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<metadesc>Expert , full book reviews & recommendations from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crimenon-fiction, cookery & children's books & self-published books plus author interviews & top tens.</metadesc>

Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books reviews and recommendations Reviews by readers 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 libraryWith author interviews, the charity shop features and the bookshoptop tens. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times thereYou'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 sure to us by publishers and we promise to tell find something 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 want to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] pagehere.Dig in!

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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->

|authorisbn=Suzanne Collins0008551375|title=The Ballad of Songbirds and SnakesWhen Shadows Fall (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster

|genre=TeensCrime|summary= Coriolanus Snow is refined, charmingLeanne Wilson's body was found at the bottom of a Scottish mountain, and one of seemingly the only surviving members result of the affluent Snow familya tragic accident. But their world was destroyed by the war. Their riches gone She'd looked so happy, his parents dead - and yet the facade must be maintained. As the 10th Hunger Games beginstoo, Coriolanus and other students of the Academy become the first Mentors of the tributes in the games. This is his chance to prove himself to the world and secure his place in the Capitol for good. But when he is assigned a tribute with no hope - a girl from District 12 - he thinks all chances of winning (both for she posted her and for him) are goneintentions on Facebook. But Lucy Gray Baird proves herself to be a spark in his world Her friends were relieved as she was just out of an unpleasant relationship, in a way he could never have imagined. As the Games commence, Lucy Gray fights for but it looked like she was living her best life now. Then it emerged that five other women had died in the arena - but behind the scenes, similar circumstances in the slylast year. All were experienced climbers, complex properly equipped for what they were doing and strangely dangerous world sensible people. None of the Capitol, Coriolanus 'what a stupid thing to do' explanations applied. They were all alone when they died: DS Max Craigie is fighting for his life toocertain there's a killer on the loose. Will she survive the Games? Will he? And what happens then?|isbn=0702300179

|author=Sakinu AhronglongPaul B Preciado|title=Hunter SchoolDysphoria Mundi

|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary= The flyleaf ''It is never too late to embrace the revolutionary optimism of childhood''  Through this little collection tells us that it hybrid text, consisting of arias, letters, essays and autofiction, Preciado expresses his own hybrid self, and brings forth a new sensorium as an offering to the new generation, a new feeling mechanism in which detachment is not considered a work sign of fictionpolitical apathy. That's possibly misleading. I am not sure whether Rather, it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all upproportional, or whether it is as the blurb goes on valid response to say ''recollectionsthe epistemological and political crack we are living through, folklore and autobiographical storiesthe tension between emancipatory forces and conservative resistances that characterize our present'' which Preciado calls ''dysphoria mundi''. It feels like The whole text is framed against the latter. It feels like backdrop of the stories he tells about his experiences Covid-19 pandemic as that which has catalysed this revolution, when dysphoria began to emerge on a childglobal scale, or as an adolescent, ''pangea covidica''. Rather than taking this extreme dysphoria as an adult are real and true. But memory is a fickle thingsign of weakness, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people shouldor mistaking detachment or withdrawal for political paralysis, Preciado urges his readers to ''use dysphoria as your revolutionary platform''.|isbn=19997912821804271454

|author=Kat EllisSamantha Harvey|title=Harrow LakeOrbital

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=When we first meet 17-year-old LolaIn 2024, daughter to legendary horror movie director Nolan Nox, she is saying goodbye to New York City - by sneaking out and stealing from its residents. But when she is found by her fatherSamantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''s assistant and forced to come home, she arrives to find an unlocked door, a trail of blood, and her father dying in his study. And so, while he recovers, she is sent off to live with her grandmother compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in Harrow Lake, the small 1920s town in Indiana that served as the location for lives of a group of astronauts aboard the film that made her parents famous. But something about this place isn't rightInternational Space Station. There's Through a darkness inside narrative lens that mirrors the people here. Secrets about her mother and dark tales of the town's cannibal monster 'Mister Jittersastronauts' fill every corner, and disturbing happenings plague Lola. But with every passing hourorbital perspective, secrets long buried come painfully Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a wholly new light and she begins to think that these stories may not be stories at all, and something very real and sinister lurks in Harrow Lake.|isbn=02413970491529922933

