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Hello from The Bookbag<metadesc>Expert, a full book review site, featuring books reviews from all the many most walks of literary life ; fiction, non- [[: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. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library 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 & self-published 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 plus author [[:Category:Interviews|interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[Features]] page.</metadesc>

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{{newreview|author=Jon Berkeley|title=The Lightning Key (Circus Trilogy)|ratingBest New Books==4.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I shall start with a word of advice. When you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magician, for the soul of a tiger that's contained in a tiger's egg thatRead [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. 's contained in the brain of your teddy bear, and your best friend - a fallen angel - is trying her best to make sure the other angels do not turn on you in a big way - 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 help.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonukbr>}}

{{newreview|author=Sue Townsend|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working in a bookshop. It's not quite how life was supposed to turn out. As he spends his days wrestling his strong willed 5 year old Gracie into her school uniform, trying to reassure glamorous wife Daisy that life in the provinces is not as bad as she would like to believe, and desperately attempting to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile ''Jeremy Kyle'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to the toilet is really Read [[:Category:Features|the last thing he needslatest features]]. And yet, the worst is still to come. Think a crumbling economy, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – it's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little that ol' Adrian can do except sit back and watch his life spin out of control around him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|author=Lauren Kate|title=Fallen|rating=4.5|genre=Teens|summary=A 17 year old girl at a new school meets a mysterious and impossibly good-looking boy, who she's immediately drawn to. He seems determined reviews of books about to either ignore her or be outright rude to her, until he saves her life, and the two of them end up drawn togetherpublished]]. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>}}

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gareth Hinds0008517061|title=King LearDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=34|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Hound me out of town in a most appropriate mannerFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, but I do not like King Learhas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. For me, even as There’s perhaps a trained actorlittle uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, the language is too dense Livia and richher daughter Diana, the setas moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-up too archly unfeasible grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to create Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the great tragedy it's thought to be. future she wants for herself and her daughter? To my mind For the acclaim moment they’re enjoying life in the present and esteem in which it's held is only mirrored by its own over-long, over-blown blusteringputting the future on the back burner.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763643440</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Theroux1786482126|title=A Dead Hand: A Crime in CalcuttaThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Set Builders were demolishing an old house in India, familiar territory for Theroux, Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'A Dead Hand'' tells apartments - when they discovered the story bones of a travel writer suffering from writerchild beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's block (also known difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn'dead hand') until a chance letter from an American ex-patt, the mysterious Mrs Unger, relating that she is pregnant with his child as a story result of a mystery of a dead body in a hotel leads him to release his creativity in very unexpected waysthe one night they spent together some three months ago. The story Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is more about obsession and infatuation than it is about the mystery itself as the narrator falls under Mrs Unger's Tantric charmsprone to sudden bouts of sickness. But does she have more to hide than she's letting on?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144639</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Toby Lester0008551324|title=The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest MapDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster

|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=In 2003 a map was bought It's unusual for $10 million, anyone from the Hardie family to approach the highest price ever paid publicly police. Neither side likes or has any respect for a historical document, by the Library other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell the police where the body of Congress, where it a missing person is now on permanent public displayburied and who was responsible for her death. No ordinary mapThis person, he promises, this is sometimes described as America's birth certificatesomeone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. It And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the sole survivor remainder of a thousand copies printed his sentence and to get an early in the 16th centuryparole date. Not much to ask, and was discovered by accident in some archives in a German castle in 1901. is it? The sale new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and story behind it intrigued Toby Lester so much she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that he was inspired to discover more, DS Max Craigie and this book anyone who works with him is the resultkept well away from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978030</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven Lowe and Alan McArthur 0008405026|title=Is it Just Me or Has A Stranger in the Shit Hit the Fan?: Your Hilarious New Guide to Unremitting Global MiseryFamily (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=35|genre=HumourCrime|summary=It''The banks fell over like fat Labradors running over s sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a wet kitchen floorhalt.'' Surely that is the wackiestNow, her mother, Helena, most inappropriate simile for the credit crunch and all it has done for the worldher father are dead in their bed. You won't get any such namby-pamby animal likenesses from these authorsInitially, instead with quite it looks like a potty mouth on them they will lambast straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the modern world, positioning of the entire banking system, all those who failed to see bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it coming, and those millions just seemingly waiting for us all was going to revert to highbe an open-interest, highand-risk, high-lending capitalism, so they can get back on shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the expenses trainexplanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, and back up the rich listsUna Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443656</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy Stanton0571379877|title=What's For Dinner, Mr Gum?The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=As soon as heroine Polly turns her back, and leaves the town of Lamonic Bibber for Edward Jevons is a day at the seasideworking-class young man, Mr Gum falls out obsessed with his best friendupper-class friends, causing carnivorous carnage all over the placeRobert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. Meat is getting thrown around like itHe's going out of fashionalso self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and we have uses Edward to doubt whether Polly and her companions can ever utilise the power of run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and put things he's drunkenly confided how he feels to rightsRobert. Especially as this book does Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not contain like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a magic unicorn called Elizabethdark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405248246</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Loose WomenJo Callaghan|title=Here Come the GirlsLeave No Trace

