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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]].<!-- Kate Tough -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5[[image:034914365X.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034914365X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Science Fiction| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"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=[[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough]]Stig Abell|rating=4|genre==Crime[[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Life Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has just hidden behind settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a corner little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and stuck a foot out her daughter Diana, as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been moving in together for nine years would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and it was beginning relaxing life to feel ''settled''. Then Mark announced that he'd got a job move in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not. The ''not'' bit of this is the sentence was the way it worked out future she wants for herself and Rhona was left on her own. daughter? Well, she wasn't completely For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a coupleback burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4. So Rhona had 5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to start again, rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to the one shehold seventy-five 'luxury'd left nine years ago apartments - and there's a lot of difference between being in when they discovered the middle bones of your twenties and the middle of your thirtiesa child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. [[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough|Full Review]] <!-- Kerry Watts -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786817926 Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson.jpg|link=http://www It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago.amazon.co Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.uk/dp/1786817926/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"0008551324|title===[[Heartlands The Devil You Know (D I Jessie BlakeS Max Craigie) by Kerry Watts]]|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime [[image:3.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] The story had begun some twenty years earlier when two boys raped and killed Sophie NichollIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Jack Mackay was - on Neither side likes or has any respect for the face of it - from a decent family, but he was the ringleaderother. Daniel Simpson was a follower, but he still raped Sophie But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he could have stopped what happened but didn't. Sophie's prepared to tell the police where the body was found in of a shallow grave by an enthusiastic cocker spaniel a few days later missing person is buried and the boys were arrestedwho was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, tried is someone big and sentenced to five years in a young offenders institutionit will be worth the police doing what he wants. There were those who thought that And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence was too lenient, even for fifteen-year-old boys and Sophie's elder brotherand to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, Tom, was one of these. is it? He wasnThe new Deputy Police Constable doesn't going to let think so and she's even prepared to do the matter restother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. [[Heartlands (D I Jessie Blake) by Kerry Watts|Full Review]]}}<!-- Hitchcock -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008405026| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey[[image:1788004388.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788004388/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"| ===[[The Boy Who Flew by Fleur Hitchcock]]=== [[image:4old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night.5star She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]   Athan Wilde earns some money to supplement his family Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's meagre income by working for Mr Chen who is both mentor and friend. Mr Chen's wonderful imagination and sense something about the positioning of the future has led him bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to create some fantastic inventions for making life easier be an open-and work less back breaking-shut case is now a complex double murder. His latest endeavour Kerrigan is something on an entirely different level, however - itconvinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's aboss, Una Burt) are less convinced.... ''flying machine''! Imagine that! [[The Boy Who Flew by Fleur Hitchcock|Full Review]]}}<!-- David Hewson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0571379877| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet[[image:178029106X|rating=3.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178029106X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[The Savage Shore by David Hewson]]=== [[image:4starclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Reggio He's also self-obsessed, in Calabria. It's a strange placedemanding, closer handsome and entitled and uses Edward to Africa than Rome as Emmanuel kept reminding himselfrun errands for him. He was an illegal immigrant Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and like most of his kind he was simply looking for a way 's drunkenly confided how he feels to earn a decent living with a little dignityRobert. Back Most men in Nigeria he was an independent man and now 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 no better than left to stumble upon the monkey who sits two of them kissing in a cage on the bar he tendsdark passageway. The area }}{{Frontpage|author=Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is ruled by found crucified on the Mafiatop of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Further afield there are the Camorra and the Cosa Nostra, but here itIt's the 'Ndrangheta and the local boss is known as Lo Spettro - the ghost - as he's rarely seentheir first live case together, but he's one of the Bergamotti clan, but even that's not their real namehaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. [[The Savage Shore by David Hewson|Full Review]] <!-- Cara Hunter -->|- 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. 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?| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:0241283493.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241283493/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Thrillers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[No Way Out by Cara Hunter]]=== [[image:4starOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] It was Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the end of the Christmas holidays group and Felix House in an elite area of Oxford was on fireshe becomes a GP. Two children were dragged from the inferno: one, When we first meet them they're at a toddler, was pronounced dead at the scene drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the other, a boy on tragedy or the cusp of his teens, died in hospital some days laterconsequences. But where were Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the parents? three friends. Were This time, it's their bodies in what remained of the house and which was being steadily cleared, or had they left the children at home alone? For DI Adam Fawley it's one of his most disturbing casesteenage children who are involved. He's still not got over the death of ''his'' son and there's every sign that his marriage is on the rocks}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4. For his team it's just a heartbreaking, exhausting case. [[No Way Out by Cara Hunter|Full Review]] <!