|authorisbn= Helly Acton295967572X|title= The ShelfPale Pieces|author=G M Stevens|rating= 45|genre= Women's Literary Fiction|summary= When we meet Amy, she's in Our unnamed narrator is about to begin a relationship train journey with Jamiehis companion Django. You canWhere they't really call it a partnershipre going and what the purpose of this journey is, because things tend to get done is uncertain. Django found the tickets ''on his terms, but shethe floor somewhere''s sticking around because she hopes she can change and has persuaded our narrator to accompany him. Ah, yes. Haven't Why not? Not much else is clear either - but we all been there? Things are looking up when he tells her probably in the past as the pair travel to pack for a surprise trip. Could this be it? Is he ''finally'' going to get down on one knee? Was the work (station by coach and the wait) worth it?|isbn=1838770879train is a steam locomotive.

|authorisbn= Justine Avery and Daria Yudina0008551324|title= This Book Wants to Make The Devil You Laugh Know (Living BookD S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= For SharingCrime|summary=This Living Book It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is on a mission. Whatstruggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the mission? To make you laugh! I can't think body of many better missions than thata missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, can you? Let's see how is someone big and it doeswill be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.. .... well Not much to ask, is it opens up with a terrible joke. A groany joke, an eye-roll joke. ? The joke isnnew Deputy Police Constable doesn't very funny but it is funny to see how enthusiastic think so and how generously this book wants she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make you laugh - certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jon Fosse and Damion Searls (translator) |title=Vaim|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''All was strange'Oh, I'm terrible at jokes. Some books are so good at them. I always wanted to help someone laugh.'' This haunting phrase encapsulates the pervading sense of otherworldliness which permeates this story set in Vaim, a fictional fishing village in Norway which paradoxically could not feel more real for Jatgeir and Eline, two of the protagonists caught in its melancholic current.|isbn= 194812453X1804271829

|isbn=15294022711035043092|title=Murder on the Moorland The Killing Stones (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire MysteriesJimmy Perez)|author=Helen CoxAnn Cleeves|rating=3.5

|summary=DI Malcolm Halloran and Kitt HartleyI can's relationship is developing nicely: they're even into a spot of bandage now, although t have been the details are only person who was sad when Inspector Jimmy Perez [[Wild Fire (mercifullyShetland, Book 8) scant. After by Ann Cleeves|left Shetland]] to start a night of passion Halloran is called away in the early hours of the morningnew life on Orkney. ThereIt's been a murder in Irendaleseven years since we heard from him, where Halloran used to live but he's now living with Willow Reeves and where his wifetheir young son, James, Kamalaas well as Cassie, was strangled five years agothe daughter of his former partner. There are sufficient details of the current murder to make Halloran suspect that the man who murdered Willow's also his wife - boss, and others - she ''should'' be on maternity leave, but when the body of a popular islander, Archie Stout, is found, in some way the aftermath of a storm, she can't resist getting involved, despite being in prison. The DI heads off to speak to Jeremy Kerr He'd been battered about the head with a Neolithic stone - one of a pair - which had been stolen from a museum.

