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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert HarrisJenny Lecoat|title=The Fear IndexBeyond Summerland
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop in occupation. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years, turmoil on for news of him. As the British finally free the bond markets and Channel islands from the prospect of economic meltdown Nazis, and the possible disintegration war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the euro zonetruth come as a relief, Robert Harris' new thriller couldn't be more timely.or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>1846976537
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tom BaleOnyi Nwabineli|title=Blood FallsAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and reviewed BaleAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's [[Terrorincreasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's Reach by Tom Bale|Terror's Reach]]childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and enjoyed it, basically, monetary gain. What would I think of his latest? Joe Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is doing his level best slowly trying to regain her confidence and to live an unremarkable (almost invisible) get her life in Bristolback, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. He uses his brawn Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to pay his modest bills start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for rent, food etcdoing so. But you could sayMost importantly, once a coppershe is desperately worried about her little sister, always a copper so his brain who is not idle, it's in constant use. Whirring away in the background and itnew focus of Ophelia's just as wellonline empire. Joe soon senses imminent danger when a couple of blokes stroll byCan she save her sister, stop and ask his gaffer a couple of questions. Joe needs to be somewhere else - perhaps herself and fast.her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184809325X</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John O'Connell1529153298|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1900, It's 1979 and a man on a ship coming back from the Boer War to edit the Daily Express meets one of his heroes in the form of Arthur Conan DoyleMargaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. With similar experiences and interests yet different enough to bounce off each other they take up the idea of collaborating on a plot(A woman? I mean, honestly... ) When they do fix on time to do soShe's not what's worrying Miv's family, it leads to literary prospectsthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, which lead to a weekthey's research together on Dartmoorve been murdered, which leads but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she'The Hound of s overheard that her father wants to move the Baskervillesfamily 'Down South'. But perhaps in When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a way frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that only one of them intended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk> She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Syd Moore1035906708|title=The Drowning PoolDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with a group We tend to think of young women out on the townMaria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, letting their hair down and having fun. Moore describes all of them in a fresh December 1923 and modern voice which I really likedonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. It came across as a breath of fresh air. The story, SarahHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's story is told by Sarah herselfto make it more manageable in the States. But it's told from the perspective of looking When she was back after it's all happened in Athens - supposedly so there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-thatshe could get appropriate training for her voice -coming language. Hindsightshe was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, in a wordJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562663</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Guillaume MussoAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Girl on PaperPerfect Passion Company|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This The Perfect Passion Company is a modern book dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for modern timesa while. I loved the reader-friendly layout Katie is coming out of a break up with biga bad boyfriend, bold type letting and so jumps at the reader know exactly where chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we werealready love, in terms of storyline thanks to 44 Scotland Street and locationthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. But the story itself does jump about Katie has no experience in running a lot business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and I suspect Musso wants there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to give a sense of urgency, lend a sense of frenetic energy at times.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908313056</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria HislopDean Koontz|title=The ThreadBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=I read Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and enjoyed Hislopsomeone 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 Island' so I was looking forward thing is, Benny is the very last person to reading deserve all this bookbad luck. The Prologue He is May 2007 and readers are treated to a vivid coastal description of nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the area which delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to play such help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a big part in the novelgood person. Lines such as 'With the lifting hazeSpike is going to take care of Benny, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across the Thermaic Gulf and the restful blues will certainly take care of sea Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and sky shrugged off their pale shroudHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=William GiraldiKatherine Howe|title=Busy MonstersA True Account|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his GillianHannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. He's proved it When she hears there is to us, if not to her, by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper be a hanging of an ex with some pirates in the intent town, she decides to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat insteadgo and watch. But lo Enthralled and beholdhorrified in equal measure, sheHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's declared she's off to discover death at the real love hands of her life - the giant squidtwo vicious pirates. Failing to stop thisShe hides away, Charlie spends so that they don't find and kill her too long with a Nessie obsessive, and then goes on to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a hunt cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of his own - for Bigfootthings when there is a mutiny on board, all the