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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a 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}}'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]]at TheBookbag. '''<br>
Want to find out more [[About Us|about us]]? __NOTOC__ ==The Best New Books== '''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].'''<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= David McKeeFyodor Dostoyevsky|title= ElmerWhite Nights|rating= 5|genre= For SharingShort Stories|summary= Everyone knows the story of Elmer As always in Dostoyevsky, the elephant who character work is sublime. One is never left wondering what a character is ‘’not’’ elephant colour, thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and this board book allows him to be introduced to an even younger audiencetemperaments with remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1783442689</amazonuk>0241619785
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Leah McLaren0008385068|title= A Better Man|rating= 4.5|genre= Women's Fiction|summary= Maya and Nick are both the same type of person. A special type of person. She doesn’t really see it, but they are. He is obsessed with his company, an advertising agency, and the expected long hours of not just shoots and post-production, but also client relationship management that such a field entails. She is just as obsessed, but it’s not with her former life as a hot shot lawyer – now she’s obsessed with their twins and every moment of their little lives, from enriching activities to bonding sleepy times in the family bed. The one thing they’re no longer really obsessed with, though, is each other. And therein lies the problem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782396349</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewMidnight Feast|author=Jess Vallance|title=BirdyLucy Foley
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensThrillers|summary= Frances has always been a loner, quiet It's midsummer on the Dorset coast and guests gather at The Manor. It's their opening weekend and isolated, so when shesplendid celebrations are promised. It's asked to look after the eccentric new girl Alberta for a few days all headed up by Francesca Meadows. The Manor was her ancestral home and she doesn't expect anything to come of s converted itinto an impressive retreat for the wealthy and famous. Her husband, Owen, only hoping that was the architect and work is still ongoing on parts of the whole incident will pass without embarrassmentsite. The last thing she expects heat is for oppressive and amongst the new girl guests are enemies as well as friends. Old scores are going to become her best friend. Albertabe settled and it won's warm companionship is everything Frances has been missing for so many years, so when conflict inevitably arises, Frances t be long before a body is determined to do anything to save their friendshipfound. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471404668</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo McMillanJames Baldwin|title=Motherland: A NovelGiovanni's Room
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Jess is a teenage Communist which isn't a surprise since she comes from a Communist family. Her late father was a card carrying member and Jess spends her weekends selling 'Giovanni'The Morning Stars Room'' follows the narrator David, an American man living in Paris, as he navigates his torturous affair with her equally enthused mother Eleanor. It's not only a thankless taskGiovanni, it's not an Italian bartender he meets in a very welcome sight for some citizens in their native Tamworth of the 1970sgay bar. However Eleanor and Jess' lives are about While David is engaged to changeHella, who is travelling in Spain, thanks to an all-expenses paid trip to the GDR – Communist East Germany; a place on real tension in the same side of novel arises not from his infidelity but from the Berlin Wall as Jessdeeper conflict within himself. It is David' s crippling shame and Eleanor's hearts. However, they both learn denial of his sexuality that even a political heaven has its lessons and, indeed, its downsideultimately dooms his relationship with Giovanni.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473611997</amazonuk>0141186356
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Katharine McMahonAshley Hickson-Lovence|title=The Woman in the PictureWild East
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionTeens|summary=In February 1926 London was tense and divided between those who supported the principle of Written in verse, this is Ronny's story, a general strike and those young black fourteen year old boy from Hackney who were prepared suddenly has to move to break it Norwich and start at whatever cost to themselvesa mostly white school. Evelyn Gifford The move is a newly qualified solicitor and whilst sheinitiated by Ronny's sympathetic to the miners shemum who is worried for Ronny's preoccupied by two cases from opposite ends 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 the social spectrumtrouble. Trudy Wright is a maidservant accused of theft He listens to music constantly, and Evelyn has undertaken this case ''pro bono'': her argument is that the 'theft' was always dreamed of being a letter asking for a reference for Trudyrapper. But now, in this new school, but she was too frightened his teacher encourages him to hand it to her bullying employer, so only she was the loser. The Wright family worm their way into Evelyn's life: the father is be part of a bullyingpoetry writing workshop group and, drunken, wife beaterslowly, Ronny begins to see the mother is scared connections between rap and brow beatenpoetry, but and the son, Robbie, is deeply involved with the unionspower of creativity and crafting your words.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297866036</amazonuk>0241645441
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leah Thomas1635866847|title=Because You'll Never Meet MeThe Lavender Companion|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|rating=4.5
