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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>

There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: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' reviews at TheBookbagll want to read here.Dig in!

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==New There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY: Reviews==}}'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by genre]]at TheBookbag.'''

'''Read Want to find out more [[FeaturesAbout Us|new featuresabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Cathy Cassidy|title=Love, Peace and Chocolate (Pocket Money Puffins)|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Jess and Kady have been best friends since they were three years old and now they're in year eight at Parkway Community School. They're on the edge of puberty but things have been a bit slow on the boyfriend front – not that either of them is looking to rush things, particularly as there isn't a single Y8 boy who can make their eyes light up. They've a good, solid friendship which means a lot to both of them and they both think that nothing can come between the girls. Unfortunately they hadn't taken the arrival of Jack Somers into account.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014133021X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Barbara Trapido|title=Sex and Stravinsky|ratingThe Best New Books=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Josh and Caroline and their daughter Zoe live on an old red bus in Oxford, even though both have quite well paid jobs as an academic and headteacher. Caroline has spent her adult life deferring her plans for the future in order to support her widowed mother who lives in a house nearby. Josh’s job in the drama department of Bristol University does offer him some opportunities to escape abroad though, this time to a conference in his native South Africa.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802325</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Catherine Forde|title=Fifteen Minute Bob|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=For years, conscientious student Rory and his hard-working mother have struggled to cope with his father, an eyeliner wearing struggling singer-songwriter unable to hold down a job, and obsessed with a star called Bob Blade. While Rory finds hisfather's unreliability a nightmare to live with, his two friends Smiler and Barry think he's cool and spend more time hanging out with him than with Rory'Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. As the trio of Smiler, Barry, and Rory's dad team up to make a music video that goes viral on the internet, Rory gets unwittingly involved and, in the words of the blurb from the back,'everything flips'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405229306</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Olga Alexandrovna, Paul Kulikovsky, Sue Woolmans and Karen Roth-Nicholls|title=25 Chapters of My Life'''Read [[:Category: The Memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna|rating=4.5Features|genre=Autobiography|summary=Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and thus sister of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas IIlatest features]]. Her first marriage to Prince Peter Oldenburg, who was probably gay, ended in an amicable divorce, and in 1916 she married Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky. They escaped from Russia after the revolution, and settled in Denmark for nearly thirty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regime, they moved to Canada. She outlived him by two years, dying in 1960.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>}}'''

'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gillian MorganTom Percival|title=Salt BlueThe Wrong Shoes|rating=35|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers|summary=I always judge Will's life is difficult, in a book by its covermultitude of ways. The eyes in He is bullied because he has 'the pretty face on wrong shoes', he has the cover of wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn'Salt Bluet 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. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will' are arrestings life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, but difficult to assign to he still has a period, though it’s clearly women’s or teen fictiontiny amount of hope. I imagine He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the cover might attract fiction readers end of mainstream women’s magazines such as Women’s Weekly or Woman’s Owna long, so it’s spot on for the story insidedark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906784159</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom ShoneSylvie Cathrall|title=In The RoomsA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=45|genre=General Science Fiction|summary=The There are few greater joys than a book jacket for this novel is of New York by night, which lives up to a cityscape par excellencecompelling premise. It also boasts Toby Young's comment as ''laugh-out-loud funny.'' I have a lot of time for Toby Young. I find him witty and entertaining. But I usually approach claims such as And this with a healthy dose of 'we'll-wait-and-see' scepticism. However, he was right. And I am truly impressed with Shone's ability to make me laugh out loud and at the very beginning is one of the novel too. A very good sign of delights to come, I thoughtthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099534061</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha Narayan0008517061|title=The Maharajah's Monkey: A Kit Salter AdventureDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Kit Salter Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has a nose for adventuresettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. Somehow she always finds troubleThere’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, or it finds Livia and herdaughter Diana, and this latest episode is no exception as she finds herself travelling from the home comforts moving in together would mean a lot of Oxford all the way compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to India, then on move in with Livia or does Livia move to the freezing mountains of Tibet. What has happened to Monsieur Champlon? Has he abandoned poor Aunt Hilda? Why Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the mysterious monkey leaving threatening messages future she wants for Kitherself and her daughter? And what does it all have to do with For the Maharajah? Kit and her friends set off on a fantastic journey to investigate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847245293</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Austen, Seth Grahame-Smith and Tony Lee|title=Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie story of any renown will not remain simply a zombie story. Before you can say ''moment they’re enjoying life in the risen undead'' it will become a series of books, inspiring others, present and/or lead to putting the same story being published in many different guises. Here, then, future on its way to Hollywood, is Jane Austen’s story of Lizzie Bennet, the feisty young woman trying to ignore Mr Darcy while fighting off the ''manky unmentionables'' – at least she is until the hidden truths open up to her, just as the soft soils of Hertfordshire do to yield their once-human remains. And this time it’s in graphic novel formback burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566948</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Celine Kiernan1786482126|title=The Poison Throne: Moorehawke TrilogyJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths

|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=After years away from her childhood home at Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the court, Wynter Moorhawke – now an apprentice carpenter site was going to her seriously ill father Lorcan – returns, desperate to see her childhood friends Prince Alberon and his halfhold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments -brother Raziwhen they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. But Alberon is in exile Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, and his father King JonathonDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, far from being the kind ruler Wynter remembersbut Nelson doesn't, reigns that she is pregnant with an iron fisthis child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. As Razi, Jonathon’s illegitimate son Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is appointed the unwilling heir prone to the throne, Wynter must help him and his friend Christopher survive in increasingly dangerous timessudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498211</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Lawson0008551324|title=Mother of the Bride|rating=5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=This is the story of Jess Foster who is busily preparing for her forthcoming marriage to The Devil You Know (D S Max Porter, willingly aided by her mum, Molly, and her stepmother, Marnie. It soon becomes apparent though that the women have different ideas, particularly opinionated Marnie who seems set on Jess having the society wedding of the year and even goes as far as hiring a wedding planner. Molly, on the other hand, agrees with Jess that things should really be kept simple. Thus the scene is well set for all the moods and mayhem which occurs when arranging a wedding. Will Jess be able to stick to her guns and arrange the type of wedding that she wants or will it just be easier to give in to other suggestions?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561179</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewCraigie)|author=Richard Denning|title=The Last SealNeil Lancaster

|genre=TeensCrime|summary=In 1380 the warlock Stephen Blake released the demon Dantalion It's unusual for anyone from the Abyss, only for his nemesis Cornelius Silver Hardie family to banish him straight awayapproach the police. Dantalion Neither side likes or has nursed his wounds any respect for nearly 300 years – the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and in 1666, descendants of the original pair clash as heaims to return 's prepared to tell the police where the worldbody of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and burn down London by starting it will be worth the Great Firepolice doing what he wants. While the fire rages around London, and Dantalion’s followers try And what he wants is to break the seals which hold him in the Abyss, four unlikely heroes join forces be transferred to stop them from being destroyed – and an open prison to save the world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956483550</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Platt|title=Would You Believe...two cyclists invented serve the aeroplane?!|rating=4|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Where can you find a welter remainder of trivia his sentence and facts about transport from the ages, from the first use of Shanks’s pony, to the latest holidays to the edge of space? get an early parole date. What has so Not much detail to ask, is it can fit in the reasons for Mark Twain’s pen-name? Where can the adult browsing their child’s non-fiction library find a The new Deputy Police Constable doesn'Glamorous Glennist think so and she' going 'kinda screwy' and see how it refers s even prepared to do the breaking of the sound barrier? In these tidy 48 pages, for oneother thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199119694</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Morris Gleitzman0008405026|title=NowA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=We first met Felix in ''Once'It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. He thought he She was never found and the luckiest child in the orphanageinvestigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, since he was the only one whose parents weren't and her father are deadin their bed. Sadly Initially, he was wrong it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about that. We followed his story in ''Then'', in which he and his dear friend Zelda are on the run from the Nazis at the height positioning of the Holocaust bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and its terrifying Final Solutionher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. In Now, we catch up with Felix many years later. He's built a good life What looked as a surgeon in Australia, though it was going to be an open-and -shut case is now frustratingly retired, unable to operate because of his shaky handsa complex double murder. He Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's looking after his granddaughter, Zeldadisappearance: others (such as Derwent's namesakeboss, whose parents Una Burt) are doctors volunteering in Darfurless convinced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>014132998X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justine Hardy0571379877|title=In the Valley of Mist: Kashmir's Long War - One Family's Extraordinary StoryThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=TravelCrime|summary=KashmirEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Is that not the most romantic of names? Robert's a theatre director. To those of us entranced by tales from the East, it echoes with the same essence of myth as He''Shangs also self-ri-la'' – obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for good reasonhim. Geographically situated Edward has been in the Himalaya but love with the abundant fertility of the valley, lakes Stanza since their university days - and meadows, it should be a kind of paradisehe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. To 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 people who live there, it once wastwo of them kissing in a dark passageway. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846041511</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul CaveJo Callaghan|title=For Everything a ReasonLeave No Trace

