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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Barbara LamplughOnyi Nwabineli|title=Secrets of the PomegranateAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5

|summary=Home in BristolAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, Alice gets the news from thanks to her sisterstep-mother Ophelia's partnerincreasingly popular presence on social media, Paco. Her sister, Deborah Hardy, was on board one where she posted every step of the trains bombed at MadridAnuri's Atocha station on 11 Marchchildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. No one can yet confirm whether Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is alive or dead. Deb had moved slowly trying to Granada nearly 20 years ago, after regain her divorce from Mark's father, confidence and was starting to make a name for herself as a scholar of women in Andalusia's history. Alice and get her life back, suing her ninestep-year-old son Timmy fly mother to Spain take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to find that Deb is alivestart her PhD, but in a coma in hospitalundergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Over the weeks Most importantly, she keeps vigil for Deb, Alice lives in is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's home in Granada and reads online empire. Can she save her diariessister, which proves to be a way of feeling closer to and perhaps herself and her and learning more about relationship with her than she ever knew. Meanwhile, Mark and Paco keep their distance, working through their complicated grief in their own ways.father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781323690</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Menna Van Praag1529153298|title=The House At The End Of Hope StreetList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|summary= Alba Ashby It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is a wallflower of a girl; studiousPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, bookish and excruciatingly shythough. Women have been disappearing. Well, so when tragedy wields its ponderous boltthey've been murdered, she is less able than most but to adjust to life as she now knows ithave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. In one of Miv's upset because she's overheard that her midnight walks around historical Cambridge, she finds herself at father wants to move the door to Number 11 Hope Streetfamily 'Down South'. It When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is house that she has never before seen; quirky and turreted with a wild garden and grandly Victorian in hue and Alba is enchanted by itfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. So For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she does something 'll do anything to prevent that she would never normally do, in a million years. She knocks on 's not worried about the doordangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749018623</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Gruen1035906708|title=At The Water's EdgeDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=An indiscretion at a party causes Ellis Hyde's parents We tend to disown him, coming, think of Maria Callas as it doesGreek, hot on the heels of his father not understanding why Ellis has been turned down for war service. To prove he's not a cowardbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, EllisNew York, his new wife Maddie in December 1923 and best friend Hank leave the US for Scotlandonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. HeHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's determined they will succeed where EllisCallas' father failed years before: they will find to make it more manageable in the Loch Ness monsterStates. Maddie isn't as convinced but then When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she also thinks could get appropriate training for her voice - she knows Ellis. She and the locals at was raised under the inn where they're stranded Nazi occupation by the global conflict will discover a lot more about himmother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, and indeed themselvesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473604702</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah LeipcigerAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Mountain Can WaitPerfect Passion Company

|summary=Tom Berry The Perfect Passion Company is a quiet man - one who lives for dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in natureproviding a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, spending as Ness is planning to take a half trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of his year running a small team in remotebreak up with a bad boyfriend, isolated forestsand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. The other half he spends tending And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to his family - a small group whom he brought up almost single handedlyan Edinburgh we already love, following thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the departure of his wifeIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. A goodKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, determined manbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, we learn of Tomand there's life running forestry teams in remote wildernessalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, before an accident forces Tom to leave 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 routine job, he loses his fiancee, and seek out his son house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin- sized object to his home, and both become troubled by it's 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 deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the events delivery 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. Spike is going to take care of the accidentBenny, as well as ghosts and will certainly take care of the past that may cause more pain than either man had anticipatedBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472223896</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth RenzettiKatherine Howe|title=Based on a A True StoryAccount|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Augusta PriceHannah Masury is living in Boston, middle-agedhaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, washed up, substance-addicted actress has just left rehab for the innumerable timeand being made to work there from a young age. Her only friend in the world When she hears there is her equally washed-up former mentor. Augusta has recently received to be a sudden upsurge hanging of interest some pirates in the town, she decides to go and income when her tell all memoir became a baffling best-sellerwatch. Frances Bleeker is an American journalist who came to London with high hopes Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, that were quickly dashed by Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the reality hands of the British magazine markettwo vicious pirates. The two meet when Frances is sent to interview Augusta about She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her book where Frances realises there’s far more too, and then to the story of Augusta’s life than she’s cared to put in words. Needless escape them completely she runs away to saysea, young, optimistic Frances dressing as a boy and self-obsessed, drunk Augusta don’t exactly hit it off at oncejoining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. But She soon finds herself in the thick of things when Frances loses her job there is a mutiny on board, and Augusta needs a ghost writer for from there we are caught up in her new book, rip roaring tale of life on the two offer each other a lifeline ... or enough rope to hang themselves. As Frances will learn by delving into her past, people close to Augusta don’t come away unscathedocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782395539</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Xavier Leret1471180158|title=The Romeo and Juliet KillersMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=34.5

