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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim FlanneryOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Mystery of the Venus Island Fetish|rating=3|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Meet Archie Meek. He's about to leave the Venus Islands, where he's lived for the last five years, and return to Sydney, where he'll take his office in the museum and fill it with all the cultural artefacts he's found and wildlife he's plucked or pickled. That's not Allow Me to ignore the fact he'll count as something quite alien himself, with his filled-out frame, nearly all-over suntan and totemic tattoo, in amongst other changes to his body. But what's this? When he gets back, he finds one of the main Venus Islands artefacts that caused him to go there in the first place, a huge, macabre ceremonial fetish mask, purloined as corporate artwork. And some of the curators he wishes to work alongside have vanished. Is the weird society of the museum he's returning to, perchance, even weirder, stranger and more violent than the cannibalistic society he's waving farewell to?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922079308</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Kate Hewitt|title= Rainy Day Sisters|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Amateur artist Lucy Bagshaw isn't exactly living the American dream; she lives in Boston with her overbearing mother and works as a barista in a coffee shop, but things are about to get a lot worse. Her mother, a famous and controversial artist, writes an scathing editorial, publicly insulting Lucy's artwork just before her first exhibition. The editorial quickly goes viral and a humiliated Lucy flees the country, unsure of where her life is heading. She runs away where nobody can find her; a sleepy Cumbrian village by the sea, where her estranged half-sister runs a boarding house. Lucy quickly questions the wisdom of her decision when she receives a frosty welcome from her sister in a village that seems permanently cold, wet and rainy. Should Lucy try and make a new life for herself here, or should she return to Boston and face her demons?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0451475585</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Sarah Winman|title=A Year of Marvellous WaysIntroduce Myself

|summary=89 year old Marvellous Ways stands outside Anuri spent her secluded Cornish caravan looking across childhood on display to the landscape with world, thanks to her binocularsstep-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. She has a feeling something will happen Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and soonto get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Elsewhere American Francis Drake (he's heard all the jokes!) has come home Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from the war and looks up the girl he left behind with results that are beyond his nightmares but will feature in themfor doing so. MarvellousMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia' s online empire. Can she save her sister, and Drakes' lives will cross perhaps herself and then – Marvellous is right – something will happen.her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755390911</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Bourne 1529153298|title=Two LivesThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=3.5

|summary=One late afternoon in January 2012It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Emma Elliot and Loretta Davidsonhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's lives collide – along with their carsfamily, though. Both are running late and driving too fast along this Surrey road Women have been disappearing. Emma is unharmed and flees the scene Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Little does Miv's upset because she know 's overheard that this incident will have long-term consequences further down her father wants to move the linefamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For LorettaMiv, the effects are more immediate. A social worker in move would mean leaving her fortiesbest friend, Sharon, and she has taken a career break 'll do anything to raise her and Martinprevent that. She's beloved son Ethan, born after an arduous IVF cycle just over four years ago. Ethan is in critical condition after not worried about the car accident and dies during surgery. In dangers or that her grief, Loretta turns Mum's stopped talking - to Scotch and Valium and drifts away from her husband and their familiesanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1505233682</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Hennessy1035906708|title=Not Far From DreamlandDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|summary=Ronald Tonks has reached that stage in life which I call upper middle age: you've qualified for your pension We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but not yet got she was born to the free television licence barrier. What Ronald ''has'' got is a roof that leaks (there's good reason why his home is called 'the shack')Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, a dog who is going bald (in patches) December 1923 and money that's in very short supply. On the plus side he has friends, mostly platonic and usually in much the same boat as Ronaldonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. But are they downhearted? Well, they are occasionally, Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but mostly theyher father changed it to 'Callas're generously optimistic and out to make it more manageable in the most of what they've got, usually bought from charity shops and jumble salesStates. ''Not Far From Dreamland'' is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the story of Nazi occupation by a year (2012) in the life mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of Ronald Tonksher preference for her elder sister, his friends and relativesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373874</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo McMillanAlexander McCall Smith|title=Motherland: A NovelThe Perfect Passion Company

