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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__ {{newreview|author=Allegra Goodman|title=The Cookbook Collector|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''The Cookbook Collector'' is all about emotions. Concentrating on two, young, American women who are vastly different in many areas of their lives and also on their outlook on life, Goodman digs deeper to find out what makes them tick - what makes them get up in the morning.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848875398</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Craig SmithJenny Lecoat|title=Cold RainBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Life was pretty good for Dr David Albo. He'd just had fifteen months away from his job as an associate professor Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of English at a university in the mid-western USAoccupation. He lived on During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a plantation-style farmhouse with a beautiful banned radio and intelligent wife soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and a step-daughter who adored her mother waiting for years for news of him. He was even going back to work in As the British finally free the expectation that he might well be offered a full professorship in Channel islands from the not-too-distant future Nazis, and just to put the icing on the cake he's been clear war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of alcohol for two yearshim. Yes; life But will the truth come as a relief, or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was very good.the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>190580234X</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna GavaldaOnyi Nwabineli|title=ConsolationAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We meet Charles, Anuri spent her childhood on display to the main character right at the start. And straight awayworld, itthanks to her step-mother Ophelia's no secret thatincreasingly popular presence on social media, as a middle-aged professional (hewhere she posted every step of Anuri's an architect childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and a successful one at that) he's jaded, basically, monetary gain. Been-thereNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, done-that and gotsuing her step-mother to take down the-bloody-tee-shirt just content about sums him up pretty wellher. He's acquired (somehow) a beautifulAnuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, witty undergoing therapy and clever partner secretly abusing people online and also a step-daughter whom he adoresreceiving money from them for doing so. As the story deepensMost importantly, I soon acknowledged that the step-daughter seems to be she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the only true love in his life. Henew focus of Ophelia's luke-warm about the rest of his family and that includes his partner and his ageing parentsonline empire. Is this man going through some mid-life crisisCan she save her sister, would be an obvious question to ask.and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099531925</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Hawken1529153298|title=The Dead Women of Juarez|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Although the story related here is a work of fiction, the situation is based on fact. The Mexican border city of Juárez has a shocking problem with female homicides (usually young and invariably pretty). Official statistics put the number of murders at 400 since 1993 while, we are told, residents believe that the true number of disappeared women is closer to 5000. But attention to this problem is diverted by drug crime, although the two may not be entirely unrelated. Anything that raises public awareness List of this terrible situation, such as Hawken's book, is to be encouraged. So much for the fact, what about the fiction?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668773X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSuspicious Things|author=Pamela Klaffke|title=SnappedJennie Godfrey|rating=35
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=They say that a good idea It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is to write about Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what you know's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, Klaffke seems they've been murdered, but to have heeded 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that piece of adviceher father wants to move the family 'Down South'. She writes here about When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a fictional fashion writer called Sara B (note the pretentious second capital letter) who is the central characterfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. And although Sara B is now in For Miv, the move would mean leaving her middle yearsbest friend, Sharon, and she's still acting like a teenagerll do anything to prevent that. She's got not worried about the younger boyfriend/lover, got the latest fashion look which she can deftly put dangers or that her stamp on, got the invites Mum's stopped talking - to the best parties in the best venues with the must-be-seen-with minor celebritiesanyone. But - is she happy? I know, it seems a silly question, but is it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304337</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diane Chamberlain1035906708|title=Breaking the SilenceDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As I've reviewed several We tend to think of Chamberlain's previous books and enjoyed themMaria Callas as Greek, I but she was looking forward born to getting stuck Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in to this one. We meet the central character; wife December 1923 and mother only moved to five-year-old Emma, Laura. She's distraughtAthens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father (Emmachanged it to 's grandfather) has just passed away but his dying wish has really upset Laura. ItCallas's a strange request and she doesn't know what to make of itmore manageable in the States. She confides When she was back in her husband thinking Athens - supposedly so that two heads are better than one. He's a brilliant academic and she could give some muchget appropriate training for