Changes

|author=Nicolas Bouvier|title=The Japanese Chronicles|rating=5|genre=Travel|summary= It never does to start a review of a book with a quote from the blurb, but sometimes it's unavoidable. Le Monde reviewed this book, at some point, with the words ''what the old master craftsmen would call a masterpiece.'' It is precisely that. A masterpiece in the sense of the craft as well as the art of writing. I'm going to hesitate to call it 'travel writing' because this is as much a history of Japan, a mythology-primer for the Japanese culture as it is a personal response to living and travelling in the country. |isbn=1906011044}}{{Frontpage|author=Genevieve Gornichec0241636604|title=The Witch's Heart|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary= Trading Game: A modern and approachable reimagining of the Norse myths that centres around a witch named Angrboda. She hides in a forest at the edge of the nine worlds, remembering nothing of her past life but that fact that she was survived burnt at the stake three times because of Odin's wrath. Her attempts to live in peace, however, are quickly thwarted when Loki shows up with her literal heart—the one that was cut from her chest before she was tied to the stake—and refuses to leave her alone. After an initial period of mistrust, Angrboda begins to fall for Loki's charms, and the two start an unusual family made of up a half-dead daughter, a son that's a wolf, and another son that's a snake.|isbn=1789097061}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1788549759|title=The Distant DeadConfession|author=Lesley ThomsonGary Stevenson

|genre=CrimeAutobiography|summary=It was December 1940 If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and twentyjeans replaces the pin-four-year-old Maple Greenhill had gone out for stripe suit and his background is the evening 'East End, where he was familiar with her friend Ida' leaving her three-year-old sonviolence, William, at home with her parentspoverty and injustice. The boy thought that Maple There was no posh public school on his sister CV - it was better for the family than the shame of illegitimacy, but Maple he had high hopes been to the London School of putting her life (Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and William's) on he has a better footingfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. She He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was going to meet her well-to-do fiancé, hoping to persuade essentially, a card game which got him to come and meet her family the following weekan internship with Citibank. LaterEventually, her body would be found in the bombed-out home where he had taken herthis turned into permanent employment as a trader.

|isbn=15294072491035021803|title=The Perfect LieAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Jo SpainC L Miller|rating=43.5

|summary=It was July 2019 and Erin was happy's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She and Danny Ryan were planning a few days away: that's always back now because of a dangerous thing to do when yourequest for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya're married to a cop but she was hopeful. Theys former mentor and Carole'd been married for six months s close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and life was good with a decent apartment by the sea in Newportcircumstances seem suspicious, Long Islandto say the least. The knock on Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the door was insistent and when it was openedvillage: Arthur, Danny's partnershe feels, Ben Mitchell was there with a couple of other officerslet her down badly. Danny took one look Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, turned, walked she has not felt able to be near the open window and jumped to his death from man or pursue the fourth floorprofession she loved. Eighteen months laterAfter the split, she worked in a cafe, Erin would be met and married James (on trial for the rebound from the love of her husband's murderlife, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.

|isbn=1523092734AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=A WomenAll Tomorrow's Guide to Claiming SpaceFutures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Eliza Van CortBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)

|genre=Politics and SocietyScience Fiction|summary=''She brings a hug-kick-thunderclap that every woman needs in her life. Again and again and againOpening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' (Alma Derricks, former CMO, Cirque du Soleil RSD)

I've heard it said that 'technology'To claim space is to live the life of choosing unapologetically and bravely. It is to live the life what happens after you've always wantedre eighteen.'' Sometimes the reviewing gods are generous: at Well, I must confess that there have been more than a time when violence against women is much few decades of technology in the news, ''A Women's Guide to Claiming Space'' by Eliza Van Cort dropped onto my desklifetime. Now - to be clear - this book is not a I'how to disable your attacker ve kept up reasonably well with two simple jabs' manual: itwhat's something far more effective, advantageous to me but discussion at I'm left with the moment seems to be about how women can be ''protected'feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I've always thought that women need to rise above this, to be people m reading someone who donknows what they't need protection, people who claim their own spacere talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. If all women did this, those few men I needed people I knew I could trust and who are violent to women would realise that we are not just an easy target to be used to prove that they are big mencould deliver information in a way I could understand.

