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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->Tom Percival<!-- Mohamed -->|title=The Wrong Shoes|-rating=5| stylegenre="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Confident Readers[[image:1784631426.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwWill's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784631426/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed]]=== [[image:5star He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet,  When your best friend vanisheshe still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, how can you begin and clings to move on? How can you live your life not knowing whether they're okay? And what would you do if they reappeared in your life? – all questions the moments of joy when he is drawing, that Vanessa faces every dayfeel like a light at the end of a long, even seven years after her best friend Mark vanisheddark tunnel. When he reappears, she's shocked not only by his presence back in her life, but also by |isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the fact that he hasn't aged Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a day – for him, no time has passed since his disappearancecompelling premise. Shocked, confused and emotionally reeling, Vanessa must return to her home town in order to help Mark find the answers he so desperately craves. But what's waiting for them And this is far more surprising than either one of them could ever have dreamt… [[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed.|Full Review]]isbn= 0356522776}}<!-- Barto -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008517061| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell[[image:B01N0OZQOD.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0OZQOD/ref4|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Nickerbacher by Terry John Barto]]=== [[imageFormer 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:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]] Nickerbacher is doing does Jake give up his dragonly duty as all dragons do. That dragonly duty is, of course, princessoff-guarding. That's what dragons are for, after all. But Gwendolyn isn't any princess. She finds 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 whole princessing thing quite boring really and future she is much less interested wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in fairy tales than she is in watching comedy the present and putting the future on ''The Late Knight Show''the back burner. Nickerbacher likes ''The Late Knight Show'' too }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - in fact, itthe site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury's his favourite TV show because he wants to be apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a stand-up comedian himselfdoorway. He tries out his jokes on Princess Gwendolyn but they don't always come off quite as Nickerbacher intended There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. [[Nickerbacher by Terry John Barto|Full Review]] <!-- MacDibble -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:191064644X.jpg|link=http://www It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago.amazon Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.co.uk/dp/191064644X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008551324| styletitle="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=[[How It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to Bee by Bren MacDibble]]=== [[image:4approach the police.5star Neither side likes or has any respect for the other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Imagine a world without bees. Not just how nice it would be to eat jam sandwiches But Davie Hardie is struggling in the garden without having the little yellow prison and black torpedoes attacking you - he''really'' imagine its prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. No bees This person, no pollination. No pollinationhe promises, no new plants. No new plants, no food. Simple. So, if those pesky chemicals we use kill off practically every bee in is someone big and it will be worth the world, humans will have to take over their workpolice doing what he wants. Children, in fact, because you need small, nimble fingers And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to work those tiny feathers full serve the remainder of pollen into the flowers his sentence and turn them into delicious fruitsto get an early parole date. [[How Not much to Bee by Bren MacDibble|Full Review]] <!-- Newham -->|ask, 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 anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)[[image:0008240671.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008240671/refJane Casey|rating=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"|===[[Turn old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a Blind Eye by Vicky Newham]]=== [[image:4starhalt.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] DI Maya Rahman is just back from Bangladesh Now, her mother, Helena, and she should be on compassionate leave as she went there to bury her brother after he committed suicidefather are dead in their bed. Instead of grieving at home and getting over her jet lag sheInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's pitched straight into a murder investigation as a new member something about the positioning of staff discovers the body of popular headteacher Linda Gibson in bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her study at Mile End High Schoolboss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. Her hands are bound What looked as though it was going to be an open-and beside her strangled body -shut case is now a card with a Buddhist precept: ''I shall abstain from taking the ungivencomplex double murder.'' ItKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's the second of five precepts and Maya is worried that theredisappearance: others (such as Derwent's been a murder that hasn't been spotted - and that there will be more deathsboss, Una Burt) are less convinced. [[Turn a Blind Eye by Vicky Newham|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- O'Connell -->|isbn=0571379877|-title=The Kellerby Code| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5[[image:1408887061.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408887061/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalEdward Jevons is a working-align: top; textclass young man, obsessed with his upper-align: left;"|===[[The Chocolate Factory Ghost (The Dundoodle Mysteries) by David Oclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert'Connell]]=== [[image:4stars a theatre director.