-- Reeves -->5|-genre=Autobiography| stylesummary="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[If you were to bring up an image:1788312201of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=http://www A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788312201/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag There was no posh public school on his CV -21]]  | style="verticalbut he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright -align: top; textextremely bright -align: left;"|===[[Women and he has a facility with numbers which most of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics by Rachel Reeves]]=== [[image:5starus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}} It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]]{{Frontpage''Women in Westminster have changed the culture of politics and the perception of what women can do''|isbn=1035021803 ''Women of Westminster: |title=The MPs Who Changed PoliticsAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It' chronicles the battles the 491 women who have s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been elected over back to the course of the past century have fought and highlights their victoriesEnglish country village where she grew up. It is remarkable that the history She's back now because of female Members of Parliament began in 1918a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, the same year in which women were first given the right to vote but a decade before all women were given suffrage on equal terms with mensay the least. Although Constance de Markievicz Arthur was the first female elected reason why Freya had not been back to Parliamentthe village: Arthur, she feels, it was only in 1919 that Nancy Astor became the first women to take let her seat down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the House of Commons and pave man or pursue the way for women of profession she loved. After the future. It was not long after split, she worked in 1924 that a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the first female MP, Margaret Bondfieldlove of her life, who was appointed into a cabinet position murdered) and Freya and since then women MPs James have endeavoured to fight gender inequality and campaign for female rightsnow divorced. Within 100 years there has been a gradual revolution of change in politics }}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and to date Britain has been led by two female Prime Ministers. However, such great landmarks have overshadowed the other female MPs whose early achievements, which have paved the way for subsequent women politicians, are consistently overlooked. In Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Women Opening up new ways of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics'' Rachel Reeves brings the forgotten stories into the spotlight to document the history thinking about the shape of British female political history from 1919 things to 2019come. [[Women of Westminster: The MPs Who Changed Politics by Rachel Reeves|Full Review]] <!-- Erskine -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786074923.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786074923/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Chemical Detectiveby Fiona Erskine]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Dr Jaq Silver is a brilliant scientist with a healthy social life who loves her work and life. Whilst she is haunted by her past she won't let it define her. When she becomes entangled in a mystery, a mystery that could tie to some of the most horrific weapons on Earth, she doesn't hesitate and jumps straight in. We follow Jaq as she travels the world digging deeper and deeper into a rabbit-hole of intrigue and betrayal, never compromising and always seeking the truth. From the ski slopes of Eastern Europe, to the sunny climes of Portugal and even making a visit to that most glamourous of locations… rainy Teeside… this is a true thriller. [[The Chemical Detectiveby Fiona Erskine|Full Review]] <!-- Varenne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Collins -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408888335.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408888335/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]   Vetty, her dad, and her little sister are about to move back to London and Vetty can't wait. The family has been staying with Aunt Wendy since the death of Vetty's mother several years ago. With the girls older and Aunt Wendy getting married, it's time to get back to their lives. Vetty, mostly, is looking forward to reconnecting with Pez. She and he were inseparable - spending all their time together and knowing each other inside out, without the need for words. Vetty could do with a friend like that right now, as her inner feelings of difference get ever stronger... [[All the Invisible Things by Orlagh Collins|Full Review]]<!-- Dahl -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1912374439.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912374439/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]] Nazi-occupied Oslo, 1942. There, I've given the game away. For in a book that centres around a murder, I've told you who did it – the Nazis, surely? Well, that certainly has to remain to be seen in this volume, which splits its time between one of war, when a young woman sees her father arrested, and their store condemned as Jewish, and rushes to her best friend to help – not knowing she will never see her alive again, and the late 1960s, when great consternation is being felt. In this timeline, a maverick agent is back in town, one who might have been fingered for murdering that female victim, even though she and he lived together with their baby as a young family, except he was thought by all to have died in the War… [[The Courier by Kjell Ola Dahl and Don Bartlett (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- AMS -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]] <!-- Lingane -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07NV8NY4Y.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NV8NY4Y/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]  Julian's family are getting pretty fed up with his perma-student status. They feel that the maths PHD candidate should start earning some money. To that end, they have managed to find him a job tutoring the children of a highly regarded politician. Julian bowls up at their strange, austere mansion with little in the way of expectation. Victor, the politician is not at home. But Esis, his wife, is. A beautiful but isolated woman, Esis shows little interest in her children and not much more in Julian. She directs him towards his room, the library in which he will teach the children, and the kitchen, whose chefbot will provide him with food. [[The Rose, the Night, and the Mirror by Mark Lingane|Full Review]]  <!-- Brandi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789550122.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789550122/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Into the River by Mark Brandi]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Two boys, Ben and Fab, are growing up in a small town in Northern Australia in the late 80's. They do all the normal things that boys of that age do - go yabbying (fishing), play cricket, fight their battles at school and think about girls. Their family lives are different; Ben comes from a happy home, whilst Fab is the son of Italian immigrants who clearly have little money, and has a father who is very violent. Yet despite their differences, they are fiercely loyal to each other. So far, so normal. But with the arrival of a new neighbour for Ben, a man called Ronnie, things begin to change. Ronnie wants Ben to come over to do some odd jobs for him, and both Ben and Fab are increasingly uncomfortable about this. [[Into the River by Mark Brandi|Full Review]] <!