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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=Frances Stonor SaundersSylvie Cathrall|title=The Woman Who Shot MussoliniA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryScience Fiction|summary=Most British titled families of the 19th and 20th centuries have produced their fair share of rebels. Yet There are few came as close greater joys than a book which lives up to changing the course of European history as the Honourable Violet Gibson, a compelling premise. And this is one of eight children of Baron Ashbourne, a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer and MP in Disraeli's government during the 1870sthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Scott Westerfeld0008517061|title=SpecialsDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=In the un-named city of the futureFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, all the adults are living in the delusion that their city is righthas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. After There’s perhaps a teenage little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as an ugly, they all undergo moving in together would mean a welter lot of medical procedures, to make their minds compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and bodies conform relaxing life to the bland, but gorgeous, society norm. But one young woman is not like that. She is going move in with Livia or does Livia move to a party, looking ugly, and she knows it is Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not what we look like, but how special we feel inside, that is of most importance. The good news is that this woman is our returning heroine, Tally. the future she wants for herself and her daughter? The bad news is that her ugliness is a temporary disguise, For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and worse than that - she knows how to feel special inside, because she IS A Specialputting the future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389082</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Poly Bernatene1786482126|title=When Night Didn't ComeThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=One night, after Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the sun has gone site was going to bed, the night doesnhold seventy-five 't come. Thereluxury's no darkness, no moon and no stars. Someone's going to have to do something about it, so apartments - when they discovered the man in charge rouses bones of a child beneath a group of children and they do what they can to bring the night.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845394925</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kathryn Stockett|title=The Help|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jackson, Mississippi: 1960doorway. The talk at the bridge club and the tennis club is of what Jackie Kennedy is wearingThere was no skull. They're white women, of course and they're free to play because Was this a coloured woman will be looking after the childrenritual killing or murder? Inevitably, doing the shopping and cleaning the houseDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. TheyIt're trusted to bring the children ups difficult as Ruth knows, but theyNelson doesn're not trusted to be honest about the silver. Aibileen t, that she is raising her seventeenth white pregnant with his child but something hardened in her heart when her son died whilst as a result of the white bosses looked the other wayone night they spent together some three months ago. They took his body Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to the coloureds' hospital and rolled it off the back sudden bouts of the truck and leftsickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141039280</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=0008551324|title=Katie Fforde The Devil You Know (Editor) and Sue Moorcroft (EditorD S Max Craigie)|titleauthor=Loves Me, Loves Me NotNeil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=What a feast is presented in these forty stories It's unusual for anyone from well-loved and prolific romantic authors, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Hardie family to approach the Romantic Novelists' Associationpolice. In a WhoNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's Who prepared to tell the police where the body of the genrea missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, there are writers from every age grouphe promises, including one or two who might even have been founder members of is someone big and it will be worth the RNA, back in 1960police doing what he wants. My advice And what he wants is to sip through be transferred to an open prison to serve the stories slowlyremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, rather than gobbling them up quickly is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and suffering anyone who works with him is kept well away from indigestionwhat's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303373</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lauren Oliver0008405026|title=Before I FallA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Samantha 'Sam' Kingston is, in many ways, your typical American high schooler whose concerns are pretty predictable: boys, friends, fashion, weird parents, annoying little sisters. Today itIt's Cupid Day, a chance to show off just how ''In'' you are at school, as measured by the number of roses you're sent, but Sam's not too worried about thatsixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She knows she's part of a group who, by most definitions, would be called popular, was never found and though sometimes inside she might feel on the inside investigation ground to a little like an imposterhalt. Now, on the outsideher mother, wellHelena, she's the definition of ''in''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980893</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham |title=Cloud Tea Monkeys|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Tashi and her mother live below a tea plantation father are dead in Indiatheir bed. Usually Tashi goes along with her mumInitially, and whilst mum picks tea leaves with the other women, Tashi sits under it looks like a tree and plays with a group of monkeys, sharing her fruit with them, allowing them to groom her and playing with the little baby monkeys. One morning, Tashistraightforward murder/suicide but there's mum is too poorly to go to