|genre=ThrillersLifestyle|summary=Ollie and Moritz can never meetIt's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for you. Because if they did Before I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', one I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of them would almost certainly diea slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. Why? Because Ollie is allergic to electricty I don't eat cakes and Moritz has an electrical pacemaker inserted in his heartdesserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. Ollie spends his life hidden away in (There's a log cabin recipe in the forest - away from all book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the electricity that sends him into life-threatening seizures - with only his mother book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the occasional visit from Dr Auburn-Stache for companymargins are sanctioned. He did also have a friend, Liz, but he lost her a while back. Moritz is equally isolated even though he goes You get to school. Born without eyes, Moritz "sees" fold down the world through echolocation, like a batcorners of pages. You might think suspect thatsmears of butter would not be a problem. I ''loved's miraculous, but Moritz just thinks it makes him a freak' this book already.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140886262X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rosamund LuptonJenny Valentine|title=The Quality of SilenceUs in the Before and After|rating=45|genre=ThrillersTeens|summary=MattElk and Mab are best friends, or more than that even, their friendship is a wildlife film maker is reported to have perished once in a fierce fire that sweeps through the first nation Alaskan village in which he's workinglifetime connection. All thatThey meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's left of him is his wedding ringcontact details at the time. This is a huge shock to his wife Yasmin who has flown to see him with their 10 year old daughter RubyBut then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Yasmin Something has come to talk to Matt to see if happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they still have a relationship worth saving. Some would say that his death is an answer to that question but Yasmin doesn't accept that. She doesn't even accept he's dead must work through their grief, and will search the frozen Alaskan wastes to prove ittheir friendship, together.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349408122</amazonuk>1471196585
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1787333175|title= Francis OYou Don'Gormant Have to be Mad to Work Here|titleauthor= Worrying: A Literary and Cultural HistoryBenji Waterhouse|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryPopular Science|summary= ‘’Worrying: A Literary and Cultural History’’ begins with 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 familiar scene for anyone who experiences that persistent feeling glorious mixture of insight into the workings of fretful panic: lying awake in the early hoursNHS, unable humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to switch off, thoughts turning over in your headbe Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. If I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this common setting but the laughter is directed at a situation hits home, ‘This book’, its author Francis O’Gorman writes, ‘is for yourather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.’|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144115129X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Anna CaltabianoMariana Enriquez|title= The Seventh Miss HatfieldA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyShort Stories|summary= Cynthia Mariana Enriquez writes horror that is a simpledisturbingly 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, All American girl who whilst generally happy – she’s fed an overcrowded homeless shelter and watered with a roof over her head crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - and relatively care free, she is somewhat bored all within Argentina. The circumstances of her existence in Suburbia. Miss Hatfield is Cynthia’s mysterious and rarely seen neighbour. What an enigma she is and how compelling and irresistible it is for Cynthia to attempt to discover more about her. Ever hear characters are so plausible that the phrase ''Be careful what you wish for''?supernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473200415</amazonuk>1803511230
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dead End Kids: Heroes of the Blitz Onyi Nwabineli|authortitle=Bernard AshleyAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=ItAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's London in 1940. Most increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of the men have been conscripted Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and the East End , basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is populated mainly by women in her twenties and children. Josie she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her friends are carrying on much as usuallife back, though, grouping into little gangs and arguing over turf via mud fights along suing her step-mother to take down the Thamescontent about her. But then comes a terrible night of bombing. It's the Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start of the Blitz her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and 57 consecutive nights of bombing receiving money from them for the East Enddoing so. The fire service Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is stretched way beyond its capacity and the lucky ones make it out new focus of the shelters in the morningOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, while and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the unlucky ones don't see another sunrise.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408338955</amazonuk>0861546873