|summary=Meet Joseph Ruebins. He When a man is one second away from found crucified on the top of a very satisfying climax hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to his boxing careerthe case alongside her sidekick, and winding up for his ultimate punchthe AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when he freezesthere is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and suffers a stroke, and ends up in hospitalvery high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Overnight someone kills Will they be able to solve the elderly man case in the next bed. Meanwhiletime, a policeman hunts down or will Kat find herself taken off the man who killed his son. Where are the connecting links - case and how could the fact that Joseph was put in the wrong ward due to , potentially, out of a mishap with the forms imperil the rest of his close-knit familycareer?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956236898</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Stockbridge1399613073|title=The Fortunes of Grace HammerMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=Historical FictionThrillers|summary=The short prologue shares with Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the reader first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a childhood incident in the life quarter of Grace Hammera century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. It had Laura is a dramatic effect on her perfectionist and her life thereaftera trauma doctor. She Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a changed personGP. SheWhen we first meet them they's also driven. She grows into re at a desirable woman drug and turns menalcohol-fuelled party and it's heads wherever she goesgoing to end in tragedy. But sheWe don's also smartt know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Some would perhaps think at this point, why not go 'up west', bag a sugarTwenty-daddy and live in luxury for five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the rest of her days? three friends. But life is not as simple as thatThis time, it's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520958</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel DeWoskin0241636604|title=Repeat After MeThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionAutobiography|summary=September 1989: It is If you were to bring up an image of a few months after the Tiananmen Square massacre city banker in Beijingyour mind, China. Aysha is teaching English at a private language school in New York City. She makes friends with some you're unlikely to think of her studentssomeone like Gary Stevenson. Da Ge is angry and disruptive yet attractive A hoodie and interesting at jeans replaces the same time, pin-stripe suit and they quickly become involved, although his interest in her background is not as romantic asthe East End, perhapswhere he was familiar with violence, she would like it poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to bethe London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He asks her also realised that most rich people expect poor people to marry be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him so he can stay in the countryan internship with Citibank. Aysha agrees Eventually, although there is still this turned into permanent employment as a lot she does not know about the mysterious, unstable Da Getrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715638998</amazonuk>

  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicola Morgan1035021803|title=WastedThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Jess wants It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to study musicthe English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a wonderful singerrequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. And so a chance encounter with Jack Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, who needs a singer for his bandArthur Crockleford, is exactly dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the happenstance she'd hoped for. Even better that Jack is so charming and handsome and charismaticleast. And still better that he feels Arthur was the same attraction reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let herdown badly. How lucky can a girl get? Jack believes Even though they were in luckbusiness together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. In fact After the split, he lives his life by it. He doesn't do a thing unless his coin says he can. Newly she worked in love, Jess is slowly drawn into his game of chance. Although it worries her a littlecafe, she can't know that a time will come when met and married James (on the rebound from the toss love of a coin is the difference between her life , who was murdered) and deathFreya and James have now divorced. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406321958</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Patrick Ness|title=Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking)|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=Noise - visible thought - dominates the lives of everyone on this settler planetI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Noise is used as Well, I must confess that there have been more than a tool few decades of oppression and as a weapontechnology in my lifetime. There I've kept up reasonably well with what's a cure, advantageous to me but I'm left with the Machiavellian President Prentiss reserves feeling that it only for the most loyal. The Answer are fighting back against his authoritarian regime, but they've had to make some terrible choicess all getting away from me. Between the President's torture and the Answer's terrorist bomb attacks stand Todd and Viola Some of it is - frankly - trying to prevent civil war, trying to hold on long enough for the second wave of settlers to arrivequite frightening. And then Of course, in I could research the wake of possibilities and the Presidentprobabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they's genocide of slaves, re talking about or the Spackle attacklatest conspiracy theorist. A scout ship finally arrives, but it may be too late to prevent I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a catastrophic war..way I could understand. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406310271</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carl McInerneySunny Singh|title=The Funniest Football Joke Book EverHotel Arcadia