work, so Tashi struggles with something about the positioning of the big tea basket herselfbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The plantation owner derides her, saying she is too little What looked as though it was going to pick the tea, be an open-and Tashi -shut case is worried about how she and her mother will cope with no money to get her mum now a doctor, or to buy foodcomplex double murder. She shares her worries with her monkey friends and somehow, at Kerrigan is convinced that the end of the day, Tashiexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's basket is full of beautiful, freshboss, fragrant tea leaves that Una Burt) are a very rare type of tea called 'Cloud Tea'less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406300926</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alice Taylor0571379877|title=To School Through The FieldsKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyCrime|summary=To School Through the Fields Edward Jevons is the memoir of a farmer’s daughter who grew up in rural County Cork in the 1940s (though the book never mentions the date of when it is set)working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Taylor makes it clear at the beginning that she is writing Robert's a nostalgic look back at the era of her childhoodtheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, before the handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he'changing winds of times drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert' and then presents s position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a series relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of anecdotes about her parents, her family and some of the other characters who lived them kissing in her villagea dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224210</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne CassidyJo Callaghan|title=Guilt TripLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Two years agoWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, Ali and DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her friends saved Daniel Feeny from committing suicidesidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. They became local heroes But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and were looked up a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to as good examples solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of modern a career?|isbn=139851120X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1399613073|title=Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day teenagersof medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Ali was on her way to Cambridge, Stephen about to start his own business Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Jackson getting ready which is a bonus when you aim to be reunited with his brother in Brighton where hea 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'd also study history, re at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and Hannah joining her motherit's hairdressing businessgoing to end in tragedy. Then something dreadful happened We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Five weeks Twenty-five years later, Daniel was dead, and there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the gang of three friends . This time, it's their teenage children who had been adjusting to life as heroes were responsibleare involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407110705</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Chandler0241636604|title=Dark SecretsThe Trading Game: Legacy of Lies and Don't TellA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=TeensAutobiography|summary=After years without seeing her grandmother, Megan receives If you were to bring up an invitation - or perhaps image of a summons - city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to visit think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the old lady at her house in pin-stripe suit and his background is the town of Wisteria. ReluctantlyEast End, she goes there to please her motherwhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but finds out 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 despite the invitation, her grandmother doesn't seem happy most rich people expect poor people to see herbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, and neither does her cute but sullen cousin Mattessentially, who's currently living therea card game which got him an internship with Citibank. More worryingly Eventually, the house seems strangely familiar, because she's seen it many times in her dreams.this turned into permanent employment as a trader..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847388728</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catherine Aird1035021803|title=Past TenseThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Jan Wakefield was surprised It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to find herself arranging the refreshments English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for mourners after a funeralhelp from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, not least because she had never met is dead and the deceased and was unaware that her husband was circumstances seem suspicious, to say the next of kinleast. He Arthur was working in South America and the reason why Freya had not expected home for some timebeen back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Josephine Short had obviously been a feisty character Even thoughthey were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. Despite being unmarried After the split, she had had worked in a child cafe, met and married James (at a time when this would have been frowned uponon the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and amassed a considerable fortune. Her grandson Joe was flying home from Lasserta for the funeralFreya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007648</amazonuk>
