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

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

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingauthor="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--><!-- Stephen Booth -->Tom Percival|-title=The Wrong Shoes| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|5[[image:075157628X.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/075157628X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Confident Readers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth]]=== [[image:3Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] When council officer Chris Buckley He is approached by an old man who wants bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his help in healing a decadesdad can' old family rift het work and doesn's reluctant to get involvedt have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, but then Chris is reluctant to get involved and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in anything but -hand job on a pint in the pub these daysbuilding site and had an accident. It could just be Throw into that mix the way fact that he ishis mum and dad are separated, or the fact that heand Will's just lost both his parents within three months life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of each otherhope. He's currently existing in is good at art, and clings to the family home and wondering moments of joy when he's going to be made redundant from his job with is drawing, that feel like a light at the councilend of a long, dark tunnel. The short answer to that one is 'soon'. Chris does his best |isbn=1398527122}}{{Frontpage|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to deter the old man, but it's not before he's left Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a lot of papers with his neighbourcompelling premise. Then the old man is murdered and the police come calling on ChrisAnd this is one of them. [[Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth|Full Review]]isbn= 0356522776}}<!-- Tamaki and Pugh -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008517061| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell[[image:1401283292.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1401283292/ref4|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and Steve Pugh]]=== [[imageher daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:Graphic Novels|Graphic Novels]] Harleen Quinzel is new does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in town. She always, with Livia or does Livia move to me, seems new in town, even if Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she's been around a long time, wants for she always has a very fresh attitude, herself and seems to look out of those large eyes at everything anew each time. But here she is new her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in town, the present and putting the future on the town is Gotham Cityback burner. Expecting a year-long furlough from life with her mother, she finds her gran dead and herself with no option but to stay with }}{{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 - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a bunch of drag queensdoorway. She also finds school is There was no skull. Was this a dragritual killing or murder? Inevitably, she also Dr Ruth Galloway finds the whole neighbourhood is being redeveloped by a large and uncaring corporation – herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she also finds two characters that will have is pregnant with his child as a big impact on her liferesult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. One is a civil-minded lass called IvyHer condition will be obvious before long, the other someone she only meets at night – a lad with a singular graffiti tag and a mind for violence and chaos, who calls himself The Joker… [[Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh|Full Review]]not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.}}<!-- Tove Jansson -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008551324| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster[[image:0954221710|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0954221710/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Summer Book by Tove Jansson]]=== [[image:5starIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Literary Fiction]] Tove JanssonBut Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's short novel about Summer is several worlds away from prepared to tell the police where the Moomintrolls she body of a missing person is most famous buried and who was responsible for outside her native Scandinaviadeath. Book yourself an afternoon this Summer This person, and take yourself and The Summer Book somewhere quiethe promises, preferably within sight is someone big and sound of it will be worth the sea, settle back and prepare police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transported. [[transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The Summer Book by Tove Jansson|Full Review]] <!-- Lynda La Plante 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:1785768506.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785768506/refJane Casey|rating=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"|===[[The Dirty Dozen (Jane Tennison 5) by Lynda La Plante]]=== [[image:3old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Jane Tennison had worked hard to get a place on the Flying Squad Now, her mother, Helena, and she felt that she was there on merither father are dead in their bed. The Squad wondered who sheInitially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there'd slept with to get s something about the positioning of the place bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and bets were being taken as to who she'd sleep with in the first weekher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What none of them looked as though it was going to be an open- Jane included and- knew was shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that she was there the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as an experimentDerwent's boss, in the hope that a female presence would have a calming effectUna Burt) are less convinced. }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The job had been advertised and Jane was the only female who applied who ticked all the boxesKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3. She doesn't tick all the boxes for the head of the Squad5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, DCI MurphyRobert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He wanted someone with at least ten years' experiences also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and the appropriate set of genitals - entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's determined that Jane will faildrunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway. [[The Dirty Dozen (Jane Tennison 5) by Lynda La Plante|Full Review]]}}<!