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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=Grant Gillespie|title=The Cuckoo Boy|ratingBest New Books==4|genre=General Fiction'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|summary=The reader is introduced to twenty-something married couple Sandra and Kennethnew reviews by category]]. And yes, they suit their names. They are an average couple with an average intellect leading average lives. They are also desperate to become a family unit. Sandra, right from the word go, appears to be a woman living on her nerves. A smooth-running domestic life is top of her agenda ... no matter what. And in that regard, she is insular and narrow-minded. So it didn't come as a surprise when I read between the lines. She wants a baby but not the mess that comes with it. James, a tiny baby is brought into this brittle home. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955460948''</amazonukbr>}}
{{newreview'''Read [[:Category:Features|author=Steven Carroll|title=The Art of the Engine Driver|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Carroll has chosen a bygone era in the 1950s and also a bygone but much treasured mode of transport, whether itlatest features]].'s Australia or the UK. Immediately I'm drawn in to the story. Both the title and book's front cover are arresting and original. The novel centres on one evening in this suburban neighbourhood when all its residents are invited to a celebration party. Carroll see-saws back and forth as he shares the individual lives with us. It is an engaging style.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099537273</amazonuk>}}
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa SandersTom Percival|title=Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical MysteriesThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45|genre=Popular ScienceConfident Readers|summary=Fans of ‘’HouseWill's life is difficult, M.D.’’ may recognise the name in a multitude of Lisa Sandersways. She’s He is bullied because he has 'the technical advisor to wrong shoes', he has the TV show as well as being wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the writer most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the ‘’Diagnosis’’ column college, was working a cash-in the New York Times-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Many of Throw into that mix the stories which appear in the column fact that his mum and dad are recounted in this bookseparated, which is a look at the way and Will's life seems bleak in which doctors reach a diagnosis and how the method has changed (or not) over the yearsevery direction. I’m not And yet, he still has a fan tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the hospital dramas which seem to be a major feature moments of the TV schedules, but I was fascinated by what joy when he isdrawing, essentially, that feel like a series light at the end of medical detective storiesa long, dark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848311338</amazonuk>1398527122
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joseph SmithSylvie Cathrall|title=TaurusA Letter to the Luminous Deep
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Science Fiction|summary=As the bull goes from paddock to stall in the searing heat of the farm, he feels strangely disembodied - and yet all he feels is his body: his huge bulk; the angles at There are few greater joys than a book which he must hold lives up his heavy head to see what he needs to see; the strange latency that fills hima compelling premise. He watches the skittish grey horse, transfixed and yet repulsed by its grace and fluidity. He observes his captors, the girl and boy siblings and their father, and he allows their goadings to gradually wake him from stuporous apathyAnd this is one of them. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224089978</amazonuk>0356522776
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Holly Black0008517061|title=The White Cat (Curse Workers, Book 1)Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Cassel Sharpe dreams of Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a white cat and wakes up on little uncertainty about the roof future of his school buildinglife with his vet girlfriend, perilously close Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to a fatal fall. Afraid that he's suicidal move in with Livia or otherwise unstable, his principal sends him home, while the school decides does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not he can stay on as a pupil. This this is completely devastating the future she wants for Cassel, who is struggling with some major issues. herself and her daughter? For starters, he's only non-worker the moment they’re enjoying life in a family of workers. His gloved hands cover useless fingers. His touch doesn't manipulate emotions, remove memories, bring luck, or kill, maim or otherwise injurethe present and putting the future on the back burner. Even in a world where working is illegal, it's hard to be the only normal person in your family|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575096713</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Melvin Burgess1786482126|title=Nicholas DaneThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=14Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-yearfive 'luxury' apartments -old Nicholas Dane is taken into care after his mother, when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a secret smack head, dies in an accidental overdosedoorway. There was no skull. Meadow Hill is an assessment centre Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, but the truth is that not much genuine assessment is going onDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's a savagedifficult as Ruth knows, brutal regime and Nicholas fights against it from the start. Eventuallybut Nelson doesn't, he's taken under the wing that she is pregnant with his child as a result of Tony Creal, the deputy headone night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious before long, and the only person in the place who appears not least because Ruth is prone to have a shred sudden bouts of common humanity... sickness... or so Nick thinks. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141316330</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gladys Mitchell0008551324|title=Death and the MaidenThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Edris Tidson used 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 grow bananas on Tenerifetell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. Not This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the world capital remainder of banana growing his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so far as I know, but I guess such plantations could have existed and certainly theyshe's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what'd be believable when Mitchell penned this classic crime caper in 1947s happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546833</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Hale0008405026|title=Sudden Death A Stranger in the Family (StrikerMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey
|rating=5
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Jake Bastin, son of famous former footballer Steve, thought his life It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was difficult enough even before his father enters negotiations never found and the investigation ground to join St Petersburg’s newest football team as managera halt. But when the agent his dad’s discussing the move with collapses of a suspected heart attack Now, her mother, things get far more complicated – because Jake is convinced he was actually poisonedHelena, and can’t understand why his dad seems happy to go along with her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a cover up. As straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the pair move to St Petersburg, positioning of the bodies start piling up, that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Jake goes from having her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to fight to control his temper, to fight to save his lifebe an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. With no way of knowing if he can trust anyone, even his own father Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, can the youngster stand up to criminals who Una Burt) are happy to kill to get what they want?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405249501</amazonuk>less convinced.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Waters0571379877|title=A Pregnant Ghost and Other Sexual HauntingsThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Spirituality and ReligionCrime|summary=This Edward Jevons is a book that does what it sets out to do on the tinworking-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and does so uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in almost glorious fashionlove with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. The back cover blurb promises hilarity and tittilation, Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but this will also fit on he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the shelf two of any academic looking into the hornier side of the Fortean world, as well as anyone relishing the most singular collection of ghost legends that I can remember readingthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089902</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dominic BarkerJo Callaghan|title=Adam and the ArkonautsLeave No Trace|rating=54|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Adam When a man is found crucified on the top of a mission. Both he and his father have spent hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the decade since his mother was kidnapped by an Evil Scientist looking for case alongside hersidekick, and perfecting their own skillsthe AI detective Lock. They might have got the best clue of all so far - one that has led them to the mysterious, hiddenIt's their first live case together, and downright alarming city of Buenos Suenos. Those skills? Being able to communicate having previously been very successful with animalsseveral cold cases. Since learning to gibber like But when there is a second body found crucified a spider monkey they can both bark, purr perfectlyfew days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and morea very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. It will take the extraordinary menagerie Will they be able to survive solve the unusual citycase in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and try and discover what happened to Adam's mum - and what the Evil Scientist might want by holding her hostage for the same skills in return., potentially, out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880025X</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Juan Gabriel Vasquez1399613073|title=The Secret History of CostaguanaMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=In 1904 Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad wrote his novel about a self-publicising Italian expatriate by Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the name first day of ''Nostromo'', set in the fictitious South American republic medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of Costaguanaa century. Columbian writer Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, Juan Gabriel Vásquez imagines that which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the fictitious José Altamirano has assisted Conrad in his research by telling him his own story, only to find that free spirit of the British novelist has subsequently inexcusably omitted him from his bookgroup and she becomes a GP. Now, he is seeking When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to set end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the record straight by telling tragedy or the reader, who he imagines in consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the role of a jurythree friends. This time, as well as someone named Eloísa (it's their teenage children who we later find out about) the same story to pass judgement on if this was fairare involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408800187</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Barratt0241636604|title=Lost Voices from the TitanicThe Trading Game: The Definitive Oral HistoryA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=As Barratt points out If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in the opening pagesyour mind, there are literally thousands you're unlikely to think of titles available about someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the sinking of pin-stripe suit and his background is the TitanicEast End, at the time the largestwhere he was familiar with violence, most expensive poverty and most luxurious ship ever builtinjustice. His aim in this volume is There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to bridge the gap between another forensic examination London School of how it sank, Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and yet another re-run of what he calls the familiar stories has a facility with numbers which most of heroism and tragedy from literature in the public domain