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Archie McBudge is sitting He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in the of Honeystone Hall love with his mother. And a lawyer called Mr Tatters has some important information for Archie. A great uncle Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he has never heard of has died and Archie is his sole heir. This means that Honeystone Hall now belongs feels to ArchieRobert. But that isn Most men in Robert't all - this young boy is now sole owner of Scotlands position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's premier sweets giantnot like most men: McBudge's Fudge and Confectionery Company... [[The Chocolate Factory Ghost (The Dundoodle Mysteries) by David O'Connell|Full Review]]Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}<!-- Simsion -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Leave No Trace|rating=4[[image:1473675405.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473675405/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: When a man is found crucified on the top; text-align: left;"|===[[Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion and Anne Buist]]=== [[image:5starof a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When I read the blurb for this book It's their first live case together, I having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found myself instantly interested in its premise crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of two people trying unwanted attention to start their lives again following serious life changesAI Future Policing project. The book did not disappoint. [[Two Steps Forward by Graeme Simsion Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and Anne Buist, potentially, out of a career?|Full Review]]isbn=139851120X}}<!-- Burrows -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:Burrows_Hummingbirds.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786072335/ref5|genre=nosim?tagThrillers|summary=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Shimmer Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of Hummingbirds by Steve Burrows]]=== [[image:4starmedical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Detective Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is on a birding trip to Colombia: well it's ostensibly perfectionist and a birding trip, but the reality trauma doctor. Anjali is that he's trying to establish what really happened in the manslaughter case which has left his brother free spirit of the group and she becomes a fugitiveGP. It When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's a difficult situation as the police force going to end in tragedy. We don't want him to do this and know who suffered the tragedy or the Colombian authorities are understandably reluctant, but Jejeune has always been a law unto himselfconsequences. Meanwhile in Saltmarsh on Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the North Norfolk coast there's been a brutal murder of a womanthree friends. This time, and DI Marvin Laraby, Jejeuneit's nemesis, has been drafted in to replace Jejeune during his absencetheir teenage children who are involved. How's that going to work out? [[A Shimmer of Hummingbirds by Steve Burrows|Full Review]]}}<!-- Carter -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:147116778X|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147116778X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  Autobiography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[I Stop Somewhere by T E Carter]]=== [[image:4starIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Ellie has to change schools 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. It's a chance for renewal and Ellie sets There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to work to make the most London School of itEconomics. She doesn't want to be homecoming queen or anything Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - she just wants to fit in without anyone noticing and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that she's a bit too curvy and doesn't have the money most rich people expect poor people to buy fashionable clothesbe stupid. With the help of a neighbour It was his ability at what was, Kateessentially, she manages it pretty wella card game which got him an internship with Citibank. And so Eventually, when Caleb notices her, tells her she's beautiful, Ellie can almost believe itthis turned into permanent employment as a trader. But there}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's something not quite right about CalebGuide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3. He blows hot and cold and his smile doesn't quite meet his eyes. But it5|genre=Crime|summary=It's nice twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to be wanted and so Ellie ignores the warning signsEnglish country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a 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. [[I Stop Somewhere by T E Carter|Full Review]] <!-- Worsley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Worsley_Mary.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/408869446/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley]]=== [[image:4starArthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved.jpg|link=Category: After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|Teens]], [[title=All Tomorrow's Futures:Category:Historical FictionFictions that Disrupt|Historical Fiction]]author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Lady Mary'' chronicles Opening up new ways of thinking about the famous story shape of Henry VIIIthings to come.'s love affair with Anne Boleyn, his divorce from Katherine of Aragon, Anne's execution for adultery, and Henry's subsequent marriage to Jane Seymour, which finally produces the much longed for birth of a male heir. This time, the story is told through the eyes of an important but often neglected player - Henry's young daughter, Mary. Mary's hopes of her family staying together are crushed by the divorce and she is treated terribly by a father under the influence of the Boleyn faction. Lady Mary follows her through these awful years and you can't help but root for the little girl stuck in the middle of these tumultuous events. [[Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley|Full Review]] <!