while, chapter by chapter, sending his narrative and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the same to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Sparks1471180158|title=The Best of MeMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the film subtlety of a half brick. Jamie'The Notebooks son, Bo, ' years ago Ihas his problems've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to it until I saw this, his newest offering. Here we have He's asthmatic and the tale of two childhood sweethearts whose love was always threatened by more you read, the fact more you'll suspect that they were from opposite sides of the tracks - he from the rough, poor family that is forever 's on the wrong side of the law, and autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she from one of the better, respected families 's a frequent flier in the townlocal A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. After life forces them apart they go Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to live very different lives, but it seems that neither one has ever forgotten that early passionpick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced It was going to look at the choices they've made in their lives and where they go come to from herea head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marius BrillB0CKD1L5JL|title=How to ForgetRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you are a fan of Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the BBC's 'Hustle' seriesstrange, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'. It’s a funnyreclusive Bear, clever he is brought up far from bustling cities and twisted tale busy human society, in the forests of grifters Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and con tricks with a bit of magic thrown brief sojourn in for good measure. Brill gives us a cast of strange characters: there's an ethically dubious brain scientisthuman company, and armed with only a dodgy Derren Brown-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugspirate radio transmitter, an equally violent FBI agent and Petr goes on a female British copper. At journey through the heart of forest, broadcasting the story though is an apparently naïve British magician, Peterstrange, wild and a supreme grifter, Kate, in whose life Peter finds himself entangledrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=S G BrowneSarah Marsh|title=FatedA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Clever and very funnyAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, this is everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the sort use of book sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where you immediately feel she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in safe handsanother school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. S.G. Browne has gone to town (New York) At the same time, satirising just about every aspect of modern lifeBell is working on other inventions and ideas, and my reading was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in recognition in my heada complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Titania HardieB0BC3YTCMR|title=The House of the WindGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title of the book and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She does: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) ''This story is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touch, I thought and not over-played either. The short Prologue describes a young girl on the eve of her 'terrible fatefor everyone.' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minute. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House of the Wind.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Khaled Hosseini1472263936|title=The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel)Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=45|genre=Graphic NovelsGeneral Fiction|summary=A confessionIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. If there's one book I'm not likely She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to readreturn, itbut Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that which everyone else is readingit would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. If it turns into a hugely popular film for all Her trip to the leftfamily apartment in up-wing chattering classes market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to rave over, then thatlove her grandmother and the family's just more grist to my mill – I'll always have a chance to catch up on it later onmaid, Dina, even if I never take that opportunity. I'm not alone in acting like this – see a friend but was wary - and colleague's similar admission when reviewing [[White Teeth by Zadie Smith]]frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. But at least, through the medium He was proud of his close connections to the graphic novel, the book reviewing gods have conspired Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to let me see just what Iaccommodate them. His prejudices included Helena'm missing, with this adaptation, by Italian artists, of a hugely successful – s red hair and therefore delayable – novelgreen eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408815257</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer HaighDean Koontz|title=FaithAfter Death|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a ''New York Times Bestseller'' I was expecting great things from this book; coupled with the fact that I really enjoy American fictiontop secret biological research facility, I was itching to get readingis among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. The story is told from the perspective of SheilaFinding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, sister very bad has happened to Mike him – and half-sister to Arthur (only him – as he's normally called Art). Art is the priest sits up and who is looks around at the centre shrouded bodies of the storm. We go back in time his dead friends and discover a rather pious woman who has had a hard start to married lifeformer colleagues. SheAs he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can 's now left to bring up her young son, Art, on her own'feel'' everything. But things pick up pretty quickly from here and as an attractive woman it's not long before she meets someone else'Everything''. Two more children are born and they all settle down into a normal, American family unitMichael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jaimy GordonB0BVDC2VWH|title=Lord of MisruleThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Following on from ''The 2½ Pillars of Wisdomvillage is isolated and poor. It'' which was s surrounded by a compilation Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of three shorter volumes, this book sees Professor Dr Von Igelfeld still dealing with his academic colleagues but also with the prospect of a love interestforest provides heat and warmth, a recently widowed ladyroofs on homes, Frau Benzand even gallows, who has inherited the large Schloss in Regensburgif needed. Is love The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the air? Or will his arch rivalvillage and that is the reason Volushka, Unterholzer interfere once again?