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{{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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David Conway and Dubravka KolanovicSunny Singh|title=The Secret To Teddy's HappinessHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingThrillers |summary=When 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 toys discover an oldterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, bedraggled teddy beara wartime photographer and Abhi, they rack their brains the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to find care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a way bond with Sam who refuses to mend his broken heartbe cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to make him smile again. The velvet rabbit who knows everything offers try to tell them the secret of Teddycapture what's happinesshappened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, but he wants them their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to do him a favour firstsee if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1862337624</amazonuk>086154742X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Kornberger 1529153298|title=Brand SocietyThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=Business and FinanceGeneral Fiction|summary=Brand Society It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is fundamentally Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not a business management bookwhat's worrying Miv's family, though. This might come as some surprise given the title Women have been disappearing. Management books Well, they've been murdered, at least the but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she'how s overheard that her father wants tomove the family 'Down South' management books. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, tend to be simple and easy to followforeign place, best avoided. But For Miv, I suspect Kornberger the move would agreemean leaving her best friend, thatSharon, and she's what limits their use. They are over-simplified ll do anything to the point of uselessnessprevent that. Rather, Brand Society takes an holistic approach to the subject of the prevailing nature of brands in today She's world (at least not worried about the Western world). He suggests dangers or that todayher Mum's brands exist without a prevailing theory stopped talking - to understand them or make sense of themanyone. So what Kornberger does, after first looking at how brands transform management and organizations, is present a brand-centred conceptual map for thinking about things like politics, ethics and aesthetics.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521726905</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Ball1398524085|title=The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do without it Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband'We need to talk about musics fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but it - strangely - her husband, Alec, is hard. Very few people can do itnot. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg' So says Philip Ball after 400 pages of talking about musics father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. Very few readers who It was an easy assumption for the police to make it that far will disagree Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with his conclusion, but most will have gained some enlightenment their lives and wonder about how music works and why we enjoy itwhat really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920888</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Phil Daniels1035906708|title=Phil Daniels: Class ActorDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=If we were asked We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to nominate the archetypal Cockney actor on large or small screen over the last twenty years or soGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, Phil Daniels would undoubtedly come high on 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 listStates. Born When she was back in Islington in 1958 and Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised in Kings Cross, he was under the Nazi occupation by a graduate mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of the Anna Scher Theatre in the 1970sher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376207</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam EnthovenChristopher Edge|title=CrawlersBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary=Why Lucas and his friends are the men all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that want to take over has the world using evil alien beings always so stupid? Steadman is stupidnickname of 'The Black Hole'. Ever since the Great Fire All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of London trapped her in an underground dungeon in 1666exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the Queen has been neutralised. Even thenmovie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, the great and the powerful they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't quite bring themselves to kill her. She had too much potentialeven imagine. But as they did have lurch from one film genre to the sense next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to keep her safely locked away. But now Steadman thinks he knows better. He thinks he can rule the world through the Queen cinema, and he's set her a test. If she passes, he will set her free. to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552558702</amazonuk>1839942738
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott WesterfeldRachel Greenlaw|title=PrettiesCompass and Blade|rating=43.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=In ''I can hear the unnamed city song of the future, all the adults are prettysea. They've had mental and physical surgery to make them calm, placid and perfectly aesthetic human beings. If they have any trouble as young adults it is The call of the problem of what to wear at partiesdeep, or how to get rid of their hangovers when they wake up at 5pm. Unfortunately, one of these bright young things is our heroine, Tally, one of the few people answering beat in the world to have learnt how damnably horrid and sapping the life of Riley can bemy heart.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847389074</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Suzanne Bugler|title=This Perfect World|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Laura Hamley sees herself as a fortunate woman. She has a successful husband, two beautiful children, a big house in a good neighbourhood, and a coterie of friends who fall nicely into the category of people like us. She's always beautifully turned out, and her position in the social pecking order is never less than high. She simply shrugs off the occasional moments of dissatisfaction - what on Earth could she have to complain about?