her voice -needed advice. But he doesn't. In fact, he behaves like she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a five-year-old himself mother who mercilessly exploited her and almost has a tantrum. Odd. Now poor Laura's doubly confusedmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, upset and doesn't know how to handle her grief. Tough timesJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304140</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lola ShoneyinAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's WivesPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives Perfect Passion Company is one of those books that you read with a smile on your face. It's full of gloriously unsavoury characters caught dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a terrible web of deceitmore personal, tailored service. We are promised 'four women Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, one husband and as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a devastating secret' and it delivers on all three countswhile. Sure the secret Katie is quite well signposted coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and Shoneyin doesn't really make much of an effort so jumps at the chance to come home to divert the reader Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from putting two and two togetherAlexander McCall Smith, although it takes wife number fourbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, Bolanlethanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, an inordinate amount of time for the penny but with some new characters who quickly begin to dropcharm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but itNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's not about discovering the deception - it's about the glorious journey of how things unfold.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687497</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cornelius MedveiDean Koontz|title=Caroline: A MysteryThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Meet Mr ShawBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He's an insurance worker who takes loses his job, he loses his wife and son off on their annual vacation one yearfiancee, and finds himself indulging in a surprisingly platonic holiday romancehis house gets trashed. The subject of his infatuation, CarolineOh, and someone has eyesdelivered a really weird, earsdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, hair and more that easily combine with Mr Shawit's fondness for classical Persian love poetrypossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. At So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the end of the holiday he lets delivery to his wife and son depart while he takes house is a new friend, a further week off bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to walk all the way home with Carolinehelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Who Spike isgoing to take care of Benny, as it happensand will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a donkeywaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553881</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve MartinKatherine Howe|title=An Object of BeautyA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Leave aside the title of the book for Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a minutefamily who run an inn, the book itself and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is also 'an object to be a hanging of beauty' with its striking front cover some pirates in the town, she decides to go and primary colours artfully arrangedwatch. And then I turned the book over Enthralled and said to myselfhorrified in equal measure, oh, itHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's ''that'' Steve Martindeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. I knew he was - and is - a very funny actor but I didnShe hides away, so that they don't know that he was also find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a writer. So, before Iboy and joining the notorious Ned Low'd even opened the book I was thinking - will he be s pirate ship as good a writer as he is an actorcabin boy. I was about to find out ...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297863290</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tom Campbell|title=Fold|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Five men She soon finds herself in Reading circulate their monthly poker evenings around their respective houses. None of them like all the others, none thick of them seem to completely like the gamethings when there is a mutiny on board, but they're more-or-less happy with the habit. It's the way the five different personalities approach the evenings that and from there we are concerned with, and enjoy principally, especially when caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the poorest player, Nick, decides to clash with his polar opposite, Dougocean waves. And what might happen if a non-playing character were to enter things, and make them even feistier?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408807602</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francois Lelord1471180158|title=Hector and the Secrets of LoveMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Professor Cormorant has gone AWOLJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Tasked with developing drugs to cure a lot of illsJamie's son, by making us fall in loveBo, he 'has fled with his secretsproblems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, his prototypes, and a few samples the more you'll suspect that may or may not be dangeroushe's on the autistic spectrum. It is down Sometimes Jamie needs to Hector, take time off at short notice - she's a psychiatrist, to chase him down, work out where Cormorant is frequent flier in his researches, the local A&E and if possible help bring the trade secrets back sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to the company his girlfriend, and now himself, works forschool. With Missed shifts or the exotic far East his destination, a partner left behind, and need to be away on time on his hand to muse on pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the subject of love, will Hector find more than just wrong. It was going to come to a bunch of chemicals in a syringe?