|genre=Home and FamilyCrime|summary=This When a man is found crucified on the second volume by the panelists from that nice ITV seriestop of a hill in Nuneaton, ''Loose Women''. Just as promised on DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the covercase alongside her sidekick, this book is an entertaining night with the girlsAI detective Lock. It turns out that they're just like uss their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. The faces are already familiar and even if you don't know them yet But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with nine contributors, you'll soon find a like-minded woman behind one potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of the celebrity facesunwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. The women are universally warm-hearted and supportive: there Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will be many a lonely woman who reads this book Kat find herself taken off the case and feels as if she sat down with , potentially, out of a group of friends for the evening.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444700154</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jean Ure1399613073|title=Fortune CookieMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=Confident ReadersThrillers|summary=Fudge Cassidy Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the Cupcake kid are best friendsfirst day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. If the names remind you of Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a certain film then bonus when you'd aim to be spot on as that's where Fudge's father got the idea froma cardiothoracic surgeon. They're actually chalk and cheese – Fudge Laura is loud mouthed a perfectionist and opinionated and Cupcake a trauma doctor. Anjali is quiet the free spirit of the group and thoughtful – but the combination worksshe becomes a GP. TheyWhen we first meet them they've just started re at secondary school a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and Cupcake has rather a lot on her plateit's going to end in tragedy. Her brother Joey has muscular dystrophy and his problems are becoming more obviousWe don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Add to this Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that her father couldn't cope with will impact the problems and he now has another familythree friends. ItThis time, it's just Cupcake, Joey and her mother – and not a lot of moneytheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007224621</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenifer Roberts0241636604|title=The Madness of Queen MariaTrading Game: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of PortugalA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in Europeyour mind, Maria was destined you're unlikely to become the first female monarch in Portuguese historythink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Married to her uncle Infante PedroA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them)where he was familiar with violence, poverty and became Queen in 1777injustice. A conscientious woman, she There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had the misfortune been to be born in during the 'age London School of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacyEconomics. Instinctively Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a supporter facility with numbers which most of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to state affairsbe stupid. It was his ability at what was, she was no Queen Elizabethessentially, no Catherine the Greata card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and wore her crown rather reluctantlythis turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Hughes1035021803|title=Thomas Wogan is DeadThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Graphic NovelsCrime|summary=Well, with a title like that, need I bother with a plot summary? A man It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has a day out in Morecambe, then been back to the next thing he knows heEnglish country village where she grew up. She's in the ultimate waiting room, with a strange array back now because of animals (a bat, a toad, a sea urchin...), all waiting request for... wellhelp from her beloved aunt, somethingCarole. Yup, as you didnFreya't need telling, hes former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095580888X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dave Eggers|title=The Wild Things|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Maxand the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. When I say he sometimes gets Arthur was the wrong end of reason why Freya had not been back to the stick about adults, or dislikes his mother's new boyfriendvillage: Arthur, or gets a bit feisty when he she feels the need for revenge, I am certainly understating the factslet her down badly. He is a bit of a rascal Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to say be near the man or pursue the leastprofession she loved. But all that might change when he finds himself travelling to After the split, she worked in a strange land cafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of roisterous animalsher life, who was murdered) and Freya and ends up installed as their kingJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241144221</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Jeremy Strong|title=Christmas Chaos for the Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog |rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=TrevorI've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you's troublesome dog, Streaker, has had three puppiesre eighteen. They were fathered Well, according to local bully Charlie Smugg, by one I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of his Alsatianstechnology in my lifetime. Trevor would ideally like I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to keep them, at least until Christmas, me but his parents have other ideas and put them up for sale. Charlie Smugg declares I'm left with the feeling that heit's entitled to half of the money all getting away from the sale me. Some of the puppiesit is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, but before they can be sold I could research the three puppies go missing in possibilities and the park probabilities and itend up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they's up to Trevor re talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and his best friend Tina to try and track them down before Charlie demands his cash!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327243</amazonuk>who could deliver information in a way I could understand.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah Beth DurstSunny Singh|title=IceHotel Arcadia

