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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=Bonnie Hearn Hill|title=Star Crossed: Taurus Eyes|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Logan McRae is excited by the prospect of attending a writers' camp hosted by author Henry Jaffa, who starts off by asking them all to write a project idea and then shuffles them around. Instead of her longed-for astrology feature, Logan ends up having to write about folk singer Sean Baylor, whose ghost may be haunting thelocality. The only person who doesn't have to switch is the cute boy at the camp, Jeremy, who Jaffa allows to keep his original topic – of Sean Baylor. So, Logan and Jeremy end up fighting over research material while also clearly wanting to get to know each other better – does the ghost exist? Will they get it together? Who will write the best article and get it published? The answers to all these questionsand more lie inside the second book in the Star Crossed series (along with some temporary tattoos!)|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762436719</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Waiting Room|ratingBest New Books=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=On the outskirts of ex rock star Martin Stride's country estate lies the disused Shale Point Station. Abandoned in the 1960s the railway line has been dug up and removed and all that remains is the crumbling platform and eerie waiting room. Martin is quick to employ Britain's top ghost hunter Julian Creed to investigate the strange and threatening occurrences of the waiting room that he and his children have witnessed – the sound and smell of a steam train, male voices singing a famous World War One song, and most frightening of all, the leering face of a soldier at the waiting room window. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444704214</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Robert McCrum|title=Globish'''Read [[:Category: How the English Language Became the World's LanguageNew Reviews|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=We British tend to forget just how insignificant we arenew reviews by category]]. '''<br>

Tiny geographically. Tiny in population. Tiny, whatever we tell ourselves, on '''Read [[:Category:Features|the world stagelatest features]].'''

Yet our language '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{Frontpage|author=Tom Percival|title=The Wrong Shoes|rating=5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Will's life is spoken difficult, in various forms worldwide by approximately four billion people; about a third multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the worldwrong shoes's population, he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. How did ''Throw into that mix the fact thathis mum and dad are separated, and Will'' happen? This s life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is what Robert McCrum attempts good at art, and clings to explainthe moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670916404</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alison MurraySylvie Cathrall|title=Apple Pie ABC|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Take one traditional rhyme (''A was an apple pie, B bit it...''), mix it up a bit with new words, add a pinch of sweet girl and a dash of naughty dog, and you've got a recipe for... well, a unbelievably cliched first line in a review from me, but also a super book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408308010</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tony Ross|title=Super Dooper Jezebel|rating=4.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Jezebel is a good girl - so good, in fact, that everyone calls her Super Dooper Jezebel. She's neat and tidy, does her chores, is perfectly behaved, and is an inspiration Letter to all. The Prime Minister sent her a special medal for being so good, and Jezebel gets her own TV show to show others how to behave. She won't even run, because it's against the rules. Sometimes, just sometimes, rules are meant to be broken...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849390169</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Sperring and Miriam Latimer|title=The Sunflower SwordLuminous Deep|rating=3.5|genre=For SharingScience Fiction|summary=There's are few greater joys than a little knight (who looks remarkably like a boy with a colander on his head) who wants book which lives up to battle with dragons a sword, but his mum says he can'tcompelling premise. He's desperate to whoosh and swoosh with a shining blade, so she gives him a sunflower instead, and off he goes to the top of a hill to do battle with not And this is one but three imaginary dragons. There's a roar of fire and billowing smoke, and he finds himself face to face with a real dragon..them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849390576</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Mitton and Sarah Warburton0008517061|title=Sir LaughalotDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Sir Laughalot is a brave knight. He's got all the gear and is desperate to smite a wicked foeFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, so off he sets on has settled into his travelsrustic life at Little Sky. He meets There’s perhaps a fearsome dragon little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a whopping great big giant, but each time they end lot of compromise: does Jake give up laughing his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with one another. Will things change when he tries Livia or does Livia move to rescue Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the fair damsel from future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the evil sorceress?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408302748</amazonuk>moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the back burner.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bernhard Schlink1786482126|title=Guilt About the Past|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Consider, if you will, guilt. You might have it tainting you, as 'beyond the perpetrators, every person who stands in solidarity with them and maintains solidarity after the fact becomes entangled'. The link might not strictly be a legal one, but concern 'norms of religion and morals, etiquette and custom as well as day-to-day communications and interactions'. Hence a collective guilt like no other - that witnessed in Germany. 'The assumption that membership to a people engenders solidarity is something Germans of my generation do not easily like to accept', we read. However difficult it might have been back then in its day, Germany had to physically renounce anything to do with Nazism, to actively 'opt-out' of connections to avoid the solidarity seen connecting the whole nation like a toxic spider web. And since then it's linked in all the children, in a ''bequeathal'' of guilt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905636776</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Yasmina Khadra|title=What the Day Owes the NightElly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Nine year old Algerian Muslim Younes is devastated when his father's farm is destroyed and his family have to move to the slum of Jenane Jato. However, while the rest of his family struggle, this turns out to be something of a blessing in disguise for Younes,who is rescued by his wealthy uncle, a pharmacist. Renamed Jonas, he moves to live with his uncle and aunt in the vibrant European district of Rio Salado. There, he meets new friends Jean-Christophe, Simon, and Fabrice. But what seems to be an unbreakable friendship is tested to its limits by the return to the area of the beautiful Emilie, and the boys' problems increase as Algeria fights for its independence from France. The book is narrated by Jonas at a much older age, lookingback at his life, although the epilogue brings us to the present day as he visits a grave.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019933</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Cara Black|title=Murder in the Latin Quarter (Aimee Leduc)|rating=4