|summary=This is Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a book that suggests love across the tracks – control freak with all the while making the reader ask subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'just how chuffing wide are those tracks supposed to be?!has his problems' . Franky is a hard-done-by schoolboyHe's asthmatic and the more you read, whose ultra-Catholic parents are stifling him in all aspects of life, so much so itthe more you's likely ll suspect that when he gets into trouble by witnessing some porn on a friend's mobile phone at school it was really on the hardware that he was gawping at in amazementautistic spectrum. Hardware is nothing Sometimes Jamie needs to Daizee, take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the underage street hooker, who knows what hard stuffs she likes local A&E and what she doesnsometimes Bo't, and what her punters – and her mother, back when they had a connection – enjoyed, s not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or needed, en route the need to be away on time to itpick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. Their unlikely connection is the subject of this gritty novellaIt was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910213187</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pascal Garnier and Melanie Florence (translator)B0CKD1L5JL|title=BoxesRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=Meet BricePetr is an orphan. HeRescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington's an illustratorOlympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, who had picked an ideal house in broadcasting the country with his journalist wifestrange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, only for Ellen Lark loses her to disappear assumed dead on assignment abroadhearing. Therefore he's having to make the move himselfSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, which he does – but without everything about her at the other end he finds it hard to kick his new life into gearchanges. YesLiving in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a cat adopts him, and he gets school where she is taught to know the names of some new peoplelip read, but that's itphysically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. What's moreAt the same time, one of those people Bell is Blancheworking on other inventions and ideas, attired most suitably and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in all-white, who herself is missing someone – someone a complicated tangle of whom Brice is the spitting image…espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910477044</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin MaherB0BC3YTCMR|title=Last Night on EarthGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|summary=Baby Bonnie ''This story is born not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in London in 1996 to Jay and Shauna case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her traumatic birth . Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and the aftermath causes the previously happy couple to separateReggie asked if she would tutor him. Jay looks back searching for how he got to She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this point and Shauna looks for answers in psychotherapy with a less than orthodox Danish analystwas just an extension. Meanwhile both share Bonnie She went to his house and worry about where they go from herehe raped her. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408705079</amazonuk>In shock, she even allowed him to give her a lift home.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tina Seskis1472263936|title=When We Were FriendsThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary= Six friends meet It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at Bristol University; six very different a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people from six very different backgroundswho die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Six lives intertwined Finding himself in an assortment of ways… break-upsa makeshift mortuary, marriagescovered in plastic, careershe has a sense that something very, motherhood 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 bereavementformer colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; until one night six become fivehe can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|amazonukisbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=<amazonuk>1405917954</amazonuk >William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It'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, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael LaubB0BYF82CXT|title=Diary of the FallSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|summary=Diary ''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of the Fall is a story about regretboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, guilt successful and resentmentvery much in love – move in next door. It's told from the point of view of an unnamed narrator, who reflects Despite their different outlooks on not just his own life but also , the lives of his father couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, and grandfathertheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581795</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James WilsonShalini Boland|title=The Summer of Broken StoriesSilent Bride|rating=53

|summary=England 1950: Soon-to-be-10, Mark Davenant is Alice and Seth are a typical lad with a typical lad's lifematch made in heaven. He loves adding to his model train layoutis everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, he plays with his mates funny; total and walking best friend Barney the dogutter husband-material. It's on one such walk She is all he comes across Aubreycould possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, an elderly writer living in confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the forestwedding is planned and set. They build a friendship based on shared stories When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and imaginings. Not all in excitement as she surveys the village are accepting though congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and, when they try Seth turns to drive Aubrey outface his approaching bride, Mark feels himself torn between old loyalties and newAlice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883571</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1787636003|title= The Novel Habits Girls of HappinessSummer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=There are some authors who I pick up with a contented sigh, knowing It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that I am in safe handsshe and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Alexander McCall Smith is currently my favouriteRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, and thank goodness he is so prolific with his writing that my reading habit is fed on a regular basis! This is the tenth novel in the Sunday Philosophy Club series, and we settle down once more when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to a visit to Isabel Dalhousie take an interest in her beloved Edinburgh. Isabel is wondering, perhaps belatedly, if she is sometimes was flattered rather judgmental of peoplethan wary. In particular, she’s having an awful lot It was quite a while before he made any sort of qualms about physical approach to her niece, Cat’s, latest romanceand by that time she was obsessed by him. Will Isabel find herself forced to interveneAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or can she sit back and let nature take its course?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408706636</amazonuk>partied.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nina George and Simon Pare (translator)Amanda Craig|title=The Little Paris BookshopThree Graces|rating=4.5

