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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[: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. Itchildren'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, & self-published 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|plus 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.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Delphine de ViganSylvie Cathrall|title=No and MeA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary=Lou is There are few greater joys than a clever, clever child with an IQ approaching 160. She's thirteen, but she's been moved book which lives up two years at school and she compares her flat chested, nervous self somewhat unfavourably with her fifteen-year-old peer group. Funnily enough, her only real friend at school is Lucas, who's seventeen and such a rebel that he's been moved down two years. Things at home aren't great for Lou. Her baby sister died to a few years ago and her mother has been severely depressed ever sincecompelling premise. She barely talks, seldom gets dressed. Her father And this is worn down to the bone with worry and Lou doesn't get a great deal one of attention from him either, so distracted is hethem. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408807513</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Magrs0008517061|title=The Diary of Death in a Dr Who AddictLonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=34|genre=TeensCrime|summary=DaveyFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, in has settled into his first term rustic life at secondary school, is horrifiedLittle Sky. Not only is his best friend trying to grow up through There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the use future of a home gymhis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and standing him her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up on the first morning of term, he also seems his off-grid and relaxing life to be becoming dismissive of The Show. Still, he is trying move in with Livia or does Livia move to be esoteric - just like his sister, painting Little Sky despite her face to look like Bowie album sleeves of all things - reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and Davey knows better. her daughter? He knows everyone should be enthralled with For the moment they’re enjoying life in the spectacle of Tom Baker falling off a building present and becoming Peter Davisonputting the future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384129</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joshua Ferris 1786482126|title=The UnnamedJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Tim Farnsworth seemed Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to have it allhold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. He loved his wife Jane and daughter Becka and his job as There was no skull. Was this a partner in prestigious law firm was enjoyableritual killing or murder? Inevitably, fulfilling and financially rewardingDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. The fly in the ointment was It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that sometimes he was overtaken by she is pregnant with his child as a compulsion to walk. The time result of day, the weather or the occasion did not matter – when the compulsion came he had to walk until he was physically exhausted and fell asleep immediately after calling his wife to come and collect himone night they spent together some three months ago. There seemed to Her condition will be no medical explanation for what was happening – and Tim and Jane had tried every source they could find – but Tim was still reluctant obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to accept that this was a mental rather than a physical illnesssudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917702</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michele Monro0008551324|title=Matt Monro: The Singer's SingerDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyCrime|summary=In terms of British chart statistics and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potentialIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. When measured against Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the achievements body of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones a missing person is buried and Engelbert Humperdinck, he fell some way shortwho was responsible for her death. Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture on the light entertainment circuitThis person, and overseashe promises, particularly in Latin America is someone big and it will be worth the Philippines, police doing what he wants. And what he was undoubtedly one wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of Britain's most successful exports ever, his sentence and at one point he was the biggest selling artist in Spainto get an early parole date. His idol Frank SinatraNot much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to whom he was often compared, often said do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that Matt was the only British singer he ever really listened toDS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566182</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James A Owen0008405026|title=Shadow Dragons A Stranger in the Family (Imaginarium GeographicaMaeve Kerrigan 11) |author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=TeensCrime|summary=If you want to know where Tolkein, C S Lewis and their ilk got their ideas It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from, you might consider their jobsher bed one summer night. No - not their work in Oxbridge universitiesShe was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. In this bookNow, at leasther mother, JohnHelena, Charles and Jack her father are guardians of a very important bookdead in their bed. Initially, the Imaginarium Geographica, within which lives it looks like a lot of secret, vital information, and almost straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the soul positioning of the landbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. They might not get What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a surname so we know immediately who is whomcomplex double murder. They might be from a different world - there Kerrigan is certainly enough talk of those convinced that the explanation lies in these pages. But weRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent'll see them meet a vanishing Cheshire cats boss, a certain Spanish knight