes in the margins are sanctionedYou get to fold down the corners of pages.  You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.
 
 
'We know you are here, our brothers and sisters. We will, one day, emerge from the Dome to join you in peaceFor now, we watch from afar, benevolently.'
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755385489</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Jenny Valentine
|author=Anne Rice
+
|title=Us in the Before and After
|title=The Wolf Gift
+
|rating=5
|rating=4
+
|genre=Teens
|genre=Fantasy
+
|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connectionThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the timeBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable.   Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together.
|summary=Reuben is on the up, make no mistake about itHe will turn from a good journalist to a great journalist - it's just that most of his family, his girlfriend and his editor all patronise him with diminutive nicknames based on his boyish good looksWhile staying at a secluded cliff-side mansion in the Californian forests, and researching the back-story of it being on the market for the first time in decades, he survives a bloody attack, and ends up with the house his. And, of course, he receives the Gift - and becomes a werewolf.  What does this mean for him - and for others, and just what are the secrets remaining in the strange mansion?
+
|isbn=1471196585
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187441</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529425905
|author=Chris Judge
+
|title=A Voice in the Night (A D I Wilkins Mystery)
|title=The Great Explorer
+
|author=Simon Mason
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=I really enjoyed Chris Judge's first book, [[The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge|The Lonely Beast]] so I was excited to pick up his latest storyThis time we're following the story of a young boy called TomHis dad, a famous explorer, has gone missing at the North Pole and so Tom sets out to find him. His adventurous, exciting journey sees him facing dangerous animals and the treacherous terrainWill he make it to find his dad?
+
|summary=There's a new Superintendent in Thames Valley — DCS Wainwright—and she's young, ambitious, and ruthless. She talks a good talk about work/life balance and family values, but as far as she's concerned, she has two main problems, and they're both called DI Wilkins.  Ray Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Baliol educated and always immaculately dressed.  He's married to Diane and has twin sonsManagement's opinion of him is that he thinks too highly of himself and his last boss felt that he needed more experience at what he called 'the wet end'.  Ryan Wilkins comes from a trailer park - in fact, it could be said that he's never really left itHe lives in shell suits and tracksuits, always in vivid colours.  Previous management was adamant that he should ''never'' be given responsibility.  Wainwright feels that she would be best shut of both of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849394016</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{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 Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography.  ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatristI did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Mariana Enriquez
 +
|title=A Sunny Place for Shady People
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Short Stories
 +
|summary=Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.
 +
|isbn=1803511230
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|author=Edward Hogan
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|title=Daylight Saving
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Leisure World Holiday Complex, with so many sports and games available, might be the holiday of a lifetime for some teens – but Daniel Lever certainly isn’t one of them. Dragged there by his dad, and feeling guilty over his role in his parents’ separation, Daniel’s expecting he’ll hate it, and his early experiences seem to suggest he’s right. Then he meets a mysterious girl who he’d like to know better – but why do her bruises keep getting worse, and does her watch really tick backwards? More worryingly, why can’t anyone else see her?
+
|summary=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, basically, monetary gain.  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 take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so.  Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire.  Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140633717X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0861546873
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=David Chadwick
|author=Patrick Flanery
+
|title=Headload of Napalm
|title=Absolution
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=If Patrick Flanery's South African-set debut novel ''Absolution'' is anything to go by, he could well be one of the next big names in literary fiction. It's complex and at times challenging, but ultimately an extremely rewarding reading experience.
+
|summary= It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until....
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857892002</amazonuk>
+
|isbn= B0D321VJ76
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Tom Percival
 +
|title=The Wrong Shoes
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Confident Readers
 +
|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.  He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn'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 the college, was working a cash-in-hand 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 life seems bleak in every direction.  And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope.  He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
 +
|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Nick Harkaway
+
|author=Sylvie Cathrall
|title=Angelmaker
+
|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Science Fiction
 +
|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.
 +
|isbn= 0356522776
 +
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1786482126
 +
|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)
 +
|author=Elly Griffiths
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Joshua Joseph Spork (Joe to his mates) is a clock maker and clockwork mender in London’s East EndHe’s spent his life emulating his craftsman grandfather, Daniel, and avoiding the shadow of his late father and crook, MathewHowever, one day all that changes with a visit from heavies, Messrs Cummerbund and Titwhistle and the even more sinister black-veiled Ruskinite monkThey want something that Joe only has a fragment of: The Hakote Book (''Angelmaker'' of the title).  He discovers that the mysterious metal punch cards in his granddad’s box are just the beginningCan he find the rest and literally put the world to rights before all his friends are murdered?  Assisted by a 91 year old special agent, an aged, ugly pug and Polly the insatiable (but rather useful) lawyer, he’ll have a jolly good try.
