Changes

<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, 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 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. We can even direct you to help for [https://www.easywritingservice.com/custom-book-review/ custom book reviews]! Visit [http://www.everychildareader.org www.everychildareader.org] to get free writing tips and [http://www.genecaresearchreports.com www.genecaresearchreports.com] will help you get your paper written for free.

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]].'''<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Michael Morpurgo and Shoo Rayner1635866847|title= Mudpuddle Farm: Hee-Haw HoorayThe Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci|rating= 4.5|genre= Emerging ReadersLifestyle|summary=Two collected stories from Mudpuddle Farm series – It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'Nowt to Worry About', 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'Ticketyt eat cakes and desserts -Boobut 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. How will Notes in the animals react when margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the sky goes strange corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved'' this book already.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and horrifying noises abound? Changes Mab are afoot best friends, or more than that could mark the end of Mudpuddle farm; or even, their friendship is it just a new beginning?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.|amazonukisbn=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=<amazonuk>0008241988</amazonuk>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.

{{newreview <!-- remove 1/8 -->Frontpage|author=Stephan SantiagoMariana Enriquez|title=Returning HomeA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=3.5|genre=Spirituality and ReligionShort Stories|summary=[[Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities:Category:Stephan Santiago|Stephan Santiago]] has experienced life in her settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and a way that's led him to believe we're crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all on a soul journey back home – within Argentina. The circumstances of her characters are so plausible that place we inhabited before we were born. This book is the supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a guide as to how we can optimise this journey for ourselves, those around us and our childrensimilarly tangible texture.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1504305272</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia BlackburnOnyi Nwabineli|title=Threads: The Delicate Life of John CraskeAllow Me to Introduce Myself

|genre=BiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=John Craske was a fishermanAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, from a family where she posted every step of fishermenAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, who became too ill to go to seamonetary gain. He was born Now Anuri is in Sheringham on the north Norfolk coast in 1881 her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and would eventually die in to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the Norwich hospital in 1943 after a life which could have been defined by ill healthcontent about her. There were various explanations for what ailed himAnuri is battling alcoholism, what caused him failing to sink into a stupourstart her PhD, sometimes undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for years at a time and he was on occasions described as 'an imbecile'. But John had a natural artistic talent, albeit that his work had to be done on the available surfaces in his homedoing so. Chair seatsMost importantly, window sillsshe is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the backs new focus of doors all carried his wonderful pictures of the seaOphelia's online empire. Then he moved on to embroideryCan she save her sister, producing wonderful pictures of the Norfolk coast - and, most famously, of perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the evacuation at Dunkirk.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099582198</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= M J TjiaDavid Chadwick|title= She Be DamnedHeadload of Napalm|rating= 4.5|genre= Crime (Historical) Thrillers|summary= London, 1863: prostitutes It's September 1973 in the Waterloo area are turning up deadHicks, their sexual organs mutilated California. Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and removedLas Vegas both a significant drive away. When another girl goes missing, fears grow that the killer may have claimed their latest victimNot much happens in Hicks. The police A silver mine and a defence contractor are at a loss and so it falls to courtesan and professional detectivethe main local employers but otherwise, Heloise Chancey, to investigate. With the assistance there's not much of her trusty Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen, Heloise inches closer to the truthnote other than dive bars and Joshua trees. But when Amah Life is implicated in the brutal plotquiet, Heloise must reconsider whom she can trust, before the killer strikes againuntil....|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178507931X</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah PowellTom Percival|title= Search and Find: Pride & Prejudice: A Jane Austen Search and Find BookThe Wrong Shoes|rating= 45|genre= Emerging Confident Readers|summary= Search and find books are usually aimed at children. They are Will's life is difficult, in a good bit multitude of fun, but they are also a good study tool for adult readers alikeways. Jane Austen He is a fantastic novelistbullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', but her style he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of writing things like food, and his dad can be daunting for those not used to such heavy prose. It is very easy to become '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 myriad of dialoguefact that his mum and dad are separated, characters and eventsWill's life seems bleak in every direction. I find And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good plot summary helps at art, and clings to the moments of joy when approaching her workshe is drawing, this was especially so in that feel like a light at the case end of the perplexing and a long-winded Emma, dark tunnel. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783708271</amazonuk>1398527122

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrice LawrenceSylvie Cathrall|title=Indigo DonutA Letter to the Luminous Deep

