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<metadesc>Book review site, with books from most walks of literary life; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and children's books plus author interviews and top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review 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 author [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Featuresfeatures]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

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==New Reviews=='''For new reviews by genre Want to find out more [[:Category:New ReviewsAbout Us|click hereabout us]].'''? __NOTOC__

{{newreview|author=Jennifer Bohnet|title=Follow Your Star|rating=3.5|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco. She'd been engaged to a Formula 1 racing driver and had lived the life of the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all that. The accident could have killed her fiancé and she lost her driving licence because of the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by the end of her engagement but she's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young childrencategory]]. When her friend and employer, Vanessa, remarries and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked to take the children back to Monaco where their father lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=J R Stephenson|title=Crooked Justice|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Barry Johns. You'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if he's an ounce. Just don't ever lend him money - he won't pay it back. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there for a customary break, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancer. He manages to tread both on the toes of his local colleague and some Greek rivals. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up and shut up. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revenge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your Number|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonukbr>}}

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rebecca TopeSeishi Yokomizo and Louise Heal Kawai (translator)|title=Fear in the CotswoldsThe Honjin Murders

|summary=Thea Osborne To many readers, the phrase 'locked room murder mystery' is a house sitter enough to make the book one to read; preferably quantified by professionthe words 'clever' or 'good'. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and For those who need more, here is the property. This time itextra background – we's winter and she's spending a month re in rural Japan in the Cotswold village of Hampnett1930s. It wouldn't be a job for all The oldest son of us but Thea delights in an esteemed family is belatedly getting to know married, although the local people and the areawhole affair is really not as ostentatious as it might be – hardly anybody has turned up, what with it being arranged at great haste. She only has an uncle representing her family, for one thing. In Either way, the past she's also been involved with celebrations have gone ahead as planned, only for the police wedded couple to be slashed to death in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as their private annex before the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledsun rises on their marriage. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and What with a foolish one - when she finds footsteps man missing parts of his fingers being in the snow which lead to a body in neighbourhood, and some mysterious use of a nearby field. When traditional musical instrument at the police finally arrive time of the body crime, this case has disappeared and a lot of the police obviously wonder if she's imagined peculiar about it all.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>1782275002

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tad TulejaCixin Liu|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesDeath's End|rating=35|genre=Home and FamilyScience Fiction|summary=Take a look at the cover design of If I'd been paying more attention when I picked this bookup, I would have put it back on the shelf. Not because I didn't want to read it, and youbut because I'd be mistaken for thinking this have figured out that it was the final part of a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken trilogy. Coming in part way through a saga is never the easiest thing to do and it's particularly true in our English language since whenever science fiction because without knowing the back-story there are not just people whose names mean nothing to you (when it's assumed they crossed over from their original homeswill) but there are whole concepts that you won't understand. But the title This latter is particularly true of Cixin Liu's work – his range is definitely honestphenomenal. George R R Martin, for this is who knows a dictionary book firstthing or two about world-creation, for referencedescribed it as ''a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, conspiracy theory and a browser for the trivia buff secondcosmology''. All of that and more.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>1784971650