-- Coleman -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jo Callaghan| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Leave No Trace[[image:1785032461.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 4| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Crime|summary===[[The Girl at When a man is found crucified on the Window by Rowan Coleman]]=== [[image:5startop of 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]] It's their first live case together, [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Trudy Heaton having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is going homea second body found crucified a few days later, to Kat is suddenly struggling with a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries potential serial killer and to a mother she hasn't spoken very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to for sixteen yearstheir AI Future Policing project. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come Will they be able to terms with solve the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the house full of light case and shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhoodpotentially, out of a career? [[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman|Full Review]]isbn=139851120X}}<!-- Shackle -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1473225213.jpg|link|rating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473225213/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Thrillers|summary===[[We Are The Dead by Mike Shackle]]=== [[image:4Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon.5star Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]] Mike Shackle has written a really interesting and unusual story in ''We Are The Dead''; Anjali is the tag line for free spirit of the novel is 'No More Heroes' group and that is what makes this story so differentshe becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. There are villains galore but no specific heroes; rather We don't know who suffered the story is scattered with characters doing their own small part to survive, to fight back, and to find vengeance, in a world tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that has been utterly torn apartwill impact the three friends. The plot does not hang on any one character This time, no one is important, anyone can die and many do, but, like ants working together, each small character achieves it's their own part of a much larger plot that is rich and complex and keeps the reader glued to the story. [[We Are The Dead by Mike Shackle|Full Review]]teenage children who are involved.}}<!-- Vibrant Publishers -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:1946383627.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1946383627/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Autobiography|summary===[[Cost Accounting & Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know by Vibrant Publishers]]=== [[If you were to bring up an image:4of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Business A hoodie and Finance|Business jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and Finance]]his background is the East End, [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] I'm capable of drawing up a profit and loss account (income statement in the USA) and a balance sheet where he was familiar with violence, poverty and I do so for my own business and for another organisationinjustice. The accounts give me ''broadly'' what I need: I know whether we're making a profit or a loss and I can look at There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the expenses and see what looks as though it could be trimmed back in future yearsLondon School of Economics. My problem was that the accounts didn't really give me any help in making decisions, which was why I turned to ''Cost Accounting and Management'', part of Vibrant Publishers' SelfStevenson is bright - extremely bright -Learning and Management series. Cost accounting provides the information required by authorities external he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to the company ''and'' to those within it who need to make decisionsbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, so donessentially, 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't worry that you're going to have to draw up two sets of accounts! [[Cost Accounting & Management Essentials You Always Wanted To Know by Vibrant Publisherss Guide to Murder|Full Review]]author=C L Miller <!-- Steve Burrows -->|rating=3.5|-genre=Crime| stylesummary="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786075776It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.jpg|link=http://www She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole.amazon Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least.co.uk/dp/1786075776/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;"|===[[A Dance of Cranes by Steve Burrows]]=== [[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:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] After the split, [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] DCI Domenic Jejeune is no longer with Lindy Heyshe worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the estrangement being love of his makingher life, not herswho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced. He hasn}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow't explained to her s Futures: Fictions that he is doing this - Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and leaving for his native Canada - because he thinks that this will keep her safe from his nemesis, Ray HayesStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come. Lauren Salter has been promoted to sergeant and now has her first murder case. It looks as though there's an obvious suspect, but Salter isn't so certain. Sgt Danny Maik is (unofficially) keeping an eye on Lindy Hey, whilst Jejeune embarks on a treacherous journey to rescue his brother, Damian, who has gone missing in one of Canada's largest national parks. [[A Dance of Cranes by Steve Burrows|Full Review]] <!-- Oates -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785656775.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785656775/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Bobby is an angry, damaged man - damage that came from being abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, and then being thrown from one foster home or detention centre to another, never far from violence or abuse. Eager to succeed as a musician, he arrives in Hollywood to find his dream - but it soon becomes clear that his paranoid delusions and seething rage will enable a capacity for acts of extreme violence. Unpublished for 40 years, this edition of ''The Triumph of the Spider Monkey'' comes combined with a connected novella – ''Love, Careless Love''. [[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates|Full Review]] <!