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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=Eleanor CattonTom Percival|title=The RehearsalWrong Shoes
|rating=5
|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=If you are the type Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of person who wants their novels to start at ways. He is bullied because he has 'the beginningwrong shoes', build character he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and plot before coming to a satisfying doesn'they all lived happily ever aftert have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can' endingt work because he lost his job at the college, then avoid this book at all costswas working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. You will hate it Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. But I cannot remember when I last enjoyed And yet, he still has a first time novel as much as this onetiny amount of hope. It He is ambitiousgood at art, daring and complexclings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, and yet it works beautifullydark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847081398</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Barbara KingsolverSylvie Cathrall|title=The LacunaA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=Ten years ago, Barbara Kingsolver's [[The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver|Poisonwood Bible]] revealed the grim politics in the CongoThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. The Lacuna has a similarly political theme, And this time turning her focus on Mexico and the USA in the 1940s and 1950sis one of them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>057125263X</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christine Dwyer Hickey0008517061|title=Last Train From LiguriaDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The heroine in this novel is BellaFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. She's There’s perhaps a rather unassuming young woman who has had little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a rather unassuming childhood lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off- save for the fact that she was motherless at an early age grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her relationship with the father reservations about whether or not this is a little strained, to say the least. Bella needs to breathe. So future she leaves the drizzle of England wants for the blue skies herself and heat of Italy. Her father has propelled her into ''gentle'' employment there. daughter? She's tentative about For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the whole thing but warms to it by degreesback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843549883</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Eagleman1786482126|title=Sum: Tales from the AfterlivesThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=For some reason I find myself unable Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to start this reviewhold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. So I'll mention Was this book starts a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with the end, and see where we go from thereDCI Harry Nelson. Of courseIt's difficult as Ruth knows, thatbut Nelson doesn's the key – this book does just t, that – starts she is pregnant with the end his child as a result of our human life here on Earth (or wherever you happen to be reading this) and posits forty possibilities of what happens thereafter, in the hereafterone night they spent together some three months ago. It's Her condition will be obvious before long, not so much 'Five People You Meet in Heaven' as 'Forty Heavens you Might Meet People In'least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674283</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James Lasdun0008551324|title=It's Beginning To HurtThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=It's Beginning unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to Hurt is a collection of sixteen short stories, all bound together by approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the theme of hurt in various formsother. It But Davie Hardie is James Lasdunstruggling in prison and he's third collection prepared to tell the police where the body of short stories a missing person is buried andwho was responsible for her death. This person, chances arehe promises, if you are a fan is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be 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 new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the short story then you will have read something by other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him beforeis kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099512327</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=M J Hyland0008405026|title=This Is How|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Things weren't going too badly for Patrick Oxtoby. He's intelligent and did well at school. Then his Gran died. He started getting pains A Stranger in his shoulder and things rapidly went downhill from there. He drops out of university to become a mechanic. By the time we meet him as a 23-year-old, he's become a loner who cannot communicate his feelings and who cannot seem to fit himself into society. Now his fiancee has left him (and you can see her point) and he finds himself in a seaside boarding house in an unnamed English town, hoping to start a new life. Then, one night he commits an act of violence Family (you can see it comingMaeve Kerrigan 11) and his life goes from bad to awful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184767383X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Jewell|title=After the PartyJane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=It's been eleven sixteen years since Ralph and Jem finally became an item at the end of Lisa Jewell's first novel Ralph's Partynine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. After buying a house in South London She was never found and having two children their once exciting, romantic and crazy relationship has gradually become consumed by responsibility and domesticity. Jem has become bogged down with motherhood and running the investigation ground to a home and just wishes Ralph would help out a bit as she struggles to start working againhalt. RalphNow, unsure of his role in the familyher mother, Helena, has gradually drifted away both physically and emotionally from Jem and his children, preferring to spend as much time as possible painting her father are dead in his studiotheir bed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846055733< Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lawrence Hill|title=The Book suicide but there's something about the positioning of Negroes|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Although this is a work of fiction, the whole distasteful bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and deeply upsetting subject of slavery is a fact, therefore, at times I felt as if I were reading a true accounther boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The narrative goes back What looked as though it was going to be an open-and forth, starting with Aminata (or Meena as she -shut case is usually called) as now a relatively old woman (what we would call middle-aged)complex double murder. SheKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's in London, far from home, but shedisappearance: others (such as Derwent's there for an extremely important reason. The powers-that-be need her to tell her storyboss, as a slave over many years. The hope is that other Meenas will not have to suffer the same fate. On a lighter note (and they Una Burt) are few and far between) Meena gets to visit some London schoolchildrenless convinced. They think that she eats elephant. She is able to laugh at their naivety.