us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to provide the human story behind the disasterbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848091516</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick Woodhead1035021803|title=The Forbidden Temple|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Luca, a mountaineer trying to escape from his disappointingly unsupportive parents and a past accident, witnesses something strange in the distance, while watching his climbing partner Bill put the kibosh on their latest sky-bursting Himalayan ascent - a mountain shaped like a perfect pyramid, circled by other peaks heAntique Hunter's never seen before. Back in England nobody else seems to have seen them either, but colleagues mention mysterious Shangri-La style Buddhist sanctuaries - could this be the prime one, hidden from prying eyes for centuries? Nobody wants to declare it actually exists at all. Meanwhile, Himalayan natives are trying Guide to pull the wool over Chinese occupiers' eyes regarding a very sacred personage.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090773</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMurder|author=Abby McDonald|title=The Liberation of Alice LoveC L Miller|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=You can just picture Alice Love standing before the panel on Britain's Got Talent. 'And what do you do?' they like to ask.<br>'I work in the film industry...'<br>'Oooh, really?'<br>'...as a lawyer.'<br>'Oh.' Like all those accountants they're always showing, you can imagine that Alice too would receive a rather luke-warm welcome on the show. And Alice would concur that her job isn't all that glam, even if her industry itself is a bit swish. But it's an appropriate job for her, since Alice is very sensible and by-the-book. She's certainly not the type of person to go overdrawn, or run into any kind of trouble financially, so when her card is declined one day she's pretty sure it's just a computer error.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099533928</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Guillermo Orsi|title=No-one Loves a Policeman|rating=23.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=It 's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is December 2001 dead and Argentina is in crisisthe circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Pablo Martelli used Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to be a policeman – the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not just any policeman, but part of a force now referred felt able to as 'be near the National Shame' for its role doing horrible things to opponents of man or pursue the military regimeprofession she loved. Now he sells bathrooms After the split, but it seems he cannot escape his past – once she worked in a policemancafe, always a policemanmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694028</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
{{newreview|author=Michael Jackson|title=Moonwalk|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Michael JacksonI's autobiography, based on tape-recorded conversations with his editor Shaye Ereheart, was first published in 1988ve heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. This new edition has an introduction by Berry GordyWell, founder I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of Motown Records and his original mentor, and an afterword by Areheart about how the book was writtentechnology in my lifetime. The main part of the book is a straight reprint of the original, I've kept up reasonably well with no updating at all. Intriguingly, although Gordywhat's four pages refer advantageous to is protégé in the past tense, calling him 'me but I'm left with the greatest entertainer feeling that ever lived', Areheartit's writingall getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and also the cover, refer to him in probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the presentlatest conspiracy theorist. No reference anywhere is made to his untimely deathI needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099547953</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lulu TaylorSunny Singh|title=Midnight GirlsHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=Best friends Allegra McCorquodaleThe Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, Imogen Heath a wartime photographer and Romily de LisleAbhi, known as the Midnight Girls, spend their nights at hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the exclusive Westfield Boarding School for Girls up residents who are still alive in the attic rooms smoking hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and bitchingkeeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. But when Although they only ever talk over the girls are witness phone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to a tragic accident, see if they will be rescued before they become bound together forever are discovered by what they have seen and vow never to tellthe terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099524929</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenny Nimmo1529153298|title=Charlie Bone and the Red KnightThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Since the loss of his fatherIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Charlie Bone has had to live in the house of horrible Grandmother Bonehonestly... But when he discovers he can hear people in pictures talking) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, a whole new world opens to himthough. Women have been disappearing. His grandmother and her even more unpleasant sisters insist he should now attend Bloor Academy Well, a school where he meets other children endowed with magical abilities because they are descendants of the Red King. This King, an African magician've been murdered, came to the North nine hundred years ago, and left a part of his powers but to each his ten children. But several of those children turned to evil, as have their descendants, and Charlie and his friends have to stop them from doing terrible harm to the town. In each of the books in the 'disappeared' doesn'Charlie Bonet sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she' series, he encounters new allies and new enemies, until s overheard that her father wants to move the whole story culminates in one immense final battle in family 'Charlie Bone and the Red KnightDown South'. This book When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is based on the search for a willfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, a quest which gradually draws together many of the themes of the seriesmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and ends with she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the kind of solution which will leave the reader sighing with satisfactiondangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405249609</amazonuk>