|author=Darren ShanSunny Singh|title=Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3Hotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers |summary=The second trilogy Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in Shan's ''Merge'' saga opens with our heroan unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, Archiea wartime photographer and Abhi, back in London the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the world hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of the Born. It's not been easy, explaining her room to try to his foster parents where hecapture what's been, or slipping back into ordinary life and forgetting about Inez and his other friends in the Merge, but Archie has done his besthappened through her photography.... well Although they only ever talk over the phone, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston in Big Ben's clock tower their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and except for fiddling with that sneaky master lock in Seven Dials every time he can sneak awaythey both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=B093H8DPQZ086154742X

|isbn=00084445011529153298|title=The Answer to EverythingList of Suspicious Things|author=Luke KennardJennie Godfrey|rating=45

|summary=Life should have been good for EmilyIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly... ) She had a lovely husband's not what's worrying Miv's family, Steven, who was a speech therapistthough. Women have been disappearing. WeWell, they'll pass over the fact that they rarely speak ve been murdered, but to each other and donhave 'disappeared' doesn't even sleep in the same bedsound quite so frightening. It isnMiv't so much that Emily has left the marital bed as that s upset because she's sharing a bed with one of overheard that her children as it's the only way father wants to get him to sleep during move the nightfamily 'Down South'. Arthur and Matty are gorgeous but they are When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a handful frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and Emily has a job she'll do anything to cope with too - she teaches drama two days a weekprevent that. TheyShe've s not long moved into a new home in Criterion Gardens: it's a trendy area worried about the dangers or that has been gentrified and ither Mum's run on semistopped talking -communal lines. The residents even share eco-friendly electric cars rather than owning their ownto anyone.

|isbn=02419851371398524085|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Cara HunterNicci French

|summary=DI Adam FawleyCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's team got to Edith Launceleve College firstfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the PrincipalPaul and Ollie and her daughter, Professor Hilary ReynoldsEtty. There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a studentare all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim? The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisher. Just to complicate matters further, Calebbody of Greg's mother is Petra Newsonfather, the local MPDuncan Ackerley, and Professor Fisher is a big name in Artificial Intelligencethe river. She has It was an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by easy assumption for the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and has more than ten thousand Twitter followersthen committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be The Salter children are not convinced but there''very'' publics little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.

|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H BarkerDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=A Tattoo Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on my Brainearth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade

|genre=AutobiographyTeens|summary=Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense 'I can hear the song of selfthe sea. I have been directly affected by this cruel diseaseThe call of the deep, as have manythe answering beat in my heart. Your memories '' Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and personality worn away plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a statue over time affected trap to end the wrecking, they capture the elementsisland's leader and Mira's father. It seems Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as if nature wants charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that final victory over you and your dignitylies buried deep in the sea. This is With only nine days to unearth what makes Daniel Gibbsmight save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler' memoir so admirables territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4. Daniel Gibbs is 5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a neurologist who bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was diagnosed pretty much shut down and, along with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in ''A Tattoo it, all the many daily social interactions on my Brain''which they depend so heavily.|isbn=11088389361736128426

|isbnauthor=1635862353Matthew Tree|title=The Sandalmaking Workshop|author=Rachel CorryWe'll Never Know

|genre=CraftsLiterary Fiction|summary=A sandal-making workshop? I couldn't really believe it, mainly because I'd always thought that you'd need Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more equipment than the average home was likely to be able to contain but I was intrigued. Rachel Corry started sandal making accidentally - different from his father, a small fire destroyed some drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of her shoes. One pair his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had come apart and she could see how the sandal was constructedendless crises of self confidence. Then she realised that she couldn't afford So Tim applied himself to replace all her shoes. Could she combine these two facts to create a new his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and worthwhile craft? She showed quite a few people her first pair and they all either wanted to know how to do it - or if she'd make them a pair. A new career was bornset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8

|isbnauthor=1787332098A G Slatter|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World|author=Henry ManceThe Briar Book of the Dead

|genre=Politics and SocietyFantasy|summary=''When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and so onThere's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions This secret magic of wild animals stay out theremy own, ''somewhereall mine,'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough seriesat last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

