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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Linda Gillard|title=Untying the Knot|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I've often wondered why it's not axiomatic that a man should stand by his woman – although perhaps it couldn't be set to music quite so easily – but Fay had failed to stand by her man. To make it worse, she was an army wife and they just don't desert – and Magnus was a hero. He'd been in bomb disposal and despite being blown up had briefed his number two about the bomb before he was taken off to hospital. He was good-looking, charismatic – and divorced. Fay knew that marrying Magnus had been a mistake – but she also admitted that the biggest mistake of all was divorcing him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005JTAMQO</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrika JonssonJenny Lecoat|title=The Importance of Being MyrtleBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=There is no denying that the Brontë family lived an interesting life. While some authors' Jean lives are shrouded in mystery, on Jersey with their characters far better known than her mother where they themselves are, that's not really celebrating the case with end of the Brontësoccupation. Various biographers have, over During the yearswar, provided a clear picture of 19th century Yorkshire life thanks Jean's father was arrested for listening to a wealth banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of original letters him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and diaries preserved from the time. This makes Kohler's choice war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of topic slightly oddhim. Rather than an attempt to imagine But will the unknown lives of the sisterstruth come as a relief, or will it is a cobbling together of facts and assumptions that have been in raise further questions around what else happened during the public arena for some time. war? For anyone Who was the informer who knows anything told the Nazis about the Brontës, it really is nothing new, and that's a shame.radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849010862</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil RickmanOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Secrets of PainAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=ItAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's a freezing winterincreasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's night childhood for sponsorships and a couple of the locals are driving home when they come across a strange influencer deals and disturbing incident, basically, monetary gain. They don't know what to make of it but as the SAS have a training presence Now Anuri is in the area Gomer her twenties and Danny put it down she is slowly trying to exercises regain her confidence and breath a sigh of relief. It's anything for a quiet to get her life round these parts and thanks back, suing her step-mother to Rickman's excellent writing, we soon see that these men, Gomer especially, are characters in themselves. Plenty of personalitytake down the content about her. Once seenAnuri is battling alcoholism, difficult failing to forgetstart her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. And I didnMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia't want to forget thems online empire. They also speak in Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the local dialect which comes across very well indeed.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848872739</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Erin Morgenstern1529153298|title=The Night CircusList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The Night Circus moves from town to town; appearing with no warningIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, no announcementsthough. The attractions seem impossible – a carousel with breathing animals Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, handkerchiefs but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that turn into birds in front of her father wants to move the watchful eyes of the audience, doors that appear and disappearfamily 'Down South'. In the middle of it all are Celia When you're from Yorkshire, the daughter of Down South is a famous illusionistfrightening, and Marcoforeign place, the apprentice of a mysterious magicianbest avoided. From a young age For Miv, the lovers have been destined to compete against each other using their unusual skills move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to win a prize prevent that neither of them understands; and an end . She's not worried about the dangers or that will leave only one standingher Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655523X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy B Hughes1035906708|title=The Expendable ManDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dorothy B Hughes (1904-93) took a journalism degree We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Kansas CityManhattan, Missouri New York, in December 1923 and started her distinguished career with a prize-winning book of poemsonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her first hard-boiled thriller appeared in 1940 and original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it was followed by more than a dozen manageable in the next decadeStates. Three were made into noir films and When she was back in 1944 Hughes went to Hollywood to assist Hitchcock on his film, ''Spellbound''. Here Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she met Ingrid Bergman was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and consequently Humphrey Bogart came to buy the film rights to one made no secret of her novelspreference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903155584</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chuck PalahniukAlexander McCall Smith|title=DamnedThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='Are you thereThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, Satan? It's metailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, Madison'as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. I'm Katie is coming out of a break up with a spunkybad boyfriend, lively tweenage girland so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, except I'm a dead onebringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and I'm in Hellthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to my surprisecharm. While I'm here I'll find out just where it is all those cold Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-calling telegraphers ring you from just while you're settling down to your evening mealmaking, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and where the worldthere's wasted sperm and discarded toenail clippings fetch up. I'll have always her very hairy encounters with demons of Satan's helpful (and mankind's makingrather handsome) neighbour, William, and with some superlative plotting and flashbacks I'll find to lend a clearer approach to why I was put here in the first place.