we might have thought fictional, and more, en route to a quest of Arthurian proportionsUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386512</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin Cook0571379877|title=InterventionThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Although Robin Cook has written many booksEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, ''Intervention'' is the first one that I have read obsessed with his upper- I'm a Robin Cook 'virginclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert' This is s a big book in many respectstheatre director. ItHe's a classicalso self-obsessed, demanding, glossy handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he'coffee table' edition; its drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a big, satisfying read and itrelationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a multi-layered book in that it covers many current-day topics which have their roots in historydark passageway. In fact, this book is so multi-dimensional that, you could argue, there are several books within this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230743633</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria ForesterJo Callaghan|title=The Girl Who Could FlyLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could fly? It would be such When a man is found crucified on the top of a wonderful sensationhill in Nuneaton, soaring through DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the aircase alongside her sidekick, looping the loop, swooping down over your house and gardenAI detective Lock. But have you also stopped to think what other people might think if they saw that you could fly whilst no one else could? Would children still want to be your friend? What would your family think? The little girl in this storyIt's their first live case together, Piper McCloud, can flyhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. She lives on her parents farm and was always But when there is a little, well, unusual, and after her mum second body found her floating in the air one day when she was crucified a baby she decided to home school Piper, rather than expose her to the gossips in the village. But one day, at the village picnic, Piper flies during the baseball match as she tries to catch the ballfew days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and suddenly her whole life is turned upside down...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330512536</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=P C Cast|title=Divine by Mistake (Goddess of Partholon)|rating=3.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Shannon Parker, broke Oklahoma English teacher, likes a good bargain hunt at an auction. But she gets more than her money's worth when she buys very high profile case that draws a vase with her likeness painted on itlot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Somehow transported Will they be able to solve the magical world of Partholoncase in time, Shannon finds or will Kat find herself in taken off the shoes of Rhiannoncase and, her mirror double. Along with Rhiannon's station as Goddess Incarnatepotentially, Shannon finds herself landed with her double's less than enviable reputation and out of a Centaur husband.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0778303578</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Mayhew1399613073|title=MortlockMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensThrillers|summary=AbyssiniaOlivia, 1820. Three Englishment search Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for the Amarant, a mythical flower with the power over life and death, in quarter of a strange desert oasiscentury. On finding the flower surrounded by decaying faces Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, they realize that it which is cursed, and take a blood oath never bonus when you aim to remove itbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. London, 1854 Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. 13 year old knife thrower Josie performs with her guardian the Great Cardamom, an especially gifted magician who we quickly learn Anjali is Chrimes, the coward free spirit of the original three Englishmengroup and she becomes a GP. Their relatively peaceful existence is shattered when three macabre Aunts (note the capital letter, never When we first meet them they're at a good sign…) descend on them, drug and alcohol-fuelled party and Cardamom instructs Josie, with his dying breath, it's going to find end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the twin brother heconsequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it'd never told her about and destroy the Amarants their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408803925</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carole White and Sian Williams0241636604|title=Struggle or StarveThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Struggle or Starve 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 collection facility with numbers which most of autobiographical writings about girlsus 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' and womens Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's lives in South Wales between twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the warsEnglish country village where she grew up. This is a new edition She's back now because of a book first published 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, to say 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 1998 by Honnobusiness together as antique hunters, an independent publisher set up she has not felt able to encourage Welsh women writersbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. Most of After the contributors split, she worked in this book came a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from miners' families the love of her life, who was murdered) and grew up in real poverty Freya and economic insecurityJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's 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 shape 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 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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia GreenSunny Singh|title=Drawing Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with LightSam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Emily doesnCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband't remember her biological mothers fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. She ran away with another man when Emily was just two. Now Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her older sister Katdaughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her fatherhusband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and her stepmother Cassy make up Greg, find the family unit and Emily thinks itbody of Greg's just fine father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that way. She doesnDuncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't need a mother who didn't want her and has never even tried to get in touchstand the guilt. But then Kat goes off to university, her father buys a rundown house in the middle of nowhere and moves them into a caravan while it The Salter children are not convinced but there's being renovated, little else they can do but get on with their lives and Cassy gets pregnantwonder about what really happened. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802732</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Dessen1035906708|title=Along for the RideDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Auden has always felt like the odd one out amongst her peers. Her We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents - now divorced - are both academics and high achieversin Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and they, especially only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her mother, want father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the same for AudenStates. Auden's older brother is the rebel and When she was back in Athens - supposedly so Auden feels as though that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she needs to be was raised under the one Nazi occupation by a mother who satisfies mercilessly exploited her mother's ambition. So she works hard and never lets made no secret of her diligence or conscientiousness slip preference for even a moment. But she's socially awkward and lacking in experience. She's never had a boyfriendher elder sister, hates the colour pink and can't even ride a bikeJackie. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327480</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Caroline Moorehead Christopher Edge|title=Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French RevolutionBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=HistoryConfident Readers|summary=Two hundred years agoLucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, with a place that has the fall nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of the monarchy exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the Napoleonic warsmovie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, France underwent one cataclysmic change after anotherand they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. There were many who witnessed and experienced But as they lurch from one film genre to the volatile age at first handnext, but few left a more detailed record than can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the subject of this biographycinema, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin.and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rook HastingsRachel Greenlaw|title=Nearly DepartedCompass and Blade|rating=43.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=At first sight, you'd think Weirdsville was Anytown - it has a slightly rundown feel; everything's just a little bit shabbyI can hear the song of the sea. But it's pretty much like any other town. Parents go to work. Kids go to school and clump together in little peer groups The call of geeks and swots and jocks and bullies. But Weirdsville isn't like any other town. There's a strangely abundant wood right in the middle of itdeep, and at night, everythings turns, well, a little bit weird. The darkness is so dark it almost sucks you the answering beat inmy heart. And there are odd noises too... ... and Emily thinks she's seen a ghost. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007258100</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erica Bauermeister James Sherwood Metts|title=The Monday Night Cooking SchoolPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers|summary=The Monday Night Cooking School is Things have been a bit sticky for the first novel written by American writer Erica Bauermeister Earthlings. AI and it really is a delicious read in every sense. The novel tells of eight very diverse people who attend a cooking class once a month at Lillianautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's restaurant. Each has a different reason for being there re paid to do and each has his or her own story other tasks that took time to tellaccomplish. However, over the months that the course is run, Just as they start were beginning to get used to bond through the learning experience all this technological change and their love starting to think of foodother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. It's not the sort of novel where Life was pretty much happens but if you are interested in people shut down and you love food, I am sure you will enjoy this book. Having said that thoughalong with it, I don't think it is a book that should be read if you are trying to diet because you can virtually smell all the food as you turn the pages!many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141038837</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marcus SedgwickMatthew Tree|title=Lunatics and Luck (Raven Mysteries)We'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=It's obvious really. When an earthquake hits Castle Otherhand, Valevine, the head of the householdTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, decides what the place needs is a machine to predict the future, drunk and a new tutor for chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his two oldest children. And why not? There are only those children, the suicidal baby twins, Valevine's dreadful artistic passions all failed inventions miserably and experiments, Edgar the raven that narrates this series who had endless crises of booksself confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and a monkey. With bells on. Clearly there is not enough weirdness there already to go aroundset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842556959</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ken Bruen1529900360|title=The Killing of the TinkersGhost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jack Taylor returns to his native Ireland with his tail between his legs. HeIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been lying low 'over the water' in Londonbadly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, licking Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his woundshelp on difficult cases. Jack (I'm slightly surprised His assertions that Bruen there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't give him need the help of a more Irish name) is psychologist only worked for a middle-agedwhile. Finally, it was Robin, washed-upDelaware's partner, disgraced ex-copwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. As if She knew that the involvement was something that wasn't bad enoughthe man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, he also has though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a lot of very bad habitsremote property in Bel Air. He acknowledges however that was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the new world is designed for non-smokersItalian.' He also admits quite freely and openly that 'An alcoholic has dreams to rival that But which of any Vietnam vet.