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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]].''' <! '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=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=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.}}

|isbn=18385931871786482126|title=Guess What I Found in the Playground!The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Victoria ThompsonElly Griffiths

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Tilly is excited. She's just come dashing out of Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the classroom, pigtails flapping behind her and a big grin on her face. Dad's come site was going to collect her and her brother and he hold seventy-five 'luxury'has'' to try to guess what she found in apartments - when they discovered the playground today, although she concedes that he will never guessbones of a child beneath a doorway. Dad wants to know how school There was, but ''obviously'' that's not importantno skull. Could Tilly have found more collectable things for her scrap boxWas this a ritual killing or murder? (IsnInevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't , that so much more sensible than she is pregnant with his child as a scrap ''book''?) Well, actually, Tilly did find exciting stuffresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. There are sequins, glittered paper and all sorts of other things in her pocketHer condition will be obvious before long, but that's not what she wants Dad least because Ruth is prone to guesssudden bouts of sickness.

|authorisbn= Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed0008551324|title= Yes No Maybe So The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating= 4.5|genre= TeensCrime|summary= It''We might give it our all and crash and burn. But we might wins unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. We might actually change things. And that maybe makes it still worth going for, don't you think?''Jaime Neither side likes or has been spending his summer helping his cousin with campaigning in time any respect for a special electionthe other. When his mother encourages him to go canvassing, But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he can't think of anything worse. However, Jaime has always wanted s prepared to be a politician and decides there is no time like tell the police where the present to conquer his fear body of speaking to the public. Maya a missing person is a Pakistani-American Muslim girl buried and who is having the worst summer of was responsible for her lifedeath. Her parents are going through a separation This person, he promises, she has zero plans for is someone big and it will be worth the summer police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to help take her mind off things and her only close friend is permanently busy. To help occupy her, her parents offer be transferred to buy her a car if she agrees an open prison to go canvassing. The pair could possibly be serve the worst canvassing duo in history, as neither remainder of them really want his sentence and to be thereget an early parole date. Not much to ask, but as is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the campaign goes on they discover other thing that they care, a lot, about the election Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and maybe even about each other?|isbn=1471184668anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.

|authorisbn=Gregg Hurwitz0008405026|title=Into The FireA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary= Grant Merriweather is 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 forensic accountanthalt. Or ratherNow, her mother, Helena, wasand her father are dead in their bed. He was brought into an ER room after an alleged car crashInitially, his friend pleading with it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the medics to keep him alivebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. He What looked as though it was needed alive just long enough going to give up be an open-and-shut case is now a namecomplex double murder. His cousinKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, MaxUna Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=07181855010571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class 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. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men 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 two of them kissing in a dark passageway.

|isbnauthor=1529124395Jo Callaghan|title=When You See Me|author=Lisa GardnerLeave No Trace

|summary=For Janet and Chuck, it was When a man is found crucified on the top of a hiking break hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the Appalachians in Georgia and pure chance that Chuck went off case alongside her sidekick, the beaten track to find a stickAI detective Lock. What he found was a human bone and SSA Kimberley Quincy was called inIt's their first live case together, along having previously been very successful with Sergeant D D Warrenseveral cold cases. Both women were experienced in this type of rather gruesome work but they also called on the services of Keith EdgarBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a computer analyst, potential serial killer and Flora Dane who brought something unique a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to the tabletheir AI Future Policing project. Flora had been kidnapped and held for 472 days by Will they be able to solve the notorious killercase in time, Jacob Ness. If Ness had anything to do with or will Kat find herself taken off the current discoveries then what Flora had to say could be invaluable.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X

|isbn=15290096771399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. 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 group and 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 tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Window BreaksConfession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to 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 pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and 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 card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C M EwanL Miller

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Tom Sullivan and his wife Rachel are having problemsIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. ItShe's not just the usual growing apart after more than back now because of a decade of marriagerequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Their son, Michael, was killed in a car crash some months before: he was driving his fatherFreya's Audi former mentor and at sixteen wasnCarole't legally entitled s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to drivesay the least. Not only did he kill himself when Arthur was the car rammed into a treereason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, but he also killed his girlfriendshe feels, fifteen-year-old Fiona Connorlet her down badly. Tom can't think about Michael without a sense of shame and guilt. Rachel is brokenEven though they were in business together as antique hunters, but she wants has not felt able to forgive Michaelbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. To give some spaceAfter the split, Tomshe 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's moved out Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the family homeshape of things to come.'' 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 stresses to his thirteenI'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is -yearfrankly -old daughterquite frightening. Of course, Holly, that it is only 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 trial separationway I could understand.