|summary=Aimée Leduc is back and this time she might just have found the sister she's always longed for. When a Haitian woman arrived Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the offices of Leduc detective in central Paris and announced that she site was Aimée's father's illegitimate daughter Aimée allowed enthusiasm going to overrule logic as shehold seventy-five 'd been lonely since her motherluxury's disappearance and her father's deathapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. RenéWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, her partner in Leduc DetectiveDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, is wary but he canNelson doesn't dissuade Aimée, that she is pregnant with his child as a result of the one night they spent together some three months ago. It's Her condition will be obvious before long, not long before she's involved in the murky world least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of Haitian politics and murder in Paris' bohemian Latin Quartersickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013144</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Harvey0008551324|title=A Darker Shade of BlueThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster

|genre=Short StoriesCrime|summary=There are eighteen short stories covering It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the East Midlands, those parts body of London you'd generally really rather avoid a missing person is buried and rural East Angliawho was responsible for her death. You'll see broken familiesThis person, revenge killingshe promises, prostitution is someone big and drugsit will be worth the police doing what he wants. There's corruption – not unusual when you have And what he wants is to be transferred to an overstretched police force open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and underpaid men and women staffing to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it. ? And then there are The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the people other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who, in spite of everything, fight for justiceworks with him is kept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548232</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gladys Mitchell0008405026|title=The Mystery of a Butcher's ShopA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=35

|summary=A body is found in a butcherIt's shop sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one morning in Wandles Parvasummer night. It has been expertly chopped up She was never found and hung just like the investigation ground to a piece of porkhalt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, but because it is missing looks like a head, identification is impossiblestraightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. There are soon suggestions that What looked as though it must was going to be Rupert Sethleigh, an open-and-shut case is now a land-owner who had supposedly gone to the UScomplex double murder. His cousin, Jim Redsey Kerrigan is convinced that the obvious suspect. The two men didnexplanation lies in Rosalie't like each other - in fact, nobody actually liked Rupert Sethleigh. The local vicars disappearance: others (such as Derwent's daughter, Felicity, and Aubrey, related to Jim and Rupert, decide to play detective. Before longboss, they Una Burt) are joined by Mrs Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley, an elderly woman who fancies herself a detectiveless convinced. Can they sort out the red herrings and find the killer? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954685X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shane Jones0571379877|title=Light BoxesThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=You will have to go Edward Jevons is a long way to find a more magical working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and quirky novella than ‘Light Boxes’Stanza. Set in Robert's a far off landtheatre director. He's also self-obsessed, as all good fairy stories should bedemanding, the balloon-loving residents suffer a ban on all forms of flighthandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. But the culprit is not some unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, but rather February. And this February Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - who takes both the form of a person and a season - has lasted for more than three hundred dayshe's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. And if Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that wasn’t bad enough, a relationship had begun between them but he has also started making children disappear. One man, Thaddeus Lowe, 's not like most men: Edward is determined left to do something about itstumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144957</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian Whybrow and Caroline Jayne ChurchJo Callaghan|title=Wobble Bear Gets BusyLeave No Trace