I was going to argue. I meanWithin a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, cows are for cheese (I couldnlies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar't consider eating red meat...) s, a family of witches who protect the town and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the sake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude first non-witch to animals - be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and I consider myself an animal loverpotions. If I had to choose between When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the company of humans town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the company of animalsrare ability to communicate with the dead, I would probably choose putting her at the animalsheart of a maelstrom of chaos. I insisted that I read this book: no Reeling from one was trying family secret to stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheeseanother, eggs, chicken and fish Ellie must decide who to trust and I needed determine what to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making as the decision would not be comfortableBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548

|authorisbn=Ananda Devi1529900360|title=Eve Out of Her RuinsThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=At not It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even 200 pagesafter Alex recovered, Eve Out Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books I've read in a long psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, but itwas Robin, Delaware's one of partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the most dramaticman she loved needed. It's also told The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a way that I can only describe as brutal: remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, 's not the descriptions stark and unromanticItalian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=09930093441529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}

|isbn=02419851370861541774|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)A Nye of Pheasants|author=Cara HunterSteve Burrows|rating=54

|summary=DI Adam FawleyDCI Domenic Jejeune's team got to Edith Launceleve College firstclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, called there by Jancis Appleby has taken a short holiday in Singapore to see the Principalmeet up with an old ally, Professor Hilary ReynoldsGuy Trueman. There had been an accusation of sexual assault by Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a professor on man armed with a studentknife - and he killed a Ghurka. When Fawley arrived Initially, he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim? The problem was faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that Caleb Morgan ''was'' he might have planned to murder the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina Fisherman. Just to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, Now he could be facing the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial Intelligencedeath penalty. She has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 another police force could provoke a month on clothes diplomatic incident and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers. When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'wouldn' publict help Danny at all.

|isbnauthor=0753558378Alexander McCall Smith|title=Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters|author=Greg McKeownThe Perfect Passion Company

|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=''The marginal return of working harder wasPerfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in factproviding a more personal, negative.'' That's what happened to Patrick McGinnistailored service. It's no exaggeration Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to say that he devoted his life take a trip to the company he worked for, struggling through, even when he was ill, only Canada to find that he was working get away for a bankrupt companywhile. His stock had fallen by 97%Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, he had lost his health and his job had little valueso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. He made a bargain And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with God; if he survived, he would make some changesnew characters who quickly begin to charm. He did survive Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and came through stronger - there's always her very helpful (and richerrather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. There isSome will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, you see, a different way: cosy afternoons in front of the fire'variety. The projects are divided by the time they'great things ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are not reserved for those who bleedattractive, for those who almost breakmodern and useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects'but that's me being picky.

|isbnauthor=1471181405Dean Koontz|title=Nighthawking|author=Russ ThomasThe Bad Weather Friend

|genre=CrimeParanormal|summary=Sheffield's [http://wwwBenny is having a terrifically bad day.sbg He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed.org.uk/ Botanical Gardens] (on Clarkehouse Road Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, if you'd like disturbing coffin-sized object to visit) are an oasis of calm in whathis home, and it's otherwise thought of as an industrial city but this possible that whoever or whatever was disrupted when inside is the body of a young woman was discovered. thing that has trashed his house! It had obviously been buried in one of The thing is, Benny is the beds but who would have started very last person to dig her up? deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. It had been in the earth for months and could have been undiscovered for yearsA really nice person. The police need So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to establish who stabbed her - and who left the twohis house is a new friend, very rarea bad weather friend called Spike, gold aurei on her eyeswho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. DCI Diane Jordan Spike is the Investigating Officer going to take care of Benny, and her foot soldiers are DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbani. They're joined by DS Guy Daley whowill certainly take care of Benny's just returned from extended sick leave. Mina thinks enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's as obnoxious as ever but suspects that he's not fully recovered from his injurieswild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491