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224113</amazonuk>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 who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Zeltserman0861541774|title=KillerA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Here at the BookbagDCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, we've been very impressed has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with Dave Zeltserman's work thus faran old ally, Guy Trueman. He uses Maik was involved in a wonderful noirish narrative street brawl - he would later maintain that takes you straight to the heart of the storyhe was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. His story telling is very straightforward, not weighing down the story with too much styleInitially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but sticking evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the substance and delivering a hard-hitting work every timeman. With ''Killer'', Now he has done could be facing the same againdeath 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668644X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roger HargreavesAlexander McCall Smith|title=Mr Nobody (Mr Men and Little Misses)The Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mr Nobody The Perfect Passion Company is... well, he's somebody who sort of is and sort of isn't. Mr Happy comes across him one daya dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and does his best operating as an alternative to cheer him up. Who could possibly help all the online apps in providing a person who's sort of there and sort of isn't? Ahmore personal, the Wizard!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405251425</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees|title=Jolly Olly Octopus|rating=3tailored service.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Jolly Olly Octopus is giggling underneath the sea. He's soon joined by two tickly turtles, three smiley seahorses, Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and so on through look after the numbers. The large cast of underwater animals are having a jolly ol' timebusiness, until as Ness is planning to take a shark appears...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846166861</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mo Smith|title=The Lazy Cook's Family Favourites|rating=4.5|genre=Cookery|summary=These days I trip to Canada to get very nervous when I hear about books away for 'lazy' cooks, or how to cheat when preparing mealsa while. There's Katie is coming out of a break up with a very simple reason for this: good foodbad boyfriend, prepared using seasonal ingredients which don't break the budget needs skill and knowledge and neither are so jumps at the prerogative of the lazychance to come home to Edinburgh. Mo And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith might like , bringing us to think that she's lazyan Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but take my word for it – she isn'twith some new characters who quickly begin to charm. She might have learned Katie has no experience in running a few tricks for business, or in match-making good food quickly, but sheNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's a woman who knows always her onions very helpful (and all sorts of other food.rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007826</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam Blade0811771741|title=Creta the Winged Terror (Beast Quest)InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrafts|summary=Our hero, Tom, is finding his fishing trip with his father bugged - literally - by a plague of sickening cockroach things. WhatMelissa Leapman's more, the whole land ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of Avantia is suffering some form of horrid heatwaveknits from toys to blankets. Can Tom, recognising yet another threat to his country from the evil Malvel, defeat his nemesis yet again Some will be quick knits - especially as said baddie has as a new weapon of darkness a massive host others are of the roaches, swarming as one giant monster?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408307359</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Karan Mahajan|title=Family Planning|rating=2|genre=General Fiction|summary=Mr Rakesh Ahuja is Delhi's Mister of Urban Development and so farlong, has managed to do well cosy afternoons in his careerfront of the fire' variety. However, his family life is beginning The projects are divided by the time they'll take to take over complete - he already has thirteen children and a fourteenth is on the way. The eldestless than five hours, Arjunfive to ten hours, now a teenager was born ten to Mr Ahuja's first wife, but up til now, Arjun is unaware of this facttwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Sangita Ahuja, All the long-suffering wifeprojects are attractive, is aware that her relationship with Arjun may never be the same againmodern and useable. Meanwhile, Arjun is only interested in one thing I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media- how to attract the attention of the gorgeous girl on his school busworthy projects' but that's me being picky. What will happen to the family when Mr Ahuja finally tells the truth?