|isbnauthor=0241985153Sunny Singh|title=The House on the Lake|author=Nuala EllwoodHotel Arcadia

|genre=Thrillers|summary=We know The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that something has gone wrong - badly wrong - when suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the woman terrorists who was alone 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 house is taken away hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by the policeevents, but itand keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's going 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 a while rescued before we learn exactly what has happenedthey are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X

|authorisbn=Struan Murray and Manuel Sumberac (illustrator)1529153298|title=Orphans The List of the TideSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary= In the last city on EarthIt'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, anyone can be the vessel of The Enemy - the god who drowned the world - who has come but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to wreak havoc on move the last of humanityfamily 'Down South'. When a mysterious boy you're from Yorkshire, Down South is pulled from the corpse of a whalefrightening, the citizens immediately believe him to be the Vessel - all except for young Ellie Lancasterforeign place, a girl inventorbest avoided. As For Miv, the ruthless Inquisition prepares move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to execute prevent that. She's not worried about the boy, Ellie must prove dangers or that he is innocent her Mum's stopped talking - even if it means revealing her deepest, darkest secrets...to anyone.|isbn=0241384435

|isbn=00082971691398524085|title=The Guest ListHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Lucy FoleyNicci French|rating=4.5

|summary=The boat trip out to Inis AmploirCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, off the Irish coastsons Niall, might have been enough to put some guests offPaul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but it was the wedding of the year- strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Will Slater (television personalityShortly afterwards, if not yet a celebrity) was to marry Jules Keegan, online magazine publisherEtty and Greg, in find the ruined chapel on the island. The bridebody of Greg's sisterfather, OliviaDuncan Ackerley, would be her only bridesmaid and in the wedding planner and chef are Aoife and her husband, Freddyriver. They gave a huge discount to get It was an easy assumption for the couple police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the island, guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but surely it would be worth it for the publicity?get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.

|isbn=B07ZGL6B1B1035906708|title=In Plain Sight (D I Clare Mackay)Diva|author=Marion ToddDaisy Goodwin

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=It We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was a coincidence that Detective Sergeant Chris West born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and DI Clare Mackay were at the beach only moved to Athens when the baby she was stolenthirteen. They were there for the fun run and their attention Her original surname was taken by the NEFEW protesters who tried Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to disrupt the race. They're against the planned McIntosh Water bottled water plant Callas' to be constructed on Priory Marsh and make it more manageable in the firm is sponsoring the fun runStates. It When she was Lisa Mitchell's scream which stopped everything. Her daughter, sixback in Athens -monthsupposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice -old Abi, had been taken from she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her pram whilst and made no one was looking. It's a major incident when ''any'' child is abducted but Abi needs regular medication because secret of a heart problem: without ither preference for her elder sister, she might have only forty-eight hours to liveJackie.

|isbnauthor=1471180921Christopher Edge|title=Firewatching|author=Russ ThomasBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=Detective Sergeant Adam Tyler is Lucas and his friends are all booked in the Cold Cas Review Unit for a movie marathon at South Yorkshire Police and there are those who think their local cinema, a place that hehas the nickname of 'The Black Hole's lucky to be there, given that he decked a superior officer. HeAll big movie fans, they's there because Tyler came off worse in the exchange - there's a scar on his face re looking forward to prove it - lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the superior officer was forced to take early retirementmovie 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. There's a suggestion too that Tyler's godmother (she's But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on the force too) has looked after him and that his current boss earth is keen to have a tame gay going on? Will they ever get back to put on the town hall steps come Pride. Either waycinema, he's there, but without anything really interesting and to get his teeth into.their real lives?|isbn=1839942738

|author= A K LarkwoodRachel Greenlaw|title= The Unspoken NameCompass and Blade|rating= 43.5|genre= FantasyTeens|summary= What does it mean to betray someone? What if that someone is ''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.'' Rosevear, a god? Csorwe has been raised knowing that she would be sacrificed to remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her god on mother before her fourteenth birthday, yet when is one of the opportunity arises, she chooses seven who swim out to abandon everything she knows survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and flee with her lifeany treasure that lies within. Who can blame her? Her godBut when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's reach is limited leader and Csorwe intends Mira's father. Desperate to stay far beyond itsave him from death, yet fate Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is a funny thing secretive and when circumstances bring with only coordinates to guide her back within , she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the reach of sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her god Csorwe learns that father, as her god remembers journey takes herfrom 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 blames her very much indeedthe ones she holds most dear.|isbn=12502389000008664730