|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers |summary=Who scored the most goals 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 Greek Mythology League? The centaur forward. Badoom boom tshhhh. It's terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a football joke bookwartime photographer and Abhi, packed the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the gills hotel, he forms a bond with all sorts Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of cheesiness and sillinessher room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Funniest Although they only ever? Perhaps nottalk over the phone, but it's not too badtheir 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849391114</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Stewart1529153298|title=Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist AfloatThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what they are talking about's worrying Miv's family, (though sometimes they don't convey it too well) and those who don't . Women have a clue, but like to think they dobeen disappearing. Well, Chris Stewart may have started the book with a light and frothy touch as a novice sailorthey've been murdered, but he ends up with the credentials of an Ancient Marinerto have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003842</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keris Stainton|title=Della Says: OMG! |rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Ever since Miv's upset because she was four, Della has had a secret crush on Dan, the good-looking and gentle boy who once shared his brand new crayons with 's overheard that her. And now, more than ten years later, he father wants to kiss hermove the family 'Down South'. It seems too good to be true When you're from Yorkshire, and for a while Della fears the whole thing Down South is a jokefrightening, foreign place, set up by mean girl Gemimabest avoided. After all For Miv, Gemima is Dan's the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. And then disaster strikes: Della She's very private and confidential diary goes missing. The diary with all not worried about the excruciatingly embarrassing entries about Dan, dangers or that her family, her friends..Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408304279</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Liane Moriarty1398524085|title=What Alice ForgotHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary='This wasn't the worst thing that had ever happened to her…it Charlotte Salter was just the most ridiculousexpected at her husband' laments thirty nine year old mother of threes fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, Alicesons Niall, who has had the last ten years of Paul and Ollie and her life struck from daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her memory by a blow to the head in her step aerobics classhusband, Alec, is not. Alice now thinks sheShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's twenty ninefather, Duncan Ackerley, newly pregnant with her first child and happily married in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to Nick make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and furthermore she hasnthen committed suicide when he couldn't a clue what shestand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's doing at an aerobics class in the first placelittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043768</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Coe1035906708|title=The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell SimDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=Meet Maxwell Sim. ActuallyWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, perhaps I should rephrase that so that it doesn't sound like an imperative instruction - for if you do meet himbut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, you might not like the experience. An ex-salesmanNew York, he's now in after sales (ie he's stuck on a customer returns counter in a department store); however he is completely awful with regards December 1923 and only moved to other peopleAthens when she was thirteen. His wife has run off with their daughter, all his few friends have forsaken him (and his Facebook wall). We start the book with him trying Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to patch things up with his father, who's safely Callas' to make it more manageable in Australiathe States. He finds all those 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 know mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of him are already aware he's depressed. Those who don't know him can find him painfully shy, or able to talk away their will to liveher preference for her elder sister, gabbling on and on about Watford. But a lot is about to change. He's about to be combined with some people excited about green toothbrushesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917389</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Samantha HuntChristopher Edge|title=The SeasBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=''The Seas'' follows the story of a nameless nineteen-year old girl who is lonely Lucas and adrift his friends are all booked in for a cruel coastal town so far to movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the north nickname of the USA that the roads only run south'The Black Hole'. She misses her father All big movie fans, an absent alcoholic sailorthey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, while her silence-loving motherand many, who grew up on an isolated island with deaf parentsmany snacks! However, worries deeply about her. Early on in as the story we get the distinct impression movie starts, they very quickly realise that our narrator something about this new film format is not deemed 'normalvery different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn' by her peers, who call her all sorts of unflattering thingst even imagine. With nothing to do in her small town, and no But as they lurch from one film genre to do it withthe next, she spends her time pining for a local alcoholic called Jude who can they figure out what on earth is fifteen years her senior, and who refuses her amorous advances going on ? Will they ever get back to the grounds that it would be wrong. As the story unfoldscinema, Jude and the girl's relationship grows and changes, sometimes in unexpected ways.to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849013934</amazonuk>1839942738