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523299</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Fraser's AutographsDean Koontz|title=Collect Autographs: An Illustrated Guide to Collecting and Investing in AutographsThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Business and FinanceParanormal|summary=There must be many of us who have at one time had an autograph book or something of the kind as children Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and asked friendssomeone has delivered a really weird, relations or even celebrities disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it'do something's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, written Benny is the very last person to celebrities in deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the hope of obtaining delivery to his house is a personally signed picturenew friend, or even waited patiently at a stage door after bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a play or concert eagerly clutching a theatre programmegood person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, record or CD sleeve and pen in handHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0852597525</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Derrick NiedermanAdam Stower|title=Number Freak: A Mathematical Compendium from 1 to 200Murray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceConfident Readers |summary=This Murray is supposed to be a book that definitely does what it says on humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the tintwo. Our author But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has the capacity to grab each number between one and two hundredbeen turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and wring it for all its worth - all the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven thancatflap they both use can chuck them out, saynot into the regular back garden, 187), all the special properties but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it might possess (perfectdrops them into a Viking land, triangularwhere a troll hunter is expected – well, prime)one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and as many other things mathematicians and so on would find of interest. Luckily there is enough here he'll have to make the book well worth a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffs.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>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.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Hunter1529431735|title=I, SniperThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=You donIt't often find novels or films based on the art of s February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the snipermore surprising. Hiding out for hours motionless and then killing someone unseen from hundreds of yards away doesnHe't make for d been exiled on the Costa del Sol as interesting a story as wanted drug smuggler for a face to face shoot outdecade. But with The return has come about because he'Is had a letter from his ex-wife, Snipersaying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, Stephen Hunter has managed stripped to his underwear and sent to combine a watery grave in the art boot of the sniper with the art of the crime thriller in a decent readstolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377777</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lucy Coats Alex Bell and Anthony LewisTim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts in the Jar (Greek Beasts and Heroes)|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Atticus the sandalmaker Eli is heading to the great storytelling competition in Troy. On his way, he meets a number of people and, always eager for busy lad – by day an opportunity to hone his skills, relates to them tales from Ancient Greek myths and legends. The beasts apprentice in the jar of the title? Pandora released them from what wondrous library we mistakenly call her box.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444000659</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jed Mercurio|title=American Adulterer|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I've often wondered how history would have viewed Jack Kennedy if he'd died a natural death rather than start by an assassin's bullet. As an extension of that I've also thought that he might not have lived that much longer had nature been allowed to take its course. He's one of visiting with him, and in the most-written-about Presidents of all time and finding a new angle – even evening a fictional one – is not easy, but Jed Mercurio has looked helper at Kennedy's adult life through the prism of dessert cafe his sexual peccadilloes gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his health.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515873</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joe Treasure|title=Besotted|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=It is late August 1982lovely gran, the day when O level results come out. Michael Cartwright already knows he has failed his exams and too – for there is dreading his parents finding out. He, his twin brother Kieran (who has done very well) and their younger sisters are on a generation missing in the family holiday. A few short years ago, staying with their motherEli's parents in Kilross, County Cork. To escape boredom and his parents' anger, he wanders round were both lost to the villagetitular race, a globe-trotting adventure where he meets Fergal Noonan, training to be a priest, and lively Peggy O'Connor. He has his first kiss and a bit more with Peggy. The family soon goes home to Cheltenham, but their brief visit to Ireland will all entrants have far reaching significance.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330511726</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tim Pears|title=Landed|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I have hesitated to write this review because, truthfully, I am not ''entirely'' sure that I know what happened at navigate the world in the endcompany of a magical beast. I read it all. I actually read This has made the end several times. And then I skipped back race anathema to the middle, just to check something, before trying pair – but when a bad incident at the end again. I have decided eatery leads to just believe in what I ''think'' happeneda confession from gran, and since I don't want Eli knows his only hope is to spoil it for other readers then I don't have dare to make a complete fool of myself writing down enter what it is I think! And actuallyhe most hates, that mysteriousness is part with the sole aim the prize of magic at the charm of end – the story. So, slight confusion aside, I still gave this book four stars, and this is why..only thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0434020079</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
