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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, the charity shop 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 [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].

|isbnauthor=1543987877Sylvie Cathrall|title=Learn A Letter to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life|author=Dr Thomas Jordanthe Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=LifestyleScience Fiction|summary=''Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life'' is a book about love relationships rather There are few greater joys than a book about love. The two greatest emotions are love and grief and love is the opposite of grief: ''if you love'', Dr Thomas Jordan tells us, ''you will inevitably grieve''. Your love relationships begin the moment you're born and end only when you die. Whilst we all come into the world hoping which lives up to give and receive love there are many people for whom love is not quite so simplea compelling premise. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the same mistakes - and And this eventually becomes resignation. For people who are making the same mistakes repeatedly, self-preservation, in the form is one of resignation is a necessitythem.|isbn= 0356522776

|authorisbn=Chris Hauty0008517061|title=Deep StateDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=34|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Hayley Chill is a fighterFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. She is every kind There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of fighterhis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and well-trained her daughter Diana, as moving in most together would mean a lot of them. She's army infantry and she boxes for fun – compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and she wins. Always. She wins because she is focussed. She works hard, mentally and physically, and she knows how relaxing life to deal move in with the pain. She is Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not so much cold as controlled. This fight this is against someone the future she is not expected to beat. wants for herself and her daughter? And she is being watchedFor the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.|isbn=1471185605

|authorisbn=H G Parry 1786482126|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to see eye to eye for years hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - Rob when they discovered the bones of a sensible lawyer who exists in the "normal" world - and Charley child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a man who is blessed ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with an ability he canDCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into the real world. After years of protecting Charley, Rob wants to discharge that she is pregnant with his duties and leave Charley to his own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out child as a result of both their handsthe one night they spent together some three months ago. As literary characters begin to appear everywhere Her condition will be obvious before long, it soon becomes clear that someone out there shares Charley's powers and intends not least because Ruth is prone to use them for nefarious gainssudden bouts of sickness. Rob and Charley must team up to stop the madness - in a battle to win before they, the characters and the world reach The End…|isbn=0356513777

|isbn=14447761850008551324|title=Haven't they GrownThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Sophie HannahNeil Lancaster

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It was when Beth Leeson was ferrying her son, Ben, 's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to a football match that she found herself on Wyddial Lane in Hemingford Abbotsapproach the police. Actually, ItNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's a little disingenuous prepared to say 'found herself' as Beth had made a deliberate detour on tell the police where the grounds that she didn't find herself in this neck body of the woods very often a missing person is buried and she who was curious to see where a family who'd come into money had lived before they'd all lost contact twelve years agoresponsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And it might have gone no further than that had Beth not seen a car draw up what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and her friend Flora to get out along with two children she called Thomas and Emilyan early parole date. Beth remembered Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the names well other thing that Hardie demanded - but these children were about three make certain that DS Max Craigie and five and Floraanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's children - Thomas and Emily - would now be fifteen and seventeenhappening.

|isbn=15291237630008405026|title=Miss AustenA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Gill HornbyJane Casey

|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=It's long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the letters which she investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and other members her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the extensive Austen family had exchanged with or about bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her sister Janeboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What is not known is ''why'' she did this looked as though it was going to be an open-and at this stage - more than two hundred years after Jane's death - shut case is now a definitive answer is unlikely to forthcomingcomplex double murder. Gill Hornby has provided us with some possible answers Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in a book that proved to be far more emotionally complex than I was expectingRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.

|authorisbn=Rory Clements0571379877|title=Hitler's SecretThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=So, Hitler had Edward Jevons is a secret? Twoworking-class young man, if you include the reproductive detail mentioned in a certain singobsessed with his upper-song aspersionclass friends, Robert and Stanza. But this is Robert's a secret that is counter to that, and in fact is a secret that Hitler himself doesn't even know abouttheatre director. His neiceHe's also self-obsessed, Geli Raubaldemanding, the attractive young woman he seemed to be very close handsome and entitled and uses Edward to in the early 1930s, had had his daughter behind his backrun errands for him. Protected under a false identity ever Edward has been in love with Stanza since, the girl is completely ignorant of her past, their university days - and the truth is a very rare thinghe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Martin Bormann, the Most men in Robert'gatekeeper' to Hitler and his right hand man, knows – and is desperately intent on wiping the slate clean and removing all connected with her existence s position would stay away from the Reich. So itStanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's down not like most men: Edward is left to Tom Wilde, an American history professor at Oxbridge, to go stumble upon the two of them kissing in and extract her, in this most shadowy race against timea dark passageway.|isbn=1838770275