|summary=Jess The Perfect Passion Company is a teenage Communist which isn't dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a surprise since more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she comes from could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a Communist familywhile. Her late father was Katie is coming out of a card carrying member and Jess spends her weekends selling ''The Morning Star'' break up with her equally enthused mother Eleanor. It's not only a thankless taskbad boyfriend, it's not a very welcome sight for some citizens in their native Tamworth of and so jumps at the 1970schance to come home to Edinburgh. However Eleanor and Jess' lives are about And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to changean Edinburgh we already love, thanks to an all-expenses paid trip 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to the GDR – Communist East Germany; charm. Katie has no experience in running a place on the same side of the Berlin Wall as Jess' business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and Eleanorthere's hearts. However, they both learn that even a political heaven has its lessons always her very helpful (andrather handsome) neighbour, indeedWilliam, its downside.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473611997</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Eve ChaseDean Koontz|title= Black Rabbit HallThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary=At Black Rabbit HallBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, time goes “syrupy slowand his house gets trashed.” None of Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the clocks work properlything that has trashed his house! The thing is, but an hour at Black Rabbit Benny is said the very last person to last twice as long as deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a London onebad weather friend called Spike, and you don't get who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a quarter good person. Spike is going to take care of the things done. Every holidayBenny, the Alton family swap the hustle and bustle will certainly take care of London life for this secluded Cornish retreatBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a place that is theirs and theirs alonewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718182979</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michelle MillerKatherine Howe|title=The UnderwritingA True Account|rating=4.5

|summary= Todd Kent Hannah Masury is youngliving in Boston, rich, stupidly handsomehaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and well on his way being made to the top of Wall Streetwork there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a new dating app called “Hook” hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go publicand watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Todd is handpicked by Hook’s eccentric founder to lead Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the project teamhands of two vicious pirates. Taking brainy analyst Neha She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, spoilt party-dressing as a boy Beau, and old flame Tara Taylor with him – joining the team find themselves thrust into the hectic circumstances of notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a $14 Billion dealcabin boy. As Silicon Valley and Wall Street clash, She soon finds herself in the death thick of things when there is a young girl will find the team at odds with each other – mutiny on board, and spinning wildly out from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of controllife on the ocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1922182974</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alena Graedon1471180158|title= The Word ExchangeMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Welcome to Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the world subtlety of the ''Meme''; the next-generation mobile device. Imagine technology so sophisticated that it could anticipate your needs as soon as they come into your mind. Need to get home? Your Meme will hail a cabhalf brick. Feeling unwell? The Meme has an app for that. Negative thoughts? The Meme will intercede on your behalf to call family and friends or even 911 Jamie's son, if needed. YesBo, the Meme is a truly indispensable aid that 'has revolutionised the way that humans communicatehis problems'. Critics say that it He's destroying human language asthmatic and verbal interaction, but don't worry: the Meme has an app for that too. If more you are lost for wordsread, the more you'll suspect that he'Word Exchanges on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo' will supply you with s not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the word you requirewrong. For It was going to come to a small fee of coursehead...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780225628</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cornelius MedveiB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Making of Mr BolsoverRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=Meet Andrew LynchPetr is an orphan. He's a graduate civil servantRescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, then he isn't. He's marriedis brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, then he isn't. Hein the forests of Washington's a librarian, then he isn’tOlympic Peninsula. He starts, of all things, to live in After Bear dies and a handmade camp brief sojourn in the Sussex countrysidehuman company, and gets armed with only a job writing nature notes for pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a local magazine – until it's clear he's shootingjourney through the forest, killing and eating too many of his subjects for his audience's tastes. He turns his efforts to writing politicised letters to broadcasting the local newspaperstrange, where his nephew is a jobbing hack, which inspires further, more campaigning activitieswild and rarely heard voices he encounters. Yes, it seems that Andrew Lynch's path to the top is foretold – but his fate is most definitely anything but natural…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548690</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alison Jean LesterSarah Marsh|title=Lillian on LifeA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5