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Wobble When a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It's their first live case together, having previously been very busy little bear who has just learned to walk successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and now, a very high profile case that draws a lot of course, wants unwanted attention to walk everywheretheir AI Future Policing project. We see him here walking Will they be able to solve the case in to wake up his parentstime, treading on or will Kat find herself taken off the cat, dancing case and falling over, walking on a wallpotentially, splashing in out of a puddle until, of course, by the end of the day he has worn himself out and is too tired to walk up the stairs to bed!career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0192792628</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Whybrow and Caroline Jayne Church1399613073|title=Wobble Bear Says YellowMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=For SharingThrillers|summary=Wobble Bear Olivia, 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 delightful little bear who bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is just starting to learn about coloursa perfectionist and a trauma doctor. He insists through Anjali is the free spirit of the book on calling everything group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it'yellows 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 will impact the three friends. This time, whether it is or not, much to his mummy's frustration and my daughter's delight!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019279261X</amazonuk>their teenage children who are involved.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Xanthe Milton0241636604|title=Eat Me!The Trading Game: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie GirlA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=CookeryAutobiography|summary=What If you were to bring up an image of a stunning book this iscity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. The insideA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, that ispoverty and injustice. I There was almoststunned in no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a less positive way by the brightness facility with numbers which most of the front coverus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid.I don't like pink It was his ability at the best of timeswhat was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and this book is very, verypinkturned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925118</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sandra Wilson1035021803|title=A Change of FortuneThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Leonie Conyngham seemed It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to have everything going the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from herbeloved aunt, Carole. She was beautiful Freya's former mentor and set to be the belle of the forthcoming seasonCarole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, but a family disaster stripped her of her position as the most important pupil in her school is dead and placed her there as the lowliest teachercircumstances seem suspicious, there to do say the bidding of those above herleast. Her possessions stolen and in debt she Arthur was the reason why Freya had little choice in not been back to the mattervillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Her physical attractions have not left her Even thoughthey were in business together as antique hunters, but now the young rakes of London are she has not looking at her as a possible wife, but felt able to see who can be near the first to deprive her of her virtueman or pursue the profession she loved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089996</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Cathy Cassidy|title=Love After the split, she worked in a cafe, Peace met and Chocolate married James (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 rebound from the boyfriend front – not that either love of them is looking to rush thingsher life, 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 was murdered) and Freya and they both think that nothing can come between the girlsJames have now divorced. Unfortunately they hadn't taken the arrival of Jack Somers into account.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014133021X</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Barbara Trapido|title=Sex and Stravinsky|rating=4I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Josh and Caroline and their daughter Zoe live on an old red bus in Oxford Well, even though both 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 well paid jobs as an academic frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and headteacher. Caroline has spent her adult life deferring her plans for the future in order to support her widowed mother probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who lives in a house nearbyknows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. Josh’s job I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information 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 Africaway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802325</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Catherine FordeSunny Singh|title=Fifteen Minute BobHotel Arcadia