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Accident SeasonDavid Chadwick|authortitle=Moira Fowley-DoyleHeadload of Napalm|rating=4.5|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=For a month It's September 1973 in every year, the month leading up to HalloweenHicks, Cara's family are susceptible to accidentsCalifornia. There are cuts Hicks is a Mojave desert town of a few thousand people with its nearest neighbours of LA and scrapes and bruisesLas Vegas both a significant drive away. Sometimes there are broken bones. And sometimes, the accidents are even fatalNot much happens in Hicks... ... it's a curse, right? What else could it be?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>055257130X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Lee Crutchley|title=How to Be Happy (or at least less sad): A Creative Workbook|rating=4|genre=Lifestyle|summary=I gave up hoping for happiness many years ago silver mine and settled instead for enjoying contentment when it arrived and trying to make a defence contractor are the most of it. main local employers but otherwise, there'Happiness' seemed to be rather like 'privileges' - something which you shouldn't expect as s not much of rightnote other than dive bars and Joshua trees. Most of the time it works wellLife is quiet, but just occasionally an extra boost - a new approach - is neededuntil... Lee Crutchley has suffered from depression and he knows that this book is not going to help when you're clinically depressed, but those of us who have been down that road know that there are certain laybys where you stop and possibly turn around.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241201950</amazonuk>B0D321VJ76
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emma CarrollTom Percival|title=In Darkling WoodThe Wrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= In the early hours Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the morning Alice’s mum receives wrong shoes', he has the phone call they wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have been waiting enough money foreven 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. The long awaited heart transplant Throw into that mix the fact that may save her sick brother, Theo’shis mum and dad are separated, and Will's life is now possibleseems bleak in every direction. Alice finds herself sent to stay with And yet, he still has a grandmother she doesn’t know, miles away from her friends and the life she knowstiny amount of hope. There He is no TVgood at art, no phone signal and no internet but Alice feels drawn clings to the mysterious Darkling Wood surrounding the house despite her grandmother’s wish to have it chopped down. Meanwhile back in 1918 a young girl desperately waits for news moments of her brother’s safe return from the front. Her mother doesn’t like her playing in the nearby wood but it joy when he is there drawing, that she discovers secrets and magic that give her hope for feel like a light at the futureend of a long, dark tunnel. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057131757X</amazonuk>1398527122
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Fire Colour OneSylvie Cathrall|authortitle=Jenny ValentineA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Iris has never known her father. He didn't want her, her mother has always said. He threw them out years ago. But now she's about to meet him again. Her father is rich, you see, and dying, and Iris's mother and stepfather have worn out their welcome in LA. So they're running away from debts and towards a rich, terminally ill old man, ripe for exploitation. There's also the small matter of some of Iris's own bad behaviour. But the less said about that, the better|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007512368</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=The Potion Diaries|author=Amy Alward|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Samantha is are few greater joys than a mixer of potions extraordinaire. Which is just as well, because someone has book which lives up to save a princess who has fallen in love with herselfcompelling premise. Yes, you heard right! You might not think And this is the most enormous problem - princesses are so spoiled and pampered, is it any wonder they fall in love with themselves? But this isn't what's happened. Princess Evelyn has taken a love potion meant to make someone else fall in love with ''her''. And the resulting havoc caused by the wrong person taking the right potion leads to some very unstable magic that could threaten the very kingdom itself. Hence the ''Wilde Hunt'', a national quest to find the ingredients for a cureone of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471143562</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=Thirteen Days of MidnightThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Leo HuntElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Luke Manchett really isnBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury't that upset apartments - when he gets they discovered the news that his father has diedbones 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. You might think that It's a tad harshdifficult as Ruth knows, but Luke has been estranged from his father for years. His primary concern is his motherNelson doesn't, who that she is disabled by crushing cluster headaches. So, rather than worry her, Luke heads off to a lawyer's office to deal pregnant with the reading of his father's will by himself. And he gets child as a shockresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. Luke's inheritance adds up Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to six million dollarssudden bouts of sickness. SIX MILLION!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408337460</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alistair McGuinnessJoan Didion|title=Half a World Away: Surviving the Move to a Land Down UnderThe Year of Magical Thinking
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Sometimes you read about a particularly exciting time in an authorThis book is Joan Didion's life but later you find yourself wondering how theyheartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband're doing, how life worked out for thems sudden death. Since I read [[Round the Bend: From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a Search for Life After Redundancy by Alistair McGuinness]]about eighteen months ago I've often wondered how he beautiful and Fran were doing in Australia and I was delighted when ''Half a World Away'' landed on my desknecessary resource to help people feel less alone. When we left Ali Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and Fran they'd had an exciting delusion and eventful year during which they'd travelled through Central and South America and then on to Africamakes them utterly normal, but they were planning lends them a human face to settle down in Australiawear. Don't worry if you haven't read ''Round the Bend'' as both books read well as stand alones and you can always go back to the first book later, can't you?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00XIVXB68</amazonuk>0007216858