|author= Mark DawsonThea Lenarduzzi|title= The CleanerTower|rating= 45|genre= ThrillersLiterary Fiction|summary= Ruthless and coldly competent''How unctuous are the fats of another's life, how dizzying their sugars in our bloodstream''. In this compelling novel, John Milton is one Thea Lenarduzzi assumes the identity of T, the British governmentprotagonist of this tale. Just as T's best assets – story is being told, the story of a contract killer with lethal instincts. Nowsecond protagonist is unveiled: Annie, the daughter of a wealthy family in the 19th century, who died of tuberculosis after ten yearsbeing locked in a tower, he wants outcaptures T's imagination. But his job isnAnnie't one you can just walk away from…s fate is, above all, an enticing story to T. It is a story which she consumes avariciously, both in a quest for truth and knowledge, and in service of myth, fable and fantasy. |isbn=178739462X1804271799

|author=Angela MackClaire-Louise Bennett|title=I Am UnworthyBig Kiss, Bye-Bye |rating=4.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Isabel is determined to start fresh. Start again. Sixth form will be different. Her tormentor doesn't go to Gilleford Secondary School anymore. She can escape the hurtEverything in this book, the fearhowever sweet or seemingly innocent, is steeped in anguish and the person she becamedistortion. Josh is determined to keep goingEven a kiss, even through the rageusually a symbol of intimacy and closeness, becomes evidence of love lost. When the painnarrator cries out internally, ''come over here and using his fists kiss me,'' it is less an invitation than a desperate attempt to solve any problem or situationconfirm her emotional numbness. But he has secrets that threaten The imagined recipient of this plea is Xavier, her ex-partner, a ghost she conjures to tear him and his brothers aparttest her detachment. When Josh and Isabel's worlds collide, can they make their relationship work? Can they both finally be happy? Or will Josh's time run out?|isbn=B089FL7H4H1804271934

|authorisbn=Laura Imai Messina0008405026|title=The Phone Box at A Stranger in the End of the WorldFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary= In It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the northeast of Japan, in Inwate Prefecture investigation ground to a man installed a telephone box in his gardenhalt. ''Inside there is an old blackNow, telephoneher mother, disconnectedHelena, that carries voices into the windand her father are dead in their bed.'' It is a real place Initially, it looks like a necessary place, and I am pleased to see straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the IMPORTANT NOTE bodies that the author attaches makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to her story, that the place be an open-and-shut case is not now a tourist destination, it complex double murder. Kerrigan is a sacred placeconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, a place that must be left to those who really need itUna Burt) are less convinced.|isbn=178658039X

|isbnauthor=B0859115X5|title=Lies to Tell Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (DI Clare Mackaytranslator)|authortitle=Marion ToddThe Other Girl

|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=When we meet up with DI Clare Mackay again she''We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's at Daisy Cottage on work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the outskirts of St Andrews with most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her English Bull Terriersister, Benjyhowever, this letter will never reach her. SheWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's just had sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a postcard from Geoffrey Dark few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author was even born. The large and heinstant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in Provincetownher life, Cape Cod. He wishes an absence that she was therehas always felt but often denied.|isbn=1804271845}}{{Frontpage|author=Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Reminiscences of Tolstoy, but Clare's struggling to Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of what he ''actuallyhis literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: '' you write not of real life as it is , but of what you yourself imagine it to her nowbe. Is he her boyfriendWhom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Her ex-boyfriendOf what use is it? She can't work it out and thinks that Geoffrey probably can't either. Work's about Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to get very busy how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and she can't work out why DCI Alastair Gibson has cancelled a meeting she'd arranged without discussing Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it with her first. They're off somewhere top secret.|isbn=1804271977

|isbn=17808998581529077745|title=To Tell You the TruthThe Dark Wives (D I Vera Stanhope)|author=Gilly MacmillanAnn Cleeves

|summary=When Lucy Bewley was nine-years-old she crept out of A man walking his dog in the house on early morning discovered the night body of a man in the summer solstice to watch the pagan celebrations in Stoke Woodspark near Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. Her fourThe dead man was Josh -year-old brother, Teddy, would have woken one of the care workers who was due to work a shift the house if she hadn't taken him with hernight before but who had never turned up. But D I Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate the murder - but her only clue is the early hours disappearance of one of the morningresidents, Lucy returned home without Teddy, hoping that he would have got home before herfourteen-year-old Chloe Spencer. He hadn't and no one has seen him since. Lucy's story Some people believe that Chloe was crucial to responsible for the police investigation, death but Vera thinks this is unlikely as the girl's diary makes it keeps subtly changingclear that she adored Josh. Lucy is being advised by her imaginary friend, Eliza Grey and Eliza says She knows that there are certain things which Lucy must not tell the policeshe has to find Chloe to discover what happened to Josh.