|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=For yearsThe 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, conscientious student Rory killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and his hard-working mother have struggled Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to cope with his fathertry to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, an eyeliner wearing struggling singer-songwriter unable to hold down he forms a job, and obsessed bond with a star called Bob Blade. While Rory finds hisfather's unreliability a nightmare Sam who refuses to live withbe cowed by events, his two friends Smiler and Barry think hekeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's cool and spend more time hanging out with him than with Roryhappened through her photography. As Although they only ever talk over the trio of Smiler, Barryphone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and Rory's dad team up they both wait to make a music video that goes viral on the internet, Rory gets unwittingly involved and, in the words of the blurb from see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the back,'everything flips'terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405229306</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Olga Alexandrovna, Paul Kulikovsky, Sue Woolmans and Karen Roth-Nicholls1529153298|title=25 Chapters of My Life: The Memoirs List of Grand Duchess Olga AlexandrovnaSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia It's 1979 and thus sister of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas IIMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. Her first marriage to Prince Peter Oldenburg(A woman? I mean, who was probably gayhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, ended in an amicable divorcethough. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, and in 1916 but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she married Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. They escaped When you're from Russia after Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the revolutionmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and settled in Denmark for nearly thirty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regime, they moved she'll do anything to Canadaprevent that. She outlived him by two years, dying in 1960's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gillian Morgan1398524085|title=Salt BlueHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=35|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=I always judge a book by its coverCharlotte 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. The eyes in Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the pretty face on the cover body of Greg''Salt Blue'' are arrestings father, but difficult to assign to a periodDuncan Ackerley, though it’s clearly women’s or teen fictionin the river. I imagine 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 cover might attract fiction readers of mainstream women’s magazines such as Women’s Weekly or Woman’s Own, so it’s spot guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on for the story insidewith their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784159</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom Shone1035906708|title=In The RoomsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=The book jacket for this novel is We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York by night, a cityscape par excellencein December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. It also boasts Toby YoungHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's comment as Callas''laugh-out-loud funnyto make it more manageable in the States.'' I have a lot of time When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for Toby Young. I find him witty and entertaining. But I usually approach claims such as this with a healthy dose of 'we'llher voice -wait-and-see' scepticism. However, he she was right. And I am truly impressed with Shone's ability to make me laugh out loud raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and at the very beginning made no secret of the novel too. A very good sign of delights to comeher preference for her elder sister, I thoughtJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099534061</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Natasha NarayanChristopher Edge|title=The Maharajah's Monkey: A Kit Salter AdventureBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=Kit Salter Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has a nose for adventurethe nickname of 'The Black Hole'. Somehow she always finds troubleAll big movie fans, or it finds herthey're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this latest episode new film format is no exception very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as she finds herself travelling they lurch from one film genre to the home comforts of Oxford all the way to Indianext, then can they figure out what on to the freezing mountains of Tibet. What has happened to Monsieur Champlon? Has he abandoned poor Aunt Hilda? Why earth is the mysterious monkey leaving threatening messages for Kitgoing on? And what does it all have Will they ever get back to do with the Maharajah? Kit cinema, and her friends set off on a fantastic journey to investigate.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847245293</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreview|author=Jane AustenRosevear, Seth Grahame-Smith a remote and Tony Lee|title=Pride partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and Prejudice and Zombies: The Graphic Novel|rating=3|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=It plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie story one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any renown will not remain simply treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a zombie story. Before you can say ''trap to end the wrecking, they capture the risen undeadisland's leader and Mira' it will become s father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a series of books, inspiring others, bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and/or lead with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the same story being published in many different guisessea. Here, then, on its way With only nine days to Hollywoodunearth what might save her father, is Jane Austen’s story as her journey takes her from the watched streets of Lizzie Bennet, foreign islands to the feisty young woman trying to ignore Mr Darcy while fighting off heart of the smuggler''manky unmentionables'' – s territory, Mira must be determined to stop at least she is until nothing to save the hidden truths open up to future of her, just as home and the soft soils of Hertfordshire do to yield their once-human remains. And this time it’s in graphic novel formones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848566948</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Celine KiernanJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Poison Throne: Moorehawke TrilogyPlanet Storyland