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Piper0008551324|title=Hibernia Unanimis: "Pro Deo, Rege et Patricia, Hibernia Unanimis" The Devil You Know (For God, King and Country, Ireland is UnitedD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary= Benedict Plunkett calls a meeting of a small but select and distinguished group of Irish and US politicians, clergy and business men It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to whom he explains his plans for Hibernia Unanimis – a united Irelandapproach the police. It will be raised up by and Neither side likes or has any respect for the Irish other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in response prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the new UKIP government in Londonbody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Before the great This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the good leave Benedict's mansion they are asked police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to sign contracts if they want an open prison to be part serve the remainder of his futuresentence and to get an early parole date. Some signNot much to ask, some donis it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't but all think heso and she's deluded and nothing will come of it. Then even prepared to do the accident happens other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and everyone takes Benedict a little more seriously as, in time, will the English governmentanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00YGUSPOS</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739526910|title=Where I've Not Been Lost|author=E M DaveyGlen Sibley|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|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.''}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=Foretold by ThunderA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=A university professor is randomly killed by 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 thunderbolt after posting a package of history texts to journalist Jake Wolseyhalt. Was his death really that random? Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Jake doesn't have long to ponder that before heInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's off to Turkey with archaeologist Florence Chung to investigate something about the ancient religion positioning of the Etruscansbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He's not the only one interested; MI6 are tailing him for What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a reason even the agents concerned don't knowcomplex double murder. As history starts to reveal its secrets and connects with names centuries after Kerrigan is convinced that the Etruscans diedexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Jake and Florence realise this is as much a fight for their lives as it is for knowledgeUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649930</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Scarrow1529077745|title=Hearts of StoneThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Ann Cleeves|rating=34.5|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Wars are often written about and A man walking his dog in the further back you go early morning discovered the more unreal they feelbody of a man in the park near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The description dead man was Josh - one of the care workers who was due to work a Roman Soldier being killed seems shift the night before but who had never turned up. D I Vera Stanhope is called in to have little impact on our lives today, investigate the murder - buther only clue is the disappearance of one of the residents, what about Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam? fourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. How far must one go back before we feel detached from events? World War Two ended 70 years ago, Some people believe that Chloe was responsible for the death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it still ripples through clear that she adored Josh. She knows that she has to find Chloe to today. There are stories still discover what happened to be told from this time, but they must be written well and sensitivelyJosh.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755380223</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Dougherty and David Tazzyman (illustrator)1399613073|title=Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Bees of StupidityMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=We've been here beforeOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. The lovely children whose name Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is in the title of all these books – handy a bonus when they make time you aim to try be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and check if they're in this one or not – are woken up in a ridiculous way by a blackbird making his usual cameotrauma doctor. The Army of Great Kerfuffle Anjali is asleep – all single cat the free spirit of itthe group and she becomes a GP. The King is wearing When we first meet them they're at a badge that allows him to pretend to not be the King – this time hedrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's thinking of keeping bees, although he has four animals that go 'quack' going to end in a hive insteadtragedy. Oh yeah, and We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the evil badgers are in prison having been naughtyconsequences. But they Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will never follow impact the pattern and be evil and naughty and break out in order to be eviller and more naughtythree friends. This time, will they?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192742736</amazonuk>it's their teenage children who are involved.