|isbn=0008214700B0FK5LHKD9|title=Cut to the Bone (DI Meg Dalton)The Colour of Memory|author=Roz WatkinsChristopher Bowden

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=DI Meg Dalton and Ds Jai Sanghera are dealing with the case of It's been three years since we last reviewed a missing teenager. Violet Armstrong is well-known as book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to see a vlogger - championing the cause of meat-eatingnew novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. She barbeques meat wearing only a bikini and has attracted the attention of animal rights activists. The meat-eaters (they wear meat suits) are determined that Meg Dalton is corrupt and not running a decent investigation (''obviously'' she only got the job because sheLike all Bowden's a woman) because shestories, there's a vegetarian. As if mystery at the case wasnheart of 't enough, Meg's father is coming to stay with her despite having had little to do with her for fifteen years and JaiThe Colour of Money's convinced that his girlfriend, Suki, doesn't . We like his children this running theme in an author's work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and that she wants more, but he doesn'tatmosphere each time.

|isbnauthor=1784385166Olga Tokarczuk|title=The Third Reich in 100 Objects: A Material History House of Nazi Germany|author=Roger MoorhouseDay, House of Night

|genre=HistoryLiterary Fiction|summary=''What is 's the first image good of a world that keeps changing like that comes to mind when you think of the Third Reich? Hitler? A swastikaHow can one go on calmly living in it? '' The Nazi salute? The gate to a concentration camp? None title of this spellbinding work, ''House of these are comfortable images but they are emblematic Day, House of Night'', somewhat reflects this notion of shifting realities - the small, subtle changes which govern our lives, like the shift from day to night, however quotidian, causing chaos. But, the Third Reich's fascist regime constant in all its iniquitythat image is the house, stoic against the ancient diurnal cycle which nonetheless controls how it is perceived. But |isbn=1804271918}}{{Frontpage|isbn=henleyA|title=Ultimate Obsession|author=Dai Henley|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Ex-DCI Andy Flood has been a Private Investigator for some objects time now, and images from that time may he should be less familiar doing quite well financially. Unfortunately, his daughter's defence against a murder charge drained his savings. His wife, Laura, has been trying to persuade him to youretire - ''maybe go travelling or go on cruises. In this short volume That's what 'ordinary people do', Roger Moorhouse has attempted '' He's not been entirely up front about the state of their savings. When Jack Durban tries to persuade him to illustrate take his case, it's the period thought of the Third Reich through one hundred money he could make that convinces him that this is a miscarriage of its material artefactsjustice that he really should put right. 

|isbn=14091874381836284683|title=The First LieBig Happy|author=A J ParkDavid Chadwick|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersDystopian Fiction|summary=On the second of October 37-year-old barristerWell! This is a murder mystery unlike any other! I do love it when I open a book, Paul Reeveit's nothing like I expected it to be, returned home at 9 pm to find his house in darkness and the front door openit takes me on a wild ride. His wife was in the bedroom in a state of shock and in the bathroom there was a dead man who had been stabbed repeatedly in the neck And that is just what happened with Paul's paper-knife'The Big Happy''. In that moment Paul takes I don't want to ruin a decision that will be irrevocable: he decides that he and Alice are not going similar experience for any of you reading but I'll have to ring the police and tell at least set the truthscene. TheyOnce that're going to bury the body in woodland and go on as though nothing has happeneds done, I think you should simply experience this wonderfully original story for yourself.

|isbnauthor=1529401801Sally Rooney|title=Grave's End (DS Alexandra Cupidi)|author=William ShawIntermezzo