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=''In Bailey's opinion, Indigo didn't look like she needed There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a hero. One by one, she looked Mona, Saskia, Betti and Kay in the eye. Then she gave them the finger: slow motion. Headphones on again, she sauntered off towards the science wing. Hell. That was... She was...'' That's Indigo for you! Indigo is seventeencompelling premise. And on her umpteenth school. Pitt Academy this is a last chance for Indigo and her foster mother Keeley is anxious that she makes it there. But it's not easy for Indigo - her reputation for kicking off always precedes her. And that's the least one of it - because someone always finds out about her past: that ''she'' is the tiny little girl who was found by the body after her father killed her motherthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444927183</amazonuk>0356522776

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bethan Woollvin1786482126|title=RapunzelThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Ah Rapunzel, how well we all know about her long golden hair and her difficultBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -the site was going tohold seventy-escape tower! five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. HereThere was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, howeverDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, the story that she is told pregnant with his child as a twist, because there is no handsome Prince who comes riding by to save Rapunzel from her incarcerationresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. NoHer condition will be obvious before long, instead we see Rapunzel not least because Ruth is smart enough to figure her own way out, defeating the witch, and going on prone to a successful witch-hunting careersudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509842675</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Catherine Barr and Hanako ClulowJoan Didion|title=10 Reasons to Love an ElephantThe Year of Magical Thinking|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-FictionAutobiography|summary=Ten reasons to love an elephant, eh? Well, personally, IThis book is Joan Didion've never needed ten reasons as they've always been my favourite large animal, the gentle giants s heartbreaking autobiographical account of Africa and India, but it was good to find out more about them. Perhaps the most surprising fact which I discovered was that they live in herds headed by their ''grandmothers'grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Female elephants and their calves stay together Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and the oldest female elephant is the one in charge as she knows where necessary resource to find food help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and water - delusion and she knows her herd. She remembers about people toomakes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184780943X</amazonuk>0007216858

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Andrew Lacey0008551324|title= The English Civil War in 100 FactsDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryCrime|summary= The It'100 Factss 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' series s prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is now sufficiently well-established as a guarantee of useful introductory historiesburied and who was responsible for her death. This latest additionperson, recounting he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the struggle between King 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 Parliamentto get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is no exceptionit? 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>1445649950</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Cottrill1739526910|title= Terrible True Tales from the Tower of LondonWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating= 4.5|genre= Children's Non-General Fiction|summary=The history of the infamous Tower of London is full of gore and death. Its rich history dates back to the eleventh century and since then it has played host to many famous figures, many of them ill-fated prisoners. The history of the Tower is told within this book's pages, only this time it's told by the ravens that live there. They are the TowerOne year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's guardians who reside there permanently due life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an ancient legend that all 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 London will fall should they be removedunlikely friendships, mobile discos and after centuries of watching over the Tower they have their own version of history to tellsurprising romantic possibilities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406376884</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cara Black0008405026|title= Murder A Stranger in Saint-Germainthe Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating= 45|genre= Crime|summary=Who is Aimee Leduc? I have to be honest It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and say that though this novel may be seventeenth in series from the best-selling Cara Blackinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, it is and her father are dead in fact my first outing with the deft Parisienne detectivetheir bed. And so Initially, if Iit looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there'm honest, I wasn't sure what to expects something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. How does a character with so many investigations under her belt retain the gusto we've come What looked as though it was going to expect from all good literary detectives? Moreover, how does be an author with so well established open-and-shut case is now a character as Aimee Leduc keep her interesting enough for those of us coming late to complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the party? After reading ''Murder explanation lies in Saint-GermainRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent' I would suggest that Black manages it quite easilys boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1616957700</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1529077745|title=Pierre Lemaitre and Frank Wynne The Dark Wives (translatorD I Vera Stanhope)|titleauthor=Three Days and a LifeAnn Cleeves|rating=4.5