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Rice1780894511|title=Angel TimeDie Alone|author=Simon Kernick|rating=2.54|genre=General FictionThrillers|summary=Toby O'Dare Ray Mason is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion in prison awaiting trial for music, history murder and playing his beloved lute. Hehe's in the vulnerable prisoner unit: as a cop he's also something of a lost soul having turned target, but the unit is not as secure as the inmates would have hoped and Mason is injured in a riot. On his back on God many years ago. One day while on a way to hospital he'job' he is visited s broken free by armed men and an Angel who offers offer is made to him a chance at redemption. Toby agrees He's to assassinate the man who is likely to become the Angelcountry's human instrument next prime minister and help save lives rather than take themhe'll then be given a new identity so that he can start afresh abroad. He is sent on an assignment His captors say that they're MI6, but Mason has his doubts. His choices are limited though and he has personal reasons to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century Englandbelieve that it would be better if Alastair Sheridan was dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerAkwaeke Emezi|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryPet|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryTeens|summary=The medievalpeople of the town Lucille believe that all the monsters are gone. Their children are raised to understand that they were saved by the angels, in fact time-honouredthose who rid the town of evil, and there are no monsters anymore. But one day, Jam accidentally cuts herself, view of King Henry V as and bleeds a little onto one of Englandher mother's greatest heroes was propagated though not originated by Shakespearepaintings. The blood awakens a bizarre, terrifying-looking creature named Pet, who somehow comes to life and again more recently declares that it is here to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in filmhunt the monster. At least Though Jam tries to convince it that all the monsters are gone, Pet is certain that there is one historian has called him '', still, and that the monster is hiding in the greatest man that ever ruled England''home of her best friend, Redemption.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>0571355110

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Gregory1686751680|title=Dancing With The Dead|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I wanted to read ''Dancing with the Dead'', because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on the back of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece – was moving from Bristol (my current home) to Lincolnshire (where I was born and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail to interest me – but this was not the case.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529305<My Mummy does weird things /amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaman fait des choses bizarres|author=Miss Read|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenAmelie Julien and Gustyawan

|genre=Women's FictionFor Sharing|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush GreenWhich child doesn't think that there mother is, well, this book is the latest ''weird''? It might be that in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella Bembridgemorning their mother doesn't like speaking much, who when every self-respecting child knows that that is finally having when you're at your brightest with lots to admit that old age is creeping up as say? ''Why'' then does Mummy stick her eyesight fails. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about fingers in herears? Then there's doing yoga in front of the television, but she refuses to accept any helpwhich could be worrying if it wasn't so funny. Albert Piggott has decided itWe won's time to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner t go into too much detail about what goes on in the bathroom and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst the colour changes which have occured when Mummy emerges and frankly, the less said the better about her husband are arranging reactions to your artistic efforts on the local nativity playwall. I mean, despite a number of set-backs. Will everything be in place what else would you use paint for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt Justine Avery and DaveLiuba Syrotiuk|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomWhat Wonders Do You See... When You Dream?

|genre=Confident ReadersFor Sharing|summary=It's concerned me for a while that it's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toys, mermaids and pets abound – but thereThe day has ended's a much smaller choice for boys. It's important too with early readers that the content is <br>''interestingHasn't it been splendid?' and reading becomes more than just something which you '<br>'have'But now, it' s time, to do at school and moves into being fun. Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.|amazonuk=be sure'' <amazonukbr>1847382991''For an entirely different adventure'' </amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=John E Smelcer|title=The Great Death|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I hope you haven'As Western Europeans settled Alaska, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunityt forgotten how it feels to be much too excited for bed. At the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from If you're a pandemic of measlesparent at least, smallpoxyou'll know how it is to persuade an excited small person that yes, and influenzait is in fact time for bed. ''What Wonders DoYou See.. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village's population died within a week' sets out to cater to these children. In some casesInstead of trying to persuade them that night time is calm time, there were no survivorsit takes a slightly different tack. It was the end of tells them that sleep is actually an ancient way exciting time: a time of lifedreams in which imagination takes over and has no limit. Natives still refer But the trick in accessing this wonderful and exciting world, is to get calm and relaxed first so that you can easily fall asleep and open the dreadful period as the Great Deathdoor to it.' |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>194812422X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maxine BarryMichael Harris|title=River DeepSolitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World|rating=3.5|genre=Women's FictionLifestyle|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine This is on not the river bankbook I was expecting it to be. It's here that guests come who want For some reason I expected it to be pampered and looked after in another self-help manual on how to find calm, how to step outside the way that only the best hotels can do wellmainstream, but when Wendell James checks in to the hotel it's is not pampering he's looking forthat at all. He's buying a piece Instead of land not far from telling us how, it is more about the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition'why''. ThereHarries examines how we's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means re eroding solitude, which used to be a natural part of our human life, and why that the Ray matters. Of course he talks about how some people have found solitude and what has come of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt , and eventually in the final chapter he talks about his mind when a redown experience of having deliberately sought it out, but mostly he wanders down the alleys and by-haired maid catches ways that his eyethinking about this lost art led him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>1847947662