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction |summary=Gram HickmanSally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, who worked the central one for an estate agentreaders to unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, took contrasts sharply with his girlfriendolder brother Peter, Angela Bootha successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, to the brothers' already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1036916375|title=Just a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a house which his firm was marketingcollection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Guildeford Hall was an old Kentish oast house and was on Some are factual, such as the market for millions family history of poundsa sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. Gram was hoping that he could get Angela It's a book to settle into bed and heallow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the blitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. I'd brought never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.}} {{Frontpage|isbn= 1836285493|title=The Double Life of a Wheelchair User|author=Rob Keeley|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Will is a keen player of video games, a conscientious student, a slightly annoying brother and a bottle supportive friend. But most of prosecco alongall, he is an aspiring writer. It was when searching for somewhere English is his favourite lesson at his school, Marlowe Park, and one at which he excels. This hasn't gone unnoticed by his headteacher, Mrs Howarth, and she has suggested to chill the bottle Will and his mum that he found the body spends a couple of afternoons a man in the freezer in the garage. DS Alexandra Cupidi and DC Jill Ferriter are on the caseweek at a different school, Station Road, where his ability might be better extended.

|authorisbn= Ukamaka Olisakwe1009473085|title= Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightThe Conservative Effect 2010 - 2024|author=Anthony Seldon and Tom Egerton (Editors)|rating= 5|genre= Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary= The new novel Sometimes it's simpler to explain a book by Ukamaka Olisakwe is a look at the trauma describing what it ''isn't'' and heartache of being a woman in 1980s Nigeria. The title is that applies to ''Ogadinma Or, Everything Will Be All RightThe Conservative Effect: 2010-2024 - 14 Wasted Years?''. Ogadinma is If you're looking for an easy read which will deliver the eponymous heroine of inside story about what ''really'' happened on certain occasions, then this isn't the storybook for you. We are with her in every scene and it is her narrative voice If that leads the story's what you're looking for, I don't think Anthony Seldon's book, {{amazonurl|isbn=B0BH7SKG2S|title=Johnson at 10}}, although Olisakwe writes in the third person. This provides a sense of detachment can be bettered for the reader and highlights the isolation of Ogadinmathose tumultuous years. She is exiled from her father It's home a compelling read and sent should be compulsory for anyone who thinks Johnson should return to Lagos where she politics. ''The Conservative Effect'' is married to an older man named Tobeentirely different beast. Their marriage descends into violence It's the seventh book in a series which looks at the impact a government has made and indignities co-editor Sir Anthony Seldon regards this as the most important. This book follows the well-established format: a series of experts from various fields review the state of the nation when the coalition took over in 2010, the changes that occurred and Ogadinma must utilise her resourcefulness to escapethe situation in 2024.|isbn=1911648160

|author=Lun ZhangJenny Valentine|title=Us in the Before and After|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Elk and Mab are best friends, Adrien Gombeaudor more than that even, their friendship is a once in a lifetime connection. They meet as children one day on a trip out but unfortunately they don't get each other's contact details at the time. But then chance brings them back together, and they are inseparable. Something has happened though, something terrible and tragic, and now they must work through their grief, Ameziane and Edward Gauvin (translator)their friendship, together.|isbn=1471196585}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered HopesYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsPopular Science|summary=I never really followed was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the events workings of Tiananmen Square with much attention when it was playing out – someone in the second half of their teens has other prioritiesNHS, you knowhumour and autobiography. I certainly didn''You Don't know of Have to be Mad...'' promised the weeks of protests and hunger strikes same elements but moved from the students before the massacre physical problems to mental illness and the birth work of the Tank Man image, a psychiatrist. I didn't know how did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the area had long been laughter is directed at a venue for political protest, and I didn't know more situation rather than a spit about the people involved on either side. This book person and it is practically flawless in giving a general browser's context for the whole season of protests back in 1989always delivered with empathy and understanding.|isbn=1684056993

