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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

{'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->reviews of books about to be published]]. <!-- Lingane -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|A Letter to the Luminous Deep[[image:B07NV8NY4Y.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NV8NY4Y/refrating=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|author=[[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane]]===Stig Abell [[image:4star.jpg|linkrating=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction4|Science Fiction]] genre=Crime Julian's family are getting pretty fed up with |summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his perma-student statusrustic life at Little Sky. They feel that the maths PHD candidate should start earning some money. To that end, they have managed to find him There’s perhaps a job tutoring little uncertainty about the children future of a highly regarded politician. Julian bowls up at their strangehis life with his vet girlfriend, austere mansion with little in the way Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of expectation. Victor, the politician is not at home. But Esis, compromise: does Jake give up his wife, is. A beautiful but isolated woman, Esis shows little interest in her children off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not much more in Julian. She directs him towards his room, this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the library moment they’re enjoying life in which he will teach the children, present and putting the kitchen, whose chefbot will provide him with foodfuture on the back burner. [[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane|Full Review]] }}<!-- Brandi -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1786482126| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths[[image:1789550122.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789550122/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-align: top; textfive 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[Into when they discovered the River by Mark Brandi]]=== [[image:4starbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Two boysDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, Ben and Fabbut Nelson doesn't, are growing up in that she is pregnant with his child as a small town in Northern Australia in result of the late 80'sone night they spent together some three months ago. They do all the normal things that boys Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of that age do - go yabbying sickness.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324|title=The Devil You Know (fishingD S Max Craigie), play cricket, fight their battles at school and think about girls|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4. Their family lives are different; Ben comes 5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from a happy home, whilst Fab is the son of Italian immigrants who clearly have little money, and has a father who is very violentHardie family to approach the police. Yet despite their differences, they are fiercely loyal to each Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. So far, so normal. But with the arrival of Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of a new neighbour missing person is buried and who was responsible for Ben, a man called Ronnie, things begin to changeher death. Ronnie wants Ben to come over to do some odd jobs for himThis person, he promises, is someone big and both Ben and Fab are increasingly uncomfortable about thisit will be worth the police doing what he wants. [[Into And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the River by Mark Brandi|Full Review]] <!-- Clark -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034901082Xremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034901082X/ref=nosim Not much to ask, is it?tag=thebookbag The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded -21]]make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=[[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark]]===Crime[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In 1930's Berlinher mother, Helena, three people obsessed with art find themselves swept up into a scandaland her father are dead in their bed. Emmeline Initially, it looks like a wayward young student, Julius, straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an anxious middleopen-aged art expert, and Rachmann, a mysterious art dealer, live in the politically turbulent Weimar Berlin, and soon find themselves whipped up into excitement over the surprise discovery of thirty-two previously unknown paintings by Vincent Van Goghshut case is now a complex double murder. Based on a true story and unfolding through Kerrigan is convinced that the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazis, the discovery of the art allows these characters to explore authenticityexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, vanity and self-delusionUna Burt) are less convinced. [[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark|Full Review]]}}<!-- Ireland -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:1789090873.jpg|linkrating=http://www3.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]=== [[image:5starclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] ''Two Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days after I was born … the dead rose up - and started to walk on a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg he'' Dread Nation narrates the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began s drunkenly confided how he feels to walk the streetsRobert. An event which Most men in interrupting the civil war between the states altered American history forever. In Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the changed world, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed two of them kissing in combat schools where they are trained extensively to destroy the dead once and for all. For Jane and other girls like her, there is however the opportunity for a better life by being employed as an attendantdark passageway. With deadly capabilities and perfect etiquette, attendants protect those higher in society and are valued above all else. [[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland|Full Review]]}}<!-- Arnold -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''Leave No Trace|rating=4[[image:1789016525.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016525/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary=''vertical-align: When a man is found crucified on the top; text-align: left;of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It''|===[[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:3s their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases.5star But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project.jpg Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|linkisbn=Category:139851120X}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science FictionFrontpage|isbn=1399613073|Science Fiction]]title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie WatsonIn an extension of the story begun by Geoffrey Arnold in ''Ripped Apart''|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, he continues to tell Laura and Anjali met on the story first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of the Quantum twinsa century. Born on a parallel world Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, these genetically identical twins interfered with an experiment and were hurtled through space-time which is a bonus when you aim to our earth - be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a series trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of adventures ensued in the following booksgroup and she becomes a GP. When we rejoin first meet them in they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it'Betrayed'' we find Tullia struggling s going to adapt to life end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the bush tragedy or the consequences. Twenty- adopted by a Bushman family and made part of a tribe. Twin Qwelby however, is not doing so well - shocked by five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the violence on the earththree friends. Rescued by an old friend This time, he then tries to help a girl called Xaala - but her ulterior motives may well prove to drive a wedge between the twins as they try to reconnect..it's their teenage children who are involved. [[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]]}}<!