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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Clive Lawton1739526910|title=Flowers From FukushimaWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley

|summary= In 2011, Japan was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. That and the subsequent tsunami caused level 7 meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. ''Flowers from FukushimaOne year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley'' riffs on this s life, he arrives in a post-apocalyptic story an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of a Japan devastated by even more and even bigger natural disastersreconnecting with everything he has lost. It follows two main characters But as they pick their way through the devastationthose tentative plans falter, each trying to make sense he becomes swept up in a local world of this new unlikely friendships, mobile discos and very different worldsurprising romantic possibilities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00CDLAK0E</amazonuk>''

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lynsey RoseJenny Lecoat|title=First Aid Kit GirlBeyond Summerland|rating=54

|summary=Steph hates Jean lives on Jersey with her jobmother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. She hates her colleagues. She likes During the work first aid kitwar, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a lotbanned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. She’s trundling along As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, doing not very muchand the war is finally over, finding her release where she cantheir hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. To me But will the truth come as a relief, or will it seems like she loves to hate her life. Takes great pleasure in despising it, in fact.raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956235123</amazonuk>1846976537

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gill HornbyOnyi Nwabineli|title=The HiveAllow Me to Introduce Myself

|summary=ThereAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's an old joke thatincreasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for parentssponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, there are only two good days monetary gain. Now Anuri is in the school holidays - the first her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and the lastto get her life back, but in St Ambrose the ''real'' work begins when the children go back suing her step-mother to school at the start of take down the new school yearcontent about her. There's a new head at the school (and he'll have to be knocked into shape) but the real power Anuri is Beatrice - 'Bea' battling alcoholism, failing to those whom start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she elects to call friends for the time being - who rules the parentsis desperately worried about her little sister, decides who is in or out and what status they should have in the communitynew focus of Ophelia's online empire. And how does Can she do it? Wellsave her sister, she's and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the queen.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408704358</amazonuk>0861546873

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jasper Gibson1529153298|title=A Bright Moon For FoolsThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45

|summary=Jasper Gibson’s debut novel, It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A Bright Moon For Foolswoman? I mean, tells the story of Harry Christmas and his drunken escapades in Caracas and the small villages of Venezuelahonestly... Harry Christmas is nowhere near as jolly as his name suggests) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, in fact Harry is drunken conmanthough. Women have been disappearing. He has pushed his luck too far and is forced Well, they've been murdered, but to fly have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to Venezuela to evade William Slademove the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, the irate son of Down South is a woman Harry fleeced out of £27frightening, foreign place,000best avoided. Harry’s life is defined by booze For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and where she'll do anything to get prevent that. She's not worried about the next drink; he is having a major breakdown. Slade is no better off and is also having his own mental crisis: unfortunately for Harry, Slade’s breakdown is of a much more psychotic naturedangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957468105</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Scottoline1035906708|title=Come HomeDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5

|summary=You divorce a partnerWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, not a child, so although Jill and William’s split meant but she was no longer legal step mum born to his daughter AbbyGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, in some ways December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she never stopped seeing was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her as a daughterfather changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. Now, years after they last met up, Abby shows up on Jill’s doorstep with some devastating news about Jill’s ex When she was back in Athens -husband. News supposedly so that will unsettle both their lives, and she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the lives of Jill’s new fiancé Sam, Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her own biological daughter. While Abby wants to pull preference for her into untangling a mysteryelder sister, Sam is reluctant to encourage this investigation, and the family reunion it will bring, leaving Jill torn between her new family and her old oneJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091944937</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antoine LaurainAlexander McCall Smith|title=The President's HatPerfect Passion Company