|isbnauthor=0241985110Jo Callaghan|title=All the Rage (D I Fawley)|author=Cara HunterLeave No Trace|rating=4.5

|summary=A very beautiful, but extremely distressed teenage girl was picked up by When a minicab driver man is found crucified on the outskirts top of Oxford. She didn't want to go a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the police station or case alongside her sidekick, the hospital: she just wanted to be taken homeAI detective Lock. The driver wasnIt't so certain though - and after dropping the girl at home he went to the polices their first live case together, which having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is why DI Adam Fawley a second body found himself talking to Faith Appleford crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and her mother. Both were adamant a very high profile case that this was nothing more than an April Fool's joke which had gone wrongdraws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. No crime had been committed and Faith didn't want Will they be able to take solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the matter any further. Fawley case and his team weren't prepared to leave it at that and they began investigating. What they found strange was that Faith Appleford didn't seem to have much , potentially, out of a history.career?|isbn=139851120X

|isbn=15294002791399613073|title=Six Wicked ReasonsMoral Injuries|author=Jo SpainChristie Watson

|genre=CrimeThrillers|summary=It was early summer 2018 Olivia, Laura and Adam Latimer returned home to Spanish Cove after an absence Anjali met on the first day of ten years. The family had thought him dead - in fact, that's what the private detective his mother had insisted upon had told medical school and their friendship would keep theminseparable for a quarter of a century. He was cagey about exactly where he'd been but he seemed content, if not happyOlivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be homea cardiothoracic surgeon. What brought him? Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Well, nine years ago his mother died Anjali is the free spirit of the group and he'd seen the she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in memoriamtragedy. We don'' in t know who suffered the paper: this was tragedy or the first he'd heard about what had happenedconsequences. His Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three sisters and two brothers had mixed feelings about his return, but his father is delightedfriends. In factThis time, he's determined to have a party. Only, with Frazer Latimer, what happens has to be about him. He has an announcement to make - it's nine years since Kathleen died and he's been lonely. He's met Ana, a Polish immigrant, and they're getting marriedtheir teenage children who are involved.

|authorisbn=Penny Chrimes0241636604|title=Tiger HeartThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=''Fly never meant If you were to end bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the cage pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with a man-eating tiger. She just saw her chance to skedaddleviolence, poverty and she took itinjustice. And even when There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the cloud London School of soot cleared Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and she saw the golden eyes he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a killer staring card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into hers, she still didnpermanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It't turn round and climb s twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up the chimney straightaway. She'Cos there was worse waiting s back now because of a request for help from her back on the roofbeloved aunt, Carole. Freya''What an opener! And theres former mentor and Carole's plenty more close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to come!|isbn=1510107045say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, 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.

|authorisbn=Tanya LandmanAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=Jane EyreAll Tomorrow's Futures: a RetellingFictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=A young woman, fresh from living with horrid relatives who could care less ''Opening up new ways of thinking about herthe shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, and years in a dreary school, moves into Thornfield Hall with only one intent – to I must confess that there have something like the life she wants – and with only one job, to tutor been more than a young half-French girl, whose father is almost always absentfew decades of technology in my lifetime. When he does turn I've kept up he seems reasonably well with what's advantageous to be dark, brooding and troubled – me but I'm left with the feeling thatit's nothing compared to all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the darker, more broody probabilities and even more troubled secret in end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the houselatest conspiracy theorist. Yes, if you know Jane Eyre then you know the rest – but if you don't, for whatever reason, this is I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a wonderful book to turn toway I could understand.|isbn=1781129126