|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=Cassie lives on The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an Arctic research station in Alaskaunnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She loves Hiding from the ice terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the wilderness hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her remote home and sheroom to try to capture what'd definitely prefer to spend her time on tracking polar bears and fending off frostbite rather than on mixing with s happened through her peers and enjoying college and home comforts back in Fairbanksphotography. However Although they only ever talk over the phone, things aren't all rosy. Cassie's mother died when she was just a baby and she can't their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help feeling a huge hole in her heart. Her scientist father is remote keep safe and unloving and her grandmother left they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the station after an argument with him when Cassie was still very youngterrorists. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847386571</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Smyth and Michael Terry1529153298|title=The Wide-Mouthed FrogList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Do you know the joke about the wide-mouthed frogIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? You must have heard it I mean, honestly... It) She's not what's a classic. Itworrying Miv's one that you really need to tell in personfamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, with your fingers pulling your mouth wide openthey've been murdered, but to hopefully spark your memory, the wide-mouthed frog introduces himself to a number of animals until he finally comes across a crocodile who eats wide-mouthed frogs, and the frog does his best to disguise who he is whilst saying have 'disappeared'Ooh, you dondoesn't see many of those round here, do you?sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she' Is overheard that her father wants to move the family 'm hardly doing it justice, but itDown South's very cheesy and funny. Anyway When you're from Yorkshire, this Down South is a book of frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that jokeher Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804964</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman1398524085|title=Don't Swallow Your GumHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French

|genre=LifestyleCrime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband'''BANG'''s fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot downHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. '''BANG'''are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. ThatShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baselessriver. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn'''CLICK'''t stand the guilt. ThatThe Salter children are not convinced but there's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as little else they can do but get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant bookon with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annie Taylor1035906708|title=VioletDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Violet is a very special hippo. She is extremely small We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but that does not make her adoptive she was born to Greek parents Albert in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Mavis love only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her any father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the lessStates. However, they are slightly worried When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that Violet has she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a very unusual habit mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of turning pink without warning and her preference for no explicable reasonher elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906847371</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary DixonChristopher Edge|title=When Rooks Speak of LoveBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Arthur Transcombe is Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a middle-agedmovie marathon at their local cinema, grey-haired, self-effacing poet. Unremarkable really - on a place that has the outsidenickname of 'The Black Hole'. He hasAll big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, howeverand many, managed to achieve some success with his poems. many snacks! (Being a guest speaker at However, as the Cheltenham Literary Festival movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is no mean feat)very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. He But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is also a babe magnet!going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529429</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreview|author=A J Healy|title=Tommy Storm Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the Galactic Knights|rating=3wrecks.5|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Meet Tommy Storm. He's Mira, like her mother before her, is one of five teenagers snapped up from around the universe seven who swim out to be a gang of heroic detectives charged with survey the ruins – rescuing EVERYTHING from destructionany survivors and any treasure that lies within. Not just But when the planet, or Council Watch lays a trap to end the solar systemwrecking, or even they capture the galaxy, but EVERYTHING. Nobody seems to know whatisland's leader and Mira's going father. Desperate to cause this destructionsave him from death, or when, but Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and his friends and their ship seem with only coordinates to be guide her, she sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only people proactively going about saving nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the day. So itheart of the smuggler's a pity that they start this book strung up by a nasty loony who's about territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to kill themsave the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847247555</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham McCannJames Sherwood Metts|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-ThomasPlanet Storyland

|summary=London 1601. Elizabeth I is getting on in years. Her capital city is Things have been a busy, bustling place. Boats fill the river and people fill bit sticky for the streetsEarthlings. Jack is happy because it's his birthday AI and his present is his heart's desire: an excitable black puppy named Maxautomation have been proceeding apace, whooften replacing jobs they's a ''licking re paid to do and a running other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and a leaping and a jumping and a tummy in the air and a tail wagging starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and a barking, racingalong with it, braking, spinning energy dog of delight''all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140880042X</amazonuk>1736128426