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552775487</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Buchan0571379877|title=Sick Heart River|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=This was a surprise for me. It’s rare for a book to come to my attention from the reviewing gods that’s a rerelease of a 1930s novel, and one that surfaced a couple of years ago now. But when it strikes me as startlingly Conradian, updated for the times, and perfectly able to stand alongside one of literature’s greats, then it’s just a sign those reviewing gods are on the ball.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697030X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewThe Kellerby Code|author=Mark Marshall|title=Little Tiger's Big HolidayJonny Sweet
|rating=3.5
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Little Tiger Edward Jevons is going on holiday. Whatever will he need? Wella working-class young man, flying gogglesobsessed with his upper-class friends, obviouslyRobert and Stanza. A parachute is Robert's a musttheatre director. Who goes anywhere without stilts? Oh He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and a helmet, entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in case love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he goes feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a racing car. Item by item, his suitcase gets more and more full. His holiday sounds like itrelationship had begun between them but he's going not like most men: Edward is left to be an amazing adventurestumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186233773X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lynne Rickards and Lee WildishJo Callaghan|title=Jacob O'Reilly Wants A PetLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Like many young childrenWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, Jacob ODCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It'Reilly Wants A Pets their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. He'd love But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a doglot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. A cat would Will they be great. Ooh, what about gerbils? Or an iguana? He's desperate for an animal able to look aftersolve the case in time, but mum or will Kat find herself taken off the case and dad don't fancy the idea. Then they suggest that he start , potentially, out of a pet-sitting business, and all hell breaks loose...career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>034098838X</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Sartof1399613073|title=River of JudgementMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Finn Jackson is an oilmanOlivia, an engineer Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and he's developed their friendship would keep them inseparable for a new way quarter of extracting oil which doesn't ravage the countryside in the way of traditional methodsa century. He's set up Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a company bonus when you aim to take advantage of this along with his friend Aaron Philips, who's the money manbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. He's short of an operations manager – Laura is a perfectionist and has been for a while – after trauma doctor. Anjali is the tragic death free spirit of Shufang Su in the group and she becomes a site accidentGP. She was When we first meet them they're at a geologist but had apparently flouted safety regulations drug and alcohol-fuelled party and you it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that there will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are going to be repercussions from her deathinvolved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956415202</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catrine Clay0241636604|title=Trautmann's JourneyThe Trading Game: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup LegendA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary='You have If you were to learn to be hard menbring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'think of someone like Gary Stevenson. Such did Hitler say at A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies in East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the 1930sLondon School of Economics. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a FA Cup final facility with a broken neck, such is the lifetime numbers which most of difference between the two referencesus can only envy. But He also realised that lifetimemost rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, as packed and varied as it wasessentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, is in the pages of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured bookturned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel Hawkins1035021803|title=Hex HallThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Sophie Mercer It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been sent back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a boarding school request for monsters after a little love spell goes horribly wronghelp from her beloved aunt, Carole. Hecate Hall has been set up Freya'to protect s former mentor and instruct shapeshifterCarole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, witch is dead and fae children who have risked exposure of their abilities'the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. As in any good school story Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she soon makes new friends and enemiesfeels, let her down badly. Her room mate is a 15 year old vampire with an obsession with everything pink Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, and Sophie must struggle she has not felt able to hide her disgust at Jenna’s blood consumptionbe near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, as they quickly become good friends. She faces more difficulty with she worked in a trio of glamorous witches. Annacafe, Chaston met and Elodie hate Jenna and they are frequently sarcastic and nasty at Sophie’s