|author= T R HendrickSunny Singh|title= What if They KnewHotel Arcadia|rating= 43.5|genre= General FictionThrillers |summary= It's 2025. Underneath The Hotel Arcadia is a lodge luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the Blue Mountain resort in Pennsylvaniaterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a secret facility. Herewartime photographer and Abhi, Dr Benton and his team are making some critical scientific advances on behalf of the Benefactor, their anonymous funderhotel manager. Already, As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the team have succeeded residents who are still alive in teleporting small primates from one place to another. Butthe hotel, unbeknownst he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to the Benefactorbe cowed by events, Dr Benton has also coded for another type and keeps on venturing out of teleportation altogether - travel her room to try to capture what's happened through timeher photography. And he's ready Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to testsee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists. If successful, Benton has a very specific use for his technology in mind|isbn=1734277211086154742X

|authorisbn= Catherine Steadman1529153298|title= Mr NobodyThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating= 45|genre= ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary= DonIt't you just hate it when people are multi-talenteds 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? Author Catherine Steadman is both a successful actress and writer I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, with this her second novelthough. Women have been disappearing. I think in a way her acting background shows in her writing as Well, they've been murdered, but to my mind the have 'disappeared'fight scenedoesn' at the end was somewhat unrealistic – you know the kind where the hero has been hurt t sound quite so many times that itfrightening. Miv's virtually impossible theyupset because she'd still be alive let alone able s overheard that her father wants to fight off an attackermove the family 'Down South'. The story also unfolded at When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a steady pace throughout until frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the ending which felt overstuffed in a frenetic bid move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to wrap everything up in the last few chaptersprevent that. It was almost as if She's not worried about the author wanted dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to keep the suspense until the last possible moment (which I liked) but then was somewhat left with too much to do in the closing stagesanyone.|isbn=1984890646

|isbn=14736818471398524085|title=In Her EyesHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Sarah AldersonNicci French

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Ava lives a charmed life, Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but those things sometimes rub other people never turned up the wrong way. One evening she returns from a night out with a friend Her children, sons Niall, Paul and before she can finish her bedtime routine, her home, Ollie and her lifedaughter, Etty. are under attack: masked men have broken in and are demanding money from all worried but - strangely - her husband, while her young daughter cowers beside himAlec, is not. In Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the scuffle than ensuesbody of Greg's father, Ava is hurtDuncan Ackerley, badlyin 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. When she wakes up in hospital she The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can barely remember 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 knows 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 lifeback in Athens -changing. With 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 daughter still fighting preference for her life 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 room down place that has the corridornickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, Ava has a lot they're looking forward to contend with 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 she tries they lurch from one film genre to recoverthe next, wills her daughter can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to recoverthe cinema, and attempts to piece together what happened and why.their real lives?|isbn=1839942738

|author=Leigh Bardugo, Louise Simonson and Kit SeatonRachel Greenlaw|title=Wonder Woman: Warbringer: The Graphic NovelCompass and Blade|rating=3.5

|summary=Diana''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, being unique the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her island, is one of the victim of seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a lot of tauntstrap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and claims of nepotism. ItMira's only her unique statusfather. 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 mother being Queen, she sets off in search of a family secret that has lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her with any standing at allfather, as her naysayers declare – even though she has clearly fought journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to be a strong young woman. Perhaps too strong for the island, however – for every Wonder Woman origin story has her quickly leaving home for heart of the World of Mensmuggler's territory, and this Diana is Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the heroine future of yet another Wonder Woman origin story. A shipwreck disturbs her leading performance in a running race, but home and the survivor ones she drags from the waters is only going to disturb a lot more..holds most dear.|isbn=14012825550008664730