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jill NewtonJames Sherwood Metts|title=Crash Bang Donkey!Planet Storyland|rating=34.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers|summary=Farmer Gruff spends all his time chasing Things have been a bit sticky for the crows from his cornEarthlings. Eventually he needs to sleep, so all the animals tiptoe aroundAI and automation have been proceeding apace, making no noise whatsoever. Whatoften replacing jobs they's this coming over the hill with a crash re paid to do and a bang? Oh no! It's a donkey with a drumother tasks that took time to accomplish. How's Farmer Gruff going Just as they were beginning to get his sleep? If he can't sleepused to all this technological change and starting to think of other, how's he ever going new ways to be able to keep spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the crows from his corn?many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1862337209</amazonuk>1736128426
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Olga GrushinMatthew Tree|title=The Concert TicketWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=''The Concert Ticket'' follows the lives of a family in Soviet Russia who have grown desperately distant Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from one another. Sergei, the his father, is a frustrated musician drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who longs to play the pre-revolutionary masterpieces had endless crises of composers like Igor Selinsky but is forced self confidence. So Tim applied himself to play the kind of patriotic ditties he despises. His schoolteacher wife, Annahis studies, longs for cultivated his love, but is never quite able to get abilities rather than his attention with her shy gestures. Their shiftless son, Alexander, has quietly given up going to school daydreams and spends his days hanging around the park, consorting with undesirables. Also living in their house is Anna's silent, elderly motherset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670918482</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
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{{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=Kate Saunders1529900360|title=BeswitchedThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Flora is furious at being sent away to boarding school, even one which is very progressive with luxurious facilities and school rock bands. Her parents need to sell her grandmotherIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's house in Italy fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and build a granny flat at homeeven after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and Flora is resentful at having her life turned upside down -shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a grumpywhile. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, unpleasant old womanwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. On She knew that the involvement was something that the trainman she loved needed. The next case did look simple, she falls asleep and wakes up to find herself though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in another eraBel Air. Trendy 21st century Flora He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is horrified married to find herself in a hideous pinafore dress with a childish haircut an extremely rich man and no make upit's not the Italian. What has happened to her Ipod, mobile phone and brand new laptop But which of them was the primary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407108972</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Cohen1529395224|title=Nina Jones and Letting the Cat Out of the Temple Bag: The Secret Life of Glooma Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=A sign of a good book, for me, often relates to how easily I can put it downSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. And then how much I His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to pick it back up again. Nina Jones was a particular challenge for me as after reading it for an hour whilst my toddler napped I kept my thumb follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the page whilst getting her out of bed, snuck her downstairs still saving my page, strain that being on-call put on Cbeebies, and then sat next to her on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the sofa to carry on reading for at least another hour, if not opportunity of doing work experience with a little bit more than that. I then kept it in the kitchen so I could sneak family friend who was a few more pages in between stirring vet and was convinced this was the spaghettijob for him. And then once my daughter Before long, he was in bed I went on to absently ignore my poor, tired, over-worked husband (who got bored and went for a bath) so that I could read on to the end of the storyat Liverpool University. I found myself mentally yelling at a fictional character (I hope it was mentally and I wasnIt hadn't actually shouting out loud...we have very thin walls), I swooned over the hero, sniggered often and I even cried - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a little bit toochild. SoIf anything, he'd wanted to be a book that induces such family neglect and an emotional roller coaster of emotions is definitely a good read!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755341414</amazonuk>professional footballer.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ken Bruen0861541774|title=The GuardsA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=A woman makes DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an unlikely choice by asking Jack Taylor to investigate the apparent suicide of her teenage daughter old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in Galway. Jack is ex Irish police (Garda) but also a known alcoholic street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with nothing much else in his life. His approach to investigation is haphazard a knife - and he doesn't really have killed a method beyond asking direct questions and, if necessary, using his fistsGhurka. Predictably Initially, there is more he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the suicide case than first meets man. Now he could be facing the eye death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and Jack, aided by his unsavoury friend, Sutton, uncover some very disturbing secrets and levels of corruption within the city. wouldn''The Guards'' is not your conventional crime thriller; it's darker and has a grim realismt help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224105</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Elizabeth SpellerAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Return