-- Carew -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Carew_Wolf.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472247000/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] ===[[The Wolf by Leo Carew]]===  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Travel to a world that is familiar and yet utterly different. We are in a version of ancient Britain with enough landmarks to make us feel at home yet it is a smoked glass. North of the river Abus we have the Anakim, a race that isn't quite human; they are something more. The Anakim are virtual giants and their ribs are not cages but bone breastplates instead. Below the Abus are the Sutheners, humans. Theirs is an ancient grudge and one where blood is spilled frequently in pitched battle. Unfortunately it is rare when humans are involved for things to be straightforward and the same is true here. On both sides politics and machinations complicate the quests for glory. With the Anakim we have a boy coming to power and vying with the greatest warrior in the land for the throne. Amongst the Sutheners we see a commoner having the temerity to lead an army alongside his betters. Both battles are as interesting as the war itself. [[The Wolf by Leo Carew|Full Review]] <!-- Anderson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Anderson_Chicken.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1474940668/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] ''My house has chicken legs. Two or three times a year, without warning, it stands up in the middle of the night and walks away from where we've been living.'' Ok. I dare you to tell me that you ''don't'' want to read a story about a house with chicken legs. There is no way anyone could resist. I certainly couldn't! Marinka lives in this chicken-legged house with her grandmother, Baba Yaga, whose job it is to guide dead people through The Gate. But Marinka is ''lonely''. The house, her grandmother and Marinka never stay anywhere long enough for Marinka to make any friends. And Marinka is determined to change this. But the chicken-legged house has its own agenda... [[The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson|Full Review]] <!-- Davis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Davis_Pandora.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473658632/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]] Relax, die-hard fans of Falco and his spirited British daughter Albia. Rome continues to be as splendid and as sordid as it ever was, the crimes committed are as complex and intriguing, and our heroine just as determined and cynical, with that light dusting of humour which made tales of her father's exploits so engaging. Newcomers to the series need not fear, by the way: each book contains just enough background detail to make you feel immediately at home. This time, despite some serious misgivings, Albia is investigating the sudden death of a fifteen-year-old girl, described as bright, affectionate and popular. Was she poisoned by an illegal love-potion, or did she die of a broken heart? [[Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis|Full Review]] [[Pandora's Boy by Lindsey Davis|Full Review]] <!-- Butterworth -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1510102116.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1510102116/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[When the Mountains Roared by Jess Butterworth]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] ''My fingers come away deep red. My breath catches. Blood. I wipe my shaky hands on my trousers. There's a leopard out there, injured. And I have to find it before they do.'' Two months earlier, Ruby's dad had dropped a bombshell. They were moving from Australia to India, where her father had got a job at a hotel in the mountains. It was to be a new start and it would help both Ruby and her father get over the death of her mother. Ruby wasn't so sure about that and didn't get more optimistic on arrival - to find a rundown building full of scary corners in a place where the dark is really dark and the wildlife includes scorpions, bears and, well, you get the picture. Ruby has struggled since her mother died and it pretty much feels as though her father has brought her a place that makes everything worse... [[When the Mountains Roared by Jess Butterworth|Full Review]]  <!-- Duffy -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786697645.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786697645/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Me Mam. Me Dad. Me by Malcolm Duffy]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  ''It was the day the clocks went back. That's when I decided to kill him.'' ''I'' is fourteen-year-old Danny. ''Him'' is Danny's stepfather Callum. Up until a year ago, it was just Danny and Mam. They lived in a damp, cold council flat and didn't have much money to spare, but things were pretty good. Danny and his Mam got on well, they saw a lot of their lovely extended family, and Danny not only had mates but even a girlfriend, Amy. But a lot has changed. They're now living in Callum's posh house and Danny gets holidays and plenty of Christmas presents. Great, right? [[Me Mam. Me Dad. Me by Malcolm Duffy|Full Review]]<!-- Forman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Forman_Lost.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471173720/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''I Have Lost My Way'' tells the story of three individuals who have each lost something important to them leading to them losing their way. Freya has lost her voice, Harun has lost his love and Nathaniel has lost everything. However, these three elements do not give justice to the extent of what each character has lost. In this expertly written novel, Gayle Forman writes about how these three dissimilar individuals each came to lose what was most important to them, causing them to all meet one fateful day in New York City. [[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman|Full Review]] <!-- Santorella -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788038096.