|isbnauthor=1786075695James Sherwood Metts|title=When the Dead Come Calling (Burrowhead Mysteries 1)|author=Helen SedgwickPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=It began with the discovery of Things have been a body under bit sticky for the swings in the children's playgroundEarthlings. It was Dr Alexis Crosse AI and he was found by PC Simon Hunterautomation have been proceeding apace, who loved him deeply, but who had reason often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to mistrust himaccomplish. Crosse was a psychotherapist who grew up in Greece, but such professions are misunderstood in Burrowhead (along with foreigners), a community which regards anyone not born and brought up there Just as an outsider. DI Georgie Strachan is an outsider - you've only got they were beginning to look at her skin get used to realise that, all this technological change and her husbandstarting to think of other, Fergusnew ways to spend time, wellalong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, he's a little strange tooalong with it, not entirely ''here''all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426

|author=Alastair ChisholmMatthew Tree|title=Orion LostWe'll Never Know

|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Thirteen-year-old Beth and her parents board the transport ship Orion ready for a new life on Eos Five. Their new home is still being terra-formed and life there isn't going to be easy, but it ''is'' going Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be a fresh start. As Beth's mum puts itdifferent from his father, ''There's a future waiting for usdrunk 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. A chance So Tim applied himself to make our own decisionshis studies, create our own livescultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.''|isbn=1788005929B0CVFXPGP8

|isbnauthor=0753553236A G Slatter|title=Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything|author=B J FoggBriar Book of the Dead

|genre=LifestyleFantasy|summary=Go on'' 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, admit 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- youwitch 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 her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie're not quite perfect. You still have those odds cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, quirkythe town's leader, even loveable (to you) habits that seem to annoy other peopleand Ellie takes her place beside her. Other peopleAs challenges come her way left, of courseright and centre, are sorely afflicted Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with some dreadful flaws which they could so easily correctthe dead, if only they would make just putting her at the heart of a little bit maelstrom of effortchaos. Or put Reeling from one family secret to another way, I get cross with myself because I forget Ellie must decide who to do things or do some actions more than I should trust and no matter how I try to make determine what seem to be quite monumental changes I never quite seem do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to get 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 even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to grips with ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the conceptshelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. I constantly fail and then I get cross with myself Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for failinghelp again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Lack Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of willpower a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is another burden to add married to an extremely rich man and it's not the listItalian. But which of them was the primary target?

|authorisbn= B T Keaton1529395224|title= TransferenceLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating= 43.5|genre= Science FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary= Barrabus Madzimure is about Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to diefollow in his footsteps, stranded particularly when he considered the strain that being on a mining planet millions of light-years from home, executed for high crimes against the Church, the ruling body of Earthcall put on his father's life. Except When he's not Barrabus Madzimure, was seventeen he's Thaniel Kilraven in Barrabus Madzimure's body. Such is took the magic opportunity of Transference, the ability to transplant doing work experience with a person's soul or consciousness into family friend who was a different body - vet and a power that was convinced this was the Church has exclusive control overjob for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. As if Thaniel doesn It hadn't have enough things to worry about, - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a Church employee named Corvus has arrived from Earth to interrogate himchild. All Thaniel wants is to see his family again If anything, and he'll stop at nothing to accomplish this, but the Church isn't going d wanted to give in without a hell of be a fightprofessional footballer...|isbn=B082WPHTHH

|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Christine BrownSteve Burrows|rating=4|titlegenre=Crime|summary=Bucket Showers DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and Baby Goats: Volunteering former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in West AfricaSingapore 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 diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company

|genre=TravelGeneral Fiction|summary=In The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the summer of 2008online apps in providing a more personal, this book's author was spending tailored service. Ness has asked her days working in an office job in younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the USA business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while spending her nights dreaming about being somewhere else. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, doing something elseand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Long And so begins this new story shortfrom Alexander McCall Smith, she ended up volunteering 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 Ghanarunning a business, West Africa. Now coincidentallyor in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in the summer of 2010her abilities, this reviewand there's author was spending ''always her'' days working in an office job very helpful (albeit in the UKand rather handsome) while spending ''her'' nights dreaming about being somewhere elseneighbour, doing something elseWilliam, and ''she'' ended up just 3 countries away, volunteering in Sierra Leone, West Africa. So you can see why, when this book came up, said reviewer was delighted to have the opportunity to read and critique it.lend a hand…|isbn=171024299X1846976596