-- Pamela Brookes -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:1949471004.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949471004/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dog on If you were to bring up an image of a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes]]=== [[image:4starcity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]] A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] What do you do when your child has dyslexia poverty and you need books which will help them injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to achieve the wonder that London School of Economics. Stevenson is reading? bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. You can risk buying early readersHe also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, but the sounds in the book might not be the ones you've been working on and encountering words a card game which are just too challenging can have more of a negative effect on the young dyslexic than a child without that problemgot him an internship with Citibank. You need to be able to buy books at a reasonable price which concentrate on what you've been working onEventually, without anything else being thrown this turned into the mix. You need permanent employment as a story which engages the young mind and you need stages which progress steadily through the learning process without there being any large jumpstrader. Some online support and games wouldn}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter't go amiss, eithers Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3. Reading - and ''learning'5|genre=Crime|summary=It' s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to read - should be a pleasure. It should be the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya'funs former mentor and Carole''. [[Dog on a Log Chapter Bookss close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes|Full Review]] <!-- Kazan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0749024801Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0749022132/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"AllTomorrowsFutureCover|=title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=[[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan]]Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre==Science Fiction[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Deep in ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the Tuscan countryside shape of fifteenth century Italy, Onoria survives a massacre that destroys her family and home. Alone in the forest, she meets a band of soldiers who, believing her things to be a boy train and develop her – and the determined Onoria becomes a mercenary – desperate to avoid any situation in which she may feel vulnerable againcome. Along the way, she meets ex-soldier Celavini, whose journey to Florence sees him investigating two brutal murders. As he digs further and uncovers links to his own family history, Celavini must revisit the past he shares with Onoria, in the hope that they can lay the ghosts of their shared history to rest, before it's too late... [[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan|Full Review]] <!-- Watson and Hagan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1526600862.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1526600862/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Jasmine and Chelsea go to a high school with an excellent reputation. It places strong emphasis on extra curricular activities and all pupils are encouraged to join clubs and associations. But Jasmine is fed up with her drama group because she's always typecast in the loud, "hysterical" roles (Jasmine is black and resents the angry black woman trope). And Chelsea is fed with poetry club because the only poetry it ever covers was written by men who lived and died years ago. So, along with friends Isaac and Nadine, they start a new group called Write Like a Girl. [[Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07KTQTW1L.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07KTQTW1L/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The girl had once been a promising athlete, but injury and then addiction to prescription painkillers changed her completely. Eventually she was driven to commit suicide in the most gruesome way - by throwing herself off a cliff in the Lake District. It worried DI Kelly Porter, but she had no reason to investigate, although several of her cases keep bringing her back to the girl's school and a darker story emerged. One of the pupils goes missing at the local fair: her best friend is the girl who has accused a teacher of luring her to his flat and then sexually assaulting her. It seems that the teacher also has paedophilia on his computer, but the downloading eerily coincides with the girl's visit to his flat. What is going on, but - most importantly - where is Faith? [[Bitter Edge (D I Kelly Porter) by Rachel Lynch|Full Review]] <!-- Angela Marsons -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786817721.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786817721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Someone is recreating every traumatic event in Kim Stone's past, starting with the death of her twin when she was six years old. Some of the events, or at least the details of them, are not public knowledge, but whoever is behind this has a wealth of information and is using it to evil intent. That might seem bad enough, but the brutal truth of the matter is that people - innocent people - are dying so that these dramas can be recreated. Stone probably - well, certainly - shouldn't be on the case, but who has better knowledge of what happened to her than she does? If her boss can just turn a blind eye to the effect it's having on her for long enough, she can sort it out... Or can she? [[Dead Memories (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons|Full Review]] <!-- Hurwitz -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:071818548X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/071818548X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] 1997. Evan Smoak is 19 years old ''trained up, mission ready. And yet untested.'' He's in a foreign city on an officially unofficial mission, which he executes with all the impeccable training that his youth belies. Evan Smoak is Orphan X. [[Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz|Full Review]] <!-- Jewell -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178475627X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178475627X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Watching You by Lisa Jewell]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] A teenage boy spies on a teenage girl from his bedroom window. Down the road, a woman is convinced she knows a man in the village and that he is following her. Meanwhile, a young woman has moved back home after some time abroad, and develops a fascination with her new neighbour. The man's wife, meanwhile, engages the services of the young woman's husband in some work around the house. Oh, and that teenage boy? He's her son. And the woman with the conspiracy theories? She's the mother of the girl he's spying on. Plus, the man she thinks is out to get her is the woman's husband (and is also the new headteacher at her daughter's school). Whichever way you look at it, there's a lot of watching going on in this book. [[Watching You by Lisa Jewell|Full Review]] <!-- Cooch -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0578444305.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0578444305/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] This novel is set about a hundred years into the future. The world has been decimated by nuclear conflict and what's left of the old United States is run from Center City. Women run this world and it is very proud of having defeated the old patriarchy. Men must behave appropriately and deferentially at all times and, if they don't, are medicalised to keep their baser instincts under control. And if that doesn't work, they're sent to work camps, away from open society, or even worse: expelled to the wilderness beyond the Central Authority's borders. [[Fish Seeking Bicycle by Kate Cooch|Full Review]] <!