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joe GoresAndy Briggs|title=Spade and ArcherCtrl+S|rating=45|genre=CrimeScience Fiction|summary=Sam Spade decidesLife in the near future's not all bad. We've reversed global warming and fixed the collapsing bee population. We even created SPACE, bravely, to set up his onea virtual-man detective agencysensory universe where average guys like Theo Wilson can do almost anything they desire. ItBut almost anything isn's the 1920s in San Francisco so we have the prohibition era and all that that entailst enough for some. Many localsEvery day, of coursenormal people are being taken, choose their emotions harvested - and lives traded - to disobey create death-defying thrills for the law, stick two fingers up, so to speak rich and twisted. Now Theo’s mother has disappeared. And as a result there's lots he follows her breadcrumb trail of bootleg liquor. Straight awayclues, ithe's evident that Sam is a man of few words. He ll come up against the most dangerous SPACE has the mannerisms of a cat to offer: vPolice, AI Bots and anarchists - stealthy, quick on his feet. He's also as well as a compulsive chain-smoker, but then again, most people werecriminal empire that will kill to stop him finding her . In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changed.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>1409184641

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester Clark1609809378|title=The Best of TimesRabbits' Rebellion|author=Ariel Dorfman and Chris Riddell

|summary=Most children enjoy a good traditional tale and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to have all We're in the realm of the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in loverabbits, get married only the foxes and live happily ever afterwolves have taken over. Or do they? Sadly King Wolf, His Wolfiness, not long after Prince Frederico marries has declared the lovely Princess Serafinarabbits don't exist, she becomes very sadbut the pesky birds have spread rumours from awing that the bunnies are in fact still around. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness Demanding a propaganda spree, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate to find King Wolf orders a cure for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power and eventually decides humble monkey to offer be his kingdom to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken heart. Lots of people come to official portrait photographer, but whatever the palace to try and help but poor innocent monkey prints out in the end the solution his darkroom there is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersdistinct leporine hint.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Shirley Jackson|title=We Have Always Lived In The Castle|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood Can King Wolf succeed in proving himself victorious, also known as Merricat, is eighteen, and lives with her older sister Constance in can the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series of matter rabbits show their continued existence to all who need to know of fact but bizarre statements it – her likes include her sister and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else what can the poor monkey caught in her family is dead. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world', shutting out other people, and they live near a village. Merricat believes that 'The people of the village have always hated us', and tells us that she hates them too.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>between do?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon WestonInnosanto Nagara|title=Nelson to the RescueM is for Movement

|genre=Confident Emerging Readers|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike Set in Indonesia, in the Milk's milk floatnot too distant past, but he has now retiredthis is a story about social change. He lives in the stable at the back of the dairy along Dealing with a couple of tricky ratssome difficult issues, Rhodri such as political corruption and Rhys, a pigeon who has no sense of directionnepotism, a frog who thinks he's a secret agent spy and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleeping. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike has been invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBEbook is neither boring nor preachy. Somehow our heroIt educates gently, Nelsonwith vibrant, finds himself travelling down to Londonchallenging illustrations, pulling a ceremonial coach for Prince Charles as well as giving a TV interview about his experience.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848510454</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Elizabeth Baines|title=Too Many Magpies|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Becoming a mother brings a whole new world of fear into your life. Suddenly you see the danger in every situationand it portrays how social movements need people who will try, and fear and trepidation can be become your constant companionseven when it seems that they will fail. In this novella, we meet a young mother who The message is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their children's futures on a scientific basis, growing their own fruit and vegetables, giving their children nothing sugary, eating no eggs for a whole year until any adverse affects from them were disproved. But after meeting with positive one; that in an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her increasingly uncertain world. She begins an affair with him, begins to let things slip at home and with the children, yet finds she is we do still continuously haunted by have the sense of an ever-present dangerpower to instigate change.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>1609809351