|author= Joan HeMariana Enriquez|title= Descendant of the CraneA Sunny Place for Shady People

|genre= FantasyShort Stories|summary=''Heroes cannot be forged without villains''Princess Hesina of the kingdom of Yan has never wanted the throne. Instead of craving power, she has always considered the crown her inescapable duty and shrank away from the responsibilities of being Queen. To her, it has always been a distant, faraway future. Until Mariana Enriquez writes horror that isdisturbingly real, it isn't. When achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her beloved father suddenly dies, she is thrust into ruling. But contrary settings include an abandoned field full of disused refrigerators due to the official reportan urban planning mishap, Hesina knows an overcrowded homeless shelter and a crime-ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all is not as it seems, her father didn't diewithin Argentina. He was murdered.Determined to seek the truth and discover her father's killer, Princess Hesina will stop at nothing to find justice, even committing treason. Under the cover The circumstances of darkness, her feet lead her to a soothsayer to learn what happened characters are so plausible that day and who killed the Kingsupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture.|isbn=17890940461803511230

|authorisbn=Pat Grant1529934753|title=The Grot: The Story of the Swamp City GriftersProtest|author=Rob Rinder|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Everything in this world runs on pedal-powerFor a little while, it looked as though Sir Max Bruce, and that includes the punk bands. There are three pedallers at country's most famous living artist, was not going to show up for the front opening of his retrospective at the Heath Robinson contraption taking our lead characters to Royal Academy. Still, he arrived in the ferry across the swamp to Falter Citynick of time, where a mother complete with his two wives and her two sons aim to set up a yoghurt factorysix children, one of whom filmed what happened. You could say that yoghurt would be the only culture aroundBeing an influencer, for this is a really rough-and-ready dump of a place, but everyone is interested in small you tend to do things like that grow. For the only money to be had – the only fortunes to be found in Falter City – come from algae, gunk and other crud but it was fortunate that – well, there was a record of the use of it is never really made clearprotest. Once thereLexi Williams, an intern at the two brothers set themselves each up with RA, grabbed a spray can of blue paint from under a guide – Lippy, chair and proceeded to spray Bruce in the more forward-thinkingface, industrious of whilst shouting ''Stop the two, with a besuited gent, Penn with a ballsy young teenaged girl with bright red hairWar''. But which It seemed to be part of an ongoing series of the two will come off the worse as they make their own way in 'blue-face' attacks, but this dystopianwas different. The can had been laced with cyanide, semi-Apocalyptic hellhole?|isbn=1603094660and Sir Max Bruce was dead.

|author= Ashley PostonAriel Saramandi|title= Bookish and the BeastPortrait of an Island on Fire|rating= 34.5|genre= TeensPolitics and Society|summary= Set after the ExcelsiConIn this powerful collection of essays, we are introduced Saramandi seeks to Rosie Thorne, a Small Town, USA girl who has recently lost her mother and is entering her final year intradermally dissect the sociopolitical fabric of high school. Things keep piling up for RosieMauritius, and when she follows a stray dog tunneling deep into what she thinks is an abandoned castle in her town, things just get worse. Rosie accidentally destroys a rare book and with her mother's hospital the wounds left by colonialism and funeral costs she has no money slavery to cover expose how these legacies still shape modern life. Saramandi describes the damage. She finds herself working country at one stage as ''rotting'', a blunt yet apt metaphor for Vance Reignsthe systemic decay brought about by the malignant forces of racism, Hollywood royalty on a paparazzi escapepatriarchy, to repay the debtenvironmental degradation and governmental dysfunction.  For most Starfield superfans Each essay in this would be a dream but Rosie soon realises Vance is collection serves as a jerk - and he isn't too fond kind of her either. Howeverdiagnostic, as charting the various diseases afflicting the two are forced to get to know each other, their guards begin to lower and they discover that maybe this situation might not be so terrible after allisland state. |isbn=16836919381804271616