|summary=Christmas week, 1999, and Antoine hasn't got A man walking his dog in the early morning discovered the best body of situationsa man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. Some of his friends have parted company with him because The dead man was Josh - one of the new-fangled Playstation, which his mother refuses care workers who was due to let him waste his time on. He's built work a treehouse all by himself, and decided it was solely to woo shift the girl next door that he loves, night before but she's rejected itwho had never turned up. And his best company, D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the dog from murder - but her only clue is the other house next door, was injured in a hit and run, and shot to be put out disappearance of its misery. In the process one of angrily demolishing the treehouse, he's visited by his very friendly and adorable neighbourresidents, the dog's sixfourteen-year-old owner, and Antoine's swung some of the wood at him – and killed him with one fell and very foul sweepChloe Spencer. As Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the title suggests, there will be a very tense few days and nights while death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the guilt amasses with the lad – and/or a lifetime of living on a knife-edge, where any false move could lead girl's diary makes it clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to discover what happened to him being found out…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085705662X</amazonuk>Josh.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Hendrik Groen and Hester Velmans (translator)1399613073|title= The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ years OldMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionThrillers|summary= As Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the old adage goesfirst 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 walk be a mile in someone else's shoes cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is to gain some understanding the free spirit of what the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it is '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 personwill impact the three friends. Admittedly This time, Hendrik Groen isn't much up for long walks any more, but he does acquire a swish mobility scooter to zoom around in; one could say that we get to zoom a mile in Groenit's shoes, and oh, what fun shoes he wears!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405924004</amazonuk>their teenage children who are involved.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy0241636604|title= The ExileTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating= 4.5|genre= Politics and SocietyAutobiography|summary= An account If you were to bring up an image of the fate a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of Al Qaeda someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the Bin Laden family since pin-stripe suit and his background is the events of 9/11East End, where he was familiar with violence, ''The Exile'' plunges into poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the murky waters London School of international terrorism, espionage Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and politicshe 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. Detailed and meticulous It was his ability at what was, essentially, the book tackles the subject from all anglesa card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, providing this turned into permanent employment as a panoramic view of the subject and acting to enlighten and inform the readertrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408858762</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo CotterillLeanne Egan|title=A Storm of StrawberriesLover Birds

|genre=Confident ReadersTeens|summary=Darby lives on a strawberry farm with her mumWhen new girl, big sisterIsabel, step dad and step brothermoves to Lou's hometown of Liverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. She loves musicA misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, dancingbut Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with her, chocolate egg hunts and that's definitely because Isabel makes her big sister Kaydee. feel so cross, isn't it? She Because Lou is warm and funnystraight, and isn't she has Down's syndrome. ? The story looks at the events Even though none of one weekend in Darbyher relationships with boys have gone very well so far, and she's life when the farm is threatened by never had a tornadogood kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her family is threatened by the revelation of a closely-guarded secret.fun, and she definitely just hates Isabel, doesn't she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848126166</amazonuk>000862657X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah Franklin1009473085|title= ShelterThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Historical FictionPolitics and Society|summary=Connie Granger has escaped her bombedSometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to ''The Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 -out city home14 Wasted Years?''. If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, finding refuge in then this isn't the Womenbook for you. If that's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's Timber Corpsbook, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, can be bettered for those tumultuous years. For her, this remote community must now serve It's a secret purposecompelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to politics.<br>Seppe, ''The Conservative Effect'' is an Italian prisoner of war, is haunted by his memoriesentirely different beast. In It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the forest camp, he finds impact a strange kind of freedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as they are drawn together, the world outside their forest haven is being torn apartmost important. Old certainties are crumblingThis 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 both must now make a life-defining choicethe situation in 2024.<br>What price will they pay for freedom? What will they fight to protect?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer McVeighMax Boucherat|title=Leopard at the DoorThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=18 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 Rachel Fullsmith returns home to Kenya after being away at school , on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in England a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and finds that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a lot can change hit in 6 yearsLori's world. Of course she realises But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her mother's death would alter things but own, and then she's not prepared for her father's live-in 'companion' Sara nor Sara's son Harold sleeping in Rachel's old roomfinds something even more spooky. Michael For the Kikuyu servant boy server she grew up with is still there though and now a man with his own ideasher bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. Meanwhile the unrest between the British rulers When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the local Mau Mau fighters game has been doctored – well, where is increasing and about a girl to blow.turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241247616</amazonuk>0008666482

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony RyanFyodor Dostoyevsky|title=The Legion of Flame: Book Two of the Draconis MemoriaWhite Nights