|genre=FantasyConfident Readers|summary=After years away from her childhood home at Things have been a bit sticky for the courtEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, Wynter Moorhawke – now an apprentice carpenter often replacing jobs they're paid to her seriously ill father Lorcan – returns, desperate do and other tasks that took time to see her childhood friends Prince Alberon and his half-brother Raziaccomplish. But Alberon is in exile, Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and his father King Jonathon, far from being the kind ruler Wynter remembers, reigns with an iron fist. As Razi, Jonathon’s illegitimate son, is appointed the unwilling heir starting to the thronethink of other, Wynter must help him and his friend Christopher survive in increasingly dangerous times.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498211</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kate Lawson|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 new ways to Max Porterspend time, willingly aided by her mum, Molly, and her stepmother, Marniealong came an awful pandemic. 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 Life was pretty much shut down and even goes as far as hiring a wedding planner. Molly, on the other handalong with it, agrees with Jess that things should really be kept simple. Thus the scene is well set for all the moods and mayhem many daily social interactions on which occurs when arranging a weddingthey depend so heavily. 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?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847561179</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard DenningMatthew Tree|title=The Last SealWe'll Never Know

|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=In 1380 the warlock Stephen Blake released the demon Dantalion Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from the Abysshis father, only for his nemesis Cornelius Silver to banish him straight away. Dantalion has nursed his wounds for nearly 300 years – a drunk and in 1666, descendants chronic underachiever whose dreams of the original pair clash as heaims to return to the world, and burn down London by starting the Great Fire. While the fire rages around London, and Dantalion’s followers try to break the seals which hold him in the Abyss, four unlikely heroes join forces to stop them from being destroyed – and to save the world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956483550</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Platt|title=Would You Believe...two cyclists invented the aeroplane?!|rating=4|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Where can you find a welter exceptional at any of trivia his artistic passions all failed miserably and facts about transport from the ages, from the first use who had endless crises of Shanks’s ponyself confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, to the latest holidays to the edge of space? What has so much detail 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 'Glamorous Glennis' going 'kinda screwy' cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and see how it refers to the breaking of the sound barrier? In these tidy 48 pages, for oneset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0199119694</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Morris GleitzmanA G Slatter|title=NowThe Briar Book of the Dead

|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=We first met Felix in ''Once'There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. He thought he was the luckiest child in the orphanageThis secret magic of my own, since he was the only one whose parents weren't dead. Sadlyall mine, he was wrong 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 of the Holocaust and its terrifying Final Solutionlast. In Now, we catch up with Felix many years later. He's built I just want to enjoy it for a good life as a surgeon in Australia, and is now frustratingly retired, unable to operate because of his shaky handswhile. He's looking after his granddaughter, Zelda's namesake, whose parents are doctors volunteering in Darfur. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>014132998X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Justine Hardy|title=In Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the Valley protection of Mist: Kashmirthe Briar's Long War - One Family's Extraordinary Story|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary=Kashmir. Is that not , a family of witches who protect the town and the most romantic of names? To those of us entranced by tales wider world from the EastDarklands. Though she has always wished for magic, it echoes with Ellie Briar is the same essence of myth 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'Shang-ri-la'' – s leader, and for good reasonEllie takes her place beside her. Geographically situated in As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the Himalaya but rare ability to communicate with the abundant fertility dead, putting her at the heart of the valley, lakes and meadows, it should be a kind maelstrom of paradisechaos. To Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the people who live thereBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, it once wasis under threat. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846041511</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Cave1529900360|title=For Everything a ReasonThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|summary=Meet Joseph RuebinsIt 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. He is one second away from His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a very satisfying climax to his boxing career, and winding up psychologist only worked for his ultimate puncha while. Finally, when he freezesit was Robin, and suffers a strokeDelaware's partner, and ends up in hospitalwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. Overnight someone kills She knew that the involvement was something that the elderly man in the she loved needed. The next bedcase did look simple, though. Meanwhile, Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a policeman hunts down the man who killed his sonremote property in Bel Air. Where are He was the connecting links - heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and how could it's not the fact that Joseph Italian. But which of them was put in the wrong ward due to a mishap with the forms imperil the rest of his close-knit familyprimary target?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956236898</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Stockbridge1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Fortunes Secret Life of Grace Hammera Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Historical FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=The short prologue shares with the reader Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a childhood incident GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his 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 Grace Hammer. It had doing work experience with a family friend who was a dramatic effect on her vet and her life thereafterwas convinced this was the job for him. She is a changed personBefore long, he was at Liverpool University. SheIt hadn's also driven. She grows into t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a desirable woman and turns men's heads wherever she goes. But she's also smartchild. Some would perhaps think at this pointIf anything, why not go he'up west', bag d wanted to be a sugar-daddy and live in luxury for the rest of her days? But life is not as simple as thatprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520958</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel DeWoskin0861541774|title=Repeat After MeA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=September 1989: It is DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a few months after the Tiananmen Square massacre short holiday in BeijingSingapore to meet up with an old ally, ChinaGuy Trueman. Aysha is teaching English at Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a private language school in New York City. She makes friends man armed with some of her studentsa knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Da Ge is angry and disruptive yet attractive and interesting at the same time Initially, and they quickly become involved, although his interest in her is not as romantic as, perhaps, she would like it he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to bemurder the man. He asks her to marry him so Now he can stay in could be facing the countrydeath penalty. Aysha agrees, although there is still Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a lot she does not know about the mysterious, unstable Da Gediplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715638998</amazonuk>