|summary=The milliners' advertising used Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to say 'Canada to get ahead, get away for a hat'while. They would very much approve Katie is coming out of this book. Daniel Mercier is a Mr Average - or perhaps a Monsieur Mediocre. He's break up with a lowly accountant until one evening he finds himself dining next to French Presidentbad boyfriend, François Mitterrand, who leaves and so jumps at the restaurant without his hatchance to come home to Edinburgh. When Daniel decides And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to keep itan Edinburgh we already love, his life starts thanks to change 44 Scotland Street and he feels somehow more confident. In other strands of the storyIsabel Dalhousie novels, Fanny Marquant is having an affair but with an older man some new characters who clearly quickly begin to charm. Katie has no intention of leaving experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his wife while celebrated perfumer Pierre Aslan has lost job, he loses his ability to detect smells fiancee, and to create perfumeshis house gets trashed. Bernard Lavallière Oh, meanwhile is struggling to live up and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to the right wing standards of his wifehome, and it's friends and starts possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to read deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the more left wing papersdelivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. At some point Spike is going to take care of Benny, all and will come certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into contact with the PresidentBenny's hat and it will have an impact on all of themwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908313471</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ma JianKatherine Howe|title=The Dark RoadA True Account|rating=4.5

|summary=One of my many lovable traitsHannah Masury is living in Boston, according having been sent to my belovedlive with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is my ability to absolutely insist I haven't read be a book before (when he catches me reading it again)hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and watch. This has Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the huge benefit hands of my getting two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to discover it all over again – sea, dressing as a boy and joining the massive downside that I will never get to notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the end thick of my reading listthings when there is a mutiny on board, which must exist and from there we are caught up in some kind her rip roaring tale of Möbius looplife on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701187530</amazonuk>0861547438

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Sarkissian1471180158|title=Dear LucyMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes

|summary=Dear LucyJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Dear Jamie's son, Bo, sweet Lucy'has his problems'. Lucy lives on a farm with Mister He's asthmatic and Missusthe more you read, but the only person who is truly kind more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to her is Samantha, who lives there with them. Lucy finds it difficult, take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimesBo's not fit enough to go to school. She doesn’t always have Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the words she needswrong. She tries very hard It was going to be good but sometimes her helping come to a head.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CKD1L5JL|title=Radio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is more brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a hindrance. But she knows more that people think. She knows that although Mum Mum sent her to live brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the farmforest, she will come back for her one day. That is why Lucy must never leave broadcasting the farmstrange, otherwise Mum Mum won’t know where to find herwild and rarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444767585</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian KimberlingSarah Marsh|title=SnapperA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5

|summary=There's little doubt that Brian Kimberling's debut novel, ''Snapper'' is After a slightly unusual book. The publishers describe it bout of scarlet fever as a coming of age storychild, and it is after Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a fashionworld of silence, but it's more everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the vein use of an adult looking back on his young adult self than the more conventional young person grows up way of looking at things. The narratorsign language was seen as something only savages do, NathanEllen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, shares many of the traits of his creatorbut physically restrained from signing. Like Kimberling From here, he is brought she ends up in Indiana another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and is involved in research of songbirds in that state; effectively using a paid bird watchersystem called Visible Speech. The title of At the book though comes not from any type of birdsame time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, but from the snapping turtle that lives and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in the state. It's a broadly affectionate and wry look at the people complicated tangle of Indiana, known as 'Hoosiers'espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0307908054</amazonuk>1035401614

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Melvyn BraggB0BC3YTCMR|title=Grace and MaryGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|summary=Grace and Mary ''This story is a tender and moving account spanning not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three generations weeks short of the same familyher fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. In the first chapter She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, we are introduced and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to ninetyhug her in case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-two year -old Mary and Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her doting son, John. Mary is in a nursing home Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and has dementia, hovering in a limbo-world, precariously balanced between the present Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his house and the pasthe raped her. John delights when he catches the occasional glimpse of the ''real'' Mary In shock, and they find she even allowed him to give her a meeting place, of sorts in their shared world of memories and songslift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444762346</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucy Clarke1472263936|title=The Sea SistersFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=4.5