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316027545</amazonuk>a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sophie DuffyB0BYF82CXT|title=The Generation GameSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV showBill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, with old Brucie stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? Where were you disappointment, when Charles Terry and Di got married? What about when Diana died? There's plenty of reminiscing to be done Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in this book as Sophie Duffy takes us from next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the 1960's couples befriend each other and life appears to 2006 through the life of her characterimprove for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, Philippa, in a book that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments to real sadnessand their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248017</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Larry PontiusShalini Boland|title=Future KingThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the near future Alice and King Charles III Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has ascended the throne of the United Kingdom with Camilla as his Queen Consortbeen searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. The country She is all he could possibly want in a mess with rampant inflationwife; beautiful, unemploymentsuccessful, a crumbling infrastructure confident… and riots: so the people have taken to calling this time ''The Troubles''. Such situations breed power-hungry politicians inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and Prime Minister Alistair Saxon has plans to become the dictator of the countrywedding is planned and set. When the King refuses to give his assent to much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the Emergency Powers Actaisle by her father, Saxon beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his fellow-conspirators kidnap approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the Royal family altar is, who is waiting for her to prevent Charles speaking against the EPAbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1463766297</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kirsten Tranter1787636003|title=The LegacyGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is quite a chunky book so Tranter has given herself plenty of space It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and time to build up a nice level of suspense here as well as putting some flesh arrived on the bones of her central characters. The book opens - towards the end of the storyisland. So we have firmRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, but platonic friendsperhaps, Julia and Ralph both very concerned about their mutual friendnaive, Ingrid. She supposedly died on 9/11 so when thirty-four-year- but with no remainsold Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, no burial, their grief hasn't an outletshe was flattered rather than wary. They need (It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to quote her and by that much used word) closuretime she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857380621</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state- where they never thought they'd ever be again. But it has come to this of- her film actress career is on the rocks with -nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the kind atmosphere of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writers, the day and he - wellcapture it, hecrafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's here because practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a jumbo spud gun. Neither want life back at home, as throughout their childhood they were used by their parents - without much planning, without any consideration gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of feelings, or consent her characters in a way that feels natural and lived- in a whole career of performance art pieces, designed to enact a point of life or just cause havocnever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Roth152915118X|title=NemesisPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1944''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Newark, New JerseyDarley and Georgiana. SummerDarley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. HotThey're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. Bucky CantorThe problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, a young Jewish manTilda, is gym teacher asks Cord and playground attendant-cum-sports instructor for the district, helping all those interested become fit young men, able Sasha if they'd like to do what his eyesight prevents him from doing - serving in move into the forcesPineapple Street property. Things would be fine if his girlfriend were closer at handTilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, if it were coolera street or so away, and if there were no polio epidemic happeningwhich they own. But there isThey won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and nobody knows what is causing itCord can move straight in. Is it flies? Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. Is Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it a gang of taunting Italian kids spreading so often that they abbreviate it from neighbourhood to neighbourhood? Is it blacks, germs on money - is it in fact Cantor himself, draining all 'the youthful vigour from his charges under a blistering sun?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542269</amazonuk>GD'.
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=This is the fifth novel 84 year old Edie has lived in Susan Hill's series about the detective Simon Serraillersame small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. Although you could probably follow However, Edie is tormented by the story without knowing memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the previous books I think it does help to have some background on who worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all the characters arethat time ago. I really love After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the way Hill weaves last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her story around some wonderful character studies. Simon And yet as she remembers the past, she is actually hardly forgetting more and more in this novel, and the focus instead is on her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy'extras's disappearance before her move, with a lot of details being put into characters who will only be around for this particular novel but who live and breathe through it wonderfully well. before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099499282</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Here is a church in Bogota nobody seems to want to leave. In part one it is a large group of the elderly, given a weekly, tasteless meal from the charitable funds, but bitterly refusing to quit the place''Love, making our main character Tancredo fear for his passivity. In part two it is the congregationI'd read, as a rare need for a stand-in priest seems was supposed to be a blessing. And in part three it is that priest himselflight and weightless feeling, stuck among the household of Tancredo, the girl who loves him, and chorus of three weird old women.