|author= Jennifer Saint Adam Stower|title= Ariadne |rating= 4.5 |genre= Women's Fiction |summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting Murray and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus. |isbn=1472273869}} {{Frontpage|author=Gianna Pollero and Sarah Horne|title=Monster DoughnutsBun

|genre=Confident Readers|summary=After their parents mysteriously disappearedMurray is supposed to be a humble, Grace tidy and Danni have been left friendly cat, one who is able to run sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the family bakerytwo. But Grace needs the doughnuts and sweet treats that Danni bakes for he's a rather unusual reason...even though shebad magician's only ten years oldcat, she is so his favourite bun has been turned into a monster hunter! Monsters have a very sweet toothhyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and Grace uses the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a number world of methods to defeat them such as throwing baking powder on frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops theminto a Viking land, or tricking them into eating where a sweet treat that willtroll hunter is expected – well, ultimatelyone much bigger than Murray was, to be their demise. One dayhonest, though, Grace finds herself facing a cyclops monster called Mr Harris, who has a weakness for doughnuts but doesnhe't seem to explode as the other monsters do, s turned up and so things start he'll have to get very strange…do…|isbn=18481294320008561249

|isbn=0995647895B0C47LV1PC|title=Sadie and the Sea DogsFragility|author=Maureen Duffy and Anita JoiceMosby Woods|rating=3.54|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=SadieCan you make a ''Yo birthing person''s mother always said that she was a dreamerjoke? And if you could, her mind never on what she is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be doing. She lives by the River Thames at Greenwich and she loves to spend hours at The Maritime Museum or gazing at Cutty Sark... no.

''Her class had gone one rainy afternoonFragility''<br>''When all is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the houses cowered in restrictions imposed during the gloom,''<br>covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins'To return all the Maritime Museum''. Her imagination was firedmore surprising. SheHe'd love to sail been exiled on the oceans on an ancient sailing ship and went back regularlyCosta del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. One day she fell asleep under a glass case (itThe return has come about because he's the one where Nelsonhad a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's Trafalgar breeches are on show) ill and missed the closing bell and the attendanthasn's warning shoutt long to live. When she woke (It's hard floors don't make comfy beds) she was to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the midst boot of an adventure that she could never have imagined in a world of dolphins, pirates, mermaids and treasurestolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

|author=Kristen O'NealAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic IllnessesThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=54|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary= Having recently been diagnosed Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with chronic Lyme diseasehim, Priya has to come to terms and in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with the fact that she may be his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in constant pain for the rest of her lifefamily. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones' A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, an online support group a globe-trotting adventure where she talks all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnessesmagical beast. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape This has made the race anathema to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to the chat for a whileconfession from gran, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive Eli knows his only hope is to Brigid's house dare to check up on her. But enter what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the basement end – and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking only thing to online for the past few monthspossibly save his gran.|isbn=16836923490571382231

|authorisbn=Mercedes Helnwein178763681X|title=SlingshotKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=34|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Gracie Welles has resigned herself Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a residential cookery school in Belgravia. He didn't really want to being lonely. As but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a secret illegitimate daughter way of getting both men and women to do what he wanted. Paul ''somehow'' got the impression that he'd be at the school to assist Paul, who had a man with a "real" familybroken arm, she is used to not being a priority in peoplebut it didn's livest turn out that way. The teaching - and the problems - are all his own. But when she defends a random boy in her class with her slingshot, her simple existence is changed The one thing he hadn't expected was for goodsomeone to turn up dead. No longer can she spend her time writing novels in solitude Unfortunately, for her life now has a boy in it he was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that she never asked for: Wade Scholfieldperson to be the prime suspect.|isbn=152905818X

