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Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library , the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

<!-- Jo Spain Linda Jones -->

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===[[The Boy Who Fell (Inspector Tom Reynolds) Deadwood Hall by Jo SpainLinda Jones]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeConfident Readers|Confident Readers]] In late December Dylan Beaumont and his sister Emily were on their way to spend the week before Christmas at their grandfather's house. It was snowing heavily and you could sense that their parents were becoming annoyed at the bickering in the back of the car. Emily was rather brusque with her nine-year-old brother's behaviour, but then that's your prerogative when you're a grown-up eleven year old. The snow was getting heavier and the journey longer when Emily opened the car window just a couple of inches. There was a dreadful smell and Dylan saw a horrible, snake-like figure clawing at the car window. [[Deadwood Hall by Linda Jones|CrimeFull Review]]

There were six friends: four men and two women. They're all about eighteen and they've known each other since they started school. Both girls - Hazel Brophy and Charlotte Burke - have been in relationships with one of the boys, but Charlotte was determined that it would not be sexual. Hazel's views were so dramatically opposite that you wondered how they could be friends. They were all partying in a derelict house when Luke Connelly was pushed to his death from a third floor window and Daniel Konaté Jones was charged with rape and murder. Daniel was loosely associated with the group but never felt himself one of them. He didn't come from a wealthy background, is of mixed race and openly gay. Targets don't come much easier than that, except for one thing. [[The Boy Who Fell (Inspector Tom Reynolds) by Jo Spain|Full Review]]<!-- Webb Denzil Meyrick -->

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[[image:4star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs by Beth WebbCategory:Crime|Crime]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]  Anelise - Annie - has been living with her cousin Joe and her auntFew government trade missions arrive by luxury liner, an eminent forensic scientist, since her mum died but the cruise ship ''Great Britain'' is berthed in Kinloch harbour and her naturalist father went abroad on a research tripboard are high-powered international delegates. So she does wonder sometimes whether It's hard to avoid the minor premonitions she has - whosuspicion that it's on not ''entirely'' about work as the other end of billionaires, entrepreneurs and their civil service minders tour the ringing phonecountry, or at the door when theregolfing and sightseeing with their entourage of security personnel. It's a knock - are in her imagination. But to foresee a serious accident and then an event which DCI Daley hopes will pass quickly, particularly as his formal uniform is far too tight for comfort, but it to actually happen? And the dreadful headaches. Something's going on. Luckily for Annie, Joe is convinced not long before one of the crew members and also willing to help. So they start to investigate the accident..a local bird watcher go missing. [[Disbelieved: Skin and Bone CSIs A Breath on Dying Embers (DCI Daley) by Beth WebbDenzil Meyrick|Full Review]]

<!-- Mick Herron James -->

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===[[Joe Country (Jackson Lamb 6) The Starlight Watchmaker by Mick HerronLauren James]]===

[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersDyslexia Friendly|ThrillersDyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]

I'd like to say that all the old crew are in Slough House but the rate of natural (or unnatural) wastage This is such as to have Health and Safety worried. Roderick Ho's there though, narcissistic as evera dyslexia-friendly, and so's Louisa Guyscience fiction novella for young adults. She's getting over It tells the death tale of Min Harper to the extent that she's not ''too'' concerned when she gets a phone call from Clare HarperHugo, Min's wife. River Cartwright has got death on his mind too, but in his case it's the impending demise of his beloved grandfather an unwanted and former spookrather lonely android, the OBwho makes a living for himself mending time-travel watches. Diana Taverner has taken over from Claude Whelan as First Desk at Regent Park and she's going to make changes: When one of the first his clients demands that his broken watch be mended, Hugo realises there is a shockmystery to be solved, and is only too ready to help. An argument with Emma Flyte sees the head dog departing the service. Meanwhile at Slough Houseexciting journey of discovery unfolds, Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Jackson Lamb is offensive as ever which takes Hugo out of his drab attic workroom and Shirley Dander and J K Coe do their best to remain unnoticedinto a scary adventure with some amazing new friends, exploring regions of the latter by saying nothingplanet never before known to exist. [[Joe Country (Jackson Lamb 6) The Starlight Watchmaker by Mick HerronLauren James|Full Review]]

<!-- Laurain Stuart MacBride -->

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===[[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken Cold Granite (translator) and Emily Boyce (translatorLogan McRae)by Stuart MacBride]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionCrime|General FictionCrime]]