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906040338</amazonuk>head.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edward WrightB0CKD1L5JL|title=From BloodRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=While I'm not mad about Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the titlestrange, reclusive Bear, the book's cover he is atmospherically good - it says to the reader 'please pick me brought up far from bustling cities and read me.busy human society, in the forests of Washington' So I dids Olympic Peninsula. The book opens After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in 1960s America human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the Prologue. A bunch of radical thinkers are angry. They turn this pent-up anger into a well-oiledforest, well-ordered act of violence. Lives are lost. But broadcasting the perpetrators are clever strange, wild and most of them escape justice. They do what many around the world have done before them; they go underground. But several key members are still at large ..rarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752891774</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David LindsleySarah Marsh|title=The Darkfall SwitchA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens on After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a sultryworld of silence, hot summer's day in central Londoneverything about her life changes. Imagine Living in a time when the stifling heat use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is the subliminal message taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, especially for those passengers on the underground - ' ... as if they were all joined she ends up in some macabre dance as another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the train rattled along the tunnel. Everybody pressed against others.' Suddenly there's deaf and using a problem with the infrastructuresystem called Visible Speech. A big problem. As At the experts frantically work behind the scenes to get London moving again - the unthinkable happens. People lose their lives same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in what appears to be a power cutcomplicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>070909146X</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan LorberB0BC3YTCMR|title=Benny Allen Was A Star: A New York Music StoryGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Alan Lorber has written a fictional and I suspect a semi autobiographical account of his years as a top music arranger in the 1950's and early 1960's, a period of huge change in the music industry culminating with the breakthrough of the Beatles in America. Rather than simply writing a factual narrative of his involvement during this period he decided to tell the This story of the fictional Benny Allen, a classically trained musician who almost by accident gets involved in the music publishing business and then goes on to produce some hugely successful orchestrations on many of the top hit records of the timeis not for everyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0041VXCTA</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elfriede Jelinek1472263936|title=The Piano TeacherFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Erika is a single woman It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her thirtiesfirst trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, whoGreek by birth, despite had left the best efforts of her mother, did not succeed as a concert musicianfamily home and refused to return, but instead works as Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a teacher at the Vienna Conservatorypity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. I say best efforts, I mean outright pressureHer trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. Erika She grew to love her grandmother and her mother make for an unusual relationship - the older relying on the gloryfamily's maid, Dina, company but was wary - and complete obedience frightened - of the youngerher grandfather, the daughter sharing a bed with her mother even at this stage of her liferetired general Stamatis Papagiannis. All this is until a young student at He was proud of his close connections to the school decides he will be a younger lover for Erika, Junta and forces expected his will into the householdfamily to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. But who, should such a relationship actually form, is going to be the powerHis prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes -maker?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687373</amazonuk>inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maria Angels AngladaB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Auschwitz ViolinGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In Poland in the early 1990s, a violin sings. The maestro who owns it produces such a music from it, people are forced to take notevillage is isolated and poor. TheyIt'd be even more amazed if she could bring herself to state exactly how the instrument came to bes surrounded by a Witching Forest. For this was And the work of Daniel, suffering in a subsidiary camp to Auschwitzvillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-Birkenaulike fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. StumblesThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, chancesroofs on homes, half-liesand even gallows, all conspire to allow Daniel to take time off his enforced labour if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and engage in his real-world career. But that is there the reason Volushka, a price to pay in doing something you lovedrunken, self-indulgent, just for lazy lout of a man you can only hate?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849016437</amazonuk>is tolerated.