|summary=Lillian is in her late fifties, single and childless but you shouldn't - for After a moment - allow yourself to think that she has bout of scarlet fever as a rather sad lifechild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. She's lived through periods Suddenly plunged into a world of tremendous change in post-war Munichsilence, Paris, London and she's now come to rest, smart and independent, in New Yorkeverything about her life changes. Born Living in a time when the expectations use of her parents - and of society - were fairly standard sign language was seen as to what a woman should something only savages do with her life, she seems always Ellen is sent to have had a sense that school where she would disappoint both if she was is taught to be true to herselflip read, but physically restrained from signing. She's hot blooded From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and sexually uninhibited and certainly ahead of her time in her viewsusing a system called Visible Speech. When we first meet her she's waking At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up next to her married lover and taking stock in a complicated tangle of her life. Amongst other thingsespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848549520</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert CromptonB0BC3YTCMR|title=BunderlinGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=As ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a child Martin had been fascinated bit too nerdy if truth be told, and entranced by his neighbour Mrs Bundysuffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's household menagerienot 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. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. Her son Peter She readily agreed: tutoring was there too but on the periphery; Martin something she gladly did at church: this was just there to visit the animalsan extension. In adulthood their paths cross again but this time Peter Bunderlin (as he's now known) isn't so easy She went to avoid – his house and Martin's tried! he raped her. Perhaps if Martin could understand what the heck Peter is up In shock, she even allowed him to?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784078549</amazonuk>give her a lift home.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eve Makis1472263936|title=The Spice Box LettersFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=4.5

|summary=Katerina's Armenian grandmother Mariam dies leaving It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her and first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother a journal in Armenian , 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 spice box full of mysterious letterspity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. They're special Her trip to them both because they're the legacy family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of a much loved relative but totally indecipherable several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the monolingually English pairfamily's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. However a holiday abroad He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to get over a recent break up brings a random encounter for Katerinaaccommodate them. When Katerina meets Ara she also meets the key to His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her grandmotherfather's secret pastScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124087</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert CromptonDean Koontz|title=Leaving GileadAfter Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank

|summary=Tom Sparrow finally does what heThe village is isolated and poor. It's always dreamt of: buying surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the former Ridley house near his old childhood homevillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. As Tom explores he finds his new house isn't The black wood of the only link with his pastforest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. There's something The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the outhouse village and that takes him back to is the days of young love and Susanreason Volushka, the Ridley's daughter. She had been raised in her parents' prohibitive faith as a Gilead Jehovah's Witness which didn't seem drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a problem to them but they were young and experience wasn't on their side…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784077623</amazonuk>man is tolerated.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Emma CraigieB0BYF82CXT|title= What Was Never Said Semi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|summary= This story is narrated by Zahra''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a teenage girl who spends her early years depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in her home country of Somalia before her family love – move to the UK to escape civil warin next door. InevitablyDespite their different outlooks on life, some traditions travel with them and in the novel Zahra recounts her efforts to protect herself couples befriend each other and her younger sister, Samsam, against FGM, a practice that claimed the life of her older sister in Somalia several years previouslyappears to improve for both pairs. Zahra intersperses her account with flashbacks to Somalia and the civil war that drove them awayBut all is not what it seems, thus giving a clear picture of the trials that she and her family have facedtheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178072179X</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= David FinkleShalini Boland|title= The Man With The OvercoatSilent Bride|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Why would anyone - he was soon to ask himself innumerable times - take Alice and Seth are a coat from a complete stranger only because it had match made in heaven. He is everything she has been offered?'' searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. Skip Gerber steps off the elevator after She is all he could possibly want in a long day at workwife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the foyer of his office building inevitable proposal is busy eagerly accepted by Alice and buzzy the wedding is planned and he does not notice set. When the man holding much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the overcoat until aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the man hands it congregation – their friends assembled to Skip telling him celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice''take very good care of it''. Skip unthinkingly grasps s world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the coat and before he has man at the chance to realise what he altar is doing - and that he , who is now holding an overcoat of unknown providence - the man disappears out of the exit door waiting for her to the buildingbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0992618525</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fredrik Backman1787636003|title=My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and ApologisesThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn''Every 7t exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old needs a superheroAlistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. That's just how it is…'' and for Elsa it's It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her Gran. When Gran dies, Elsa is surprised and devastatedby that time she was obsessed by him. Granny can't be old - Elsa has only known her Alistair worked for 7 years! Elsa still has to carry out Gran's last wish though; there are letters to be delivered Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and with each delivery Elsa learns something more about Gran in particular in the person behind Gran bar where all the superherogirls either worked or partied. Will it enforce her hero status or destroy it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444775839</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil SmithAmanda Craig|title=BooThree Graces|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= 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 day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is 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 gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|isbn= 140871468X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=152915118X|title=Pineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5