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038096/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] The USA, early 1980s. Charlie (or Charles, if he's feeling belligerent, and he often is) is being taken back to his home by his drop-out, slutty mother. The home is called a Cottage, and while the book doesn't guide us to understand it perfectly, it seems to mean he has a private room in a large self-contained bungalow, on a gated compound with round-the-clock adult supervision. There's a paddock with horses for the kids to ride, their own school – and all the adults are armed with Thorazine to calm the kids down. Charlie, despite his obvious bookish intelligence, is struggling to get to grips with why and how he's ended up where he is, but it must have something to do with his single parent mother being violent, and the fact he is no longer allowed to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, as he tries to build a relationship with a girl in a different Cottage, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-old. [[Dyed Souls by Gary Santorella|Full Review]]<!-- Sigurdardottir -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1473621569.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473621569/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] [[The Legacy: Children's House Book 1 by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)|Last time]], this series opened with a plot that derailed the careers of both its leads – Huldar the policeman, and child psychologist Freyja. Demoted and stuck with a kind of love/hate connection, they are left staring into space for want of something to happen. Huldar can even find some gruesome human remains the police have been tipped off about, but still isn't allowed to investigate them, so he settles for the drudge work involved in a threat found left in a school's time capsule. Even Freyja can be persuaded to stop twiddling her thumbs and help him out. It's the nature of these books that we know both plots will be connected somehow – but how, we will be asking, will either relate to the prologue, where a young girl was snatched ten years ago, and what is a modern family under threat to do with anything? [[The Reckoning by Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)|Full Review]]<!-- Child -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0356510700.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0356510700/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Everything About You by Heather Child]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]] In the future, your social feed is your entire existence. A.I. is here and it is all around you. It fills your fridge, it keeps up to date with your friends and fulfils your wishes. It is also stealing your jobs and, possibly, loosening your grip on reality. Freya is unexpectedly given a beta testing version of the latest smart specs, glasses which give her all the information she'll ever need, right in front of her eyes by barely thinking about it, complete with a personality to guide her. The problem is that the personality on the glasses is that of her missing and presumed dead sister. Freya is thrown and unsettled by this. Her mum tells her to stop using them or at the very least to reset them to a different personality. But Freya just can't do this. Hearing her sister's voice again is like she's right there, and although she knows this is just Ruby's data, part of Freya can't believe that it can be this accurate, it can't be this Ruby. Is it just possible that something more is feeding this personality than Ruby's data? [[Everything About You by Heather Child|Full Review]] <!-- Schimmelpfennig -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857057014.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857057014/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] First, forgive me if I don't refer to this book with its full title often. It's pointedly precise, accurate, and rather ungainly – when in fact the book it describes has only the former two attributes in any quantity. What happens in January is that a wild wolf walks across the frozen river separating Poland and eastern Germany. Which means that, when the book starts properly, mid-February, it has had time to get a lot closer to Berlin – within 80 kilometres, to be precise, for that is the road marker where one of our main characters sees it. He is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time in a month, and to be with his girlfriend, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was away. Also fancying the bright lights and big city are a teenaged pair of love-birds, the boy and girl next door to each other in an eastern village, who flee an unhappy lot on the off-chance of a better one. You just know there is a chance that these characters – human and lupine alike – are sucked into one combined narrative, but you won't know quite what that will entail…[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- David -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034900305X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034900305X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Stranger by Keren David]]===

[[image:5starI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.jpg Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|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 Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|linkisbn=Category: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=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|Teens]]summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

AstorRosevear, Ontarioa remote and partially forgotten island, 1904survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Emmy and Mira, like her mother before her friend Sadie are walking along when a bloody and bruised boy staggers , is one of the seven who swim out of to survey the forest clutching a pistol. Sadie runs off terrifiedruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But something about when the boy draws EmmyCouncil Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. She knowsDesperate to save him from death, deep inside, that Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is not secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a dangerfamily secret that lies buried deep in the sea. She kicks With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the pistol into smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the grass future of her home and cradles the boy until help arrivesones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. Who is he? How has he AI and automation have been living? And will proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the townsfolk accept him?[[Stranger by Keren Davidmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Full Review]]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.''

<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|}summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?