-- James Atkinson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07ML4Q55J.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ML4Q55J/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] James Atkinson has all the qualifications which you need in a workout instructor and he looks the part. He's been actively involved in the health and fitness arena for more than twenty years and he spent nine years as a member of 9 Parachute Regiment, Royal Engineers. He has another qualification which means a lot to me: he's been on the other side. There was a time when he was overweight and not particularly strong. As a child he was slow to develop. This means that he ''understands'' what it's like and he knows how his clients feel: it's much more helpful than the twenty-something who was born super-fit and with an attitude problem. [[Home Workout for Beginners: 6 Week Fitness Program with Fat Burning Workouts for Long Term Weight Loss by James Atkinson|Full Review]] <!-- Adrian Cull -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999308719.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999308719/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]] For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of balance. It was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed. ''Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments'' seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips. [[Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull|Full Review]] <!-- Anders -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785653199.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785653199/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] January is a dying planet. It wasn't exactly pleasant to begin with. One half is scorching sunlight, pure, blazing heat, and totally uninhabitable. The other half is pure darkness and ice, where a creature can freeze to death in seconds, and totally uninhabitable. In the middle is a brief twilight that is barely survivable. Life is a knife-edge, stray too close to one side you die, to close to the other, you die and yet the heat from the sun and the water from the ice are necessary for life. Life for the inhabitants of January is long, and hard, and arduous, will anything ever change? [[The City In The Middle Of The Night by Charlie Jane Anders|Full Review]] <!-- Laws -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789016851.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016851/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks the Prime Minister by David Laws]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] At the time of my writing this, there is one thing uniting Britain, and this is hatred of 'Brexit'. Not just Brexit, but use of the word 'Brexit'. Yes, people hate the people that instigated it then disappeared, and/or the people who just can't seem to get their fingers out and complete it, but they also hate the use of the word. This biggest turn-off has made people who have never so much as tutted in their life slam down their tea-cups in high dudgeon and leave the room until it's safe to return, when all mention of it has subsided. I mention this in relation to this book because it is partly about Brexit, but because it too seems to get to the actual Brexiting in a very protracted manner. Just as we have to wade through dirges from Europe to get anywhere, it seems, so the reader of this book has to get through a lot from Europe before the title's theme really arises. Here, at least though, the author's delaying tactics are much more forgiveable. [[Exit Day: Brexit; An Assassin Stalks the Prime Minister by David Laws|Full Review]] <!-- Chamberlain -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076446.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076446/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] When Barbara Hummel arrives, determined to identify the mysterious woman whose photograph she has found among her mother's possessions, Dora and Joe find their worlds upended – and are swiftly forced to confront their pasts. Revisiting their time on the Channel Islands during World War II, Dora remembers a time when she concealed her Jewish identity, and Joe, a Catholic Priest, remembers a time when he hid something very different. In this story of love, loss and betrayal, it remains to be seen whether a speck of light can diffuse the darkest shadows of war… [[The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain|Full Review]] <!-- Stephen John Hartley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1999811402.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1999811402/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's autobiography. [[Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley|Full Review]] <!-- Lelic -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07GXSB6N2.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444947605/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|'

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=[[3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Haven: Book 1 Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by Simon Lelic]]a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

[[image:4starRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.jpgMira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|linkisbn=Category:0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Confident Readers]]summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When Ollie her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and NancyEllie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the police officer tasked rare ability to communicate with guarding our young herothe dead, are abducted in putting her at the middle heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the nightBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, things take is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a dangerous turnwhile. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. Rescued by Dodge The next case did look simple, Ollie though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is taken married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the Havenopportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a secret underground community based short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a network street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of underground tunnels manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the London above ground knows man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing aboutto help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Here Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, children work together and so jumps at the chance to come home to battle great evilsEdinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there 's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{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 job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. 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 thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is an immediate enemy the very last person to fightdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Ollie would have So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the 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 Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny'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.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the hundredth victim of Maddy Sikes had two. But he 's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not been rescuedinto the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And Maddy intends to destroy if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the cityanswer for both could well be.... no. [[The Haven: Book 1 by Simon Lelic|Full Review]]

<!''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231}}