of Captain John EmmettPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Laurence Bartram has survived The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the waronline apps in providing a more personal, but his life has changed dramaticallytailored service. It will never be Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the same again. It's almost business, as if he doesn't recognize himselfNess is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Domestic life Katie is now non-existent coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and he has no-one so jumps at the chance to come home to please but himselfEdinburgh. He is unsettled And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and edgythe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. War Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has obviously left its mark. He retreats graciously full confidence in her abilities, and wonders what hethere'll do with the rest of his life. s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844086070</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Salman Rushdie0811771741|title=Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticisms 1981 - 1991InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=3.54|genre=Politics and SocietyCrafts|summary=We read some authors because we know weMelissa Leapman's 're going 'InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to enjoy themblankets. OthersSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, we feel somehow obliged five to readten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. If we consider ourselves ''readers'' All the projects are attractive, modern and certainly if we have any pretensions (useable. I use the word advisedly) to being perhaps show my age when I wonder about ''wellsocial-media-readworthy projects'but that', then there are some books and more particularly some authors with whom we are required to become familiars me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542250</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neel MukherjeeDean Koontz|title=A Life ApartThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=Ritwik Ghosh grows up in India in the 1970's, one of two children of an abusive motherBenny is having a terrifically bad day. In the 1990's, finally escaping the country after her death He loses his job, he comes to England to study at Oxfordloses his fiancee, then moves to Londonand his house gets trashed. There, he looks after 86 year old Anne Cameron in exchange for free accommodation, while looking for work Oh, and for sexual encounters with other men. He also writes someone has delivered a novel really weird, disturbing coffin- the extended story of Miss Gilby, a character in Rabindranath Tagore's novel Ghare Baire. Miss Gilby becomes English teacher sized object to Bimalahis home, the wife of a minor official in 1900's Bengal just before the Partition of the province.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184901101X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Sperring and Leo Timmers|title=Green|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Clive loves wearing green. Itit's all he ever wears. He thinks he looks mighty snazzy, but his big sister (boo! hiss!) takes every opportunity to call him a cabbage, moss, a sprout possible that whoever or a toad. Clive keeps wearing his green clothes, certain whatever was inside is the thing that he'll have the last laugh and get one over on has trashed his sister.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845394534</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Whybrow and Lynne Chapman|title=Stinkyhouse! Or How The Beautiful Smelly Warthog Found A Friend|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Stinky the warthog lives in a neighbourhood with the Crocodile familything is, Benny is the Monkey family and the Littlebird family. One by one they invite Stinky round very last person to play with their children, but his foul odour and the flies buzzing around him cause deserve all manner of problemsthis bad luck. Will he be able to find He is a friend? nice person. A really nice person..Well, yes, So fortunately for Benny it says so in turns out that the title.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1862337594</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Josephine Wilkinson|title=The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=Before her marriage delivery to King Henry VIIIhis house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, Anne Boleyn had already who has been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - and possibly saved her sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from her eventual end on the scaffold. The first was her Irish cousin James Butler, later Earl of Ormond, whom she was at one time intended to marry in order to settle nefarious forces for being a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormondgood person. After their marriage negotiations came Spike is going to an end in the face take care of legal obstaclesBenny, she became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir to the Duke and will certainly take care of Northumberland. With a little help from the scheming Cardinal WolseyBenny's enemies, the Dukeif he, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereignBenny, and her destiny was sealedHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Scott WesterfeldAdam Stower|title=UgliesMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensConfident Readers |summary="This city Murray is supposed to be a paradisehumble, Tally. It feeds youtidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, educates youwell, keeps you safewhatever takes his fancy next of the two. It makes you pretty." And thatBut he's meant literally. As soon as theya bad magician're sixteen years olds cat, ugly people like Tally are completely rebuilt - no more freckles, dull eyes, rough skin, or ideas about biting their fingernails, and made so his favourite bun has been turned into a pretty. It's scientifichyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and obviously of benefitthe catflap they both use can chuck them out, considering not into the partiesregular back garden, status but into a world of frightening adventure and love afforded to prettieswhiffs. But is This time round it essential? When her best friend drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is prettified Tally finds a new friendexpected – well, Shayone much bigger than Murray was, who has secrets to share in the few weeks before the operation theybe honest, but he's turned up and he're due ll have to have on the same day. Secrets of another place, another way, and of people staying forever ugly - through choice.