|summary=Monsieur Perdu has a barge on Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the Seine, day and in that barge he has his bookshop. Actuallycapture it, rather than being a normal sort crafting an image of bookshop the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is more skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a chemist's, since he is something gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a literary apothecary, prescribing books to his customers way that he senses will soothe their souls, feels natural and relieve whatever troubles are ailing them. He only has to speak to them a little, sometimes only has to see themlived-in, and he instinctively knows which book will help never making them. Despite his skills, howeverciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, he seems unable to diagnose and resolve his own emotional grappling with issues and he is, as the translation of his French surname tells us, Mr Lostfar larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0349140359</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marcus Dalrymple152915118X|title=Flesh and Blood: True FictionPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson

|summary=Brit John Colson ''Pineapple Street'' is in Mexico teachingthe story of three women: Sasha, having been invited out there by his godfather Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and local school owner Carlos Manuel FerminSasha is married to their brother Cord. John soon settles inThey're Stocktons, soon forming only Sasha isn't a love of Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the countrytribe. But then it all changes… The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Visiting Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a public toilet at the wrong moment means that John hears a murder being committed beyond his cubicle doorstreet or so away, which they own. He goes to They won't need any of the police as he would furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in the UK . Nominally, they had a choice but this is Mexico; from that moment on John Colson is a marked manwasn't the reality. Meanwhile elsewhere Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in Mexico tourists are being attracted by more than hot sunshine and tacos''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1502821087</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antoine LaurainEmily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=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 and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, Emily Boyce (translator) and Jane Aitken (translator)before her memories are gone forever?|isbn=1804181250}}{{Frontpage|author=Madelaine Lucas|title=The Red NotebookThirst for Salt

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Meet Laure. She's a widow in her 40s'Love, who is entering her Parisian apartment building one night when sheI's muggedd read, was supposed to be a light and her handbag stolen. Meet Laurentweightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity'' Told from a retrospective view, a middleyoung woman unravels the year-aged booksellerlong relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, who happens upon the handbag narrator relives the following morning in affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the street, just before summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the binmen take it away, never to be seen againsummer after. More or less snubbed when trying to hand it to Set against the police as lost property, he decides to take it upon himself to reunite backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the bag 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its rightful owner. He has no idea their names are so intimately linkedall-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and despite a lot of things being in the bag (including the titular notebook) there is no cash, no phone familial relationships and no ID documentation at allhow it altered her irrevocably. What's more – and what looks like making the idea even more fruitless – he has no idea that Laure has fallen into a coma as a result of the mugging…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908313862</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stefan Mohamed0008506337|title=Bitter SixteenThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=Stanly Bird is about to turn 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 twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a solitary teen in glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a small Welsh townwell-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, he has few friendsImogen and Sasha. Unless you count his talking dog Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, Daryl.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''.

A splitting headache on the eve of his birthday soon develops into incredible powers, and Stanly swiftly finds himself defending his neighbourhood, falling in love, and gaining his first real friendsThen Richard left them. When jealous rivals, a mysterious figure and a horrific evil come into play though, Stanly finds himself cast away from home, and struggling to save everything he has come to hold dear.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630136</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fiona Neill1914585402|title=The Good GirlDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross

|summary= Romy is I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a sixth former who is unremarkable. A good student from a professional family, her aspiration is to become a doctor, couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and it’s an achievable, rather than lofty goal. Or affecting it was. Because It was a video has surfaced and it shows Romy doing something that is hardly going to help her medical school application. Or her future career. Or her future lifegripping, full stop. For Ailsaemotionally wounding read, the head teacher, she has the double whammy of trying to keep the school out of the headlines and protect her child who is now at the centre rereading my review of the controversyit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it. And it’s clearly all the neighbours’ fault.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718181271</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Christina NicholLucy Ashe|title=Waiting for the ElectricityClara and Olivia