|isbnauthor=B005FM76AASarah Marsh|title=The Duke's Children|author=Anthony TrollopeA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=The story opens to probably the worst news After a bout of all: Lady Glencora Palliser is deadscarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Her husband, Plantagenet PalliserSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the Duke use of Omniumsign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is nearly paralysed by grief and struggling - at the same time - sent to adjust a school where she is taught to no longer being prime ministerlip read, or even in officebut physically restrained from signing. He seeks to protect From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and guide his three adult children, which is easier said than done when none of them wishes to ''be'' guidedusing a system called Visible Speech. Silverbridge (his elder sonAt the same time, actually called PlantagenetBell is working on other inventions and ideas, but always known by his title) and Gerald are destined to be sent down from Oxford and Cambridge respectively and to run Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up gambling debts, occasionally in eye-watering sums. Lady Helen has fallen in love with - and wishes to marry - Frank Tregear, the penniless son of a poor squire, which the Duke cannot countenance, not least because he sees echos complicated tangle of what might have happened when he married Lady Glencora. He's about to learn that parents do not always get their wayespionage.|isbn=1035401614

|authorisbn=Goldy Moldavsky1803816759|title=The Last GirlUnravelling|author=Will Gibson|rating=54|genre=TeensScience Fiction|summary= Rachel Chavez It's 2038 and Joe is a bored cop policing the new girl at Manchester Prepwealthy and peaceful New York City. A school filled Joe longs for a bit of adventure and to the brim get stuck into some really gritty crime detection. But then something goes horribly wrong with the richest children in the city – AI system that now runs everything, making life easier for many, and Rachel doesn't belongriots start to spread. She's not richFinally, she has no ties Joe gets to do some royal family in Serbia, and most real policing. In the aftermath of all, she spends the majority of rioting global pop star Suki is kidnapped and Joe is assigned to bring her spare time watching horror movies as a source of comforthome. She struggles to find anyone to connect with, until one day she stumbles upon Joe isn't the Mary Shelley Club. A secret society with only one aim: pull off the best prank in true horror movie styletrying to save Suki - Dylan, a British superfan and unless someone screamstech nerd, you have failed. Rachel becomes immediately engrossed in is also on the competitioncase. But as the pranks escalate, and Rachel finally feels like she has found her place in this school, things start to go What went wrong; a masked figure keeps showing up to ? Did the pranks, and people begin to get hurt. When the competition then takes a deadly turn, Rachel must figure out who this masked figure system fail or was it hacked? And how is before itSuki's too late.|isbn=0755501527kidnapping connected?

|authorisbn=Polly Barton1529421284|title=Fifty SoundsLaying Out the Bones|author=Kate Webb

|genre=Politics and SocietyCrime|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself startsIt was one of those flash downpours that the British weather often delivers in a heatwave. In a gully, with a human skeleton came to the question surface and forensic testing proved the body to be Lee Geary, who had disappeared nine years earlier. He''Why Japan?'' Japan has d been on my radar for a while known drug user and if the world hadnhad learning disabilities, so it could have been a simple case of misadventure but DI Matt Lockyer wasn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by nowconvinced. I may get there later this year Geary was a townie, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer so what was he doing out on Salisbury Plain alone? There are connections to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect suicide of the question in the first essay, Holly Gilbert and to two other deaths which is on were not considered suspicious at the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, time. Lockyer and DC Gemma Broad of the sound of Major Crimes Review Unit (that''every party where s cold cases to you have to introduce yourself''and me) investigate.|isbn=1913097501

|authorisbn=Lucy Holland0571379559|title=SistersongThe House of Broken Bricks|author=Fiona Williams