|author= M G Leonard and Sam SedgmanJames Sherwood Metts|title= The Highland Falcon ThiefPlanet Storyland|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= Harrison Beck, or Hal as he prefers to be called, isn't exactly pleased when his parents send him off with his uncle Nat, Things have been a travel writer, on a long train journeybit sticky for the Earthlings. AlthoughAI and automation have been proceeding apace, this isnoften replacing jobs they't any old train; re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this is the Highland Falcon, the royal train, technological change and this is its last ever journey before it gets sent starting to a museum. A number think of high-society figuresother, including film starsnew ways to spend time, millionaires along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and aristocrats, will be on this trainalong with it, so it is quite the event on all the many daily social calendar. However, when an expensive brooch is stolen, Hal realises that maybe this trip won't be as boring as he previously thought. As the passengers begin to turn interactions on each other, Hal vows to get to the bottom of the mystery…before the train gets to the end of the linewhich they depend so heavily.|isbn=15290130621736128426

|isbnauthor=0008275246Matthew Tree|title=Perfect Kill (D I Callanach)|author=Helen FieldsWe'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=When Maggie Campbell realised that her sonTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, Bart, was missing he was already 200 miles away a drunk and just waking from a chemically-induced sleep. Maggie knew straight away that something was wrong. Bart might be twenty but he was considerate chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his mother artistic passions all failed miserably and wouldn't have stayed out all night without letting her knowwho had endless crises of self confidence. Besides, he didn't have So Tim applied himself to his phone with him and he wouldn't have gone far without that. It's not long before Bart realises that he's alonestudies, trapped in a shipping container and on cultivated his way to France, where abilities rather than his fate has already been decideddaydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8

|author= Alyssa SheinmelA G Slatter|title= What Kind The Briar Book of Girlthe Dead|rating= 45|genre= Women's FictionFantasy|summary= '' Doing something when youThere're scared is braver than doing something when you're nots 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.''

When Mike ParkerWithin a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's girlfriend comes into school with , a black eyefamily of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, claiming he gave it Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into herfamily for generations and as such since she was young, her whole world is tipped upside downtraining as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. Her relationship has just ended and now sheWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the talk of Briar Witch, the schooltown's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. Mike was As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the most popular boy in school who was always so in love rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting herat the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, everyone knew that, so why did he Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do what he did? Some people believe her and some donas the Briar witches'tlegacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, but one thing is for sure, this isn't going to blow over any time soonunder threat.|isbn=03490032971803364548

|authorisbn= Holly Rivers1529900360|title= Demelza and the Spectre DetectorsThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating= 54|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= Demelza Clock is a scientistIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, often staying up late Sturgis was reluctant to work ask for his help on her various gadgetsdifficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, much to her Grandma MaeveDelaware's irritationpartner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. However The next case did look simple, she has also inherited though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a certain set of skills that are not especially scientific: Spectre Detecting, remote property in Bel Air. He was the ability heir to summon an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the ghosts Italian. But which of them was the recently deceased. Under primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the guidance Cat Out of her Grandma Maeve, Demelza begins 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 master her newfound skills. Howeverfollow in his footsteps, there is a mysterious individual particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on the prowl, kidnapping young Spectre Detectors. Ithis father's up to Demelza and her best friend Percy to get to life. When he was seventeen he took the bottom opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced thiswas 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.|isbn=1912626039

|isbn=17874775330861541774|title=The Lantern Men (Dr Ruth Galloway)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Elly GriffithsSteve Burrows|rating=54

|summary=Everything has changed for Dr Ruth Galloway. SheDCI Domenic Jejeune's no longer providing assistance to the police and isn't even working at the University of North Norfolk. She's lecturing at Cambridge close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has moved from her beloved Saltmarsh cottage taken a short holiday in Singapore to live meet up with Dr Frank Barker an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in Cambridgea street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Her daughterInitially, Katie, has settled into school better than she could ever he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have hoped and life is looking goodplanned to murder the man. SettledNow he could be facing the death penalty. She Domenic Jejeune cando nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help thinking about Harry Nelson, Katie's father, because Katie sees him regularly and there's a close relationship with his family. You might ''almost'' think that Ruth's life is settling downDanny at all.