}}
  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tasha Pym and Joel Stewart1398524085|title=Have You Ever Has Anyone Seen A SneepCharlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Ever fallen foul of a Sneep? (NoCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, not [[Oliver Who Travelled Far Paul and Wide by Mara Bergman Ollie and Nick Maland|Oliver Donnington Rimingtonher daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely -Sneep]])her husband, Alec, is not. What about a Grullock Shortly afterwards, Knoo or Loon? One poor little boy tries to go about his daily businessEtty and Greg, but keeps getting interrupted by these mysterious monsters. Youfind the body of Greg've never heard of them befores father, Duncan Ackerley, you say? He wants in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to have a word with you make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and thencommitted suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>055255698X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David McKee1035906708|title=Elmer On StiltsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Who doesnWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 't already know and love Elmer the patchwork elephant? This time round, heCallas's helping all his other elephant chums avoid to make it more manageable in the nasty huntersStates. Throw 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 CD version mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of the story read by Joss Ackland - yesher preference for her elder sister, really - and you're on to a real winnerJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842708376</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Joel Stewart|title=Dexter Bexley And The Big Blue Beastie On The Road|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie are hooting and hooting and hooting. Everyone in town is sick to the back teeth of their incessant hooting, so they kick them out of town. Dexter and the Beastie hit the road, hooting as they go, embarking on a rollicking adventure and meeting up with a princess and a dragon.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385617720</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken McClureChristopher Edge|title=Dust to Dust (Steven Dunbar)Black Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers|summary=John Motram is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a cell biologist. He's movie marathon at their local cinema, a promising and well-though place that has the nickname of academic and his pet subject is - 'The Black DeathHole'. Intrigue is high on the agenda right from the beginning. Motram is invited All big movie fans, they're looking forward to a meeting along with other high-fliers in their respective fields. This meeting is top secret. Motram islots of exciting films, howeverand many, mystified. many snacks! The situation appears pretty straightforwardHowever, as the movie starts, so why all they very quickly realise that something about this cloak-new film format is very different, and-dagger stuff, he wondersthey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. And why has everyone But as they lurch from one film genre to refer the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the patient only as 'Patient Xcinema, and to their real lives?'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971268</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Rachel Greenlaw
|title=Compass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''
{{newreview|author=Captain William Wells|title=A Sailor's Tales|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Captain William Wells was born in New Zealand where his father ran Rosevear, a successful carpentry businessremote and partially forgotten island, but his heart wasn't in following his father survives on luring ships into the family firm or in most of rocks and plundering the lessons at schoolwrecks. He was an enthusiastic sportsman but what enthralled him most were Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the ships sailing seven who swim out of Wellington harbour, which he could see from his bedroom windowto survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. Without his parents' knowledge he applied for But when the Council Watch lays a scholarship which allowed six boys each year to travel trap to end the wrecking, they capture the UK island's leader and undertake their basic nautical trainingMira's father. Billy WellsDesperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who previously had is as charming as he is secretive and with only got 2% coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in his English exam (his name was spelled correctly) had the second highest score in sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the country future of her home and was soon on his way to Englandthe ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095629040X</amazonuk>0008664730
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Holly McQueenJames Sherwood Metts|title=Confetti ConfidentialPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5|genre=Women's FictionConfident Readers|summary=''Confetti Confidential'' is the third book in the Isabel series, but Things have been a bit sticky for the first one I've readEarthlings. Even without that grand claim on the frontAI and automation have been proceeding apace, you couldnoften replacing jobs they't help but draw comparisons between Kinsella's series re paid to do and this one from the very first pageother tasks that took time to accomplish. The writing style is virtually identical – Just as they were beginning to get used to the point where you do actually wonder if all this is just a pseudonym – technological change and while the chattystarting to think of other, chummynew ways to spend time, conversational approach is not for everyonealong came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, if along with it's , all the sort of thing you like then this is the sort of book you'll lovemany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099545756</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sabrina BroadbentMatthew Tree|title=You DonWe't Have To Be Goodll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=Bea Kemp has reached a crisis point in her life. She is in her forties, childlessTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, enjoying