+
|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorwayThere was no skullWas this a ritual killing or murder?  Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry NelsonIt's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months agoHer condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>043402094X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Joan Didion
|author=Roxy Freeman
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=The Little Gypsy: A Life of Freedom, a Time of Secrets
+
|rating=4.5
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Roxy Freeman, born to a life of freedom and open roads, shares a gypsy caravan with her parents, brother and four sisters. As a child she may not have gone to school but from an early age her skills, suited to living off the land, surpassed those of her more traditional peers. However, her innocence is stolen from her by family friend, 'Uncle' Tony and her childhood becomes tainted by fear and secrets.
+
|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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849833443</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0007216858
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Samantha Harvey
|author=Micah Player
+
|title=Orbital
|title=Chloe, Instead
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Molly imagined her little sister she thought she'd be someone just like her, but instead she got Chloe!  Molly loves to draw, Chloe loves to eat the crayons!  Molly loves books, and so does Chloe but in a rather more page-ripping way!  This lovely story looks at an older sibling trying to cope with her shattered expectations of what having a little sister would be like.
+
|summary=In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0811878651</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1529922933
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008551324
|author=Jonathan Emmett and Steve Cox
+
|title=The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)
|title=The Treasure of Captain Claw
+
|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=For Sharing
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=This is the story of what happens when two dogs, Oscar and Lily, are on holiday together and come across an old treasure mapIn their adventurous quest to find the treasure they are captured by pirates but they cleverly manage to outwit them in a way which leads to a laugh-out-loud conclusion to the story!
+
|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police.  Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death.  This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wantsAnd what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.  Not much to ask, is it?  The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even 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 happening.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846167418</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241678412
|author=Edited by Kelly Milner Halls
+
|title=The Proof of My Innocence
|title=Girl Meets Boy
+
|author=Jonathan Coe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
+
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=Have you ever been in a relationship where you couldn’t understand what the other person was thinking? Perhaps that’s a dumb question… have you ever been in a relationship where you COULD understand what the other person was thinking? In a unique collection, twelve authors team up to write eleven stories telling things the same tales from both the boy's point of view and the girl's. It consists of five pairs of stories, each looking at the same events from a different angle, and a final collaboration which switches back and forth between the two viewpoints throughout the story.
+
|summary=Life after university hasn't worked out quite the way that Phyl anticipated.  She's back home, living with her parents and on a zero-hours contract serving sushi to tourists at terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport.  All those ideas of becoming a writer seem to have come to nothing.  The situation improves when 'Uncle' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughter, Rashida.  Christopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated at Cambridge University in the 1980s. It plans to push the government in a more extreme direction and is ready to act.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1452102643</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1739526910
|author=Anna Wilson
+
|title=Where I've Not Been Lost
|title=The Poodle Problem
+
|author=Glen Sibley
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mrs Fudge had a big house and was rather lonely, so she decided that she would turn part of it into a hairdressing salon where people were encouraged to bring their dogs and to sample her rather delicious home baking. She met Pippa Peppercorn, aged ten and a quarter and a very self-sufficient young lady who was perfectly capable of helping Mrs Fudge by taking coats, making tea and looking after the dogs, but not by being on the operating end of the scissors, much to her disappointment. All was going well until a newcomer to the village of Crumbly-under-Edge opened a beauty parlour and it wasn't long before the competition became, well, just a little bit ''unfair''.
+
|summary=''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 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 a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330545272</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008405026
|author=Victoria Eveleigh
+
|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)
|title=Katy's Champion Pony
+
|author=Jane Casey
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
+
|genre=Crime
|summary=We first met Katy in [[Katy's Wild Foal by Victoria Eveleigh|Katy's Wild Foal]] when she found a newborn foal on her birthdayA real bond formed between the two and the foal is now about three years old and ready to be 'backed' - or to have a rider on his backAway from the ponies Katy is learning that even friends can be a bit thoughtless at times, that old people are not necessarily past it and she finds that she has reserves of strength and determination when it really is a matter of life and death.
+
|summary=It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer nightShe was never found and the investigation ground to a haltNow, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's 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 be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444005421</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jess Rothenberg
 