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224091158</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emily BarrDean Koontz|title=The First WifeBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Lilybella Tatiana Blossom Button (who thankfully – for our sake as well as hers – goes by Benny is having a simple Lily) has had an upbringing almost as unconventional as her nameterrifically bad day. Raised by her grandparents He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, we join her following their recent deaths and soon discover she is quite unlike most other 20 year oldshis house gets trashed. It’s going to be Oh, and someone has delivered a brisk transition from a sheltered life in a small cottagereally weird, nursing elderly relatives disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the Real World but with no money to speak offthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, she’ll have Benny is the very last person to pull herself together, and quicklydeserve all this bad luck. Her background He is an important part of Lily and contributes enormously to her trusting and a little immature personality that will later be her downfallnice person. A few weeks later, though, and things are looking upreally nice person. She has taken a room in a So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house where she is much more one of the family than just a lodger. She’s found some cleaning work andnew friend, even more excitinga bad weather friend called Spike, one of her agency clients who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a rather dashing ex-celeb good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and his beautifulwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, elegant wife. YesBenny, Lily’s star is definitely on the riseand Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755351371</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=My husband Hannah Masury is soon living in Boston, having been sent to take live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work trip to Edinburgh and I am very jealousthere from a young age. Mainly because thanks When she hears there is to AMS' novels I feel like I already know be a hanging of some pirates in the citytown, she decides to go and I would love to walk watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the footsteps hands of Isabel or any of the characters from his other seriestwo vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don'44 Scotland Street'. Sot find and kill her too, and then to console me, I have turned escape them completely she runs away to the latest in the Isabel Dalhousie series. I must admitsea, I was dressing as a little wary at boy and joining the beginning since I was quite disappointed with Isabelnotorious Ned Low's seventh outing, [[Isabel Dalhousie: The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith|The Charming Quirks of Others]], and I wondered what I would do if this one also proved to be pirate ship as a let downcabin boy. Fortunately it wasn'tShe soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and dear Isabel is back from there we are caught up in sparkling form!her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408703394</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara Gruen1471180158|title=Ape HouseMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Isabel Duncan is a scientist working with Bonobo chimpsJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, teaching them sign language. John Thigpen is for a journalist man who comes to meet 's a control freak with all the apes and write subtlety of a story about Isabelhalf brick. Jamie's work with themson, Bo, 'has his problems'. He is moved by 's asthmatic and the apesmore you read, by their behaviour the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and Isabelsometimes Bo's obviously very close relationship with themnot fit enough to go to school. Soon after he leaves, however, there is a bomb at Missed shifts or the centre by a group of extremists who want need to be away on time to liberate pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the apeswrong. Isabel begins a desperate hunt It was going to try and discover where they've gone, and John finds himself also caught up, trying come to discover the truth of what's happeneda head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444716026</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roger SmithB0CKD1L5JL|title=Dust DevilsRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary="Rosie Dell had come to end itPetr is an orphan. For keeps this time." ''It'' Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is the affair that she's been having with Ben Bakerbrought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, one of the richest men in the country. Unfortunately for Rosie, she doesn't say what sheforests of Washington's come to say… unfortunately for Ben, for Rosie, and for her family, someone has plans to end it for herOlympic Peninsula. Actually, not plans, as such. She shouldn't have been there. Everything that happens next wouldn't have, if she hadn't been.