expense. At married James (on the rebound from the same time though, they approach love of her to join their covenlife, who was murdered) and Freya and her reluctance to get involved makes her more unpopularJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387225</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pattie Boyd and Penny JunorSunny Singh|title=Wonderful Today: The Autobiography of Pattie BoydHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=AutobiographyThrillers |summary=Pattie Boyd will always be remembered for one uniqueThe 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, extraordinary claim to famethe hotel manager. She became the wife of arguably As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the two most famous and revered rock guitarists of residents who are still alive in the erahotel, George Harrison and Eric Claptonhe forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and thus inspired three keeps on venturing out of their compositions which became three of the ageher room to try to capture what's seminal love songs, namely 'Something', 'Layla'happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and 'Wonderful Tonight'they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755316436</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mara Bergman and Cassia Thomas1529153298|title=Lively Elizabeth!The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Elizabeth It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is a lively little girlPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) She loves stomping around's not what's worrying Miv's family, making a racket and creating an awful kerfufflethough. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. One day Miv's upset because she does 's overheard that her father wants to move the thing that she knows she should never do: she pushes Joe Fitzhughfamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. Joe tumbles into Jonny For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, who knocks into another childSharon, and on and on and onshe'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone. Oh dear, Elizabeth! What have you done?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988045</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Claudia Gray1398524085|title=EvernightHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=ICharlotte Salter was expected at her husband'm at a complete loss how to review this books 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. I Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg'm very tempted to take a tip from my favourite movie critic Roger Ebert whos father, on occasionDuncan Ackerley, has been known in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to suggest make that you should watch a film '''Duncan had murdered Charlie and thencommitted suicide when he couldn''' read his review if it's full of twists and hard to describe without spoilerst stand the guilt. I'm actually thinking that The Salter children are not convinced but there's not a bad idea here – little else they can do but will try my best to provide a review get on with as few clues as possible to the twists their lives and turns, just in case two sentences aren't enough to convince youwonder about what really happened. This may not be easy, so bear with me!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007355319</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Dickinson1035906708|title=The Noise of StrangersDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a dystopian Brighton where the Council We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and the Amex company are the only major employers, and council departments have very different purposes moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to those they have make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in our own country today Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - notably she was raised under the sinister Parks - four couples share dinner parties Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and discuss as little as possiblemade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, due to the problems they have trusting each otherJackie. When a Councillor is killed }}{{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 car crashmovie marathon at their local cinema, and one a place that has the nickname of the couples witness it'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, it triggers a by-election which leads to political manouevring which they're all caught 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 ininto 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?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095625151X</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul R Spiring (Editor)Rachel Greenlaw|title=Rugby Football during the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Contemporary Essays about the Game by Bertram Fletcher RobinsonCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=SportTeens|summary=The mid-nineteenth century represented the sporting equivalent of the 'big bang' in terms of winter sports in England, giving rise to I can hear the development song of what today we call rugby union, football and rugby league, all from the same originsea. Perhaps due to its popularity amongst the public schools The call of the daydeep, rugby union for many years claimed the moral high ground, advocating amateurism and an emphasis on playing the game rather than providing a public spectacleanswering beat in my heart. Indeed, the arguments over the dangers of professionalism, which initially led to the split into rugby league from the Northern clubs, continued in union for well over a hundred years right up to the former England captain Will Carling's description of the powers that be of the RFU as 'old farts'. In 1896 Bertrand Fletcher Robinson, together with contributions from a few leading players of the day, wrote Rugby Football which was the first volume in a successful nine-part series on Sports and Pastimes that was written for the Isthmian Library. This edition is effectively a facsimile of that book, with the addition of an introduction, penned by Patrick Casey and Hugh Cooke and compiled by Paul Spring.