a tedious job drunk and a lacklustre marriage with Frank. She seems to have spent her entire life 'chronic underachiever whose dreams of being good' exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and it really does not seem to have got her anywherewho had endless crises of self confidence. Her only pleasure seems So Tim applied himself to come from the time she spends with her niece and nephewhis studies, Laura cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and Adrian, and as her successful sister Katharine has no qualms about using her as an unpaid childminder, that's quite a lot! However, all that looks set to change when Katharine announces that she is moving away with the children so she does not need Bea to look after themhimself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535556</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rekha Waheed1529900360|title=Saris and the CityThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=Yasmin Yusuf is a likeable main character with a group of SexIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the-City-style friendshelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. The story begins with Yasmin splitting up with She knew that the involvement was something that the man she was convinced was going to proposeloved needed. The next case did look simple, rapidly followed by losing her jobthough. We then follow her as she determines to become successful and make her mark Two lovers were murdered in her new job, whilst holding out for ''the package'' swimming pool of a remote property in her personal lifeBel Air. I particularly liked He was the way each chapter heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is a lesson married to an extremely rich man and lets the reader know what Yasmin will be learning or proving through events played out in that chapter. For example, chapter one is ''Lesson One: If heit's not the bad boy and you're the good girl, you will get burnt'', hence Italian. But which of them was the resulting ex-boyfriend.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755356136</amazonuk>primary target?
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marjorie M Liu1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss)Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Maxine is Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the last in strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the line opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the Wardensjob for him. Before long, who wear demons he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as tattoos in the day, making them invulnerablewith so many students - been his dream since he was a child. At night If anything, he'the boys' peel away and leave her open d wanted to attack – and there are an awful lot be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title=A Nye of people out to attack her. While shePheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's spent her lifeclose friend and former colleague, since inheriting the tattoos from her motherDanny Maik, tackling zombies (who are humans possessed by demons has taken a short holiday in this worldSingapore to meet up with an old ally, rather than 'traditional' zombies), she quickly finds there are far worse things out there Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in the prison dimension they call homea street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. The death Initially, he faced a charge of an investigator trying manslaughter but evidence came to find her leads light that suggested that he might have planned to strange alliances being formed, questions about her past being raised, and murder the end of man. Now he could be facing the world approaching… unless she death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can stop itdo nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498009</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kenzaburo OeAlexander McCall Smith|title=The ChangelingPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=The novel starts at Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the endonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Therefore we know that one of Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the two principal charactersbusiness, namely Goro, appears as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to have committed suicideget away for a while. The question Katie is whycoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the whole novel is an attempt Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to provide that elusive answercharm. Goro was an extremely successful film director of international repute. He was based Katie has no experience in running a business, or in his native Japan match-making, but travelled extensively with his work. And you have Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to ask yourself why would lend a man such as this decide to end his life?hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843547341</amazonuk>1846976596
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Ryan0811771741|title=Signal RedInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrafts|summary=Ryan has certainly researched thoroughly for this novel - and it shows. Straight away the blurb on the back cover tells us thereMelissa Leapman's an 'afterword' by Bruce Reynolds, no less than the ringmaster/leader InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of the Great Train Robbery gangknits from toys to blankets. Notice how itSome will be quick knits - others are of the 's always given capital letters. Even all these decades down the linelong, those readers cosy afternoons in front of a certain age remember it and perhaps shake their head in amazement. And there's also a very useful 'aftermath' section as Ryan painstakingly sets out all the robbers' names and whatfire's happened since that date in the summer of 1963variety. Perhaps, like others, I also assumed The projects are divided by the leadertime they'll take to complete - less than five hours, the top man if you likefive to ten hours, was Ronnie Biggsten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. No soAll the projects are attractive, apparentlymodern and useable. I also remember television footage of his release from prison on compassionate grounds only a year or so ago. The crime seems to have achieved almost mythical proportions perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media- some would say itworthy projects' but that's up there with what were you doing when JFK was assassinated?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075535818X</amazonuk>me being picky.