|author=Justine Avery and Daria YudinaPekka Harju-Autti|title=Baby Trolls Get a Bad Rap (Underrated Babies Book 1)LoveVortex and the Drakor's Curse

|genre=For SharingFantasy|summary= HoratioIt's the eighteenth century, Saul a time of discovery and Grizelda are three baby trolls who are fed up that everyone forgets about baby trollsBritain is expanding its foreign trade. They are ignored Captain Julius Hawthorne, an experienced Scottish sea captain, is sent to the Andaman Islands in books his endeavour. Along with his son, Peter, and TV shows their cat, Michi, they set off on a perilous voyage to these faraway lands. The islands are beautiful and films stunning in favour of their very scary grown ups. Our three heroes want equal rights for baby trolls. They want to be seen scenery and heard and theythe islanders've started a petition about it that they want you leader, Aarav, is keen to signestablish good relations. But how should they go about it? |isbn= B07XGN4LGYB0DS1VGHH3}}

|author= Samira AhmedHelene Bessette and Kate Briggs (translator)|title= Mad, Bad and Dangerous to KnowLili is Crying|rating= 34.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=''In the endFirst published in 1953 in French, we all become stories'' Spending the summer in Paris sounds like this novel is a dream for most people, especially art-lovers, but Khayyam can't relax and stop thinking about timeless text which wrenches the mess she left behind in Chicago. On a chance encounter with a descendant hearts of Alexandre Dumas, Khayyam finds herself its readers just as Bessette wrenches words and sentences from their proper position on a historical journey with him to unveil the truth about the 19th century Muslim woman who may have crossed paths with Alexandre Dumaspage and positions them elsewhere, disjointed, Eugene Delacroix and Lord Byrontruncated. As Like the two teenagers travel the city lives of her characters, they not only discover themselves, but uncover the true story of the woman and why it was one that should never have been forgottenare often left tragically incomplete.|isbn=03490035561804271675

|author= Hazel BarkworthTom Percival|title= HeatstrokeThe Wrong Shoes|rating= 3.5|genre= CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Will''Too hot to sleeps life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. Too hot to think straight. Too hot to go back He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes' During a British heatwave 15-year-old, Lily Dixon, he has left home the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and is reported missing. Rachel is a teacher at Lilydoesn's school and t have enough money for even the mother most basic of Miathings like food, Lilyand his dad can's best friendt work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. As Lily's family and Throw into that mix the police struggle to find any evidence fact that may lead to Lilyhis mum and dad are separated, Rachel takes it upon herself to start looking for cluesand Will's life seems bleak in every direction. However And yet, as the case goes on Rachel becomes fixated on finding Lily and finds herself crossing boundarieshe still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, breaking trust and facing some impossible choices. Will they find Lily? Does Lily want clings to be found? And will life for Rachel ever be the same again?moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|isbn=14722656021398527122

|isbnauthor=1538731738Sylvie Cathrall|title=Simple Abundance: 365 Days A Letter to a Balanced and Joyful Life|author= Sarah Ban Breathnachthe Luminous Deep

|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary=Someone once said: it's not self-indulgence, it's therapy! I think they were talking about shopping, but it probably can be applied There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to most thingsa compelling premise. In my case, it applies to writing about things because I want to, rather than because I can sell it or because I've got something to sellAnd this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776

|authorisbn=Frederic Gros1786482126|title=A Philosophy of WalkingThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre= Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= I confess I picked this one up from Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the library in my presite was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -lockdown forage when they discovered the bones of random stuffa 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. Now I have to go out and buy my own copy so It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that I can turn down she is pregnant with his child as a result of the pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone tosudden bouts of sickness. Some books draw you in slowly}}{{Frontpage|author=Guadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|title=The Accidentals|rating=4. 5|genre=Short Stories|summary=This one had me collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the first two pagesword: spellbinding with its fantastical, magical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not her stories structured by a sport''wisdom that appears to want to teach us something about the world.|isbn=17816883701804271470