-- Clark -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034901082X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034901082X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] In 1930's Berlin, three people obsessed with art find themselves swept up into a scandal. Emmeline, a wayward young student, Julius, an anxious middle-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 Gogh. Based on a true story and unfolding through the subsequent rise of Hitler and the Nazis, the discovery of the art allows these characters to explore authenticity, vanity and self-delusion. [[In The Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark|Full Review]] <!-- Ireland -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789090873.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789090873/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dread Nation by Justina Ireland]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Horror|Horror]] ''Two days after I was born … the dead rose up and started to walk on a battlefield in a small town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg '' Dread Nation narrates the unconventional life of Jane McKeene who was born days before the dead began to walk the streets. An event which in interrupting the civil war between the states altered American history forever. In the changed world, minorities are forced into conscription and under the new Native and Negro Re-education Act children are placed 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 attendant. 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 -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1789016525.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016525/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] In an extension of the story begun by Geoffrey Arnold in ''Ripped Apart'', he continues to tell the story of the Quantum twins. Born on a parallel world, these genetically identical twins interfered with an experiment and were hurtled through space-time to our earth - and a series of adventures ensued in the following books. When we rejoin them in ''Betrayed'' we find Tullia struggling to adapt to life in the bush - adopted by a Bushman family and made part of a tribe. Twin Qwelby however, is not doing so well - shocked by the violence on the earth. Rescued by an old friend, 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... [[Betrayed by Geoffrey Arnold|Full Review]] <!-- Pamela Brookes -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1949471004.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1949471004/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dog on a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] What do you do when your child has dyslexia and you need books which will help them to achieve the wonder that is reading? You can risk buying early readers, but the sounds in the book might not be the ones you've been working on and encountering words which are just too challenging can have more of a negative effect on the young dyslexic than a child without that problem. You need to be able to buy books at a reasonable price which concentrate on what you've been working on, without anything else being thrown into the mix. You need a story which engages the young mind and you need stages which progress steadily through the learning process without there being any large jumps. Some online support and games wouldn't go amiss, either. Reading - and ''learning'' to read - should be a pleasure. It should be ''fun''. [[Dog on a Log Chapter Books: Step 1 by Pamela Brookes|Full Review]] <!-- Kazan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0749024801.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0749022132/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]''

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| stylegenre="verticalThrillers |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 -align: top; textto 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 -align: left;"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 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 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 Phoenix Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of Florence by Philip Kazan]]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:5starRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, 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.jpgWith 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}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|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, [[:Category:Historical Fictioncultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Historical Fiction]]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.''

Deep in Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the Tuscan countryside protection of fifteenth century Italythe Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Onoria survives 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 massacre that destroys steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the 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 Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, 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 homeeven after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Alone in His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the foresthelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. 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 meets loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a band remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of soldiers 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 opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend whowas a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, believing her 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 short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a 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 manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a boy train diplomatic incident and develop 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. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. 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 determined Onoria becomes 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 mercenary – desperate collection of knits from toys to avoid any situation blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in which she may feel vulnerable againfront 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. Along All the wayprojects 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, she meets exdisturbing coffin-soldier Celavinisized 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 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 delivery to his house is a new friend, whose journey a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to Florence sees help him investigating two brutal murderssince Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. As Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he digs further , Benny, and uncovers links 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 own family history, Celavini must revisit fancy next of the past two. But he shares with Onoria's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, in and the hope that catflap they both use can lay chuck them out, not into the ghosts regular back garden, but into a world of their shared history 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 restbe honest, before itbut he's too lateturned 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 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 answer for both could well be....no. [[The Phoenix of Florence by Philip Kazan|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}}