Vintage 1954 starts DS Logan McRae is just back from a year's sick leave after he was attacked by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a plotkiller. So we have an American biker, He's just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with about OK and he's supposed to be easing himself back into the wife who shared his dream swing of visiting the city together. We have job in a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually gentle way - until three-year-old David Reid's body is discovered in a humble restorer of antiquesditch. We have a cocktail barman, infatuated with He'd been missing for some time and it came as no surprise that he was dead but he's the goth girl. We also have a man ruling the roost over a whole suite first of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once ownedseveral child murders. Finally something conspires To add to get them together, and drinking from the same bottle of complications the police even have a rare 1954 red winebody but no child reported missing. Only A serial killer, one of them has a bizarre incidence child killer and abuser, is on the loose in his family history that also features the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, Aberdeen and walked out the door one rainy morning, never press are missing no opportunity to be seen againbay for blood. But of course nobody will As if that wasn't bad enough there seems to be doing any disappearing nowa leak from within Force Headquarters: a local journalist, though – will they? Colin Miller, quickly finds out everything that's happening. [[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken Cold Granite (translator) and Emily Boyce (translatorLogan McRae)by Stuart MacBride|Full Review]]

<!-- Ford Angela Marsons -->

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===[[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Jackson FordAngela Marsons]]===

[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersCrime|ThrillersCrime]]

As the title suggests, this book is all about There's a girl, Teagan Frost, prologue and we know that we're dealing with someone who has psychokinesisis very disturbed. Forced to secretly work for the government along with a few unique (and shady) individuals The descriptions are horrifying, Teagan has to use her power for unimaginable tasks. All but worst of this whilst under the pretence of working for a moving-company. After her latest job goes wrong and her and the team escape by the skin of their teeth, Teagan finds herself as a murder suspect when the victim all is found in such a way that only she could have committed the crime. The rest coldness of the story unfolds in a fast-paced race against time to clear Teagan's name and find out exactly what has happenedkiller. Is it possible that someone with a gift like Teagan[[Child's has managed to fly under the radar? [[The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind Play (D I Kim Stone) by Jackson FordAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Caro Ramsay Chiang -->

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===[[The Suffering of Strangers Exhalation by Caro RamsayTed Chiang]]===

[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeScience Fiction|CrimeScience Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]

Roberta (please call her 'Bobby') Chisholm is sleep deprivedOver the past twenty-eight years Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories. SixThese magnificent stories have won twenty-week-old Sholto doesn't ''ever'' seem to sleep, seven major science fiction awards so Bobby's like if you are a robotscience fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. There's a little light on the horizonI cannot speak highly enough of this collection of short stories, though: her husband James is up for a new jobthey are so wide ranging in their themes and so beautifully written, which could mean quite Chiang has written an absolute masterpiece of a bit more moneycollection. When he rings to tell her that heIf you come across Chiang's got it he's obviously over the moon and tells Bobby work before, take this opportunity to go to the local shop and get a bottle of champagne do so that they can celebratenow. For once Sholto has dropped off to sleep and when Bobby gets to the shop she's reluctant to disturb him: surely there won't Trust me; your imagination will be a problem if she dashes into the shop to get the bubbly? She can keep an eye on the car through the shop window, but when she comes out, the car has gone..grateful. [[The Suffering of Strangers Exhalation by Caro RamsayTed Chiang|Full Review]]

<!-- Christopher Edge -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1788004949.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788004949/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Longest Night of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] ''If you go into the woods, Old Crony will get you.'' Secrets, spies or maybe even a monster... What lies in the heart of the wood? Charlie, Dizzy and Johnny are determined to discover the truth, but when night falls without warning they find themselves trapped in a nightmare. Lost in the woods, strange dangers and impossible puzzles lurk in the shadows. As time plays tricks, can Charlie solve this mystery and find a way out of the woods? But what if this night never ends...? [[The Longest Night of Charlie Noon by Christopher Edge|Full Review]] <!-- Rachel Lynch Lawrence -->

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[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Crime|CrimeRose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence]]===

It was the smell which announced the presence of the body in the wheelhouse of a boat and identification wasn't going to be easy as the man was stark naked. There were all the signs of a brutal, cold-blooded execution but gradually the man was traced back to Allendale House, the estate of the former Lord Allendale, and then to London, where two more bodies, naked, in a staged setting in a garage, were discovered. Senior Investigating Officer DI Kelly Porter had to go to London and was shocked to discover that the SIO for ''that'' case was DCI Matt Carter, her manipulative and untrustworthy ex-lover. It was going to be anything but easy to work alongside Matt the Tw... Ah, well let's not go there[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Bold Lies (DI Kelly Porter 5) by Rachel Lynch:Category:Teens|Full ReviewTeens]]