|summary=Oliver Dalrymple ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is deadmarried to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. He realised this The problem's exacerbated when the moment he woke up in clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the rebirthing bedPineapple Street property. His friends Tilda and tormentors had always called him Boo because of his ghostly pale complexion Chip have renovated and now he's finally earned the nickname fullydownsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. What he hasnThey won't realised is need any of the way in which he died; he thinks he died of holey heart problems furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in front of his locker while reciting the periodic table. The location is correct Nominally, they had a choice but, meeting Johnny (an equally dead former classmate) reveals, he was actually murderedthat wasn't the reality. WhatDarley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's worse, living in ''their murderer has been spotted there in 13 year olds' heaven' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434023493</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Minette WaltersEmily Critchley|title= CellarOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary= To my mind84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, ''The Dark Room'' but now she is the most perfect psychological thriller ever written (and I've read lots in this genre). In facing a move as her later works, Minette Walters seemed son wants to move to veer away from this particular path another house and bring Edie to glory live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her novels became steadily darker and with increasingly dislikeable charactersmemory. So it was quite refreshing to discover that ''The Cellar'' was written from However, Edie is tormented by the point memory of view of a rather likeable protagonist. Muna is an African child living inher childhood friend, Lucy, shall we saywho went missing over 60 years ago, somewhat unusual and very cruel conditions: the worry that there was a secret she was stolen and now lives in captivity. Her voice is compelling and from keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the first page I found myself wanting her to make good her escape from thing that reveals the dreadful - and sadly truth of what happened all too believable - circumstances that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in which the high street, just as she finds herself. So, naturally, I admired was the last time she saw her cunning and resourcefulness, knowing that these attributes would serve she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her well. But And yet as she remembers the past, of course, this she is Minette Walters forgetting more and nothing is as simple as it first appearsmore in her day to day life. As Will she uncover the story unfolded I found myself questioning who exactly were the victims truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and who, if anyone, was innocent.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099594641</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Naomi NovikMadelaine Lucas|title=UprootedThirst for Salt