  {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicola MorganAlexander McCall Smith|title=WastedThe Perfect Passion Company

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Jess wants to study music. She's The Perfect Passion Company is a wonderful singer. And so a chance encounter with Jackdating agency in Edinburgh, who needs a singer for his band, is exactly the happenstance she'd hoped for. Even better that Jack is so charming run by Ness and handsome and charismatic. And still better that he feels operating as an alternative to all the same attraction to her. How lucky can a girl get? Jack believes online apps in luck. In fact, he lives his life by it. He doesn't do providing a thing unless his coin says he can. Newly in lovemore personal, Jess is slowly drawn into his game of chancetailored service. Although it worries Ness has asked her a little, younger cousin Katie if she can't know that a time will could come when and look after the toss of business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a coin is the difference between life and deathwhile. |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 planet. Noise Katie is used as a tool coming out of oppression and as a weapon. There's break up with a curebad boyfriend, but the Machiavellian President Prentiss reserves it only for the most loyal. The Answer are fighting back against his authoritarian regime, but they've had to make some terrible choices. Between the President's torture and so jumps at the Answer's terrorist bomb attacks stand Todd and Viola - trying chance to prevent civil war, trying come home to hold on long enough for the second wave of settlers to arriveEdinburgh. And thenso begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, in the wake of the President's genocide of slavesbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Spackle attack. A scout ship finally arrivesIsabel Dalhousie novels, but it may be too late with some new characters who quickly begin to prevent a catastrophic warcharm... |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406310271</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Carl McInerney|title=The Funniest Football Joke Book Ever|rating=3.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Who scored the most goals Katie has no experience in the Greek Mythology League? The centaur forward. Badoom boom tshhhh. It's running a football joke bookbusiness, packed to the gills with all sorts of cheesiness and silliness. Funniest ever? Perhaps notor in match-making, but itNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's not too bad.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849391114</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Stewart|title=Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know what they are talking about, always her very helpful (though sometimes they don't convey it too welland rather handsome) and those who don't have a clueneighbour, William, but like to think they do. Well, Chris Stewart may have started the book with a light and frothy touch as lend a novice sailor, but he ends up with the credentials of an Ancient Mariner.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956003842</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keris Stainton0811771741|title=Della Says: OMG! InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=TeensCrafts|summary=Ever since she was four, Della has had Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a secret crush on Dancollection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the goodtime they'll take to complete -looking and gentle boy who once shared his brand new crayons with her. And nowless than five hours, more than five to ten years laterhours, he wants ten to kiss hertwenty hours and more than twenty hours. It seems too good to be true All the projects are attractive, modern and for a while Della fears the whole thing is a joke, set up by mean girl Gemimauseable. After all, Gemima is Dan I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects's best friend. And then disaster strikes: Dellabut that's very private and confidential diary goes missing. The diary with all the excruciatingly embarrassing entries about Dan, her family, her friends.me being picky..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408304279</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liane MoriartyDean Koontz|title=What Alice ForgotThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionParanormal|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'This wasn't s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the worst thing that had ever happened has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to her…it was just deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the most ridiculous' laments thirty nine year old mother of threedelivery to his house is a new friend, Alicea bad weather friend called Spike, who has had the last ten years of her life struck been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from her memory by nefarious forces for being a blow to the head in her step aerobics classgood