|summary=Kate is as sensible, focused and down It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to earth as Greece. She was alone: her sister Mia is reckless and unsettledmother, Greek by birth, so it’s no surprise that it’s Mia who leaves London behind to go traveling. With dreams of seeing had left the USA, Australia family home and beyond, Mia sets off excitedly with her best friend Finnrefused to return, but this once in Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a lifetime pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip tragically becomes just that as some months later Mia is found dead to the family apartment in Bali, an apparent suicide plungeup-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. With She grew to love her life thrown into turmoil grandmother and unable to get past the things they saidfamily's maid, and didn’t sayDina, to each other when Mia but was alive, Kate makes a rather Miawary - and frightened -like decision to leave it all behind too. Armed with Mia’s travel journey, she sets off to retrace of her sister’s steps, stop by stopgrandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to try the Junta and work out what Mia was going through, expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and what ultimately lead to green eyes - inherited from her deathfather's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007481349</amazonuk>

{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian ClaryB0BVDC2VWH|title=Briefs EncounteredThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank

|summary=Choosing this book from Julian Clary was irresistibleThe village is isolated and poor. NormallyIt's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, I try not to review books where I’m already familiar with authorif needed. But I didn’t feel The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that seeing him live several times or watching him regularly on TV countedis the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, as I hadn’t read either lazy lout of his two previous novelsa man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091938856</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Suzanne BuglerB0BYF82CXT|title=The Safest PlaceSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating=54

|summary=Jane ''Bill and David Berry have always lived Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and worked in London. Howeverdisappointment, since their children have come alongwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, the house has felt too cramped successful and Jane has often dreamed of moving awayvery much in love – move in next door. When Despite their son Sam fails to get a place at his chosen secondary schooldifferent outlooks on life, that is the catalyst she needs couples befriend each other and life appears to start making her dream a realityimprove for both pairs. The only problem But all is that the rest of the family are not quite as enthusiastic about moving as she would have hoped. David will have to commute every day to London what it seems, and the children their increasingly interconnected relationships are anxious about starting a new school, particularly Sam who finds it difficult to make friends. Even Jane starts to wonder if it was a good idea, isolated in a house miles from anywhere, finding it difficult to get to know the local communityfated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330544969</amazonuk>''

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maria SempleShalini Boland|title=Where'd You Go, BernadetteThe Silent Bride|rating=43

|summary=Much like the missing question mark Alice and Seth are a match made in the title it would seemheaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, Bernadette has disappeared. Maria Semple's ''Where'd You Goclever, Bernadette'' works as both a physical funny; total and emotional questionutter husband-material. Bernadette Fox She is the all he could possibly want in a wife of Elgie Branch; beautiful, a star at Microsoft in Seattlesuccessful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and mother of 15 year old, Beethe wedding is planned and set. The narrative begins with Bee wondering where her mother had gone, but then quickly moves to an epistolary format told in e When the much-mailsanticipated day arrives, notes and messages between Alice is walked down the major players, including some rather obnoxious mothers at Bee's schoolaisle by her father, one of whom also works at Microsoft beaming with Elgie. We are taken back a few weeks pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Bernadette was around and a seemingly somewhat angry mother prior Seth turns to her mysterious disappearance. One of face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the delights about man at the bookaltar is, which along with being very funny on issues like helicopter parenting, corporate life and, er, Canadians, is that it emerges that Bernadette who is more than a wife and mother but has a past career of her own as a talented architect which she has sacrificed waiting for one reason or another. Thus, in many ways she disappeared long before her physical disappearanceto become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0316204269</amazonuk>1662507089