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bethan DarwinB0BYF82CXT|title=Two Times TwentySemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=You can tell from the beginning of this novel that you're 'Bill and Amanda are living in Wales. The young Anna (as we travel back a semi-detached house, stuck in time) is meeting what will be long-term friendsa depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, Bob when Terry and Jane. We find Anna rather proudly introducing her two young sons Fiona – glamorous, successful and Bob butting very much in love – move in with 'Duwnext door. Despite their different outlooks on life, good-sized boys the couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for their age .both pairs.. Make good rugby players one day.' But the Welsh location and all things Welsh is given a subtle touchnot what it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190678423X</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adrian DawsonShalini Boland|title=CODEXThe Silent Bride|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I read the resume on the back cover I immediately thought that it was going to be one of those high-octaneAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, action every second paragraphclever, type of thrillersfunny; total and utter husband-material. All action She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and perhaps very little substancethe wedding is planned and set. I was happily proved wrong. And very early on in When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the novelaisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as wellshe surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, which was goodwho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956577008</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Durantine1787636003|title=The Chocolate AssassinGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In It was the final days of the Second World War as summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the allied guns came ever closer a young German was sent on a secret mission to Americaisland. He Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was only in his late teens but still resisted telling anyone, including the Uperhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-boat captain who took him across the Atlantic, about the nature of his mission. Fifty five years later the Uyear-boat captain, Eric Hoest, long settled old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in the Statesher, she was murdered at his beach homeflattered rather than wary. Samuel Grey, police detective It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and part-by that time student she was called in to investigate the murderobsessed by him. The local police chief thought that Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the most likely murderer was island and in particular in the neighbour who had reported bar where all the crime, but Grey suspected that the truth was hidden somewhere in Hoest's backgroundgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1451579527</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sheila O'FlanaganAmanda Craig|title=A Season to RememberThree Graces|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We first meet Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the Lodge owners, a likable couplestate-of-the-nation novel. They find running their upmarket country house type hotel both exhilarating and exhausting. The novel is bang up to date There's something so O'Flanagan gets in utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the whole recession/banker-bashing thing early on. As atmosphere of the festive season loomsday and capture it, crafting an image of the unthinkable has happenedcountry as it stands in one particular moment. Empty rooms. TheyTo say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she're not used to empty rooms, s practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at any time this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the year. Normally day into the Lodge is lives of her characters in a full house. But then a slow way that feels natural and steady trickle starts as our characters book lived-in - and the story starts proper, so to speaknever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755375157</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jack Everett and David Coles152915118X|title=Last Mission: the last hours of the Third ReichPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We first meet a couple ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of characters living in the United Statesthree women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. A husband Darley and wife George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a relation of theirs called PaulStockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. On The problem's exacerbated when the surfaceclan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they appear 'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to be enjoying happyanother property, a street or so away, normal liveswhich they own. But all is not what is seemsThey won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. We soon find out Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the husband, Carl has some secretsreality. Pretty big onesDarley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. He keeps a picture of Adolph Hitler on display - somewhere - She's living in his ''their'' family home, for example. Links with Germany and his past life are They use it so often talked about, or rather whispered about, with a handful of trusted that they abbreviate it to 'acquaintancesthe GD' over a beer or two.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095653421X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary E MartinEmily Critchley|title=The Drawing Lesson: The First in the Trilogy of RemembranceOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Alexander Wainwright is the UK's premier artist. He's just won the Turner with ''The Hay Wagon'' – a painting with a luminous, moonlit landscape. He should be at 84 year old Edie has lived in the peak of his powerssame small town for almost her whole life, but he's about now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to lose his muse another house and, more worryingly, there seems bring Edie to be something wrong live with his sight and the year to come family, as Edie is going starting to be traumaticlose her memory. The story of it However, Edie is told tormented by his the memory of her childhood friend, art dealer Jamie HelmsworthLucy, who has pieced together what he knowswent missing over 60 years ago, what he's heard – and used the worry that there was a little artistic licence to fill in secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the gapstruth of what happened all