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lara FoxRachel Greenlaw|title=Miss Understanding: My Summer on the ShelfCompass and Blade|rating=43.5

|summary=Anya Buxton is back. It's 'I can hear the summer holidays and her mum is keen for her to find a summer job rather than waste her days lounging around at homesong of the sea. After The call of the briefdeep, worrying possibility that she might just end up as a newspaper delivery girl she lands a dream position gaining work experience with a London publishing housethe answering beat in my heart. She finds herself simultaneously editing a dishy, though slightly disturbed teen author, struggling with a long distance relationship with Al, wondering if 'The Boy' really has turned over a new leaf and being wooed by the boss's son. And, of course, she's blogging it all for her dedicated followers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988835</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Sheryl Webster Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and Tim Warnes|title=What Small Rabbit Heard|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=It's cold plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and windyany treasure that lies within. Small Rabbit just wants But when the Council Watch lays a trap to stay insideend the wrecking, but Big Rabbit insists that itthey capture the island's fresh, not cold, leader and theyMira're going on a walks father. He's Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bit of bargain with a cheeky scamp wreck survivor who is Small Rabbitas charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, so when Big Rabbit says ''try she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to keep up''unearth what might save her father, Small Rabbit somehow mishears it as ''jump in her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the mudsmuggler''. As the walk goes ons territory, Small Rabbit mishears Big Rabbit time and time again, getting up Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to all sorts save the future of shenanigansher home and the ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192728679</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael BoothJames Sherwood Metts|title=Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About CookingPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=CookeryConfident Readers|summary=Japanese food has a tendency to sound Things have been a bit freakish or even controversialsticky for the Earthlings. Raw fish? Octopus ice cream? Whale meat? Yet it is slowly infiltrating the UK with sushi conveyor belt restaurants popping up everywhere AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and noodle bars offering Westernised bowls of steaming noodlesother tasks that took time to accomplish. In Just as they were beginning to get used to all this book Michael Booth takes his wife technological change and two young children starting to experience the real thingthink of other, new ways to spend time, travelling across the whole of Japan tasting along came an enormous range of foods awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and learning about their history, how along with it, all the foods have been produced and are cooked and eatenmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099516446</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lionel ShriverMatthew Tree|title=We Need To Talk About Kevin'll Never Know|rating=4.5

|summary=Politicians continue Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to argue that the solution to social issues lies with the familybe different from his father, so it is timely that a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at the heart any of Lionel Shriver's 2005 Orange Prize winning novel is the issue his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of nature vs nurture - what makes a person like he or she is? Is the eponymous Kevin born evil or is he influenced by self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his mother's coldness towards him. There are no clear answers daydreams and that's what gives this brave book, which tackles the taboos that some mothers don't bond with their children, such powerset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687349</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

{{newreview|author=Elin Hilderbrand|title=The Castaways|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=On Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the island of Nantucketworld, four couples have forged strong bonds lies Silverton; a town under the protection of friendship. Together they live and love, raise their children, share their dreams. Itthe Briar's an idyllic existence and at the same time , a very purposeful one. The couples have worked hard to create family of witches who protect the quality of life they now enjoy town and nothing can take it away the wider world from themthe Darklands. Until now. Greg and Tess are deadThough she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the result of what appears first non-witch to be a sailing accident. They leave behind two born into her family for generations and as such since she was young children, her training as a steward revolved around letters and six devastated friends, all of whom have to come to terms with what has happened. For some there is guilt over final words said or final warnings left unsaidadministration rather than spells and potions. For othersWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, there is the knowledge that secret relationships will now have to stay that way evermore. Ellie'The Castaways' is s cousin Audra becomes the book of that fateful summerBriar Witch, the accident and its aftermath, but ittown's more than just thatleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. It's a look As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the precious role friends and heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family play in our livessecret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and how innocent actions or words can change determine what to do as the course of history foreverBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340919825</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenna Burtenshaw1529900360|title=WintercraftThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=The wardens raid villages It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and cities even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for people competent to fight in his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the war, help of a psychologist only worked for a war nobody knows anything about other than if you’re sent to fight you don’t come backwhile. The last time they raided Morvane Finally, it was ten years agoRobin, Delaware's partner, taking Kate’s parents with themwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. Kate is taken in by her uncle, Artemis, and grows up in She knew that the involvement was something that the book shop with him and her friend, Edgarman she loved needed. But now the wardens are back The next case did look simple, and looking for more people to fightthough. However, they are also looking for Two lovers were murdered in the Skilled – swimming pool of a dying breed of people who can see through remote property in Bel Air. He was the veil of life heir to an Italian shoe empire and death. They want she is married to build an army extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But which of them was the dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755370961</amazonuk>primary target?