|summary=Slims Achmed Makashvili The year is determined to leave his native Georgia1933. ItThe place? Sadler's a country buffeted Wells. Ballerinas Clara and often invaded by its neighbours and plagued with lack of amenitiesOlivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. On hearing Because there's a lot that Hilary Clinton is running builds a competitiondancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, the prize for which is a trip attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the States and knowing all he has to do is overstay his visa for classroom. A stage presence, a better lifecharm, Slimsa ''joie de vivre'' letters to Hilary begin. Eventually he gets to the US but… WellThe difference between a hard-worker, be careful what you wish forand a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0715649876</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stuart PrebbleHeather Fawcett|title=The Insect FarmEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

|summary=I was predisposed Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to enjoy this book before Iwrite her life'd even opened s work, the coververy first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. It set me in mind of [[The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams]] - another tale of a challenged person who So when she finds refuge herself far, far North in an obsession with insects. But where [[The Behaviour the small village of Moths by Poppy Adams|The Behaviour of Moths]] focuses on two warring sistersHrafvsnik, ''The Insect Farm'' has two brothers as having somehow offended the central characters: Rogervillage matriarch, who she is not sure what she has special needsdone, nor how to redeem herself and his devoted younger brother Jonathanput her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Both boys develop an obsession Enter Wendell Bambleby, Roger with his insect farm her dashingly handsome and Jonathan with a womaninsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, Harriet. When obsession eventually leads to the violence of destructionall charm and delight, other behaviours come into play: feelings of guilt quickly switch much to Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the fear of capture and the sly acts of a man keen to lay the blame elsewhere.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883547</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398515388|title=The Boy and the Dog|author=Caroline Vermalle Seishu Hase and Anna Aitken Alison Watts (translator)|title=George's Grand Tour

|summary=George loves First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the Tour de France so when his over protective daughter goes way for an extended holiday tsunami and this, in turn, caused the time is right to do it himselfnuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. Being 83 there will have to be some concessionsThe deaths were uncountable, using and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a car rather than dog outside a bike for a start and he'll take his neighbour Charles (a stripling at 76) with himconvenience store. Hewasn'll also take his mobile phone since his landline has been diverted to it so no one knows het a dog person but the convenience store owner's gonecomment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in. Yes, good luck with that George!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908313730</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Caitlin MoranChristopher Bowden|title=How to Build a GirlMr Magenta|rating=4.5

|summary=1990 - Wolverhampton. Johanna Morrigan Christopher Bowden's latest novel is 14, intelligent, funny and from a loving family. Unfortunately, said family consists patient untangling of a depressed motherseemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a mostly drunk father, an older brother with issues little bit of his own, and three younger brothers indulgence to worry about. Well read, witty and hugely intelligent, Johanna longs for escape, building a new version of herself young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and gaining employment as a writer, frequently travelling it seems to him an obligation to the drink, sex and drug filled bars and bedsits of Londonfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091949017</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margaret Henderson SmithJennifer Mason|title=The Turn Partitions of the TideUnity|rating=3.54

|summary=Harriet Glover is well and truly over Mark after he left her standing Here at the altar. She's pregnant with Sir Joris Sanderson's child and he's keen to make the relationship permanentBookbag Towers, but ghosts from ''his'' past return to haunt himwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, unfortunately at a rather important dinner party. The mystery of 'Amber' really has to be solved dominatrix and the web of lies which surround her dismantled. Harriet is still being led astray unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Tricia Harrington (or so Harriet's mother would have you believe...) and she can't really make up her mind about 'Mr Sanderson'Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], particularly when the man from MI6 is aroundshe investigated and unravelled a series of disappearances. SheIn 's got a lot to cope with and that's before we even get on to the subject Partitions of the Prime MinisterUnity's daughter's wedding, which ''must'' remain secretshe sets her mind to solving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845496485</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ivan Repila and Sophie Hughes (translator)Will Carver|title=The Boy Who Stole Attila's Horse|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=If you pick up a copy of this book you realise how small it is. You'll know, of course, that pockets hardly exist that are normally big enough to hold what we used to call a pocket book, but here is the exception to prove the rule. It's wee. The story is on a hundred pages. The concision is partly down to it starting after the beginning, for we first meet Big and Small, two brothers, once they're stuck down a large well in the middle of a forest. Tasked with a family errand, they're trapped at the bottom of a natural Erlenmeyer flask, and even a desperate move cannot get either out. This is the story of the next three months in their existence, as they brave hunger, delirium, loss of language, and the brute and unstinting human selfishness needed for existence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271015</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=James Hannah|title=The A-Z of You and MeDaves Next Door