  {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean UreMatthew Tree|title=Love and KissesWe'll Never Know

|genre=Confident ReadersLiterary Fiction|summary=Tamsin Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and Katie were just thirteen and worried that they were boring. They'd been best friends since forever chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and were the good girls. Neither missed school, skipped her homework nor had boyfriends. Well, that is, not so far. Up until then Tamsin who had been the boffin head – consistently strong academically and looking forward to going on to universityendless crises of self confidence. All that seemed So Tim applied himself to change when she met Alex. Wellhis studies, when I say 'met' I should perhaps clarify cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and say that Alex pushed his wheelbarrow into her, from the building site where he workedset himself high but achievable ambitions. Oh, and did I mention that he was seventeen, Polish and spoke very little English?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007281722</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

{{newreview|author=Henry Mintzberg|title=Managing|rating=5|genre=Business Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and Finance|summary=''Study after study the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has shown that managers work at an unrelenting pace'' How truealways wished for magic, though it always makes me wonder whyEllie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a resultsteward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, thereEllie's such a market for bulky management cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and leadership Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and general business books like this one. How does anyone who needs or wants centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to read one ever find communicate with the time to do so? This title actually has an answer to thisdead, by providing two books in one, and it is such putting her at the heart of a simple yet effective solution that I have to start there. You can read this book in one maelstrom of two wayschaos. Option Reeling from one is family secret to read every wordanother, chapter by chapter, cover Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to cover. If you have do as the time I would recommend this approach because the book is very readableBriar witches' legacy, not too repetitiveeverything they have sacrificed to survive, and quite thought-provokingis under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0273709305</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kathryn Fox1529900360|title=Blood BornThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman

|summary=To give support to a vulnerable gang-rape victimIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, forensic pathologist Anya Crichton offers Sturgis was reluctant to drive Giverny Hart to the courthouse ask for his help on the day she is due to testify against the notorious Harbourn brothersdifficult cases. But when Anya arrives at His assertions that there were only open-and-shut cases which didn't need the house she finds Giverny close to death and faces help of a psychologist only worked for a battle against time to save herwhile. In the panic Finally, Anya fails to take note of an important clue which might help tell whether it really was suicide or a cleverly staged murder. Worse stillRobin, in trying to save the girlDelaware's lifepartner, Anya has interfered with a crime scene and the case falls apartwho nudged Milo into asking for help again. She blames herself for knew that the involvement was something that the Harbourn brothers being allowed to walk free and only hours later there is news of another attackman she loved needed. A pair of sisters have been stabbed and raped resulting in the death of one The next case did look simple, while the other clings to lifethough.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340933097</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Leah Fleming|title=Remembrance Day|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=In the year 2000 an old lady Two lovers were murdered in a wheelchair watches the unveiling swimming pool of the new war memorial a remote property in the village squareBel Air. ThereHe was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's pride in what has been achieved, in not the family who are gathered around her and there are memories tooItalian. Some are good but many are not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561039</amazonuk>But which of them was the primary target?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neal Layton1529395224|title=Surf's Up (Mammoth Academy)Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands

|genre=Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Having successfully seen off the rather unpleasant humans Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in earlier volumeshis footsteps, our favourite junior mammoths Oscar 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 Arabella have nothing much else to do apart from return to Mammoth Academy was convinced this was the job for lots more double periods of Difficult Sumshim. They're supposed to be making presentations about what they did during the holidays too Before long, but Oscar hasnhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn't done any preparation and, frankly- as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he can't really remember what he actually did do with all that free time other than no Difficult Sumsd wanted to be a professional footballer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>034098967X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ursula Jones and Sarah Gibb0861541774|title=The Princess Who Had No KingdomA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows

|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=The princess who has no kingdom wanders around in a cart pulled by her horse Pretty. SheDCI Domenic Jejeune's very politeclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, friendlyhas taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and kind-heartedhe killed a Ghurka. Initially, but she feels like something is lacking because she doesn't have he faced a kingdom charge of her own. The other royals she meets treat her nicely enough, manslaughter but there's always a feeling evidence came to light that suggested that she's not quite he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as good as them because she isnany interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't the princess of anywherehelp Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846160421</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mij Kelly and Louise NisbetAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Happiest Man in the World or the Mouse Who Made ChristmasPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingGeneral Fiction|summary=Mouse doesn't like anyone The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and keeps herself operating as an alternative to herselfall the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Her things are Ness has asked her things younger cousin Katie if she could come and she look after the business, as Ness is too selfish planning to take a trip to Canada to share them get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with anyone elsea bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. One day And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an old man moves in Edinburgh we already love, thanks to Mouse's house. He used to be the happiest man in 44 Scotland Street and the worldIsabel Dalhousie novels, but now he's sadwith some new characters who quickly begin to charm. He's fed up of having given Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, givenbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, given all his life and never got anything back. He just sits quietly there's always her very helpful (and mopes. This makes Mouse miserablerather handsome) neighbour, William, so one day she decides to cheer him up by giving him lend a clementine...hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340931558</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Bland0811771741|title=The Very Cranky BearInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman

|genre=For SharingCrafts|summary=Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep head into Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a cave collection of knits from toys to get out blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the rain'long, but little do they know that Bear is fast asleep cosy afternoons in therefront of the fire' variety. When The projects are divided by the time they wake him up'll take to complete - less than five hours, he roars at themfive to ten hours, chasing them outside, so they decide ten to cheer him up somehowtwenty hours and more than twenty hours. Zebra paints stripes on him All the projects are attractive, Moose fashions antlers for him modern and Lion sticks a mane of straw on himuseable. Unsurprisingly, this makes Bear even crankier, so it I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's down to Sheep to save the dayme being picky...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340989424</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kes Gray and Lee WildishDean Koontz|title=Mum and Dad GlueThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=A young boy's parents are splitting upBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He's going through the usual emotions that children of divorce go through: worryloses his job, feeling unsurehe loses his fiancee, blaming himselfand his house gets trashed. Oh, angerand someone has delivered a really weird, denialdisturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and then trying it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to get them to stay togetherdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. His method So fortunately for this isn't Benny it turns out that the usual response though: he looks delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for glue being a good person. Spike is going to stick his mum take care of Benny, and dad together. Thankfullywill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he , Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds some wise and kindly advice in the processherself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340957107</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clara VulliamyAdam Stower|title=The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To BedMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=It's Pearl's bedtimeMurray is supposed to be a humble, but she says she's really busy tidy and isn't going friendly cat, one who is able to sleep. She just wants to play and play eat and eat and playsleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. When But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the bear with sticky paws rings catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the doorbellregular back garden, he whisks her away on an amazing but into a world of frightening adventure - although as you might expectand whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, the bear has where a little more energy troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Pearl Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and eventually she does get a little sleepy.he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408300648</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen MackeyB0C47LV1PC|title=MikiFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|genre=For SharingLiterary Fiction|summary=ItCan you make a ''Yo birthing person''s coldjoke? And if you could, dark and icy, and Miki and Penguin are trudging through is the snow. But question should you make it's Midwinter Eve, when wishes come true. They wish for a tree, lights, someone strong to power ? Or is the lightsquestion if you did, and finally a star would it land? The catch is that will shine brightly foreverthe answer for both could well be.... Miki is taken deep below the ice to find the star, whilst up top Penguin and new friend Polar Bear start to worry about herno.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034095065X</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Kristin Cashore|title=Fire|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary=Possessed ''Fragility'' is set as the city of great beautyPortland, the kind that drives men madOregon, Fire is used to people trying to kill her. She isn't used cautiously begins to them doing it by accident. When a poacher in the woods outside her home accidentally shoots her, Fire is hard pressed to keep the temperamental Lord Archer emerge from killing him. But as sure as Fire is the man did not mean to cause her harm, she is made unsure by the strange fog that exists in restrictions imposed during the man's mind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905200129</amazonuk>covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justin Scroggie1529431735|title=Eye Spy: Uncovering the Secrets of the World Around YouThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry

|genre=TriviaCrime|summary=Signs are everywhereIt's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. I wasn He't really one of those who thought our roads were littered with too many traffic signs until d been exiled on the day I was driven past Costa del Sol as a pair of speed regulation signs, positioned at the exit end of wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a oneletter from his ex-way street but facing the illegal way up itwife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. Not all signs, of course, are quite as unnecessary, or indeed as blatantly visible It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, which is where this pictorial guide stripped to countless coded messages, signifiers his underwear and other similar factoids comes sent to a watery grave inthe boot of a stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340994487</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jose Saramago Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Small MemoriesThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts

|genre=AutobiographyConfident Readers|summary=Having been born Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in 1922 the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and lived through so much of in the evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the twentieth centuryfamily. A few short years ago, with an authorEli's view of change and peopleparents were both lost to the titular race, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lot. Civil Wars globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the neighbouring Spain; the growth company of his country - which still left it as western Europe's pooresta magical beast. Here he allows us witness This has made the race anathema to the pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, Eli knows his mind drifting through his childhoodonly hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, in with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the country and in Lisbon, and provides a subtle and gentle memoironly thing to possibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>0571382231

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eoin Colfer178763681X|title=And Another Thing ... Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Part Six of Three (Hitchhikers Guide 6) |rating=3.5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Of all the big books announced Knife Skills for this year, this one must have raised more eyebrows than many. Why try and write a new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, when way before the end, its creator Douglas Adams was proving quite hopeless at such a task? And why approach an Irishman, Eoin Colfer, when the originals - tempered with their humour which could only be described as Monty Python doing a sci-fi Terry Pratchett, and with their cups of tea and dressing gowns, could only be described as very English? Well the answer is most evident - Colfer is a world-beater when it comes to knocking up a story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155149</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBeginners|author=Harlan Coben|title=Tell No OneOrlando Murrin|rating=54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=I've been meaning to get around to reading some or all of Harlan Coben's work, because if the reviews are to be believed and you are Chef Paul Delamare took a fan of the 'Bloody Knife /Blunt Instrument' thriller, the man is quite simply not capable of turning out teaching job at a duff novelresidential cookery school in Belgravia. But you know how it is, what with one thing and another and a bulging pile of books to be read and reviewed, I just somehow hadnHe didn't managed really want to give him my full attention. Until now.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409117022</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft|title=Margrave but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of the Marshes|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London getting both men and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years later. I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness women to say exactly do what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies and later Radio Times. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1Paul ''s Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-somehow'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a while. So I approached this book with an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez |title=Perfumes: The A - Z Guide|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The only thing got the impression that could be conceivably better than reading he''Perfumes'' would d be at the school to read it while sampling the scents it reviewsassist Paul, but even without the olfactory component, ''Perfumes'' is who had a delight: Turin (a lyrical scientist) and Sanchez (an analytically enthusiastic collector) not only treat perfume creation as high artbroken arm, but it didn't turn perfume criticism into an art form (or at least a sophisticated genre of writing) tooout that way. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681278</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Malouf |title=Ransom|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Taking his theme from a small part of Homer's Iliad, Malouf tells the story of the king of Troy, Priam's griefThe teaching -stricken voyage into the Greek camp to ransom Troy's wealth for and the body of his fallen son, Hector, killed by the equally griefproblems -stricken Achilles whose great friend Hector had killed in battle before Achilles took are all his cruel revengeown. Malouf tells the story in sparse, yet lyrical and poetic fashion suggesting the personal stories behind the epic themes that Homer related. It is an exquisitely written piece managing to be both deeply moving as well as a great piece of story telling.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184159</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Steven M Gillon|title= The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=The assassination of President Kennedy came at a pivotal moment in my life and one thing he hadn't expected was for more than forty years I've read most of what has been written about the eventsomeone to turn up dead. It's been of variable qualityUnfortunately, but he was the books fed person who discovered the curiosity of people entranced by body and everyone knows that the charismatic young President who died so publicly. I'd come to the point of wondering if there was anything new police consider that person to be said, but Stephen Gillom has looked at what happened from an unusual and largely overlooked angle – the first twenty four hours of Lyndon Johnson's Presidencyprime suspect.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>046501870X</amazonuk>