Rose and her brother Rudder have recently escaped from cult-like fundamentalist Christian sect, the Pilgrims, along with their mother. While Mum works endless hours at agency cleaning jobs trying to keep the rent paid on their tiny flat, Rose and Rudder are trying to navigate the worldly world. It's not easy when everything is new and the rigid rules you've always lived by are suddenly missing. [[Rose, Interrupted by Patrice Lawrence|Full Review]]<!-- Jonathan Meres Kate Atkinson -->

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===[[Special Delivery Started Early, Took My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Jonathan MeresKate Atkinson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]

[[image:4starI guess that most of us have made the odd impulse purchase but Tracy Waterhouse, security chief at the Merrion Centre in Leeds, blew most people's ideas of an impulse purchase out of the water one morning. Seeing a known prostitute dragging a toddler through the shopping mall whilst cursing at her, Waterhouse followed the woman and bought the girl for £3000. The difficulty of a purchase like this is knowing what to do next and Tracy's humdrum life is replaced with one of stress, fear and an overwhelming love for four-year-old Courtney.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia Friendly|Dyslexia Friendly]]Started Early, [[:Category:Confident ReadersTook My Dog (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson|Confident ReadersFull Review]]

How do you explain to children about dementia<!-- Chloe Daykin -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0571349439.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571349439/ref=nosim? Injuries or illnesses are obvioustag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Fire Girl, but when Forest Boy by Chloe Daykin]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers]] Maya has to escape. She's on the problem is the brain which isnrun in a country she doesn't functioning quite as it used know and has no idea who to it isn't as easy trust. Raul is escaping too - travelling back to grasp. Frank was his home where a normal nine year old and like many nine year olds what he wanted was a new biketerrible tragedy happened, ready to stir up trouble. He'd had his for about seventy-eight years and he didn't want When their paths collide in the middle of the jungle, the sparks begin to raise fly. As modern world corruption meets the seat any more. Mum pointed out that it wasn't his birthday or Christmas any time soon magic and bikes cost a lot legends of moneyancient times, which didn't grow can Maya draw on trees. His sister Lottie had a solution: Frank could help her with her paper round. Frank agreed despite thinking that it would take him a thousand years hidden light to save up find the money for a bike AND he had way through to get up at six o'clock in the morning. truth? [[Special Delivery Fire Girl, Forest Boy by Jonathan MeresChloe Daykin|Full Review]]

<!-- Vivian French Angela Marsons -->

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===[[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Vivian FrenchAngela Marsons]]===

[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Dyslexia FriendlyCrime|Dyslexia Friendly]], [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident ReadersCrime]]

Suzi Simms loved running and it was her ambition to win the 100 metres race on sports day at the end of term - and that was next week. We're going to read about what happened in her diary, although thereThere's a warning prologue and we know that we really shouldn't be reading it, particularly as it's about Barbie Meek. To say that the two girls don't get on at all well re dealing with someone who is a bit of an understatementvery disturbed. Suzi wouldn't actually do anything about itThe descriptions are horrifying, but Barbie worst of all is a troublemaker and she wants to win the 100 metres race too - by fair means or foulcoldness of the killer. [[The Spectacular Revenge of Suzi Sims Child's Play (D I Kim Stone) by Vivian FrenchAngela Marsons|Full Review]]

<!-- Pye Gregory -->

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[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident ReadersI Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory]]===

Meet Harry Stevenson[[image:4. He's a typical guinea pig, except he's perhaps a bit more ginger than normal. And more lazy than usual. And his appetite is possibly bigger than the norm. Apart from that he's a regular guinea pig. But the stories in which he features are nothing like. In the first one here, the lad who owns and looks after him is being forced to move house. It should be a simple journey for Harry, safe in his cage from all the predators that watching nature documentaries have put into his imagination, but he gets distracted and – shock horror – left behind. It takes some bravura slapstick and a charming contrivance for him to be found again. In the second, for we get two full-length stories in this volume, there's a party being held to get the lad used to his new schoolmates, and Harry used to life in a garden hutch. And one more wonderful conceit that drives high drama5star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Adventures of Harry Stevenson by Ali Pye:Category:Teens|Full ReviewTeens]]