|title=The Catastrophic History of You and Me
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=When her boyfriend breaks up with her - ''I don't love you'' - Brie Eagen literally dies of a broken heart. Truly. Unable to believe the x-rays, her cardiologist father insists on a complete postmortem and it's true - Brie's heart was broken in two and she died. Brie finds herself in an afterlife limbo with other lost souls and meets a boy called Patrick who tells her she must process the five stages of grief before she can hope to move on. But of course, Brie is at the first stage - denial - and doesn't want to move on at all. She wants to stay close to the family and friends she left behind but more than anything, she wants revenge on Jacob, who broke her heart...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141334479</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Sophie McKenzie
 
|title=Falling Fast
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=River is desperate to get the lead role in the inter-school performance of ''Romeo and Juliet'', because she wants to be Juliet in real life. To know romantic love, and true passion. When she first sets eye on Flynn, who’s been cast as Romeo, she thinks this could be it. But would a boy as intense and as talented as Flynn even look twice at someone like her? As all fans of the Bard know, the path of true love never did run smooth…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857070991</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Latest revision as of 14:35, 10 March 2025

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!

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0571378579.jpg

Review of

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

4.5star.jpg Humour

I found the premise of this book totally original and addictive. Greta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, there's a confidentiality agreement, as the sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, but that just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the safety of the wall and buzz far too close to the sun. The sun in this analogy is the sex coach's newest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and irresistible to Greta. Suddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to Om, fly out of the window. She's in too deep. Full Review

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Review of

The Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope) by Ann Cleeves

4.5star.jpg Crime

A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the body of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh. Full Review

1399613073.jpg

Review of

Moral Injuries by Christie Watson

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, 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 group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved. Full Review

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Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

If 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 East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. Full Review

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Review of

Lover Birds by Leanne Egan

4.5star.jpg Teens

When new girl, Isabel, moves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. 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 that's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, isn't it? Because Lou is straight, isn't she? Even though none of her relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's never had a good kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she? Full Review

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Review of

Women in Dark Times by Jacqueline Rose

4star.jpg Biography

The world of the unconscious is not the antagonist of political life, but its steadfast companion, the hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…

Women in Dark Times is Jacqueline Rose's homage to courageous women throughout history, particularly women of the 21st, 20th and 19th centuries. Her historical and political backdrop is, thus, expansive, yet she navigates it with intelligence and an acknowledgment that feminism's lengthy mission is a testament to its successes, and not its failures: the ongoing force of feminism. Full Review

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Review of

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials. Full Review

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Review of

The Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024 by Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)

5star.jpg Politics and Society

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 looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what really happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the book for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, Johnson at 10, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics. The Conservative Effect is an entirely different beast. It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and the situation in 2024. Full Review

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Review of

Chimera by Mark Lingane

4.5star.jpg Science Fiction

The survivor stumbles forward, her steps echoing in the oppressive silence. Her heart pounds like a jackhammer. She doesn’t know where she’s heading. All she remembers is running. Terror chasing. Everything lost.

Broken and fragmented recollections tumble around her head. Fear courses through her body. Her breaths come in shallow, ragged gasps as desperation claws at her throat. Dehydration consumes her, and a raging thirst feels unquenchable.

There must be a way out. As she moves through the foreign area, memories begin to gel. Disaster had ploughed through her life—not just hers, everyone’s.