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1780724047|title=Burning OutA Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi

|genre=Literary FictionPets|summary=Violet has it all – I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a welldog who wasn't interesting or important -paid joband probably both, and I was expecting a luxurious apartment all to herself. Everything is catered for; her meals, her clothes, and her health are all how she would like them to bemassive tome. But the life she is leading is beginning to take its toll. On the verge ''A Dictionary of snapping, a drained Interesting and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, Important Dogs'' is actually ''a ghost reminding her rich compendium of how she used to be ten years earlier – the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a young carefree girlrich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, full of lifeSky. Bradley and Max. Only this isn They't a ghostre consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but a girl living the life Violet once lived – exactly the same. Haunted by the past Violet realizes history what comes over is repeating itself Conradi's love for each and is convinced events will happen againevery one of them. Events I knew that will I was in turn haunt the girlsafe hands.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Downum1785769294|title=The Drowning CityMan at the Window (Detective Cardilini)|author=Robert Jeffreys|rating=34.5|genre=FantasyCrime|summary=In It's when we read that a young boy is creeping reluctantly to a nutshell, teacher's bedroom one October night that we realise something is badly wrong. Nowadays you're reading 'might'' hope that something would be done about it fairly quickly but this because you're wondering whether was 1965 and child abuse was generally regarded as malicious mischief on the part of the child. The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocreboy would be safe that night though - albeit in the most horrific fashion. You When he reached Captain Edmund've probably glanced at s bedroom he found the man dead on the rating and guessed floor, the lattertop of his skull missing. I'm afraid itThe school's not quite initial reaction was that simple. This is this was a dreadful accident: there had been a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelings. I started off convinced that I cull of kangaroos in some nearby fields and it was going to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, obviously a stray bullet which had killed the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocativeCaptain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson1786695227|title=The True Deceiver|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Most people of my age will have come across Jansson's work unwittingly, via the televised renditions of the Moomin tales. The readers amongst us would then have been entranced a few years ago to discover that at last Thomas Teal had set about the translation into English, first of The Summer Book and then of Invisible in a collection of short stories which were published as 'A Winter Book'. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBright Light|author=Daniel Kehlmann |title=Me and KaminskiSally Gardner

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=After reviewing several long books, it's been refreshing to read such The beginning of this excellent story will leave the reader more than a fluent yet pared down story as 'Kaminski and Me'. In it, Sebastian Zollnerlittle confused: who is the man in the green suit, what is the obnoxious main characterReckoning, shoves himself forward and why are rows of people in a desperate attempt to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career cave? But stick with it – Ms Gardner is very cleverly letting us experience the same disorientation as an art criticour heroine. Kaminski, We watch in dismay as the proposed subjectstrange man, was a fashionable painter long agowho seems to have no eyes, but nowdoes his best to persuade her to answer his questions. But for some reason Celeste, ancient and chronically illdespite her bewilderment, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world remains wary and general publicgives nothing away.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Barfe1912374854|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentViolet|author=S J I Holliday|rating=43.5|genre=EntertainmentThrillers|summary=Light entertainment I've never been but understand that travelling is all about meeting new people and forming instantaneous bonds with people in often looked down upon, as if itchance situations. Well that's exactly what happens when the two main/only characters meet in a bit naff, tepid and ignorable. What's often forgotten travel agency in Beijing - Carrie is that it's hugely popular, enjoyable unsuccessfully trying to get a refund on an extra ticket for the Trans-Siberian train and much of it Violet is of trying to unsuccessfully buy a ticket for the highest qualitysame sold-out journey. Louis Barfe's Turned Out Nice Again tells As the complete story of British light entertainment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jim Helmore and Karen Wall|title=Oh Notwo team up, Monster Tomato!|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Marvin is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Offtravelling through Mongolia, but just like himSerbia and into Russia, his tomatoes arenit could't growing very big. He takes ve been the only sensible course start of action: he sings his tomatoes a songbeautiful friendship but this a thriller after all so it quickly becomes a tale of obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships. The results are spectacular. Victory is surely within his grasp.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney 1912374838|title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesNothing Important Happened Today|author=Will Carver