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050672</amazonuk>}}but I had always longed for gravity''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Linda Gillard0008506337|title=Untying the KnotThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=IThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O've often wondered why itLeary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's not axiomatic mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that a man should stand by his woman – although perhaps it couldnRichard't be set s influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to music quite so easily – but Fay had failed to stand by her manOxford and having a glittering career. To make it worseIn the event, she was an army wife and they just don't desert – eloped and Magnus was a heroRichard took her away from the Isle of Wight. He'd been in bomb disposal Margo did go to Oxford and despite being blown up had briefed his number two about the bomb before he was taken off went on to hospitalbecome a well-respected journalist. He was good-lookingThe couple had three children: Rachel, charismatic – Imogen and divorcedSasha. Fay knew that marrying Magnus had been a mistake – but she also admitted that Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the biggest mistake Isle of all was divorcing Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave himin charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005JTAMQO</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sheila Kohler1914585402|title=Becoming Jane EyreDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There is no denying that the Brontë family lived an interesting life. While some authors' lives are shrouded in mystery, with their characters far better known than they themselves are, thats Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's not really the case with the BrontësOnly One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. Various biographers haveIt was a gripping, over the yearsemotionally wounding read, provided a clear picture of 19th century Yorkshire life thanks to a wealth of original letters and diaries preserved from the time. This makes Kohler's choice rereading my review of topic slightly odd. Rather than an attempt to imagine the unknown lives of the sisters, it is a cobbling together of facts and assumptions my main takeaway was that I might not have been in the public arena for some time. For anyone who knows anything about the Brontës, lavished enough praise on it really is nothing new, and that's a shame.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010862</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil RickmanLucy Ashe|title=The Secrets of PainClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=ItThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's a freezing winter's night Wells. Ballerinas Clara and a couple of the locals Olivia are driving home when they come across a strange and disturbing incidentsisters, twins no less. They don't know what to make of it Identical on the outside but as not, we learn, on the SAS have a training presence in the area Gomer and Danny put it down to exercises and breath a sigh of reliefinside. And not on stage, either. ItBecause there's anything for a quiet life round these parts and thanks to Rickman's excellent writing, we soon see lot that these men, Gomer especially, are characters in themselvesbuilds a dancer. Plenty of personality. Once seenSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, difficult to forget. And I didn't want to forget them. They also speak in the local dialect which comes across very well indeed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872739</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Erin Morgenstern|title=The Night Circus|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Night Circus moves from town attention to town; appearing with no warning, no announcements. The attractions seem impossible detail – a carousel with breathing animalsand some things, handkerchiefs that turn into birds in front of the watchful eyes of the audience''je ne sais quoi'', doors that appear and disappeardon't come from the classroom. In the middle of it all are CeliaA stage presence, the daughter of a famous illusionistcharm, and Marco, the apprentice of a mysterious magician''joie de vivre''. From The difference between a young age the lovers have been destined to compete against each other using their unusual skills to win hard-worker, and a prize that neither of them understands; and an end that will leave only one standingstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184655523X</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dorothy B HughesHeather Fawcett|title=The Expendable Man|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Dorothy B Hughes (1904-93) took a journalism degree in Kansas City, Missouri and started her distinguished career with a prize-winning book of poems. Her first hard-boiled thriller appeared in 1940 and it was followed by more than a dozen in the next decade. Three were made into noir films and in 1944 Hughes went to Hollywood to assist Hitchcock on his film, Emily Wilde''Spellbound''. Here she met Ingrid Bergman and consequently Humphrey Bogart came to buy the film rights to one s Encyclopaedia of her novels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903155584</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=DamnedFaeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='Are you thereEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, Satan? Itto write her life's mework, Madison'the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. I'm a spunky Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, lively tweenage girlshe is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, except I'm a dead onefar North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, and I'm in Hellhaving somehow offended the village matriarch, to my surprise. While I'm here I'll find out just where it she is all those cold-calling telegraphers ring you from just while you're settling down not sure what she has done, nor how to your evening meal, redeem herself and where put her final investigations for her book back on the world's wasted sperm and discarded toenail clippings fetch upright track. I'll have very hairy encounters with demons of Satan's Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and mankind's makinginsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and with some superlative plotting and flashbacks Idelight, much to Emily'll find a clearer approach to s frustration. But why I was put is he here in ? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the first place.