|summary=Lying Five strangers come together in one moment as a hospital bed, refusing visits from friends, Ivo is alone. Only his carer, Sheila, provides company - and she asks him suicide bomber prepares to think of a different part of detonate his body for each letter of the alphabet, and then to tell a tale about each one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857522647</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Ann-Marie MacDonald|title=Adult Onset|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=At midlife, Mary Rose MacKinnon has settled down with her partner, Hilary, and is raising two young children. Opting to fulfill the role of stay at home mum, she has placed her career as an author vest on hold. What follows is a bid to reconcile this new identity with her former idea of selfLondon tube line. SuccessAs their fates overlap, however, depends on Mary Rose facing up to the confusions of her past.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473610133</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Diana Sweeney|title=The Minnow|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Diana Sweeney's ''The Minnow'' story is an Australian book aimed at Young Adults that features death, grief, abuse, fear and loneliness. Teenage pregnancy lies at its heart while bereavement, and trying to come to terms with loss, bubbles just under the surface, constantly. But don't be misled. This novel isn't some earnest pedagogical attempt to convey teenage angst and elicit grave pity or understanding from the reader. What rescues it from mawkishness is the beautiful voice of the narrator, Tom (or Holly, if you prefer her real name). Tom doesn't fall prey to self-pity. She simply describes her world as she sees it, matter-of-fact. And the fact that her view is rather unusual (she talks to fish, dead people and her unborn child - and they talk back) doesn't really matter. Nothing can detract from the sheer lyricism of her voice. As a reader, you just have to suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>192218201X</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Hermione Eyre|title=Viper Wine|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Venetia Stanley lives told in Seventeeth century London. A celebrated beautybackwards order, she has had poems written in honour of her, and portraits painted by one of the leading artists of the time. Married up to a handsome, kind and adventurous man, Venetia is kept in a life of luxury, and, at first glance - has everything she could ever have dreamed of. Except Venetia is not happy. A woman who has made her name and fortune because of her beauty, she is convinced that her allure is quickly slipping through her fingers. Signing a pact with an apothecary for his famed restorative 'Viper Wine', Venetia is set on a dangerous path.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581663</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Liam Brown|title=Real Monsters|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Lorna was 12 when she was sent home from school, watched the unfurling events of 9/11 on her TV and recognised her father's office block aflame and falling. Her fight for mental survival started at that fateful moment and the use of alcohol to quell the memories came soon after but then she meets Danny – her life saver. Shortly after this they marry and Danny joins the army. He's sent to fight the monsters, the fundamentalist organisations, which destroyed Lorna's childhood. However when what's left of his unit becomes lost in the desert without food, water or equipment, the focus changes from military victory to personal survival and those monsters are still out there…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910394564</amazonuk>1914585186}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chigozie ObiomaJennifer Mason|title=The FishermenPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery

|summary=This book is essentially ''A struggling poetry zine, a cautionary family tale of four brothers mom-and -pop mobile diner in the way they react to Northern California redwoods, a prophecy about them by 400-meter hurdler who just missed the local madman. It is also2004 Olympics, in a sensewomen's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a comingbillionaire with a state-of-age story where Benthe-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), the young narratoron a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...'' This is plunged into premature adulthood under just a sample of the most brutal cast of circumstancescharacters and settings in Preposterous. And it is about brotherly love. None As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of these descriptions, however, convey the fact that this book is written by an exciting new voice in African literary fictionmystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0957548850</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan KempB0B2N7MVYM|title=GhostingThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey

|summary=Grace Wellbeck It's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to put what happens in context, the Cuban missile crisis is 64 - living on still very fresh in people's minds. The world has barely had a canal boat in London with her second husbandchance to breathe out. But for Joe Marr, she lives a relatively settled life it's not the missile crisis that's at the front of his mind. He's been convicted of routinemurder.A chance encounter with a man in With the street changes everything though - a man who is current state of medical knowledge, it's hard to think otherwise than that the spitting image of her prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his firstfew days in HMP Queen's Bench, deceased husbanda relatively new prison. He's just getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and learning to be wary of the McArthur brothers. Is he a ghost? Is Grace going mad?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956251560</amazonuk>