|genre=FantasyLiterary Fiction|summary=Many years ago''Love, in a village deep in Eastern EuropeI'd read, the locals live was supposed to be a life of relative peace light and happiness - knowing to weightless feeling, but I had always avoid the wood that borders their land, and safe in the knowledge that they are guarded by longed for gravity'' Told from a powerful wizard - the Dragon. Aware that he is the one thing keeping them safe from the dangers of the woodretrospective view, the villagers take part in a ritual called 'The Choosing' every ten years - when a young girl is sent to serve woman unravels the wizard for a decade.Agnieszka is of age for the choosing, but nobody fears year-long relationship that she will be picked - once defined her best friend Kasia is pretty and graceful, and sure to catch the eye of the immortal Dragon. HoweverOverlaid with later wisdom, Agnieszka is not aware of the talents she holds that may attract narrator relives the wizard - talents that affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the safety of summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the entire kingdom may come to depend on for their survival.summer after..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447294130</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Barbara Lamplugh|title=Secrets of the Pomegranate|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Home in Bristol, Alice gets Set against the news from her sister's partner, Paco. Her sister, Deborah Hardy, was on board one backdrop of the trains bombed at Madridan isolated Australian coastal town 's Atocha station on 11 March. No one can yet confirm whether she is alive or dead. Deb had moved to Granada nearly 20 years ago, after her divorce from Mark's father, and was starting to make a name Thirst for herself as a scholar of women in AndalusiaSalt''s history. Alice and her ninedetails the 24-year-old son Timmy fly to Spain to find that Deb is alive, but in a coma in hospital. Over the weeks she keeps vigil for Deb, Alice lives in her sisternarrator's home in Granada and reads deepening relationship with her diariesolder lover, which proves to be a way of feeling closer to depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and learning more about how it altered her than she ever knew. Meanwhile, Mark and Paco keep their distance, working through their complicated grief in their own waysirrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781323690</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Menna Van Praag0008506337|title=The House At The End Of Hope StreetGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary= Alba Ashby is a wallflower of a girl; studious, bookish The love affair between Margo Garnett and excruciatingly shypoet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, so apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when tragedy wields its ponderous bolt, 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 is less able than most could achieve - going to adjust to life as she now knows itOxford and having a glittering career. In one of the event, they eloped and Richard took her midnight walks around historical Cambridge, she finds herself at away from the door to Number 11 Hope StreetIsle of Wight. It is house that she has never before seen; quirky Margo did go to Oxford and turreted with went on to become a wild garden well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and grandly Victorian Sasha. Life was lived in hue London and Alba is enchanted by itholidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. So she does something that Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never normally do, be able to leave him in a million yearscharge''. She knocks on the door Then Richard left them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749018623</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Gruen1914585402|title=At The Water's EdgeDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5

|summary=An indiscretion at a party causes Ellis HydeI reviewed David F Ross's parents to disown him, coming, as it does, hot on the heels of his father not understanding why Ellis has been turned down for war service. To prove hebook [[There's not a coward, Ellis, his new wife Maddie and best friend Hank leave the US for Scotland. HeOnly One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's determined they will succeed where Ellis' father failed Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years before: they will find the Loch Ness monster. Maddie isn't as convinced but then she also thinks she knows Ellis. She back and the locals at the inn where they're stranded remember being absolutely floored by the global conflict will discover how powerful and affecting it was. It was a lot more about himgripping, emotionally wounding read, and indeed themselvesrereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473604702</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah LeipcigerLucy Ashe|title=The Mountain Can WaitClara and Olivia

|summary=Tom Berry The year is a quiet man - one who lives for 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and in natureOlivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, spending on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's a half of his year running lot that builds a small team in remotedancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, isolated forests. The other half he spends tending attention to his family - a small group whom he brought up almost single handedlydetail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', following that don't come from the departure of his wifeclassroom. A goodstage presence, determined mana charm, we learn of Toma ''joie de vivre''s life running forestry teams in remote wilderness. The difference between a hard-worker, before an accident forces Tom to leave his routine and seek out his son - and both become troubled by the events of the accident, as well as ghosts of the past that may cause more pain than either man had anticipateda star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472223896</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth RenzettiHeather Fawcett|title=Based on a True StoryEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Augusta PriceEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, middle-agedand she has travelled extensively, washed upand researched meticulously, to write her life's work, substance-addicted actress has just left rehab for the innumerable timevery first encyclopaedia of faeries. Her only friend in the world Whilst she is her equally washed-up former mentor. Augusta has recently received a sudden upsurge of interest brilliant at research and income when her tell all memoir became a baffling best-seller. Frances Bleeker speaking to faeries, she is an American journalist who came to London not so good with high hopes, that were quickly dashed by the reality of the British magazine marketpeople. The two meet So when Frances is sent to interview Augusta about her book where Frances realises there’s she finds herself far, far more to North in the story small village of Augusta’s life than she’s cared to put in words. Needless to sayHrafvsnik, younghaving somehow offended the village matriarch, optimistic Frances she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and self-obsessed, drunk Augusta don’t exactly hit it off at once. But when Frances loses put her job and Augusta needs a ghost writer final investigations for her new book, back on the two offer each other a lifeline right track... or enough rope to hang themselves. As Frances will learn by delving into Enter Wendell Bambleby, her pastdashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, people close all charm and delight, much to Augusta don’t come away unscathedEmily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782395539</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Xavier Leret1398515388|title=The Romeo Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Juliet KillersAlison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5