-- Pike -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0192771604.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192771604/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Last Spell Breather by Julie Pike]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Rayne lives in the small, hidden village of Penderin where she is a somewhat unwilling apprentice to her mother, the spell breather. Not everyone can spell breathe, you have to born with a magic spark and Rayne wishes she hadn't been born with one. She's a terrible spell breather, her attempts are always followed by disaster and she positively hates Mam's spell book with it's sharp teeth that suck your blood. When a stranger finds their village one day, Mam must set off on a journey to the great library, leaving Rayne in the village as their chief spell breather, but an unfortunate mistake sees Rayne breaking her mother's book and turning everyone in to monsters. She must face her fear travel across the monster-ridden country to find Mam and restore the book to save their village. [[The Last Spell Breather by Julie Pike|Full Review]] <!-- Carlie Sorosiak -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:178800387X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178800387X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Cosmo's family is in crisis. Mom and Dad argue all the time. Emmaline doesn't quite understand it because she's too little but she feels it. And Max, who is bigger, does understand it and is terrified by it. Long ago, when Max was just a baby, Cosmo made a promise to protect Max forever and so he sets about his mission of repairing the family with everything he's got... [[I, Cosmo by Carlie Sorosiak|Full Review]] <!-- Fegan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1925810097.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1925810097/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Don't Drink the Pink by B C R Fegan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For Sharing|For Sharing]] Madeline is very fond of Grandfather Gilderberry. He's always busy in his workshop, creating crazy potions, and he always has a smile on his face. Madeline's dad thinks he's a bit bonkers and Madeline's mum thinks the same but gives him a pass because he's old. But Madeline? She thinks Grandfather Gilberberry is just great. Particularly on her birthday when he unfailingly arrives with a selection of potions and allows her to choose one as a gift. And he always says the same thing... [[Don't Drink the Pink by B C R Fegan|Full Review]] <!-- Averill -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1077651538.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1077651538/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Years of Fading Magic by Kenelm Averill]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]  ''What if you could subtly change the lives of ordinary people around you?'' Jessica Turner was one of the more radical teens to come out of Eastfield. A youth spent hanging out with a close crowd of friends was characterised by Jessica's role as trendsetter, as influencer, as leader. Strangely charismatic, Jessica invited fascination and obsession. Nobody who met her, forgot her. Or the days they spent in the Enclosure, a clearing in Eastfield woods that Jessica felt gave her power. But the group went its separate ways, as adolescent groups do, and her influence faded...[[The Years of Fading Magic by Kenelm Averill|Full Review]] <!-- Paula Daly -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1787632105.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787632105/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Clear My Name by Paula Daly]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] Tess Gilroy works for Innocence UK, a charity investigating the cases of prisoners who can convince them that they've been wrongly convicted and they're just moving on to their next case. She's somewhat surprised when Clive, the head of the charity, announces that she'll have someone shadowing her. Avril's in her mid twenties and rather gauche as well as prone to putting her foot in it. One of the reasons they're now going to look at the case of Carrie Kamara is that she's female and Innocence have never yet taken up the case of a woman: such impressions matter. [[Clear My Name by Paula Daly|Full Review]]  <!-- Georgianne Landy-Kordis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1072549271.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1072549271/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Simple Act of Self-Publishing With Amazon: A Simple Step by Step Guide by Georgianne Landy-Kordis ]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Business and Finance|Business and Finance]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]], [[:Category:Self-Publishing|Self Publishing]] I frequently meet authors who are struggling to be published by the traditional houses, but when I suggest self-publishing they explain that they don't have the big bucks required to go down that road with Author Solutions or Matador or their like. I then ask if they've considered Kindle and the answer is inevitably that they wouldn't know where to start. I can empathise with that. Despite having used a computer for about thirty years, running most of my life ''and'' a website on line, I'm still nervous when it comes to starting something new. I like someone to hold my hand as I go through it for the first time. That was why I was very interested when ''The Simple Act of Self Publishing With Amazon'' came across my desk. Author Georgianne Landy-Kordis doesn't profess to be a computer expert: she's simply someone who has done this many times and she's giving us the benefit of her experience and without any added chitchat. [[The Simple Act of Self-Publishing With Amazon: A Simple Step by Step Guide by Georgianne Landy-Kordis |Full Review]] <!-- S Kensington -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018625.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018625/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Just Another Girl on the Road by S Kensington]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] When Sergeant Farr and Corporal Valentine first encountered Katrinka Badeau she was just eighteen years old and fleeing from a farmhouse and a group of German deserters who had raped her. Despite being outnumbered she was giving just about as good as she got when Farr and Valentine intervened and finished the group off. It was 1944 and Farr and Valentine were part of the Jedburgh unit, EDMOND, lead by Major Willoughby Nye. Nye recognised Katrinka immediately - he'd worked on her father's merchant ship and Katrinka had once had a crush on Nye. When he offered her a job with his unit, she accepted. [[Just Another Girl on the Road by S Kensington|Full Review]] <!