|summary=Sistersong ''The House of Broken Bricks'' is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling story of folk and fairy talesfour people. These stories Tess Hembry's roots are in Jamaica: temperamentally she might be happier there, but instead, for most of usshe lives in the house on the riverbank, are a cornerstone built of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspectivebroken bricks. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated Insubstantial as it might look, fleshing out charactersit's stood the passage of time, examining relationships storms and re-evaluating the role of womenfloods. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well Her husband, the plot is handled with careRichard, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters struggles to come grow his vegetables, to life, complete the delivery rounds - and to feel real bring in sufficient money. They have twin boys - Sonny and humanMax, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age rainbow twins. Sonny's colouring reflects his mother's Jamaican heritage. Max takes after his father. People don't believe that they live in. This 're related, much less twins and there's an assumption when Max is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to endout with his mother that she's his nanny.|isbn=1529039037

|isbn=15291242551529425867|title=The WhispersLost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery)|author=Heidi PerksSimon Mason

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=We know straight away that In Oxford, there's going to be a bodyare two D I Wilkins. It's on the beach under Crayne's Cliff near the town Raymond Wilkins is of Clearwater Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and it's new year's dayalways exquisitely dressed. To understand what happened we're going to have to go back to the previous September. Grace Goodwin has a soft Australian accent - she's lived there since her teens D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and nowfather of Ryan, in her mid-thirties, she's returned to her home town to liveis not. Her husband, Graham, works in Singapore and she and her eight-year-old daughter, Matilda, might as well be in the lovely apartment sheHe's foundnot any of those things. GraceHe's best friendwhite, Anna Robinsonoriginated from a trailer park, is still in Clearwater barely educated (reading's not ''really'' his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and she has an eight-year-old child tootrackies. EthanThey's re usually in the class Matilda will be joininglime green or acid yellow. ItYou might wonder if you's perfect!}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Sultoon|title=The Source|rating=2.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by re being introduced to a military base, struggling to care police procedural written for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another bingelaughs. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats Well, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look a little less bleakyou're not. The two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Sometimes the combination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's problematic.|isbn=1913193594

|isbnauthor=B004O37B6AMosby Woods|title=The Prime Minister|author=Anthony TrollopeA Whirly Man Loses His Turn

|summary=Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, is the prime minister of a coalition government but heThe West isn's privately enraged at t the seemingly unstoppable rise of Ferdinand Lopezdominant force it once was. Lopex is exotic - some describe him as Jewish, others as Portuguese but Nobody in the truth is that no one knows and Lopez West is not going quite sure how to explain. The ladies of society, mend this or even Palliser's own wife, Lady Glencora, are supporters but after Lopez makes an advantageous marriage Palliser if mending it is placed in the position best course of having to support his wife's actions when Lopez loses action. Governments are flailing. A war here, a by-electionpush for climate action there. The Duke's payment of Lopez' election expenses A feeling that nobody is in an attempt to stem gossip about his wife will come back to haunt himactual charge.}}{{Frontpage|author=Jessie Greengrass|title=The High House|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Charles Darwin taught that all living matter evolved to pass on its genetic material with the implied belief that your progeny will Imagine then pass on theirs. However, that train of thought is slowly seems to have fallen out of favour. Today's young generation are discovering that their parents and their parents' parents did not seem to think that far ahead. Or they did think that far ahead and thought "it's not my problem" or "there's nothing I can do"was a man with precognition. Raising a child and living Imagine the strategic advantage in this asset; a world on the precipice man who can tell you what will happen given any set of catastrophe is what drives ''The High House'' by Jessie Greengrasscircumstances. This is not a science-fiction novelThat man would be valuable, right? Perhaps the most valuable asset in history. This is our realityImagine then, that this man loses this ability. This is the life our children and their children will have What would governments do to live.get it back?|isbn=1800750072B0C9SNG8R1