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847389066</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.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jo Nesbo1529431735|title=Doctor Proctor's Fart PowderThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=LisaIt's best friend has moved away. The neighbourhood bullies, Truls February 1991 and Trym TraneEssex is bitingly cold, are causing havoc. Her dad is getting ready for Norwaywhich made Bruce Hopkins's Independence Day celebrationsreturn all the more surprising. Oh, and there He's an anaconda d been exiled on the loose in the sewersCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. Then Nilly moves into her street, and the two of them meet Doctor Proctor and discover his amazing fart powder.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847386539</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicole Dryburgh|title=Talk to the Hand|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book '' The Way I See Itreturn has come about because he'', which she wrote at eighteen, and which detailed her battles with cancer and the loss of her sight. We loved the warts-ands had a letter from his ex-all picture of her life that she gave us thenwife, and so we were really pleased to see saying that she's written a second bookill and hasn't long to live. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996978</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ian Mathie|title=The Man of Passage|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Ian Mathie It's association with Africa began hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his father was posted underwear and sent to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years old. School was a watery grave in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst boot of a couple of hundred Africansstolen Ford Sierra. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise Is it! He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local children. It was his a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home and was to be the centre of his life for decades to come.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=K A S QuinnAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Queen Must Die (Chronicles Glorious Race of the Tempus) Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=In this historical time-travelling extravaganza, Katie Berger-Jones-Burg (I know, it's Eli is a mouthful, but stay with me) is busy lad – by day an apprentice in the daughter of Mimi, an ex-girl band member who has been married three times, so far, hence Katie's hyphenated name. Katie has come home from school to find that Mimi has gone off wondrous library we start by visiting with another man, Dr Fishberghim, and as she begins to stress about in the potential new addition to her surname she crawls into her hidey-hole space beneath her bed to escape for evening a little while. Here she keeps her diary and her stash of books, helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and she curls up to read her latest book, a compilation of letters from Princess Alice, Queen Victoria's youngest daughterruns. She starts to feel a bit sleepyEli lives with his lovely gran, but too – for there is suddenly startled awake by a flash of lightgeneration missing in the family. She finds herself in Victorian EnglandA few short years ago, underneath a sofa and staring into the eyes of Princess Alice, who is just as startled as she is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848873700</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Williams|title=Luke and Jon|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=LukeEli's mum died in a car accident a while ago and since then his father has let things go. The house has been repossessed and they are forced to move parents were both lost to the titular race, a new town. The new place is falling down globe- it's trotting adventure where all they can afford after entrants have to navigate the debts were paid. Neither Luke nor his father are really that bothered - what can a house be when there's no mum to fill it with her brightness and vivacity and love? The bottle of whisky that has begun to live world in his father's hand though - that's a worry for Luke; that makes him feel rather sick inside. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571249639</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Melanie Rose|title=Coming Home|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=We meet the narrator company of this story drinking coffee from a thermos in a lay-by, on a cold grey day. All her worldly possessions are travelling with her in her car, including her catmagical beast. She This has clearly made some momentous decision, and is on her way the race anathema to somewhere new. I assumed that as story unfolded, I'd learn more about her and where she was going.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561063</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=P C Cast|title=Divine by Choice (Goddess of Partholon)|rating=3|genre=Fantasy|summary=A few months after the Formorian war, Shannon Parker is living pair – but when a bad incident at the high life. Hailed as Goddess Incarnate, married eatery leads to a man (wellconfession from gran, centaur) who was born Eli knows his only hope is to dare to love herenter what he most hates, carrying her first child, the next daughter of Epona and royally spoiled with amazing jewels and clothes, life really can't get much better.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303586</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephanie Tillotson|title=Cut on the Bias|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=If ''Cut on sole aim the Bias'' is in your local bookshop, you will surely be won over by prize of magic at the feisty cover. Stories about women and their clothes are about identity, so what better start to a set of short stories than a fashion statement cover featuring end – the bags in which said clothes arrive home?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784132</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nick Hornby|title=Juliet, Naked|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=A clever, comic delight, pitch-perfect, astutely observed, particularly insightful, must-read. Crumbs. Whatever else is there only thing to say about Nick Hornby's latest book that isn't already plastered on this newly-published paperback edition? I can only report that ''Juliet,'' ''Naked'' bowled me over with yet another Hornby strikepossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141020644</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