-- Patrice Lawrence-->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1444940651.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1444940651/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Rose and her brother Rudder have recently escaped from cult-like fundamentalist Christian sect, the Pilgrims, along with their mother. While Mum works endless hours at agency cleaning jobs trying to keep the rent paid on their tiny flat, Rose and Rudder are trying to navigate the worldly world. It's not easy when everything is new and the rigid rules you've always lived by are suddenly missing. [[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence|Full Review]] <!-- David Edwards -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789018870.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018870/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Something to Tell You by David Edwards]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]] Sam Murray and Bert Leinster had been friends for a long time. Bert was Sam's boss at CERN, but this never seemed to affect the way that the families got on. Bert's wife, Natalia, was Russian and seriously rich. Their twins, fifteen-year-olds Allie and Josh, went to a private boarding school, but at weekends they were great friends with Sam's two children, Liam and Hannah. Sam's wife, Briony, was head of product research at Nestlé. Life was good for all eight of them, until Sam - a particle physicist - spotted that the rate at which Higgs Boson particles were hitting the earth had risen exponentially. It's enough of a problem for Sam and Bert to drag the head of CERN, Prof Ralph Moyeur, out of a family lunch. Then Bert started having conversations with a plant called Lily. [[Something to Tell You by David Edwards|Full Review]] <!-- Behrend -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789016789.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016789/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[You're the Froth On My Soy Cappuccino: Poems for the Present by Don Behrend]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Anthologies|Anthologies]]  ''You're the Froth On My Soy Cappuccino'' begins with ''A Modern Love Story'': ''You’re the froth on my soy cappuccino''<br>''You’re the spread on my paleo toast''<br>''You’re the nose of my GM-free Pinot''<br>''You’re organic, my love. You’re the most!''<br> Ha! How can you not laugh at this gently mocking take on love in the hipster world? [[You're the Froth On My Soy Cappuccino: Poems for the Present by Don Behrend|Full Review]]  <!-- Mary Scott Huff -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1419726625.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1419726625/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 

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.}}{{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.|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=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| stylegenre="verticalGeneral 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 -align: top; textsupposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice -align: left;"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.}}{{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 Mitten Handbook: Knitting Recipes Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to Make Your Own by Mary Scott Huff]]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|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

[[image:4starRosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks.jpgMira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. 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 smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|linkisbn=Category: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. AI and automation have been 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 many 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}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crafts{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Crafts]]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.''

I love mittens Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non- witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything theyhave sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It hadn're so convenient t been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and much easier even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to get onto (ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and off) cold hands than -shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a pair while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of fiddly glovesa remote property in Bel Air. TheyHe was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it're s not something you regularly see the Italian. But which of 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 shopshis 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 I knew many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if I wanted she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new pairs I would have characters who quickly begin to knit them myselfcharm. WellKatie has no experience in running a business, actuallyor in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, thatand there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's my rationalisation ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the situation: 'long, cosy afternoons in truth front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. I love knitting mittensperhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. They have just enough technique Spike is going to make them satisfyingtake care of Benny, plenty and will certainly take care of quick work Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is supposed to be a pair 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 warm mittens in the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a few daysworld of frightening adventure and whiffs. PatternsThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, though - where do a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|isbn=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 get them fromdid, would it land? [[The Mitten Handbook: Knitting Recipes to Make Your Own by Mary Scott Huff|Full Review]]catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!-- 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?