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190431287X</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil RickmanJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Bones of AvalonPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Historical FictionConfident Readers|summary=When Elizabeth I's most trusted men fear Things have been a bit sticky for her safety the Earthlings. AI and think thereautomation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's a possibly supernatural plot against her, the obvious man re paid to investigate it is Dr John Dee, her astrologer do and consultant in the hidden artsother tasks that took time to accomplish. Aided by his former pupil – and Elizabeth's reputed lover – Robert Dudley, he travels Just as they were beginning to Glastonbury get used to try all this technological change and find the bones starting to think of King Arthur. Glastonburyother, howevernew ways to spend time, has never recovered from the Dissolution of the Monasteries along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and the execution of its beloved Abbot Richard Whiting, and many residents view the pair along with suspicion. The exception to this is Nel Borrowit, who treats Dudley when he's ill and becomes all the first woman Dee has ever been interested in romanticallymany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. Can the three stop the villainous plot? I'll leave you to find out…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848872704</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tess DalyMatthew Tree|title=The Baby Diaries: Memories, Milestones and Misadventures|rating=3.5|genre=Home and Family|summary=One of the many side effects of pregnancy seems to be the need to read everything you can get your hands on about pregnancy and babies. I know that when pregnant with my daughter I trawled the library for any baby books they had, scoured the internet nightly for due date calendars, week by week guides and baby name dictionaries. I also became an obsessive baby-watcher, interested in any celebrity baby news and willing to speak to anyone 'normalWe' that I met who was pregnant too or who already had children. This book is aiming to be a sort of catch-all for pregnancy obsessives I think, as it's a mix of pregnancy and birth advice and information alongside of Tess Daly's memories from her pregnancies with her two daughters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091935164</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ed Hillyer|title=The Clay Dreamingll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Hillyer has taken several historical facts and seamlessly blended in a big dollop of fiction Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to create be different from his father, a complex drunk and riveting story. The title is suitably enigmatic, as is King Cole (or Brippoki). He chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and his fellow cricketers (who also have been given rather unkind nicknames) have sailed from the bottom had endless crises of the world, self confidence. So Tim applied himself to the bustling metropolis of London. Talk about extremes. And although they have all been diligently 'schooled' in all things Englishhis studies, nevertheless, they are the talk of the town. The novel has barely started cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and already the mind bogglesset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956251501</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patricia BriggsA G Slatter|title=Silver BorneThe Briar Book of the Dead|rating=45
|genre=Fantasy
|summary=Mercy'' There's life is a part of me that wants to keep this just not getting any easierto myself for however long I can. The werewolf she lives with is looking like going rogue – not snapping out This secret magic of wolf formmy own, which might have dangerous repercussions – for himself and those around himall mine, at last. Someone within the pack she's joined with seems I just want to be playing psychic warfare on her, and leading her astray with errant mental suggestionsenjoy it for a while. Worse still, she's opened the door of her (ill-fated) trailer and found death threats on the step before, but not a fae assassin looking over things from the middle distance. Could any of this have anything to do with a mysterious fae book of fairy lore she's been asked to look after?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841497991</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Eggers1529900360|title=ZeitounThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary=Flicking through the channels It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the TV the other night I stumbled across an interview with George Bushhelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's former Deputy Chief of Staffpartner, Karl Rovewho nudged Milo into asking for help again. After witnessing an especially cringe making hip hop turn at She knew that the involvement was something that the Washington Correspondents' Dinner (if you haven't seen it take a man she loved needed. The next case did look at [http://wwwsimple, though.youtube Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air.com/watch?v=Ln5RD9BhcCo here]. It really He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is jaw droppingly awful) attention turned married to weightier matters, most notably Guantanamo Bay an extremely rich man and it's not the war on terror and Italian. But which of them was the Bush administrations response to Hurricane Katrina.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144841</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Carrington1529395224|title=Inside My HeadLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Zoe has moved from London to rural Norfolk - her parents are expecting Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a late baby GP and they Rowlands didn't want to downsizefollow in his footsteps, get out 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 cityjob for him. Before long, and live in a more sustainable wayhe was at Liverpool University. Unsurprisingly, Zoe isn It hadn't big on this plan- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. Wrenched from her school and friends, and the vibrancy of the capital If anything, shehe's convinced that her life has just taken d wanted to be a socking great turn for the worseprofessional footballer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802716</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Ruckley0861541774|title=Fall A Nye of ThanesPheasants|author=Steve Burrows
|rating=4
|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=The Godless world is descending into DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a kind of insanityshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. All order is breaking down Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and members of both the True Bloods and the Black Road are fighting amongst themselveshe killed a Ghurka. There is rioting in the streets and the armies Initially, he faced a charge of both sides manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have taken planned to mindless slaughter rather than organised conquestmurder the man. Under Aeglyss' command, Now he could be facing the Black Road armies are strengthening and his power is increasing as his body weakensdeath penalty. His control of the Shadow Chancellor is Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a step towards ending the rule of the Thanes by murdering the greatest among themdiplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841494410</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Wendy Law-YoneAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Road to WantingPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=We first meet Na Ga The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in her hotel room Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in Wantingproviding a more personal, on tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the Chinese side business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of the border a break up with Na Ga's native Burma (or Myanmar for a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the more geographically pedanticchance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, although Burma is used throughout this book). She is attempting thanks to commit suicide44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but is interrupted by news from the hotel receptionist with some new characters who tells her that her guide across the borderquickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, Mr Jiangor in match-making, but Ness has just committed suicide himself. You might by now have the impression that this is not a cheery kind of bookfull confidence in her abilities, and youthere'd be right up s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a point, although it's certainly not without its light touches. In fact it's often quite beautiful, which makes the exposure of the seedier side so much more shocking.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701184086</amazonuk>1846976596
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Eckstein0811771741|title=The Cloths of HeavenInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionCrafts|summary=WeMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby''re in West Africa in the early nineteen ninetiesgives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. There's the usual mix Some will be quick knits - others are of expatriates and diplomatic staff doing their best to do their best whilst still making the most 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the freedoms such a life givesfire' variety. Isabel is married The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to iconoclastic photographer Patrick Redmond twenty hours and copes better more than most wives would with her husband's fixation with pendulous black breaststwenty hours. There is gossip though. The High Commissioner and his wife Fenella All the projects are both involved in illicit affairsattractive, with more or less discretionmodern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954930983</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily BearnDean Koontz|title=A Seaside Adventure (Tumtum and Nutmeg)The Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersParanormal|summary=ThereBenny 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 something possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very comforting about returning last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a story with familiar friends and this latest in the Tumtum and Nutmeg series does not disappointnice person. A really nice person. Our brave little mousey friends are heading off So fortunately for some Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new excitementfriend, a bad weather friend called Spike, this time travelling by train to the seaside to keep an eye on Arthur and Lucy who have has been sent to stay with their Unclehelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Nutmeg Spike is sure it wongoing to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny't be any bothers enemies, but Tumtum suspects 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 may well end up on another adventure!are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405248203</amazonuk>1662500491
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Assaf GavronAdam Stower|title=Croc-AttackMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary=Eitan Enoch Murray is known as Croc supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his friendsfancy next of the two. ThereBut he's a good reason but itbad magician's about to become rather more famous than Croc would like. It's begins on 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 morning that he takes his regular bus to work – the Little Number 5 – back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a fellow passenger worries about the dark-skinned man with Viking land, where a suit bag whotroll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's sitting at the front. Just before Croc gets off at his stop turned up and he asks why people are so paranoid and wonders whether it's impossible for dark-skinned guys with suit bags ll have to get on buses any more.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007327463</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Craig Robertson1529431735|title=RandomThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54
|genre=Crime
|summary=A man is planning his first murder and heIt's doing it with some care. We'll gradually realise that heFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins's been making preparations for some time but return all the oddest thing is that this murder must be completely randommore surprising. He mustn't be diverted from his chosen system even if d been exiled on the person who is selected is someone he would rather not kill. It's not Costa del Sol as a whodunit – wanted drug smuggler for the killer tells us the story as it progresses – or even a 'why did decade. The return has come about because he do it' as even that will become obvious, but the suspense is in whether or not he will get caught.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377297</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joe Friedman|title=Boobela and Worm Ride the Waves|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Boobela is s had a girl who is just like any other little girlletter from his ex-wife, except for the fact saying that she isn's ill and hasn't little - shelong to live. It's a giant. Worm hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is her best friend (he actually is a worm) and he rides around in a box she straps abducted, stripped to her shoulder. This outing sees them visiting some underground caves his underwear and learning sent to surf, amongst other adventures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842556819</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Heather Gudenkauf|title=The Weight of Silence|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=On a hot August morning watery grave in the small town boot of Willow Creek, Iowa, Calli Clark and Petra Gregory are reported missinga stolen Ford Sierra. They are both seven years old, live in the same street, and are the very best of friends. Calli has suffered from selective mutism Is it a warning from the age of four when she witnessed a traumatic event in her home. As Spanish gang or a result Petra has become Calli’s voice, speaking for her and is even able problem closer to tell others what Calli is thinking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778303691</amazonuk>}}home?