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Currie1787636003|title=The Ottoman MotelGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=3.5

|summary=Simon Sawyer is 11 years oldIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, forced on a roadso when thirty-four-year-trip with his parents old Alistair Wright started to visit his grandmothertake an interest in her, Irisshe was flattered rather than wary. Iris is living in some backwater town hemmed in on three sides It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and by corn fields, and on the fourth that time she was obsessed by the seahim. The town is called Reception in a heavy-handed attempt at irony Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, as we learn looking after his interests on the town actually has no reception for mobile phones island and is pretty much isolated from in particular in the rest of bar where all the world but for a few dirt tracks leading outgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908737190</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Susie SteinerAmanda Craig|title=HomecomingThree Graces|rating=34.5

|summary=Ann and Joe Hartle are approaching their sixties and hoping to slow down a littleFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. Their sheep farming life is starting to take its toll and it’s an enticing thought that they may be able to pass There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the farm on to their son Max. The only problem is that atmosphere of the farm is hardly making any profit day and Max is not capture it, crafting an image of the most capable person country as it stands in the worldone particular moment. Added to To say that, Max’s wife Primrose Amanda Craig is expecting a baby and that is not without its difficulties. The Hartle’s other son, Bartholomew, is far away in London trying to run his own business and also scared about committing to his girlfriend, Rubyskilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. The family She has started to fall apart over such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the years but when things go badly wrong on day into the farm including lives of her characters in a barn fire and a virus way that spreads through the sheep feels natural and newborn lambslived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, there is the opportunity to pull together and start anewgrappling with issues far larger than themselves. Is this something that the family can do or will they fall apart even more?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571297196</amazonuk>140871468X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Harris152915118X|title=The Song the Waves Sing Pineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5

|summary=Some time has passed since we [[Sea Creatures by Val Harris|last saw]] ''Pineapple Street'' is the Moon familystory of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Charlie Moon has been released from prisonDarley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. His sister Olivia is in New York but Jenna is still in CornwallThey're Stocktons, where only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so sheisn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's turned exacerbated when the family home clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into a B&Bthe Pineapple Street property. Their father Brendan is a reformed character Tilda and Chip have renovated and he's moved downsized to Looeanother property, where he's a partner in an art gallerystreet or so away, which they own. But everyoneThey won's life has its ups and downs: Olivia is made redundant t need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and the only logical Cord can move is back to straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the UKreality. Then Brendan overhears a conversation Darley and realises Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that his business partner is deep in an art fraudthey abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955599784</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=O H RobssonEmily Critchley|title=The SparkOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Kristoffer lives 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house on the edge of a lake in Western Norway and bring Edie to live with his dog and occasional company from his friend Matsfamily, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. By profession he’s a photographer However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and enough business comes his way to keep him the way he wishes to live. He’s relaxed - too much so at times when you’re relying on him (always worry that there was a mistake) to secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be punctualthe thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. There has been After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the occasional girlfriend - some of them pretty stunning - but none last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of them ever came up to Eva whom he met when they were both in their teens and working in the local hotel memories coming back to earn some moneyher. His grandfather has a summer cabin up in And yet as she remembers the mountains past, she is forgetting more and Kristoffer’s happy to go up more in her day to spend time with him and take him his suppliesday life. You might think that’s pretty idyllic - Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and it is.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00BJOS364</amazonuk>1804181250

Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Megan Shepherd0008506337|title=The Madman's DaughterGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=3.5

|summary=Teenager Juliet Moreau has had a hard life since her father The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was vilified twenty-one and described by Victorian societyMargo's mother as 'an older man'. Thinking him long dead, Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she scrapes could achieve - going to Oxford and having a living as best she can – but a chance discovery at a macabre glittering career. In the event leads , they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to her Oxford and went on to learn that he is alive become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and her life is cast into chaosholidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007500203</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A M Homes1914585402|title=May We Be ForgivenDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5

|summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There'May We Be Forgivens Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There'' is not an easy book to summarise. The book is narrated by Harold, s Only One Danny Garvey]] a fairly pedestrian academic teacher couple of years back and aspiring writer of history remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and particularly the Nixon eraaffecting it was. We don't have to wait long for the catalyst that changes his life fundamentally over the course of It was a year. His high flyinggripping, younger brotheremotionally wounding read, George, is involved in a car accident shortly after Thanksgiving and an adulterous encounter will change the lives rereading my review of Harold and George forever. AM Homes offers a biting satire of the American Dream, taking swipes at materialism, families it my main takeaway was that are more nuclear fallout than nuclear, Internet sex sites and the dependence on drugs and psychiatrists to keep people I might not have lavished enough praise on the straight and narrowit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847083234</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert GoolrickLucy Ashe|title=Heading Out to WonderfulClara and Olivia