Gemma has just started her A levels at school. She's a keen student and she has a good, close set of friends. Gemma loves country music and in her spare time she enjoys writing and singing country songs. She's pretty good at it too. Home life is busy - Gemma's brother Michael has a chance at a football career and the whole family, propelled by Gemma's rather over-invested dad, is supporting him with everything they've got. Gemma hasn't had a serious boyfriend yet, so when the handsome Aaron appears and an instant attraction fizzles between them, Gemma is keen to see where romance could lead... [[I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory|Full Review]]<!-- Angie Kim Davis -->

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===[[Miracle Creek What's That in Dog Years? by Angie KimBen Davis and Julia Christians]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersConfident Readers|ThrillersConfident Readers]]

The Yoo family originated in SeoulGeorge and Gizmo have been together ever since George was born. Yoo Young Gizmo has always been a fun, adventurous dog and her daughter Meh-hee came on ahead of the father of the familya loyal friend, Yoo Pakbut just recently, as a couple in Baltimore offered to provide accommodation for Young and Meh-hee in exchange for assistance in their grocery store. What Young had not appreciated was George has noticed that she was he's starting to work from 6 a.m. until midnight, seven days slow down a weeklittle. For years she hardly saw her daughter except when the Kangs brought Meh-hee A visit to see her at the store. Meh-hee became Mary vets leaves George worried that Gizmo might not be around for very much longer, and struggled at school: her fellow pupils were no exceptions so he begins to write Gizmo a bucket list, of all the rule adventures that children they can be cruel and Mary was an easy targetstill have together in Gizmo's last days. But are they his last days? And who will help George to stay calm when Gizmo is gone? [[Miracle Creek What's That in Dog Years? by Angie KimBen Davis and Julia Christians|Full Review]]

<!-- Megan E O'Keefe Hlad -->

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===[[Velocity Weapon The Long Flight Home by Megan E O'KeefeA L Hlad]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] The last thing Sanda remembers is September 1940 - as WWII rages on, bombs rain down on Britain, destroying the homes and lives of a people on the edge. In Epping Forest, Susan Shepherd and her grandfather Bertie live together raising homing pigeons with the birds proving a comfort for Susan following the loss of her gunship explodingparents. She expected These pigeons are more than just birds to be recovered by salvage-medics Susan though – in each one, and to awaken especially in friendly handsDuchess, patched-up she sees a distinct personality and ready forms a close bond. Meanwhile, young pilot Ollie Evans leaves Maine to rejoin head to Britain and join the fightRoyal Air Force. Instead she wakes up 230 years laterWorking with the National Pigeon Service, on a deserted enemy starship called The Light he soon meets Susan and is tasked with air-dropping hundreds of Berossus homing pigeons into German- oroccupied France, as he prefers to call himself, 'Bero'where many will not survive. Bero tells Sanda As the war mission is lost. That planned, the entire star system is dead. But bond between Ollie and Susan grows stronger, but when Ollie's plane is downed behind enemy lines, it may be Duchess who provides an unexpected lifeline and ensures that the full story? After all, in the vastness hope of space, anything is possible . . . a reunion for Susan and Ollie remains… [[Velocity Weapon The Long Flight Home by Megan E O'KeefeA L Hlad|Full Review]]

<!-- Parker Peter Wohlleben -->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''| ===[[Walks In The Chessmaster's Secret Wild by Mary ParkerPeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)]]===

[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]]

Belle and Joe travel to London in 1944, towards the end of World War II. Orphaned evacuees, they haven't had a good time of it - especially Joe, who is a sensitive child and was badly bullied. Meeting them is Uncle Griff, a kindly man, but one without much money. He is more than happy to have the children stay during the school holidays. Uncle Griff owns 'An instruction manual for the forest''Shop of Mechanical Marvelsis how Wohlleben's publisher described the idea for this book, and that' and s basically what it is – although right at the children love all end the old things author says that it contains. Uncle Griff hopes is not intended to restore it to profitability and bring some wonder back into London's bombed out streetsbe a reference book, but an appetiser. [[Walks In The Chessmaster's Secret Wild by Mary ParkerPeter Wohlleben and Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp (Translator)|Full Review]]

<!-- Rob Walker M T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles -->

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===[[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You A Nearly Normal Family by Rob WalkerM T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (translator)]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LifestyleCrime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|LifestyleThrillers]]