|summary=This is a book that suggests love across the tracks – First of all , it was the while making earthquake, deep in the reader ask 'just how chuffing wide are those tracks supposed to be?!' Franky is a hard-done-by schoolboyocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, whose ultra-Catholic parents are stifling him in all aspects of lifeturn, so much so it's likely that when he gets into trouble by witnessing some porn on a friend's mobile phone at school it caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was really complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the hardware that he loss of livelihoods was gawping at in amazementwidespread. Hardware is nothing to Daizee, The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the underage street hooker, who knows what hard stuffs she likes and what she doesntsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't, and what her punters – and her mother, back when they had a connection – enjoyed, or needed, en route dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to it. Their unlikely connection is open his car door and Tamon the subject of this gritty novelladog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910213187</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pascal Garnier and Melanie Florence (translator)Christopher Bowden|title=BoxesMr Magenta

|summary=Meet Brice. HeChristopher Bowden's an illustrator, who had picked an ideal house in the country with his journalist wife, only for her to disappear assumed dead on assignment abroad. Therefore helatest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's having to make the move himselflife, which he does – but without carried out by her at the other end he finds it hard to kick his new life into gearnephew after she has died. Yes, The aunt who always provided a cat adopts him, safe harbour and he gets a little bit of indulgence to know the names of some new people, but a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that's nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an obligation to find itall out. What's more, one of those people is Blanche, attired most suitably in all-white, who herself is missing someone – someone of whom Brice is the spitting image…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910477044</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin MaherJennifer Mason|title=Last Night on EarthPartitions of Unity|rating=4.5

|summary=Baby Bonnie is born Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in London in 1996 to Jay [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and Shauna but unravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity'', she sets her traumatic birth and the aftermath causes the previously happy couple mind to separatesolving a murder. Jay looks back searching for how he got to this point and Shauna looks for answers in psychotherapy with a less than orthodox Danish analyst. Meanwhile both share Bonnie and worry about where they go from here. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408705079</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tina SeskisWill Carver|title=When We Were FriendsThe Daves Next Door|rating=54

|summary= Six friends meet at Bristol University; six very different people from six very different backgroundsFive strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. Six lives intertwined As their fates overlap, the story is told in an assortment of ways… break-upsbackwards order, marriages, careers, motherhood and bereavement; until one night six become fiveleading up to the fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405917954</amazonuk >1914585186}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael LaubJennifer Mason|title=Diary of the FallPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery

|summary=Diary of ''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Fall is Northern California redwoods, a story about regret400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, guilt and resentment. Ita women's told from track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of-the point of view of -art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an unnamed narratorenigmatic signature, K(s, x), who reflects on not a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...'' This is just his own life but also a sample of the lives cast of his father characters and grandfathersettings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581795</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James WilsonB0B2N7MVYM|title=The Summer Calculations of Broken StoriesRational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey

|summary=England 1950: Soon-It's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to-be-10put what happens in context, Mark Davenant the Cuban missile crisis is a typical lad with a typical ladstill very fresh in people's lifeminds. He loves adding The world has barely had a chance to his model train layoutbreathe out. But for Joe Marr, he plays with it's not the missile crisis that's at the front of his mates and walking best friend Barney the dogmind. ItHe's on one such walk he comes across Aubreybeen convicted of murder. With the current state of medical knowledge, an elderly writer living it's hard to think otherwise than that the prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in the forest. They build HMP Queen's Bench, a friendship based on shared stories and imaginingsrelatively new prison. Not all in the village are accepting though andHe's just getting used to his roommate, when they try to drive Aubrey outMervyn, Mark feels himself torn between old loyalties and newlearning to be wary of the McArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883571</amazonuk>