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary='Warning: Not to be read after Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark,' twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are the only words on the back of ''The Spook, but this is different; it's Stories'', and on the inside flap, 'The Times' warns us written with a sense of style that this book is quite unlike anything I'seriously scaryve read before. I can'...  The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely, though, with a story about a young Spook (t remember ever having read a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a witch slim and is forced to bear relatively small book, the consequences when the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for slow-moving nature of the neighbor-childrenplot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Ungerwilliamabbey|title=Die For YouThe Pursuit of William Abbey|author=Claire North

|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly is married to successful video game designer Marcus Raine. Or so she thinks. But when her husband When William Abbey fails to return from work, she realises something is wrong. Going to his office to try to find out what happens to him, she gets attacked and ends up prevent the lynching of a young boy in hospital1880's South Africa, while his co-workers are killedhe finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. Things get worse for herA naïve English Doctor, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, and he slowly learns the man she married was using a false identity. Infuriated by weight of the betrayalcurse upon him, and as the realisation that she's been living a lie for shadow of the past five years, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out dead boy begins to find her husband and work out why he lied to her for so longfollow him across the world. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworldNever stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds a tale which has its roots himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in Prague others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and rivals anything she could have plotted in seeks to kill the one of her novels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk>he loves the most…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa McMann1643785036|title=WakeThe Wondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E Martin

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Janie is seventeen Those who have known Alexander Wainwright, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and studying hard for collegeRinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that they're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemies. She If you've watched the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, you's also working lots d have said that they were magnets, drawing and repulsing each other in equal measure. Wainwright was at the socially acceptable end of hours at the artistic continuum, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but a local nursing home to earn money for college as itfine dividing line between conceptual art and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going frequently been brought to provide much in the way attention of resourcesthe police. College is Janie On this latest occasion we see him charged with arson and theft of 's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far and so you canThe Hay Wagon''t blame her for being so single-minded in the pursuit of her goal. Only one thing stands in her way...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847385036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaclyn Moriarty Mary H.K. Choi|title=The Spell Book of Listen TaylorPermanent Record|rating=3.54

|summary=Listen TaylorPablo, a college drop-out, is working at a New York bodega. He's father has just moved massively in with debt, he's avoiding his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing familymother, with all of its delightful eccentricities and he finds his joy in creating unusual behaviour – the Zings meet every Friday night for dinner and then disappear into the garden shed to work on the 'Zing Family Secret'. Marbie Zing is terrified of doing something wrong and losing Nathaniel and Listen. Her sister Fancy is becoming increasingly disillusioned snacks with her home liferandom ingredients! Whilst working one evening, and her daughterhe's year two teacher surprised to discover that the girl he is coming to terms chatting with as he serves is a break up. The stories of these people come together to create a tale of lifesuper-famous pop star and, loveas unlikely as it may seem, and ultimately, what being part of they start a family meansrelationship.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=F G Cottam|title=The Magdalena Curse|rating=2.5|genre=Horror|summary=Mark Hunter With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, and the sort of father other who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife is seen and followed and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole hounded by everyone all over the world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently heit's been channelling the voices of the dead. Plagued by horrific dreams, able to speak Russian in the hours after he wakes, drawing occult symbols when he doodles, Hunter believes Adam to be possessed. Doctor Elizabeth Bancroft is sceptical, until she meets Adam, and witnesses the horrors the poor boy endures for herself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340980982</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jon Berkeley|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I shall start with a word of advicean interesting clash as they come together. When youThis isn're being hounded by t just a circus masterlove story though, and a magician, for the soul of a tiger thatactually it's contained in a tiger's egg thatreally just Pab's contained in the brain of your teddy bearstory, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure about the other angels do not turn on you journey he takes in a big way his life via his meet- then you're probably living the third book in a fantasy trilogy. Still - never mind, the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world of flight and cloud cities, the chase after your enemies will take you across the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board to helpup with Leanna Smart.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>0349003459