  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Dessen1529395224|title=Infinity (Pocket Money Puffins)Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=TeensAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Girl is Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a teen from small town America. We donGP and Rowlands didn't know where exactlywant to follow in his footsteps, but it's somewhere people drive (which rules out particularly when he considered the likes of NYC) and it's somewhere strain that has a roundabout. Most of America doesn't have these – instead they have much more sensible crossings and lights and Tbeing on-junctions – so it's a source of intrigue for many of the towncall put on his father's residentslife. For new driver Girl When he was seventeen he took the roundabout is joint top on her List Of Things To Master, along opportunity of doing work experience with sleeping with her boyfriend Anthonya family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. They might seem entirely unrelated to the likes of you and me Before long, but to Girl the links are clearhe was at Liverpool University. They It hadn're both things she will have to deal t - as with for so many students - been his dream since he was a first time eventuallychild. If anything, but she still canhe't decide whether to rush ahead in order d wanted to get them out of the way quickly, or put them off for just be a little longerprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141330775</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Prineas0861541774|title=The Magic Thief: FoundA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=When we last saw Conn, he had blown up his wizard masterDCI Domenic Jejeune's houseclose friend and former colleague, was exiled from the city of WellmetDanny Maik, and lost his locus magicalus (it's like has taken a magic wandshort holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, just it's 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 stone)Ghurka. He's been unable to do magic ever since Initially, which is rough because he needs his powers now more than ever. A terrible evil is blazing faced a trail towards Wellmet, intent on destroying the city, and Conn's only hope charge of manslaughter but evidence came to defeat it is light that suggested that he might have planned to somehow get a new locus magicalusmurder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. He sets out on Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a quest to find one, but the journey is long diplomatic incident and dangerous, and time is running outwouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849161917</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda Sington-WilliamsAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Eloquence of DesirePerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5

|summary=The novel starts Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the post-war austerity years online apps in England and centres around providing a middle-classmore personal, traditional family unittailored service. Sington-Williams gives Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the reader business, as Ness is planning to take a detailed description trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of that period - a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the bland foodchance 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 monotony of commuting Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to London charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (some things donand 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 ''InstaKnits for Baby''t change) and gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of coursethe 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the rainfire' variety. GeorgeThe projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, his wife Dorothy five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and their teenage daughter Susan don't really talk to each othermore than twenty hours. They tend to skirt round issues All the projects are attractive, modern and walk on eggshellsuseable. Appearances are everythingI perhaps 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. So Oh, and someone has delivered a suitably fabricated story is told really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to their smallhis home, family circle of Georgeand it's company movepossible 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. George has no choice in the matterA really nice person. So he does what he always has done up till nowfortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, he puts a brave face on bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for the world and grins and bears itbeing a good person. ItSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's a huge change in their domestic situation. Uprooted to a strangeenemies, if he, foreignBenny, tropical country and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they've only glimpsed in National Geographicare.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907230114</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nikki DudleyAdam Stower|title=EllipsisMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary=Both the title Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and book cover are slick sleep and glossy, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. Can the contents live up to this positive image? Straight away the reader is drawn into DanielBut he's a bad magician's life ... but cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the clock is ticking. He will soon be spoken about in catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the past tenseregular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. He dies and leaves manyThis time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, many questions that his immediate family struggle to answer. But as the story progresses we discover that secrets be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have been kept for a long time. Why? Too disturbing to reveal?do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907230106</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian WildsmithB0C47LV1PC|title=Animal GalleryFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=Starting off with Can you make a crash of rhinoceroses''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, through a corps of giraffesis the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, a hover of trout, and ending up with a dray of squirrels, Brian Wildsmith treats us to a beautiful look at collections of animalswould it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019272794X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=China Mieville|title=Kraken|rating=3.5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Meet Billy Harrow, curator of molluscs and other pickled creatures. Imagine if you will Billy's thoughts on entering the chamber that houses the highlight of his museum's tour - an immense squid, housed in a glass crate - only to find Fragility'' is set as the entire thing - animal and tank - impossibly removed. Imagine, too, the more esoteric kind city of policeman and -woman needed to arrivePortland, to tell him that his exhibit was the keystone of a mysterious cult with the end of times on their mindOregon, and that they might just like Billy cautiously begins to infiltrate it and see what was precisely what. Just consider - is Billy, the man who bottled emerge from the giant squid, a John restrictions imposed during the Baptist to this cult, or a Judas?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0333989503</amazonuk>covid pandemic