|genre=FantasyShort Stories|summary=WARNING: There are spoilers for [[The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria by Anthony Ryan|Book 1]] from the beginning.Lizanne LethridgeAs always in Dostoyevsky, Blood-Blessed and secret agent of the Exceptional Initiatives Division has survived another mission, only to be forced to go out againcharacter work is sublime. This time it entails One is never left wondering what a man-hunt in a place from which no one has emerged alive. Talking about alive, Claydon Torcreek, having escaped several types of death in the jungles now goes to the southern ice with Hilemore in character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their current attempt to defeat the dragons innermost dispositions and put the world on a safe footing. What if all that waits for them is more dragons and more inventive ways to die? That's a thought that's soon banished from his mindtemperaments with remarkable clarity. 'This is where we save the world' says Clay… but he's been wrong before!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0356506401</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreview <!-- remove 26/7 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Ritchie Valentine Smith0008385068|title=Words of Fury: Volume 2 (Words of Power)The Midnight Feast|author=Lucy Foley|rating=4.5|genre=FantasyThrillers|summary=Warning: Spoilers ahead…Emmanuel (Man) Kinross, Yoshi, Joah, It's midsummer on the Voice Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and Dirk Faslane splendid celebrations are promised. It's all fleeing the Lord of the North in a giant floating bubbleheaded up by Francesca Meadows. This is a delicate conveyance when you consider that The Manor was her ancestral home and she's converted it into an impressive retreat for the stakes are high wealthy andfamous. Her husband, Owen, if caught by was the evil Lord architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the North, the world as they know it will endsite. They just need to get to the Waning of the Moon, a psychic fortress that spells safety but there's still a long way to go The heat is oppressive and amongst the odds guests are very much against themenemies as well as friends. The Lord of the North has more power than they've seen yet Old scores are going to be settled and more devastating ways to use itwon't be long before a body is found.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1544214839</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Elena Varvello and Alex Valente (translator)James Baldwin|title= Can You Hear Me?Giovanni's Room|rating= 4.5|genre= CrimeLiterary Fiction |summary= In 1978''Giovanni's Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in a small town in Northern Italy Elia Furenti is sixteen and troubled. His mundanely stableParis, loving and ordered life is rocked by the murder of a young boy and the disappearance of a young woman, who vanishes into the woods. As Elia struggles to make sense of as he navigates his shifting relationship torturous affair with his increasingly erratic and unpredictable fatherGiovanni, an Italian bartender he begins to question what role this volatile man may play meets in these acts of senseless violence. Into this steps Anna, the mother of Elia's friend, a woman bowed under the strain of life and haunted by her choicesgay bar. As the heat of summer intensifiesWhile David is engaged to Hella, so does Elia's certainty that something who is desperately wrong travelling in his home. Drawn, seemingly inevitably, to the mysteriously sensual and sad AnnaSpain, Elia feels the ground start to shift under his feet, to feel real tension in the wind whipping novel arises not from his face infidelity but from the cliff edge of adolescence deeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and the unavoidable pull denial of adulthoodhis sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473654874</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gavin Herbertson B0DGDJRHYD|title= William and Dorothy Wordsworth: A MiscellanyNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 54|genre= AnthologiesGeneral Fiction|summary= William Wordsworth was In a defining member quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the romantic literary eralast detail. He was part of Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the first waveworld, and his poetry helped to shape a large part of itlife. It's horribly sad. Nature is the key: existing At work in natureher shop, finding one's own true nature his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and becoming natural in the process were the driving forces behind itailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903385598</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chae Strathie and Anna ChernyshovaVirginie Despentes|title=Captain Firebeard's School for Pirates: The Sneaky Sweet StealerKing Kong Theory

|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography |summary=The ''Rusty BarnacleKing Kong Theory'' is set a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to sail againarms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, with the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a second term for woman through the wannabe pirates and their teachers complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and crewpornography. TommyThough these discussions are intertwined, despite being latetheir placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, is a reflection of their original form as independent essays.|isbn=191309734X}}{{Frontpage|author=James Baldwin|title=Giovanni's Room|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=''Giovanni's Room'' follows the keenest pupil there – after allnarrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he has great friendsnavigates his torturous affair with Giovanni, enemies an Italian bartender he can easily vanquish, and meets in a very good novice parrot for companygay bar. But everyone on board has reason for concern when they set sail – While David is engaged to Hella, who is travelling in Spain, the real tension in the prize sweets novel arises not from his infidelity but from the tuck shop are going missing in great quantitiesdeeper conflict within himself. It is David's crippling shame and denial of his sexuality that ultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni. Who could possibly be behind this mystery?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140716340X</amazonuk>0141186356

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah HuttonAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=Cool PhysicsWild East|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceTeens|summary=If you arenWritten in verse, this is Ronny't entirely sure about s story, a phrase such as ''Christiaan Huygens states his principle of wavefront sourcesyoung 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, don't worry – it was only and so Ronny finds himself trying to settle in 1678 that it happeneda new town, a new school, so you're not too far behind in physicsand keep himself out of trouble. Brownian motionHe listens to music constantly, and the gravitational constant has always dreamed of being measured both date from before the Victorian eraa rapper. But now, and all of these three things are on the introductory timeline in this booknew school, which I think might well his teacher encourages him to be proof enough that part of a primer in poetry writing workshop group and, slowly, Ronny begins to see the connections between rap and poetry, and the world power of physics is very much neededcreativity and crafting your words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843653249</amazonuk>0241645441