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687950</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Monique Truong|title=Bitter in the Mouth|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Linda Hammerick, After Bear dies and a young girl growing up in North Carolina brief sojourn in the late 1970'shuman company, is different. She suffers from synesthesia, tasting things when she speaks or hears words. She grows up and armed with her great-uncleonly a pirate radio transmitter, Baby Harper, as her best friendPetr goes on a journey through the forest, as hissingsong voice is the only one she can hear without broadcasting the accompanying tastesstrange, wild and writes letters back and forth with her best friend Kelly rather than have long conversations with herrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099474743</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg RosoffSarah Marsh|title=There Is No DogA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Two people road trip across AmericaAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Sort Suddenly plunged into a world ofsilence, everything about her life changes. They don't start off together Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, or meet up intentionally, and the age gap Ellen is sent to a school where she is purposely provocative. She likes him because he's old and has pointy, vampire teeth he might use taught to bite her with (Twilight sell outlip read, much?) She is 17but physically restrained from signing. We don't know her name From here, but it is she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who tells us has been teaching the story. He is deaf and using a system called GuntherVisible Speech. People think she At the same time, Bell is his daughter. They hope she is. It's just too odd to comprehend otherwiseworking on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447200411</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick deWittB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Sisters Brothers|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Invariably, the Booker Prize longlist contains one book that is more on the side of light reading than the more worthy and overtly literary fare that it is usually associated with. 'The Sisters Brothers' is the 2011 choice. Set in the US in 1851, it details the adventures of two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired hands for a mysterious boss known only as the Commodore. Narrated by Eli, who has slightly more of a conscience than his older brother, the story starts with the Commodore ordering a hit, for reasons unknown, on a certain Hermann Kermit Warm.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847083188</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGood Girls Die|author=Vanessa Diffenbaugh|title=The Language of FlowersAyura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The ''This story see-saws a chapter at a time between the teenage Victoria and the child Victoria. The book opens with (the teen) Victoria leaving foster care is not for goodeveryone. She's been a difficult child to place so, now at 18, she is a troubled and angry young woman with many unsolved issues. The constant link has been Meredith, the loyal social worker. But Victoria now wants shot of the lot of them, Meredith included. Victoria can now be as free as a bird and do what she wants, when she wants. Bliss. Or is it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230752586</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Zoe Heller1472263936|title=Notes on a ScandalThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Barbara has been teaching at St George's for several years, and It was in spite of 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her caustic words on mother, Greek by birth, had left the institutionfamily home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it is very much would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the focus first of her lonely lifeseveral annual visits. When newcomer, Sheba joins them, she forms a strong bond with She grew to love her, grandmother and becomes part of Shebathe family's life. Sheba is married with two childrenmaid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her attraction grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to a pupil, Connolly, leads her uphold his values but saw no reason to risk everything in a liaison of which Barbara is extremely jealousaccommodate them. As a result, their apparent friendship travels a sinister path His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024195455X</amazonuk>
}}
{{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=A D MillerB0BVDC2VWH|title=SnowdropsThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The front cover, a snowy scene with majestic architecture in the background, village is arresting isolated and also suggests poor. It's surrounded by a thrillerWitching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants -type readits bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. I was keen to find out why The black wood of the book was called ''Snowdrops'' forest provides heat and hoped the author would enlighten me. He did - warmth, roofs on homes, and it's nothing to do with flowers or gardeningeven gallows, if needed. It's rather chilling The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and altogether more interestingthat is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874537</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dori OstermillerB0BYF82CXT|title=Outside the Ordinary WorldSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Although not keen ''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the title (a little clunky) I did feel that this was going couples befriend each other and life appears to be a book I'd enjoy. Ostermiller has some fulsome praise improve for this debut novel including from the author [[:Category:Diane Chamberlain|Diane Chamberlain]]both pairs. And after reading the back cover blurb I can sense a similarity which But all is fine by menot what it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. (I thoroughly enjoyed all of Chamberlain's books). Would I enjoy this book as much?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830468X</amazonuk>'
}}
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In this seventh outing to Scotland Street we're back with the cast of familiar charactersAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. Matthew She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and Elspeth have had their triplets so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and must now face set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the trials of being new parentsaisle by her father, beaming with three times pride and excitement as she surveys the trouble! Angus congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and Domenica are attempting when Seth turns to resolve the tricky issue of where they will live once they're married. And what of dear Bertie? Wellface his approaching bride, heAlice's finally reached a point of having had enough of his mother so, with world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the help of his friendaltar is, he puts himself up who is waiting for adoption on Ebay!her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971888</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Kasischke1787636003|title=The RaisingGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Craig is returning to universityIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, where he is widely viewed as being responsible for the death of his girlfriend Nicolenaive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in a road accidenther, she was flattered rather than wary. Suffering from post-traumatic stress and memory loss as It was quite a result while before he made any sort of the accidentphysical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, Craig is an obvious candidate to fall victim to looking after his interests on the hauntings that start to occur around island and in particular in the campus. But it's not just Craig who is seeing inexplicable things happen at bar where all the universitygirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857891545</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=WeFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There've all been there. Finding fault with everything around uss something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, and perhaps picking on crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular irritant moment. To say that gets us so rattled, tetchy and narked all we can do Amanda Craig is invoke "Hell skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and damnation!" down on all creation lived- includingin, of coursenever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it won't make anything much worsegrappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith152915118X|title=Isabel Dalhousie: The Charming Quirks of OthersPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I do wonder''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, sometimes, how it Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is possible that Mr Alexander McCall Smith can possibly manage married to write their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so many novels? she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. WouldnThe problem't it be fascinating to meet hims exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and see Sasha if they'd like to move into the stories just ooze out of him non-stop, Pineapple Street property. Tilda and if he walks around with pen Chip have renovated and paper at all times jotting things down as downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they occur to himown... In this book he They won's bringing us backt need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, once again, to Isabel Dalhousie's worldso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. If you donNominally, they had a choice but that wasn't know who Isabel is then you should really forget all about this book for the moment reality. Darley and go right back Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the beginning to [http://wwwgold digger'.amazon She's living in ''their'' family home.co.uk/dp/0349118698?tag=thebookbag-21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0349118698&adid=12XVW0J2SJ9MJA2J2YPB& The Sunday Philosophy Club] They use it so you can get all often that they abbreviate it to 'the characters in order and know whatGD's going on. If you're already up to date, however, and have read up to [[The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith|The Lost Art of Gratitude]] then you're good to go!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349123128</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brett BattlesEmily Critchley|title=The SilencedOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=In 84 year old Edie has lived in the fourth instalment of the Jonathan Quinn seriessame small town for almost her whole life, Quinn but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his team are hired family, as Edie is starting to clean up after an operation and find a mysterious woman has followed them therelose her memory. Before they can stop However, Edie is tormented by the memory of herchildhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she disappearswas keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. On After 'seeing' Lucy in the next job high street, just as she turns up again, this was the last time with friendsshe saw her, and things start she starts to go drastically wrong. Quinn must find this woman and stop pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, but she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the meantime somebody has become very interested in finding out Jonathan Quinntruth about Lucy's real identity disappearance before her move, and is getting closer to his family. Quinn has to make a choice; do his job or save his familybefore her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848092881</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=Thierry Jonquet0008506337|title=Tarantula: The Skin I Live InGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In a large French country houseThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, an expert apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in facial reconstruction surgery keeps a beautiful woman locked up in her bedroomlove. He placates her with opium, but barks orders through hugely powerful speakers Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an intercomolder man'. She tantalises him with Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her sexuality, which he tries away from what they felt she could achieve - going to ignore, except for when he seems to abuse it in Oxford and having a sort of S/M way when he does let her into societyglittering career. In the event, as he forces they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to prostitute herselfbecome a well-respected journalist. ElsewhereThe couple had three children: Rachel, a young, inept bank robber holes himself up Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in a sunny houseLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, waiting for the heat to diefamily home on the Isle of Wight. And finally, a young man is held chained up Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in a cellar at the hands of an unknown possessorcharge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687942</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Dunthorne1914585402|title=Wild AbandonDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When your first novel has been successful, it adds pressure onto the second. This is the situation facing Joe Dunthorne, as his debut I reviewed David F Ross's book [[Submarine There's Only One Danny Garvey by Joe DunthorneDavid F Ross|SubmarineThere's Only One Danny Garvey]] won several awards, was adapted into a film couple of years back and came highly praised remember being absolutely floored by The Bookbaghow powerful and affecting it was. This means ''Wild Abandon'' has to be rather good to keep his reputation intactIt was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114406X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stella GibbonsLucy Ashe|title=WestwoodClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I was instantly attracted to this novel as itThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's set largely in Hampstead Wells. Ballerinas Clara and HighgateOlivia are sisters, which is territory I'm fortunate enough to be familiar withtwins no less. I was also instantly attracted to Margaret – a young woman with Identical on the worries of outside but not, we learn, on the world inside. And not on her shouldersstage, either. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer. Continually concerned with politics Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the impact of war on those far away as well as close byclassroom. A stage presence, a charm, Margaret has genuine warmth and concern for her fellow human beingsa ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, and this pulls the reader into her story straight awaya star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009952872X</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Heather Fawcett|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|isbn=0356519120}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Esi Edugyan1398515388|title=Half-Blood BluesThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sid and his friend Chip are revisiting their youthFirst of all, more than 50 years ago. They were jazz musiciansit was the earthquake, living and working deep in Berlin the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and Paristhis, until they had to escape Nazi occupied Paris in 1940 to return to Baltimoreturn, caused the nuclear meltdown. Now it is 1992, The result was complete and all the others they worked with are long since deadutter devastation. They have just been involved in a documentary about their experiences The deaths were uncountable, and are about to return to Germany (soon after the fall loss of the Berlin Wall) for a jazz festival in memory of the great Hiero Falklivelihoods was widespread. Hieronymus Falk was a young black German musician with an exceptional musical talent, The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the star list of their band, priorities but - six months after the Hottsunami -Time SwingersKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He was picked up by wasn't a dog person but the Bootsconvenience store owner' as Sid refers s comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the Germans, in Paris in 1940, and disappeared into a concentration camp, then they heard he was released but died dog jumped in 1948.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687756</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ira LevinChristopher Bowden|title=Rosemary's BabyMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A young couple find the beginnings Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a dream seemingly ordinary woman's life together in , carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a new apartment in safe harbour and a New York building that little bit of indulgence to a friend says is young nephew had had a hotbed of death much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and misfortune. But it seems perfect. His job prospects as to him an actor have never been better, and they're quickly accepted into the elderly community of their neighbours. What's more, she - Rosemary - gets pregnantobligation to find it all out. Nothing can go wrong, can it? None of this happiness and hope can come at a dreadful cost - can it?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015880</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Luke WilliamsJennifer Mason|title=The Echo ChamberPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Born in LagosHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, Nigeria dominatrix and unintentional detective in 1946[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], in the last days when she investigated and unravelled a series of the British Empire, Evie Steppman had exceptional hearingdisappearances. She remembers what it was like in the womb, the pumping of her motherIn ''s blood, the different tones Partitions of her fatherUnity's voice telling her stories, and the clatter of outside noise, yet to be recognized as the falling of rain or the whining of the wind. As she grew up she learnt to listen to the sounds around her, for even in silence there is still the echo of one's own heartbeat. Now, many years later, her hearing is going, and with it her memories. Confined to an attic space in Scotland she needs to write her story down before it is too late. To do this she turns to objects – a pocket watch, maps, photos and diaries, to help re-form sets her past, mind to take us on solving a journey – not through sights, but through soundsmurder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241143004</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
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{{Frontpage|author=Will Carver|title=The Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, the story is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben BrooksJennifer Mason|title=Grow UpPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Jasper is seventeen. He spends his time pretending to revise for his AS levels''A struggling poetry zine, fantasising about sex with Georgia Treelya mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, hanging out with selfa 400-harming best friend Tenaya watching cheesy TV showsmeter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, and taking ketamine and mephedrone with his friends. When hea women's at track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a loose endstate-of-the-art S&M dungeon, he goes to sex chatrooms a man serving a life sentence in a quest to see how far he can get without going private Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(paying). He's also convinced that his step-father, Keithx), is on a homicidal maniac whose next victim is likely to be Jasper's mothercheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857861875</amazonuk>}}''
}}