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Sedgwick0241636604|title=Ghosts of ShanghaiThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=ShanghaiIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, 1926you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. The city A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is heavily divided between the naturalEast End, national areaswhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the enclaves London School of the foreigners – Russian, French, American, BritishEconomics. Several Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of the younger international youths have formed the Ghost Society gang, after the principal character, Ruby, found another divide cleaving Shanghai in two – us can only envy. He also realised that between the living and the dead, the 'real world' and the Otherworldmost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Her brother deadIt was his ability at what was, she seemed to become the conduit for a poltergeist in her apartmentessentially, and recently the gang have even managed to lock a spirit into a bottle and cast it down a wellcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. But the gang is immediately falling apart – the lad she lovesEventually, Charlie, and his sister are diverting themselves from, or have been warned off, any further such activitythis turned into permanent employment as a trader. Rose knows she has to find the source of the problem – and cross any untold divides in her city to find the truth…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444923900</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus and Sean MurrayLeanne Egan|title=TrollhuntersLover Birds
|rating=4.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=West Coast USA in the 1960sWhen new girl, Isabel, and the city is wracked and wrecked by a slew moves to Lou's hometown of missing children reportsLiverpool from London Lou immediately feels Isabel's disdain for everything around her. The parents A misunderstanding between them leaves them hating each other, but Lou feels her pulse racing every time she looks at Isabel or speaks with their new anguishesher, and new rules against playing out after darkthat's definitely because Isabel makes her feel so cross, have no idea of the horrors in their vicinity – literally under their feet lies a city of trollsisn't it? Because Lou is straight, guilty isn't she? Even though none of snatching the children. Last to goher relationships with boys have gone very well so far, Jack Sturgess. Cue the modern era and Jackshe's younger, now grown-up brother Jim, and Jim Jr live never had a sheltered life in the most barricaded and secure home imaginablegood kiss with any of them? So she just finds herself watching Isabel, and Jim Jr's life wanting to hang out with her because fighting with her is as exciting as you'd expect. Unfortunatelyfun, howeverand she definitely just hates Isabel, the trolls are about to make a return to their nastiest of ways – and their intentions are a lot more surprising than Jim Jr could ever predict…doesn't she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471405192</amazonuk>000862657X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anita Davison1009473085|title= Murder on the MinneapolisThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 5|genre=Crime (Historical)Politics and Society|summary=Governess Flora Maguire is sailing from New York Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by describing what it ''isn't'' and that applies to England ''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 the SS Minneapoliscertain occasions, entrusted with then this isn't the task of returning her teenage charge, Eddie back home to boarding schoolbook for you. Unfortunately If that's what you're looking for Flora, the ship is first-class onlyI don't think Anthony Seldon's book, so she spends the first night aboard stowed away in her cabin{{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, acutely aware of her lower social statuscan be bettered for those tumultuous years. Her intention It's a compelling read and should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to stay out of the limelight politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is thwarted when, during a solitary stroll along an entirely different beast. It's the deck, she discovers seventh book in a dead body series which looks at the bottom of impact a government has made and co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the companionwaymost important. The ship staff hastily conclude that this is This book follows the well-established format: a tragic accidentseries of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, but Flora has other ideas the changes that occurred and decides to conduct her own investigationthe situation in 2024. Is there a murderer aboard ship? And if so, is Flora making herself a prime target by poking her nose into other people's affairs?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910208264</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Eve ChaseMax Boucherat|title= Black Rabbit HallThe Last Life of Lori Mills|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionConfident Readers|summary=At Black Rabbit Hall, time goes ''syrupy slow'We meet Lori on the first evening she'. None of s got the clocks house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work properly, but just an hour at Black Rabbit is said to last twice as long as avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a London blanket fort, she has onemain intention, and you donthat 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 get a quarter of the things donefind herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. Every holiday, For the Alton family swap the hustle server she and her bestie and bustle nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of London life for this secluded Cornish retreattampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, a and her safe place that in the game has been doctored – well, where is theirs and theirs alone.a girl to turn?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718182979</amazonuk>0008666482