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary HooperDean Koontz|title=Fallen GraceThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=TeensParanormal|summary=Grace Parkes Benny is not yet sixteen when she having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses her babyhis fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Worse still Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is 1861, and Grace Benny is unmarriedthe very last person to deserve all this bad luck. To have He is a baby nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out of wedlock that the delivery to his house is a shameful thing for new friend, a girl in Victorian timesbad weather friend called Spike, even if it is not by her own choice, and Grace who has been sent to cope all alone with the shame of her condition and the loss of her child, not to mention help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a sister who needs constant care and their increasing povertygood person. But ''Fallen Grace'' Spike is not some nineteenth century version going to take care of the misery memoir: Grace has resourcefulness Benny, and determination as well as beautywill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and her story moves at Harper (a gripping pacewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0747599130</amazonuk>1662500491
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 {{newreview|author=Carrie Ryan|title=The Dead-Tossed Waves|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Gabry has lived her whole life behind the safety of the Barrier, in the seaside town of Vista. She isn't keen to venture past it, to explore the remains of an old amusement park, but Gabry is drawn by the allure of Catcher, her best friend Cira's brother. Cira and the others are sure they will be safe from the Mudo – the shambling undead that plague the world Gabry lives in. Gabry decides to risk it, and her whole world is turned upside down.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575090898</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Giles MiltonAdam Stower|title=According to Arnold: A Novel of Love Murray and MushroomsBun
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionConfident Readers |summary=Arnold Trevellyan’s ordinary life as Murray is supposed to be a charismatic auctioneer humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is about able to change in ways he could never have imaginedsleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. Encouraged by But he's a bad magician's cat, so his wife Flora to take favourite bun has been turned into a sabbaticalhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the two head to a remote region of France to indulge Arnold’s passion for mushrooms. Whilst catflap they both use can chuck them out in , not into the forest hunting for rare mushrooms Arnold stumbles across regular back garden, but into a secret hidden for centuriesworld of frightening adventure and whiffs. This secret makes him abandon Flora time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and their life together for the island of Tuva in the South Pacific where he soon finds himself married 'll have to Lola, its queen.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330452517</amazonuk>0008561249
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.
{{newreview|author=Joan M Moules|title=Fragile Memories|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Maura was surprised when she inherited the manor house at Picton near Salisbury. She hadn't been close to her Uncle Tom for many years and he had a stepson, Jim, whom she thought would have inherited in preference to her. It was five years since sheFragility''s been back to Picton and when she returned to put the property on is set as the market she was surprised by the extent city of her longing to return there. Money was going to be a problem though. She worked as a model and couldn't really Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to this emerge from the manor – and she didn't have the money for the property's upkeep. Her boyfriend, Nick, had an answer. He already had three successful restaurants and was looking to extend into restrictions imposed during the countryside – what better place could there be for his new restaurant?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709090587</amazonuk>covid pandemic
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Thomson and Chloe Thomson1529431735|title=Have You Started Yet?: You and your period: getting the facts straightThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=Every young girl will face her periods starting but it’s It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the preparation which goes more surprising. He'd been exiled on beforehand which will determine whether or not this is seen the Costa del Sol as the body developing naturally or a problemwanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. Both are attitudes which are likely It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to stay through life his underwear and it’s obviously better that it’s sent to a watery grave in the firmer rather than the latterboot of a stolen Ford Sierra. ‘’Have You Started Yet’’ gives factual information in an informative and reassuring manner and in Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a form which is easily readable problem closer to girls of about nine years old and above.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230744907</amazonuk>}}home?