As our survivor struggles to orient herself, she's guided by a robot, which looks human-made, but she can't be sure. It says it is. It says she must try not to injure herself. Guided to an interview with an eerie, terrifying group of aliens, she desperately tries to make sense of flashes of memory - environmental degradation, deals done and then betrayed, horrifying rituals covering desperate attempts to survive - and to attempt to explain how she came to be here, apparently the last human being alive. Full Review

1784745758.jpg

Review of

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

4star.jpg General Fiction

The day before your daughter's wedding will always be busy but Gail Baines got far more than she asked for. First, it was her job as assistant head at the local school. There was a moment when she hoped that she would be promoted to head but the discussion moved into the subject of 'people skills' and before she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, depending on who was explaining the situation. When she got home (in the middle of the day: who would have thought that could happen?) her ex-husband was there with a cat. He thinks that he'll be staying and that Gail will be adopting the cat. And that's before Gail discovers that the groom hasn't been entirely honest about his personal life. Full Review

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Review of

Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

3.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

Black Woods Blue Sky tells the story of Birdie, the young mother of toddler Emaleen, who longs for a life beyond the Alaskan lodge where she works as a bar waitress, a setting which enables her bad habits and her accidental neglect of Emaleen. Described as a wild card, she feels stuck in her day-to-day life, and yearns to cross the Wolverine river and live on the North Fork to fulfil her desires of a simple life surrounded by nature. When she meets Arthur Nielson, a strange, taciturn and solitary man, who says he has a cabin over there, she feels called to go - and bring Emaleen with her. Without realising it, this calling will transform hers and Emaleen's lives forever. Full Review

0008666482.jpg

Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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Review of

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and splendid celebrations are promised. It's all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the site. The heat is oppressive and amongst the guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to be settled and it won't be long before a body is found. Full Review

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Review of

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

4.5star.jpg Literary Fiction

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. Full Review

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Review of

Wild East by Ashley Hickson-Lovence

4.5star.jpg Teens

Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who suddenly has to move to Norwich 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. Full Review

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Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

It's strange, the things that make you immediately feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading The Lavender Companion, I visited the author's website and there'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. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

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Review of

Us in the Before and After by Jenny Valentine

5star.jpg Teens

Elk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a once 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. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, and their friendship, together. Full Review

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Review of

A Voice in the Night (A D I Wilkins Mystery) by Simon Mason

4.5star.jpg Crime

There's a new Superintendent in Thames Valley — DCS Wainwright—and she's young, ambitious, and ruthless. She talks a good talk about work/life balance and family values, but as far as she's concerned, she has two main problems, and they're both called DI Wilkins. Ray Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Baliol educated and always immaculately dressed. He's married to Diane and has twin sons. Management's opinion of him is that he thinks too highly of himself and his last boss felt that he needed more experience at what he called 'the wet end'. Ryan Wilkins comes from a trailer park - in fact, it could be said that he's never really left it. He lives in shell suits and tracksuits, always in vivid colours. Previous management was adamant that he should never be given responsibility. Wainwright feels that she would be best shut of both of them. Full Review

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Review of

You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse

5star.jpg Popular Science

I was tempted to read You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here after enjoying Adam Kay's first book This is Going to Hurt, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. You Don't Have to be Mad... promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. Full Review

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Review of

A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez

5star.jpg Short Stories

Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. Full Review

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Review of

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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, basically, monetary gain. 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 take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time? Full Review

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Review of

Headload of Napalm by David Chadwick

4.5star.jpg Thrillers

It's September 1973 in Hicks, California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and Las Vegas both a significant drive away. Not much happens in Hicks. A silver mine and a defence contractor are the main local employers but otherwise, there's not much of note other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Life is quiet, until.... Full Review

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Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn'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 the college, was working a cash-in-hand 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 life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Full Review

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Review of

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall

5star.jpg Science Fiction

There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them. Full Review

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Review of

The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway) by Elly Griffiths

4.5star.jpg Crime

Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. Full Review

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Review of

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

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. Full Review

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Review of

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for Orbital, a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light. Full Review

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Review of

The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie) by Neil Lancaster

4.5star.jpg Crime

It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even 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 happening. Full Review

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Review of

The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe

4star.jpg Thrillers

Life after university hasn't worked out quite the way that Phyl anticipated. She's back home, living with her parents and on a zero-hours contract serving sushi to tourists at terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport. All those ideas of becoming a writer seem to have come to nothing. The situation improves when 'Uncle' Chris comes to stay and introduces Phyl to his adopted daughter, Rashida. Christopher Swann (described by some as a lefty blogger) is investigating a think tank which originated at Cambridge University in the 1980s. It plans to push the government in a more extreme direction and is ready to act. Full Review

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Review of

Where I've Not Been Lost by Glen Sibley

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

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 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 a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities. Full Review

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Review of

A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11) by Jane Casey

5star.jpg Crime

It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's 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 be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced. Full Review