The curse put on reviewers is that we get We're going to read hear this story through a book which is really better dipped intothe viewpoints of three different people: Adam Sandell, his wife, or read gradually Ulrika and thoughts allowed to be provokedhis daughter Stella. And so it was with Adam''The Art s a pastor in the Church of NoticingSweden and Ulrika is a lawyer. Stella is, well, just difficult. You sense that she's always been difficult and there have even been occasions when Ulrika has let slip that she wishes that Stella was more like her best friend, Amina Bešic - and no one has ever said that if they don't think that the other person is better. ItWe first meet the family on Stella's 18th birthday and we get a simple premise: the pace sense of modern life and rapidity of technological advances means that we are constantly overwhelmed and distractedAdam's controlling nature. Rob Walker wants us Permission has to be able to steal our attention back. He gives us his thoughts on various areas given for a glass of our lives and then provides 131 exercises to help us recover our attentionwine for Stella at the celebration meal. [[The Art of Noticing: Rediscover What Really Matters to You A Nearly Normal Family by Rob WalkerM T Edvardsson and Rachel Wilson-Boyles (translator)|Full Review]]

<!-- Lesley Thomson Green -->

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===[[The Playground Murders House of Light by Lesley ThomsonJulia Green]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeConfident Readers|CrimeConfident Readers]]

Rachel Cater was having an affair Bonnie is growing up on a slightly strange island, living with her bossgrandfather, Chris Philipsscavenging for food, an auctioneerand rubbish that has washed up on the beach that she and her grandfather can use to make things. It wasThere is some sort of ban against anyone else landing on the island, she told her motherand lots of suspicion around those who live there, love at first sightincluding a great fear of anyone who gets sick. Her mother was more sceptical But when Bonnie is on the beach one day and wondered whydiscovers not only an intact boat, if it had been love at first sightbut a young boy cowering beneath, it had taken rather than turn him so long in to do anything about it. Still, more than anything, the authorities she wanted her daughter to be happy. That was what Rachel wanted too takes him home and it was why she went to the Philips' family homehides him, determined to have it all out smuggling him boiled eggs and blankets in the open. Instead shed whilst she was stabbed fifteen times. Her lover was convicted of her murdertries to figure out what to do. [[The Playground Murders House of Light by Lesley ThomsonJulia Green|Full Review]]

<!-- Dare Foster -->

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[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare:Category:Teens|Teens]]===

[[image:4starIn many ways Felix is a typical boy in Year 7, enjoying playing games on his PS4 and hanging out with his friend Jake at the weekend. However Felix is struggling at school. He is not a problem child but he does have a problem. His ADHD makes it hard for him to concentrate, he keeps getting into trouble and his grades are slipping. When his Mum suggests that he spends more time with his grandfather Felix is horrified. Ever since Grandma died his Granddad has been grumpy and more eccentric than before. All he wants to do is sit in the dark and play chess. Felix knows that this will be extremely boring. But sometimes we learn valuable lessons where we least expect to and perhaps Granddad and Felix can help each other.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersCheck Mates by Stewart Foster|ThrillersFull Review]]

Can you imagine what it would be like to win a billion pounds? The UK's biggest ever lottery winners were a couple from Ayrshire, who won a £161 million EuroMillions jackpot a few years ago. That's so much money that it landed them on the Sunday Times Rich List of the UK's thousand most wealthy people. So a billion pounds. That's a lot, right? Can you imagine it? What would you do? Would you try to remain anonymous? And, if you did, how would this affect your relationships with your nearest and dearest? What it would be like? How could you keep your friends and family from knowing that you were now one of the richest people in the country? [[The Billion Pound Lie by Bill Dare|Full Review]] <!-- Vaughn Jane O'Connor -->

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===[[Across the Void Needlemouse by S K VaughnJane O'Connor]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]

Sea epics? So 20th century. Try a space epic[[image:5star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[Across the Void by S K Vaughn:Category:Women's Fiction|Full ReviewWomen's Fiction]]

We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the year, not because it's her birthday but because of the special time she gets to spend with the man she loves. He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be together. She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the sexual part of the relationship. There's time though - she's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years. [[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor|Full Review]]<!-- McLean Various-->

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone Return to Wonderland by Felicity McLeanVarious Authors]]===

[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersConfident Readers|ThrillersConfident Readers]], [[:Category:General FictionShort Stories|General FictionShort Stories]]