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy HopkinsAlba de Cespedes |title=The Valentine's Day KittenForbidden Notebook

|genre=Dyslexia FriendlyLiterary Fiction|summary=Marcie is distraught. On Valentine's Day last year she'd didn't receive a single card and her parents could see that she was upset, so when she came home from school there was a box on the kitchen table and in it was the most gorgeous fluffy silver kitten. Misty and Marcie were soon inseparable until the day that Misty went out without a collar on - and didn't come home. Marcie blamed herself: Misty's collar had broken and she'd never got round to buying a new one. Mum has put notices up everywhere she can think This Italian work of and rung the local vets and animal rescue centres, but there's no sign feminist fiction holds an air of Misty. Then Marcie starts having dreams, about a boy, a hotel, a painting - suspense and Misty. Will there be a happy ending?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178112678X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Shane Hegarty|title= Darkmouth: Hero Rising|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Things seem as bad as they can get for Finn, trainee Hunter of all those nasty things that keep trying to get through to our world tension from the Infested Side. His dad has been sackedmoment our protagonist, leaving him practically alone to face the baddiesValeria Cossati, both monstrous and human, he has no weapons or back-up apart from his friend Emmiepurchases her forbidden notebook, and the family has even been kicked out of the house they've lived in for generations. Of course, learns about herself in the way of the best stories, you only have to hint that things couldn't get worse for them to do exactly that. And any beastie that's got all the monsters from the other dimension scared is not going to be a doddle to fight. Far, far from itmost intimate and revealing ways. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007545622</amazonuk>1782278222

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Lucy DanielsOttessa Moshfegh|title= Summer at Hope MeadowsMy Year of Rest and Relaxation|rating= 43|genre= General Literary Fiction|summary=''Animal Ark'' was At best, this novel is a popular series scathing critique of children's books written between 1994 modern society and 2008. The stories focus on a young girl called Mandy Hope, reveals the daughter fragility of two vets who run a practicehuman relationships; at worst, Animal Arkit is the cynical, in the Yorkshire town predictable and slightly trite tale of Welfordan unlikeable protagonist. Along with her best friend JamesThis unlikely heroine, a slim, the children seek to help out creatures attractive and newly orphaned girl in need. The series consisted of 94 books in total and was written by a collection of authors writing under the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. ''Summer at Hope Meadows'' her twenties is disillusioned with the first world, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in a new series for adult readersfact, continuing grown-up Mandy's story now that she is a fully qualified vether solution lies in her hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473653878</amazonuk>1784707422

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frederic Dard and Louise Rogers Lalaurie (translator)Jo Callaghan|title=The King of FoolsLeave No Trace

|summary=Having sort of split up with his partner, Jean-Marie When a man is on holiday alone found crucified on the southern French coasttop of a hill in Nuneaton, when he chances DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to meet a married English womanthe case alongside her sidekick, Marjoriethe AI detective Lock. They meet in the most unusual ways – It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with two identical cars parked next to each other, she gets in the wrong one by mistake, then leaves her beach bag behindseveral cold cases. Lo and behold they find each other at the casinoBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and the following day, when she arrives at his hotel a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to reclaim her bag, they meet heart to hearttheir AI Future Policing project. Jean-Marie sees her Will they be able to be a very unhappily married woman, and not even solve the arrival of his partner and make-up sex can convince him he is not case in love with Marjorie. But finding her again time, or will take him to Edinburgh – Kat find herself taken off the case and into no end , potentially, out of trouble…a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178227197X</amazonuk>139851120X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania HershmanB0DB64PYV5|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersThe White Rose|author=Dave Baines|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories Dystopian Fiction|summary=I won't be alone in stating that reading short story collections can be slightly awkward. Going through from A-ZIn 2033, witnessing a bounty of ideas and characters in short order can be too much, but do you have superstorm known as the right to pick and choose according to what appeals, and what time you have to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surely. Such would appear to be White Rose devastates the case hereNorthern Hemisphere. The last time I read one of this authorAnd it's collectionsnot a storm that gathers, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]]wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Instead, it hovers across half the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing themEarth with its octopus-like tentacles, but here you not only get a whopping forty pieces of writing, they are also spread into sectionsgiving up and never going away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>