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224091158</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emily Barr1398515388|title=The First WifeBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lilybella Tatiana Blossom Button (who thankfully – for our sake as well as hers – goes by a simple Lily) has had an upbringing almost as unconventional as her name. Raised by her grandparentsFirst of all, it was the earthquake, we join her following their recent deaths and soon discover she is quite unlike most other 20 year olds. It’s going to be a brisk transition from a sheltered life deep in a small cottagethe ocean floor, nursing elderly relatives to which created the Real World but with no money to speak offtsunami and this, she’ll have to pull herself togetherin turn, and quicklycaused the nuclear meltdown. Her background is an important part of Lily and contributes enormously to her trusting The result was complete and a little immature personality that will later be her downfallutter devastation. A few weeks later, though The deaths were uncountable, and things are looking upthe loss of livelihoods was widespread. She has taken a room in a house where she is much more one The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the family than just tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a lodgerdog outside a convenience store. She’s found some cleaning work and, even more exciting, one of her agency clients is He wasn't a rather dashing ex-celeb dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and his beautiful, elegant wife. Yes, Lily’s star is definitely on Tamon the risedog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755351371</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erinna MettlerChristopher Bowden|title=StarlingsMr Magenta|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I have to say that what was Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a big factor in me choosing to read (and review) this book was its urban front cover. Monochromeseemingly ordinary woman's life, a bit gritty but with plenty of skycarried out by her nephew after she has died. The first character we meet is Andy, an ex-prisoner. He's on his own now aunt who always provided a safe harbour and time is heavy on his hands. He stares out a little bit of his window, twelve floors up and thinks back indulgence to when he a young nephew had had a nice family much more interesting life. All than that's gone now. He stands nephew Stephen had ever realised and looks down at the children in a nearby playground and temptation rises it seems to him an obligation to find it all over again (he was convicted as a paedophile)out. He'll need to find the inner strength to resist - but can he?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956511929</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithJennifer Mason|title=Isabel Dalhousie: The Forgotten Affairs Partitions of YouthUnity|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=My husband is soon to take a work trip to Edinburgh and I am very jealous. Mainly because thanks to AMS' novels I feel like I already know the cityHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and I would love to walk unintentional detective in the footsteps of Isabel or any of the characters from his other series, '44 Scotland Street'. So, to console me, I have turned to the latest in the Isabel Dalhousie series. I must admit, I was a little wary at the beginning since I was quite disappointed with Isabel's seventh outing, [[Isabel DalhousiePreposterous: The Charming Quirks of Others An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Alexander McCall SmithJennifer Mason|The Charming Quirks of OthersPreposterous]], when she investigated and I wondered what I would do if this one also proved to be unravelled a let downseries of disappearances. Fortunately it wasnIn ''Partitions of Unity''t, and dear Isabel is back in sparkling form!she sets her mind to solving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408703394</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sara GruenWill Carver|title=Ape HouseThe Daves Next Door|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Isabel Duncan is a scientist working with Bonobo chimps, teaching them sign language. John Thigpen is Five strangers come together in one moment as a journalist who comes suicide bomber prepares to meet the apes and write detonate his vest on a story about Isabel's work with themLondon tube line. He is moved by the apes, by As their behaviour and Isabel's obviously very close relationship with them. Soon after he leavesfates overlap, however, there the story is a bomb at the centre by a group of extremists who want to liberate the apes. Isabel begins a desperate hunt to try and discover where they've gonetold in backwards order, and John finds himself also caught leading up, trying to discover the truth of what's happenedfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444716026</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roger SmithJennifer Mason|title=Dust DevilsPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary="Rosie Dell had come to end it. For keeps this time." ''It'' is the affair that she's been having with Ben BakerA struggling poetry zine, one of the richest men a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the country. Unfortunately for RosieNorthern California redwoods, she doesn't say what she's come to say… unfortunately for Ben, for Rosie, and for her family, someone has plans to end it for her. 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 a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the Mouth|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Linda Hammerick2004 Olympics, a young girl growing up in North Carolina in the late 1970women'strack coach with a yen for bullwhips, is different. She suffers from synesthesia, tasting things when she speaks or hears words. She grows up a billionaire with her greata state-of-uncle, Baby Harper, as her best friend, as hissingsong voice is the only one she can hear without the accompanying tastes-art S&M dungeon, and writes letters back and forth with her best friend Kelly rather than have long conversations with her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099474743</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Meg Rosoff|title=There Is No Dog|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=Ok. Imagine God is actually a teenage immortal, much in the vein of teenage humans. He rushes his coursework (creation) and while there are flashes of brilliance and potential in it, there's no real thought or organisation and so the whole thing doesn't really work properly. But God is too busy having man serving a lie-in or lusting after buxom young women to be ironing out these sorts of boring creases life sentence in the making of a successful planet. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327162</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kirsten Reed|title=The Ice Age|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Two people road trip across America. Sort of. They don't start off togetherAlabama, or meet up intentionallyan enigmatic signature, and the age gap is purposely provocative. She likes him because he'K(s old and has pointy, vampire teeth he might use to bite her with (Twilight sell outx), much?) She is 17. We don't know her nameon a cheap oil painting, but it is she who tells us the storyan erotic art dealer in Georgia. He is called Gunther. People think she is his daughter. They hope she is. It's just too odd to comprehend otherwise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447200411</amazonuk>}}'
}}