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend1609809319|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsLong-Haired Cat-Boy Cub|author=Etgar Keret, Aviel Basil and Sondra Silverston (translator)

|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for One day a day at boy is in the seaside, Mr Gum falls out zoo with his best friendfather, causing carnivorous carnage all over when the placeman gets called away on urgent business. Meat is getting thrown around like itThe boy isn't hustled into a cab and taken home first, though, no – he's going out of fashiongiven hot dog money, and taxi money, and we have told to doubt whether Polly just stick around on his own and her companions can ever utilise enjoy himself. Well, it's no surprise that the orphan-for-an-afternoon sensation the power lad feels doesn't make him happy, and so he thinks of love a species name for himself, and put things to rights. Especially curls himself up into an empty cage, as this book does not contain if he were a magic unicorn called Elizabethnew exhibit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk> And it's then the drama begins…

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Loose Women1785785516|title=Here Come the GirlsFucking Good Manners|author=Simon Griffin

|genre=Home and FamilyLifestyle|summary=This is the second volume Manners maketh man, they say. It certainly makes life easier if everybody abides by the panelists from that nice ITV seriesa set of conventions, ''Loose Women''some of which are ages old and other which have evolved over time. Just as promised on the cover Manners are not about how much to tip or how you should behave if you get an invitation to Buckingham Palace, this book is an entertaining night they have nothing to do with the girls. class or financial status: It turns out that they're just like usabout getting the basics right before we try to deal with more difficult matters. The faces are already familiar and even if you don Of course we all have more relaxed manners when we't know them yet, re with nine contributorsfamily and friends, youbut it'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one of the celebrity facess best if we learn to distinguish between our public and private lives and to act appropriately. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there will be many a lonely woman who reads this book and feels as if she sat down with a group of friends for ''Fucking Good Manners'' aims to help us on the eveningway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure0008324859|title=Fortune CookieFowl Twins|author=Eoin Colfer|rating=4.5

|summary=Fudge Cassidy and the Cupcake kid are best friends. If the names remind you of a certain film then you'd Relax, everyone – our old friend Artemis may be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea from. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge is loud mouthed and opinionated and Cupcake is quiet and thoughtful – off planet, but the combination works. They've just started at secondary school and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plate. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obvious. Add to this that her father couldnbaddies aren't cope getting away with the problems and he skulduggery any time soon because they now has another family. It's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and have not a lot of money.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenifer Roberts|title=The Madness one but two members of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined Fowl family to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historycontend with. Married to her uncle Infante PedroThose cute little twins are now eleven (and, seventeen years her seniorfrankly, she had six children (outliving all but one of themcute no longer), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious womanthis, she had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason'their first independent adventure, when church they meet a troll and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach without even trying manage to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Hughes|title=Thomas Wogan is Dead|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=Well, with make two deadly enemies: a title like that, need I bother nobleman obsessed with a plot summary? A man has a day out in Morecambe, then the next thing he knows he's in immortality whatever the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array of animals cost (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...to other people), all waiting for... well, something. Yup, as you didn't need telling, he's deadand an unusual interrogator-nun.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild Things|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Max. When I say he sometimes gets the wrong end of the stick about adultsboys are chased, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriendkidnapped, or gets a bit feisty when he feels the need arrested and even killed (though not for revengelong), I am certainly understating all with the facts. He is a bit help of a rascal to say the least. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to a strange land of roisterous animals, and ends up installed as their kingone trainee fairy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>