When Tikka Molloy In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was eleven in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and one-sixth Anthony Browne|hit 150 years oldof age]], the Van Apfel sisters disappearedI found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. In The wacky-for-the long hot summer -sake-of 1992-it did not gel, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushlandand I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the girls vanished during benefits of the schooloblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away? Were they taken? While pieces, and it's the search same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the sisters united the small communitywhole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, they were never foundfor obvious reasons). Returning home years later For another thing, Tikka must make sense there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that strange moment love in time – of the summer that shaped her, and the girls she never forgot. mind could only provide for success after success? [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone Return to Wonderland by Felicity McLeanVarious Authors|Full Review]]

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| style="''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"''|===[[Rumblestar (The Dragon in the Library Unmapped Chronicles) by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)Abi Elphinstone]]===

[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Emerging Readers|Emerging Readers]]

It is Rumblestar follows the start haphazard adventures of the summer holidays and Kit has plans. These plans involve climbing treesanxious 11-year-old Casper Tock who timetables his every movement, getting muddy and being outside. Her friends, Josh and Alita, on the other hand want makes countless to go to the library. Kit hates reading do lists and can't see the point of books at all but is very reluctantly persuaded to go hounded by wealthy bullies with the others to the local libraryabsurdly humorous and appropriate names of Candida Cashmere Jumps and Leopold Splattercash. Once there the children meet the librarian and Kit makes an incredible discovery; the librarian is He stumbles across a wizard! Even more incrediblymagic portal by accident just like Lucy of Narnia fame, Kit meets a feisty girl troubled by her past and is plunged into a wizard too and she and her friends have an important taskperilous quest. They must save In a kingdom where the library…and save dark mythological forces of Midnights threaten the world! weather Marvels (equated here to the miracle of nature) conjured by magical creatures, only unlikely heroes can battle against evil. [[Rumblestar (The Dragon in the Library Unmapped Chronicles]) by Louie Stowell and Davide Ortu (Illustrator)Abi Elphinstone|Full Review]]

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===[[The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Ray Filby]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:CrimeTeens|CrimeTeens]]

It seemed like a good ideaJason likes chess. Logan He'Lazarus' McRae was back s pretty good at work after it too - a year off sicklevel eight on his computer programme, with level ten being Grand Master level. He'd been stabbed in s also good at systems, having contributed to the line of duty and recovery had been slow: he still had some painrelational database that has streamlined his school's administration. His first case was to be a simple one - just to ease him back into work - but it turned out to be anything but. Professor WilsonJason's school, Easingdale Comprehensive, is very big on technology and its head, a high-profile anti-independence campaigner has gone missingMr Johnston, apparently abducted from is keen to involve his home, but nothing was left behind except some bloodstainspupils wherever they show promise. So Jason's friends have also helped out. In much the same way that Brexit Liz is dividing people south of great with hardware and helped with the border, thereschool's going to be card reader system. Becky has a war between the pro- flair for software and antihas recommended lots of curriculum-independence factions in Scotland - and the police are not above being involvedenhancing apps. And Bill is a talented programmer... [[All That's Dead (Logan McRae 12) The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle by Stuart MacBrideRay Filby|Full Review]]

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===[[The Last Stage Stone Cold Heart by Louise VossCaz Frear]]===

[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]]

If you were looking DC Cat Kinsella is back at the Met after a secondment to when it began youthe London Mayor'd have to say that it s Office: the hours were good but the job was before 1995boring. Meredith Vincent (that wasnShe't her name then) had gone s grateful to Greenham Common on be back with the old team - her seventeenth birthday, dressed as a teddy bearpartner DS Luigi Parnell, boss DCI Kate Steele and DC Rénee Akwa. She's still not prepared to protest say anything about nuclear weapons. It was whilst she was there the identity of her boyfriend: the knowledge that she met Samantha, fell head over heels 's in love a relationship with her Aiden Doyle, the brother of a murder victim and went to live in moreover a squat in London, leaving behind murder with which her A levels, father might have had some involvement could finish her recently-widowed mother - career. Kinsella and her twin brother, Pete, Parnell are called to look after her. Samantha was there occasionally but Meredith was drawn into forming a band with the boys from discovery of the squat and against all the odds Cohen went on to become body of a sensation young woman: Naomi Lockhart was Australian, just twenty-two years old and it wasn't long before Meredith her body was living in a mansion rather than the squatdiscovered by her flat mate, Kieran Drake, an ex-offender. [[The Last Stage Stone Cold Heart by Louise VossCaz Frear|Full Review]]