|isbnauthor=183895015XAlexander McCall Smith|title=A Bit of a Stretch: The Diaries of a Prisoner|author=Chris AtkinsPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyGeneral Fiction|summary=Documentary filmmakers don't usually get the The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run of establishments within by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the Mountbatten-Windsor Hotel Grouponline apps in providing a more personal, but tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after getting involved in an illegal tax scheme the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to fund his latest film, Chris Atkins was invited get away for a five-year staywhile. The first nine months were spent in HMP WandsworthKatie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, which is probably and so jumps at the oldestchance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, largest bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and most dysfunctional prison the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in Europe.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

|isbn=12501685460811771741|authortitle=Sarah KozloffInstaKnits for Baby|titleauthor=A Queen In HidingMelissa Leapman|rating=34|genre=FantasyCrafts|summary= World-building is the backbone by which fantasy novels live and die. And what Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a pleasure, then, collection of knits from toys to get a novel with worldblankets. Some will be quick knits -building you actually want to delve into. Sarah Kozloffothers are of the 's debut novel presents a startlingly rich and layered worldlong, with a complex history cosy afternoons in front of connecting nations that seems certain the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to have more complete - less than five hours, five to tapten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the characters projects are interesting – if a little underdevelopedattractive, modern and useable. But it I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's a world I could – and did – eagerly buy into, and the struggle of each Queen to discover and hone her magical talent felt very real and very aptme being picky.

|isbnauthor=1543987877Dean Koontz|title=Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life|author=Dr Thomas JordanThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=LifestyleParanormal|summary=''Learn to Love: Guide to Healing Your Disappointing Love Life'' Benny is having a book about love relationships rather than a book about loveterrifically bad day. The two greatest emotions are love He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and grief his house gets trashed. Oh, and love is the opposite of grief: ''if you love''someone has delivered a really weird, Dr Thomas Jordan tells usdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it''you will inevitably grieve''. s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! Your love relationships begin The thing is, Benny is the moment you're born and end only when you dievery last person to deserve all this bad luck. Whilst we all come into the world hoping to give and receive love there are many people for whom love He is not quite so simplea nice person. Some people suffer multiple disappointments - sometimes repeating the same mistakes - and this eventually becomes resignationA really nice person. For people who are making So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the same mistakes repeatedlydelivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, self-preservationwho 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, in the form and will certainly take care of resignation is Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a necessitywaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|author=Chris HautyAdam Stower|title=Deep StateMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers |summary= Hayley Chill Murray is supposed to be a fighter. She humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is every kind of fighterable to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, and well-trained in most , whatever takes his fancy next of themthe two. She But he's a bad magician's army infantry and she boxes for fun – and she wins. Always. She wins because she is focussed. She works hardcat, mentally and physicallyso his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and she knows how to deal with the pain. She is catflap they both use can chuck them out, not so much cold as controlledinto the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This fight is against someone she time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is not expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to beat. And she is being watched.do…|isbn=14711856050008561249

|authorisbn=H G Parry B0C47LV1PC|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to see eye to eye for years - Rob Can you make a sensible lawyer who exists in ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the "normal" world - and Charley a man who question should you make it? Or is blessed with an ability he can't fully control - one which allows him to bring literary characters into the real world. After years of protecting Charley, Rob wants to discharge his duties and leave Charley to his own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out of both their hands. As literary characters begin to appear everywherequestion if you did, would it soon becomes clear land? The catch is that someone out there shares Charley's powers and intends to use them the answer for nefarious gainsboth could well be.... no. Rob and Charley must team up to stop  ''Fragility'' is set as the madness - in a battle city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to win before they, emerge from the characters and restrictions imposed during the world reach The End…|isbn=0356513777covid pandemic

|isbn=14447761851529431735|title=Haven't they GrownThe Winter Visitor|author=Sophie HannahJames Henry|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=It was when Beth Leeson was ferrying her son's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, Ben, to 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 football match that she found herself on Wyddial Lane in Hemingford Abbotsdecade. Actually, ItThe return has come about because he's a little disingenuous to say 'found herself' as Beth had made a deliberate detour on the grounds letter from his ex-wife, saying that she didn's ill and hasn't find herself 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 this neck the boot of the woods very often and she was curious to see where a family who'd come into money had lived before they'd all lost contact twelve years agostolen Ford Sierra. And Is it might have gone no further than that had Beth not seen a car draw up and her friend Flora get out along with two children she called Thomas and Emily. Beth remembered the names well - but these children were about three and five and Flora's children - Thomas and Emily - would now be fifteen and seventeen.warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

|isbnauthor=1529123763Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Miss Austen|author=Gill HornbyThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary=It's long been known that Cassandra Austen burned most of 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 letters which she dessert cafe his gran owns and other members of runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the extensive Austen family had exchanged with or about her sister Jane. What is not known is ''why'' she did this and at this stage - more than two hundred A few short years after Janeago, Eli's death parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a definitive answer is unlikely to forthcomingmagical beast. Gill Hornby This has provided us 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 some possible answers in a book that proved the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to be far more emotionally complex than I was expectingpossibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231