that time ago. ItAfter 's a most unusual story which will take you deep into seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the world last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of artists memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and writersmore in her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1450229360</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathleen Schine0008506337|title=The Three Weissmanns of WestportGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel begins with Joseph Weissmannlove affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, or Josie apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as he is known'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the event, deciding at they eloped and Richard took her away from the age Isle of 78 that he no longer wants Wight. Margo did go to be married Oxford and went on to Betty after 48 years togetherbecome a well-respected journalist. In an attempt to save Betty's feelings he cites irreconcilable differencesThe couple had three children: Rachel, but the truth is he has fallen head over heels in loveImogen and Sasha. Betty is devastated, her life Life was lived in tattersLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, with even the beautiful Central Park apartment family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she adores soon lost would never be able to herleave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015716</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Irving1914585402|title=Last Night in Twisted RiverDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We start in 1954, in the middle of nowhere, in I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a log-cutters' encampment. The cook lives alone with his twelve year old son, in some kind couple of comfort - a decent job, familiarity with the harsh surroundings years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and the hardened people inhabiting affecting itwas. But a pair of tragedies - one involving a fatal work accident with a young teenager new to the job, force the pair to flee. They leave behind It was a red herring that they hope will force the local brutal policeman to get the wrong impressiongripping, and a best friend in the shape of Ketchum, the most hardened logger in the camp as a kind of safety-netemotionally wounding read, but their destiny, spread over the next few generations, will prove to still be populated with tragedy, romance, despair - and the constant look over their shoulder to the tiny settlement rereading my review of Twisted Riverit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552776572</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tony BaylissLucy Ashe|title=Past ContinuousClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The authoryear is 1933. The place? Sadler's note tells Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the reader that this book 'was inspired by the suicide of outside but not, we learn, on the author's soninside.' Chapter 1 opens with the reader being in no doubt that the schoolboy Matthew has a knack with computersAnd not on stage, either. HeBecause there's a bit of lot that builds a whiz-kiddancer. HeSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don's also shy and tongue-tied which makes him t come from the classroom. A stage presence, a bit of charm, a loner as well. He stands out at school for all the wrong reasons but he's coping with it - just. And early on in the book we meet Sophie. She's a big part of this book. Shejoie de vivre's around Matthew's age. She is bright The difference between a hard-worker, and clever. Her adoptive parents would probably say that she's too clever for her own gooda star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907230173</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sam HayesHeather Fawcett|title=Someone ElseEmily Wilde's SonEncyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with Carrie Kent. Successful television presenter Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and mother of teenagershe has travelled extensively, Max. Ms Kent immediately comes across as hard-headedand researched meticulously, business-like, aloof and rather distant but thatto write her life's work, the whole point, very first encyclopaedia of coursefaeries. Very Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good at her day jobwith people. But as a mother? Her television show is a reality programmeSo when she finds herself far, dealing with wellfar North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, basically having somehow offended the dregs of society: singlevillage matriarch, young mumsshe is not sure what she has done, drug addicts etcnor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Carrie knows that these people keep Enter Wendell Bambleby, her in designer shoes dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and bags but she keeps them at armdelight, much to Emily's lengthfrustration. She wouldn't But why is he here? What does he want to catch something. ? Carrie sails through her life And what exactly is going on with a self-satisfied smile on her face. You can just tell.the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755349873</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brooke Morgan1398515388|title=Trapped|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Ellie Walters is 36, divorced and keen to start a new life away from her cheating and control-freak ex-husband. Fulfilling a life-long dream, she decides to take her 15-year-old son, Tim, to live with her in the small town of Bourne. As she soon becomes good friends with her next-door neighbour, Louisa Amory, Ellie finally feels she is making a life of her own. She begins to feel a sense of freedom and independence but for how long? When strange events start occurring Ellie is forced to face some painful and guilty memories connected to a tragic accident nineteen years ago; memories which she would rather forget. It is clear that someone has discovered her well-kept secret and is reluctant to let her forget about it. As a campaign of terror against Ellie unfolds she must come to terms with what happened all those years ago and try to discover who her tormentor is. Vulnerable The Boy and afraid, she relies on Louisa's friendship to help her through the ordeal. However, when a misunderstanding causes a rift between Ellie and Louisa's son, Joe, the women's friendship is threatened. Alone and afraid, she suddenly finds herself trapped in a nightmare from which she must do all she can to escape.