|authorisbn=Mark Lingane0811771741|title=Degrade (Tesla Expansion)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=TeensCrafts|summary= Melissa Leapman's ''DegradeInstaKnits for Baby'' opens as it means gives us a collection of knits from toys to go on blankets. Some will be quick knits - with inyerfaceothers are of the 'long, banging actioncosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. Poor Arid The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, alone in five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the desert since 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 parents were killedfiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a narrow escape as two megareally weird, disturbing coffin-rigs fight sized object to his home, and it out and 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is pretty much destroyedthe very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He finds himself rescued by is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the mysterious-but-fascinating Ella and onboard the ''Moonlight'' 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 the suspicious eyes attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of its leaderBenny, Queen Bea. Beaand will certainly take care of Benny's eyes flash with recognition when he tells her his name - Arid Geiger - but before enemies, if he , Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can find figure out why that who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray issupposed to be a humble, there's an assassination attempt tidy and Arid friendly cat, one who is under suspicion able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and imprisoned, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. An escape facilitated by Ella - Queen Bea But he's a bad magician's daughter - sees Arid cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and her other daughterthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, Freynot into the regular back garden, stranded in the desert..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= 099461649X0008561249

|isbn=B07XLM3SM6B0C47LV1PC|title=Murder at the Dolphin HotelFragility|author=Helena DixonMosby Woods

|genre=Crime (Historical)Literary Fiction|summary=Elowed Underhay was just twenty-seven when she disappeared from Dartmouth in June 1916Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, leaving her daughteris the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, Kitty, in would it land? The catch is that the care of her grandmotheranswer for both could well be. A great deal of money had been spent to find out what happened to her and the conclusion was that she was dead, mainly because there was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Kitty has come to terms with this and in 1933 she was running the Dolphin Hotel in Dartmouth with her grandmother when her grandmother had to leave to look after her sister who was ill. She was reluctant to leave Kitty in charge - and Kitty could not understand why. She's always coped with the mix of holidaymakers, boating people and the naval college on the edge of town before - and she's done every job in the hotelno. And she particularly cannot understand why her grandmother 's friends have been roped in to keep an eye on things 'Fragility'and'' why Captain Matthew Bryant has been hired is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to take charge of security at emerge from the restrictions imposed during the hotel.covid pandemic

|authorisbn=Seishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)1529431735|title=The Honjin MurdersWinter Visitor|author=James Henry

|summary=To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mysteryIt' s February 1991 and Essex is enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by the words 'clever' or 'good'. For those who need morebitingly cold, here is the extra background – wewhich made Bruce Hopkins're in rural Japan in return all the 1930smore surprising. The oldest son of an esteemed family is belatedly getting married, although He'd been exiled on the whole affair is really not Costa del Sol as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great hastea wanted drug smuggler for a decade. She only The return has an uncle representing her familycome about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, for one thingsaying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. Either way, the celebrations have gone ahead as plannedIt's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, only for the wedded couple stripped to be slashed his underwear and sent to death a watery grave in their private annexe before the sun rises on their marriageboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. What with Is it a man missing parts of his fingers being in the neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of warning from a traditional musical instrument at the time of the crime, this case has Spanish gang or a lot of the peculiar about it.|isbn=1782275002problem closer to home?

|author=Cixin LiuAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Death's EndThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=Science FictionConfident Readers|summary= If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this book upEli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, I would have put it back on and in the evening a helper at the shelfdessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Not because I didn't want to read itEli lives with his lovely gran, but because I'd have figured out that it was the final part of too – for there is a trilogy. Coming generation missing in partway through a saga is never the easiest thing to do and itfamily. A few short years ago, Eli's particularly true in science fiction because without knowing parents were both lost to the backtitular race, a globe-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing trotting adventure where all entrants have to you (when it's assumed they will) but there are whole concepts that you won't understandnavigate the world in the company of a magical beast. This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work 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 range only hope is phenomenal. George R R Martinto dare to enter what he most hates, who knows a with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing or two about world-creation, described it as ''a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and cosmology''. All of that and moreto possibly save his gran.|isbn=17849716500571382231