person. Alice now thinks sheSpike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's twenty nineenemies, if he, Benny, newly pregnant with her first child and happily married to Nick and furthermore she hasn't Harper (a clue what shewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's doing at an aerobics class in the first placewild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141043768</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jonathan CoeAdam Stower|title=The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell SimMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary=Meet Maxwell Sim. ActuallyMurray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, perhaps I should rephrase that so that it doesn't sound like an imperative instruction - for if you do meet himwell, you might not like whatever takes his fancy next of the experiencetwo. An ex-salesman, But he's now in after sales (ie hea bad magician's stuck on cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a customer returns counter in a department store); however he is completely awful with regards to other people. His wife has run off with their daughterhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, all his few friends have forsaken him (and his Facebook wall). We start the book with him trying to patch things up with his father, who's safely in Australia. He finds all those who know of him are already aware he's depressed. Those who don't know him catflap they both use can find him painfully shychuck them out, or able to talk away their will to livenot into the regular back garden, gabbling on but into a world of frightening adventure and on about Watfordwhiffs. But This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a lot troll hunter is about expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to change. Hebe honest, but he's about turned up and he'll have to be combined with some people excited about green toothbrushes.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670917389</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Samantha HuntB0C47LV1PC|title=The SeasFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|summary=Can you make a ''The SeasYo birthing person'' follows joke? And if you could, is the story of a nameless nineteen-year old girl who question should you make it? Or is lonely and adrift in a cruel coastal town so far to the north of the USA question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the roads only run southanswer for both could well be.. She misses her father, an absent alcoholic sailor, while her silence-loving mother, who grew up on an isolated island with deaf parents, worries deeply about her. Early on in the story we get the distinct impression that our narrator is not deemed 'normal' by her peers, who call her all sorts of unflattering things. With nothing to do in her small town, and no one to do it with, she spends her time pining for a local alcoholic called Jude who is fifteen years her senior, and who refuses her amorous advances on the grounds that it would be wrong. As the story unfolds, Jude and the girl's relationship grows and changes, sometimes in unexpected ways.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849013934</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Lara Fox|title=Miss Understanding: My Summer on the Shelf|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=Anya Buxton is back. It's the summer holidays and her mum 'Fragility'' is keen for her to find a summer job rather than waste her days lounging around at home. After set as the briefcity of Portland, 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 house. She finds herself simultaneously editing a dishyOregon, 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 cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the boss's son. And, of course, she's blogging it all for her dedicated followers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340988835</amazonuk>covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sheryl Webster and Tim Warnes1529431735|title=What Small Rabbit HeardThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry

|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold and windy. Small Rabbit just wants to stay inside, but Big Rabbit insists that itwhich made Bruce Hopkins's fresh, not cold, and theyreturn all the more surprising. He're going d been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a walkdecade. He The return has come about because he's had a bit of a cheeky scamp is Small Rabbitletter from his ex-wife, so when Big Rabbit says saying that she's ill and hasn'try t long to keep up'live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, Small Rabbit somehow mishears it as ''jump stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the mud''boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. As the walk goes on, Small Rabbit mishears Big Rabbit time and time again, getting up Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to all sorts of shenanigans.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192728679</amazonuk>}}home?