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099536285</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDog|author=Margaret Atwood|title=The Handmaid's TaleSeishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In First of all, it was the near-future USA that they call Gileadearthquake, society has changed. For deep in the worse, of course. The population is dying outocean floor, which created the tsunami and people who are capable of breeding the next generation are given a cherished status of Handmaid - gifted to any male of enough esteemthis, called a Commanderin turn, who balances caused the household with his wife nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and what is practically a walking wombutter devastation. Other women get drudge workThe deaths were uncountable, or run horrid finishing schools for and the Handmaids, or are packed off to what are reported to be polluted hellholes abroad, for laborious work for lifeloss of livelihoods was widespread. Men are restricted too The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - Handmaids are offsix months after the tsunami -limits to everybody but their Commander, and those households are patrolled carefully by other eunuch typesKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. ItHe wasn's up to our nameless narrator and main character, however, to show us just how cherished t a dog person but the status of Handmaid feels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099511665</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Carmine Abate|title=The Homecoming Party|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Every year young Marco eagerly awaits his fatherconvenience store owner's return, when comment that he can for a few months spend precious time with him before he leaves again. Marco's father Tullio is a migrant worker forced through poverty to work in Northern France doing hard manual work. In this way he manages to earn enough would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to help his family have a decent living. The family, his eldest daughter Elise now at college, Marco open his only son car door and a younger sister known only as 'la piccola' along with his wife and elderly mother live in Calabria, an economically depressed area of southern Italy. They belong to Tamon the minority Arberesh community, descended from Albanian immigrants settling small villages dog jumped in the mountainous regions of La Sila. Just as the Calabrian people are looked down upon by other Italians the Arberesh people are even looked down upon by the Calabrians.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1933372834</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris KuzneskiChristopher Bowden|title=The Secret CrownMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The riddle Christopher Bowden's latest novel is the whole crux a patient untangling of the book. So wea seemingly ordinary woman're taken right back, albeit brieflys life, to Bavaria in the year 1886, via the Prologuecarried out by her nephew after she has died. So, the scene is now set, foul play is most definitely afoot The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and lots a little bit of questions should pop into the reader's mind. Such as who? Why? etc. So far, so good, I thought. We then fast-forward straight indulgence to present-day Germany a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and due it seems to him an unfortunate hunting accident, something which was a secret, is no longerobligation to find it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241952123</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Padgett PowellJennifer Mason|title=The Interrogative MoodPartitions of Unity|rating=2.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=SoHere at Bookbag Towers, what is a novel? Does it need a plotwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], climax when she investigated and resolution? Characters who grow? A setting? Themes which explore the human condition? And must it entertain? Padgett Powell challenges our perceptions unravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of fiction with a book that explores what it is Unity'', she sets her mind to be solving a novel, but without any preconditionsmurder. How far he succeeds is down to the individual reader. But I thought I'd give it a go.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846683661</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ken FollettWill Carver|title=Fall of GiantsThe Daves Next Door|rating=54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a thumping, great read at 850 pagesLondon tube line. We meet a clutch of families who are all vastly different in terms of class, outlookAs their fates overlap, values etc. I have to admit at the outset that this story is the first Ken Follett book I've read even although two of his previous books are told in my ever-growing 'backwards order, leading up to read' pile. So although I know of him, my reading expectations were wide-openthe fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230710077</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda SargentJennifer Mason|title=Paper WingsPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In ''A struggling poetry zine, a wood mom-and-pop mobile diner in Kent two children played happily and as is the way Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with children they sometimes went where they shouldn'ta yen for bullwhips, but it was a billionaire with a state-of-the nineteen fifties and the worry was more about whether they would injure themselves by falling down -art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an abandoned well than the problems which we worry over half a century later. It was enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a place for plans and gamescheap oil painting, projects they didn't always tell their parents about and generally growing upan erotic art dealer in Georgia. Ruby loved climbing trees and longed to fly. Peter was more sensible but the pair were inseparable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956483305</amazonuk>}}''
}}