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jo WaltonB0DGDJRHYD|title= The Just CityNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 3.54|genre= Dystopian General Fiction|summary=Urged on by her brother ApolloIn a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, goddess Pallas Athene founds down to the Just City of Atlantis – a city based on Plato’s republiclast detail. Filling it with an assortments of adults collected from throughout timeSome last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, as well as ten thousand ten year oldsand his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, (one of whom his wife Diana is a disguised Apollo)fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. Whilst the city flourishes, the arrival of Socrates may prove to It will be a fly in the ointment…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150767</amazonuk>while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Caroline LawrenceVirginie Despentes|title= The Case of the Bogus DetectiveKing Kong Theory|rating= 54|genre= Confident ReadersAutobiography |summary= Howdy folks! Welcome to Virginia City, bustling and busy home to prospectors, dancing girls, lawyers, gamblers and newspapermen. It's 1862, and our twelve-year-old pal Pinky 'King Kong Theory'' is continuing the quest to become a successful detective hard-hitting memoir and eventually join Uncle Allan feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chicagoa phallocentric society broken at its core. But for the moment there's so much crime right here Originally written in NevadaFrench, thanks to the untold wealth being found daily book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the nearby silver mines, that Pinky complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and financial partner Ping pornography. Though these discussions are soon busy day and nightintertwined, chasing desperadostheir placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, solving crimes and righting all manner a reflection of wrongstheir original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444010336</amazonuk>191309734X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Marissa MeyerAlba de Cespedes |title= Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's StoryForbidden Notebook|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Meyer’s dedication in this prequel to The Lunar Chronicles is to her fans, The Lunartics. This book is especially for voracious readers who have devoured CinderItalian work of feminist fiction holds an air of suspense and tension from the moment our protagonist, Scarlet and Cress and are desperately awaiting WinterValeria Cossati, though it works as a standalone too. According to the publisher’s note Queen Levana is a ruler who uses purchases her glamour to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinderforbidden notebook, Scarlet and Cress, Levana lived a very different story- a story that has never been told… until nowlearns about herself in the most intimate and revealing ways.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1250069661</amazonuk>1782278222
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David LoadesOttessa Moshfegh|title=The Seymours My Year of Wolf Hall: A Tudor Family StoryRest and Relaxation|rating= 4.53|genre= HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary= In medieval times Wolf Hall or Wolfhall (or even Wulfhall)At best, this novel is a scathing critique of modern society and reveals the long-since-demolished family seat in Wiltshirefragility of human relationships; at worst, was it is the home cynical, predictable and slightly trite tale of the Seymour familyan unlikeable protagonist. Their greatest triumphThis unlikely heroine, followed by a speedy decline and fall, was part of Tudor historyslim, attractive and newly orphaned girl in her twenties is thus disillusioned with the focus of this bookworld, but resolves not to lose sleep over it: in fact, her solution lies in her hibernation.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445634953</amazonuk>1784707422
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ali SparkesJo Callaghan|title=Car-JackedLeave No Trace|rating=54|genre=Confident Readers Crime|summary=A boy genius who speaks Mandarin and Latin and When a criminal who’s just robbed man is found crucified on the top of a bank and stolen a car: it’s an unusual pairing buthill in Nuneaton, it turns outDCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, a perfect teamthe AI detective Lock. ‘‘Car-Jacked’’ leads us through the twists and turns of 12-year old Jack’s adventure when his parents’ car is hi-jacked It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with Jack still insideseveral cold cases.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019273346X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kim Hyun|title=Best Friends|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Teaching your young child new words But when there is one of the wonders of parenthood, but once you have grown tired of teaching them mildly rude wordsa second body found crucified a few days later, what Kat is next? Thankfully, like suddenly struggling with most thing in modern living, there is a book to help you potential serial killer and a very high profile case that is full draws a lot of popular and useful phrases unwanted attention to use in everyday situationstheir AI Future Policing project. I mean who else is going Will they be able to teach you to say Pardon Mesolve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, if you have an accidentout of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447277309</amazonuk>139851120X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin BrooksB0DB64PYV5|title=The Snake Trap: Travis Delaney Investigates White Rose|author=Dave Baines
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|genre=TeensDystopian Fiction|summary=Teen private investigator Travis Delaney is still looking for the people who killed his parents. He needs more than anything to find out why they died. AndIn 2033, fresh from a narrow escape from death at superstorm known as the hands of a criminal mastermind, Travis now suspects that there's a traitor in White Rose devastates the campNorthern Hemisphere. This third installment in the And it''Travis Delaney'' series has s not a barnstorming openingstorm that gathers, wreaks havoc, then dissipates. Travis is abducted by terrorists and held captive alongside WinstonInstead, it hovers across half the security officer gone bad who Travis suspects is the person guilty of his father's death. Travis has a lot of questionsEarth with its octopus-like tentacles, not giving up and never going away. But will he get any answers? And can he get himself out of this horribly dangerous situation?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447238982</amazonuk>
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