|summary=Charlie Beale returned from The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the war in Europe and 1948 found him in Brownsburginside. And not on stage, Virginiaeither. HeBecause there'd been driving around looking for somewhere s a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to settle detail – and all he had with him were two suitcases. One contained an excellent set of butcherssome things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don' knives - and t come from the other was full of moneyclassroom. Brownsburg seemed like A stage presence, a fine place to stay and before long he had charm, a job with Will Haislett and the Haislett family became ''hisjoie de vivre'' family. He'd never hankered after children but their five-yearThe difference between a hard-old sonworker, Sam found and a place in his heartstar.|isbn=0861544080}}{{Frontpage|author=Heather Fawcett|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Life might have been Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good if it had continued with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in this veinthe small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, but Charlie Beale met Sylvan Glassshe is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily'sfrustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953677</amazonuk>0356519120

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mohsin Hamid1398515388|title=How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising AsiaThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=Inside Mohsin Hamid's ''How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'' is a bitter-sweet love story disguised as a self help book. It's a well structured concept and works nicely. Each chapter is presented in the format First of those common to all, it was the self help genreearthquake, with advice like 'Move to deep in the City'ocean floor, 'Get an Education' etc., although which created the chapter entitled 'Be Prepared to Use Violence' is a notable omission from most business tomes tsunami and self help books. After some general chatty comments this, in the self help book styleturn, caused the attention turns to two people who are named only 'the boy' nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and 'the pretty girl'utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, charting their rise and fall the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from rural poverty in an unnamed Asian country (although it certainly feels like Pakistan) to business success and wealth in their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the citytsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. The two are not He wasn't a couple, dog person but their lives cross at frequent times the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and he, Tamon the dog jumped in particular, remains infatuated with his childhood acquaintance.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144663</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edward Kelsey MooreChristopher Bowden|title=The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-EatMr Magenta

|summary=In Plainview, Indiana there are three women who have been friends since their teens. Forty years after they first met theyChristopher Bowden're still known as the Supremes, the name given to them by Big Earl at his All-You-Can-Eat diner. The diners latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's now run life, carried out by his son, Little Earl, but you'll find the Supremes at the table in the window every Sunday, her nephew after church, along with their familiesshe has died. Odette tells us her own story, from the time she was born in The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a sycamore tree, which made her the fearless soul she is. But now she's up against something which even she might not be able little bit of indulgence to face down. Clarice was always the well-brought-up a young lady as well as being nephew had had a musician of some considerable merit, but her husband is causing her problems. Even serial philanderers would be in awe of what Richmond gets up much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an obligation tofind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444758020</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eleanor HendersonJennifer Mason|title=Ten Thousand SaintsPartitions of Unity|rating=3.54

|summary=Eleanor Henderson's debut novel ''Ten Thousand Saints'' is set in late 1980s Vermont andHere at Bookbag Towers, more memorablywe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, New York. Opening dominatrix and unintentional detective in 1987 we discover in the second sentence that one [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a series of the two boys hiding under the stands to the Vermont school football field on match day will die that nightdisappearances. It's a powerful opening. From then on, the book deals first with TeddyIn 's death and then with the life he has left behind in the form of his friend Jude, Jude's sort Partitions of step sister Eliza and TeddyUnity's older brother Johnny. It's , she sets her mind to solving a world of broken homes and the trinity of sex and drugs and rock and roll, or more specifically punkmurder.. Henderson is particularly good at evoking the underground scene in New York at the time before the unlikely combination of AIDS and mayoral intervention combined to clean up the city.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780872194</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF