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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=Kate Tremayne|title=The Loveday Conspiracy|ratingBest New Books==4|genre=Historical Fiction'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned new reviews by a Loveday but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the housecategory]]. St John's twin, Adam, vows that he will punish ''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|the man responsiblelatest features]]. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed women. As if this wasn't enough '' '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of a problem, her son from her first marriage, Richard, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced books about to make a difficult choicebe published]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian Barnes0008517061|title=Staring at the SunDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Jean's first Incident involved Uncle LeslieFormer Metropolitan Police detective, hyacinths and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgottenJake Johnson, but Jean doesn't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her has settled into his rustic life - mostly on the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to Americaat Little Sky. He's replaced by Tommy Prosser, There’s perhaps a grounded pilot who once saw little uncertainty about the sun rise twice in one day future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and excites her daughter Diana, as many questions moving in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, together would mean a policeman, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life and he doesn't much care. But Jean to move in with Livia or does. She cares much less Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before moment they’re enjoying life in the wedding present and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in putting the future on the bedroomback burner. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1786482126|title=2012: Science or SuperstitionThe Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=34.5|genre=Popular ScienceCrime|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlyBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. The first book to feature the story There was from no skull. Was this a Yale professorritual killing or murder? Inevitably, in 1966Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. WeIt've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuhs difficult as Ruth knows, the Maya creation myth. But but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as the crunch date a result of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeedone night they spent together some three months ago. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year Her condition will be obvious before long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged not least because Ruth is prone to start then, when they came across this concept a couple sudden bouts of thousand years into that periodsickness. Surely they couldn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney0008551324|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are only enjoyable if you want 's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to enjoy summerapproach the police. Greg here doesnNeither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he't want s prepared to notice ittell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. This person, he promises, is someone big and would prefer it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to spend serve the remainder of his days curtains drawn, face glued sentence and to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling in snacksget an early parole date. The last thing he needs, thenNot much to ask, is his mother, on a it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she'family togetherness'' trip, s even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and on a budget, anyone who works with bad ideas of him is kept well away from what Greg should be doing instead's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rick Yancey0008405026|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=In late 19th century AmericaIt'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 halt. Now, her mother, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the sternHelena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, forbidding Dr Warthrop since it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the death positioning of his parents, who were also employed by the doctorbodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. The twelve year old boy has seen many things in his service What looked as though it was going to the monstrumologist be an open- a specialist in monsters and- but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses of shut case is now a young girl and complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the headless creature with fangs explanation lies in his chest who had tried to feast on herRosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella Whitelaw0571379877|title=Midsummer MadnessThe Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=You'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and when the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenesStanza. SheRobert's a very good prompt despite the fact that you need to wrap up very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job and most of the cast in the theatre companydirector. ItHe's a bit of a shock though when she realises that the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonalso self-obsessed, demanding, the man she helped out when he had nothing to eat handsome and entitled and nowhere uses Edward to sleeprun errands for him. Sophie was a little softer Edward has been in those love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in the meantime sheRobert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to develop stumble upon the two of them kissing in a protective shelldark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting read, but unless I'm missing something, the focus of the book seems a little difficult to grasp. It's best if I start with the author's intentions as set out in her Prologue. It is a mixture of tales of her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'roll. All of these, she notes, were heard on the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds the blues, gospel, soul and jazz of the South Side, when the people began to build the great institutions and great solidarity that enabled him to become the most powerful man on the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=P J ParrishJo Callaghan|title=Dead of WinterLeave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=Crime
|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan When a man is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in found crucified on the midst top of a pine-peppered winter wonderlandhill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not It's their first live case together, having previously been easy for Kincaidvery successful with several cold cases. A troubledBut when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and foster homes, Louis figures a very high profile case that if he is going draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to put some integrity back into solve the worldcase in time, he or will need to wear Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a badge to do it.career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Russell Celyn Jones1399613073|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary=Pwyll rules Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a medieval-style fiefdom in quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a post-climate change Walescardiothoracic surgeon. Life Laura is different in many ways - there's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism perfectionist and horsepower a trauma doctor. Anjali is the main means free spirit of transportthe group and she becomes a GP. But in many ways When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's much going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the same tragedy or the consequences. Twenty- people still fight one anotherfive years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, towns still have sink estates, rich boys still have too much time on their hands and precious little meaning in it's their livesteenage children who are involved. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Owen Sheers0241636604|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionAutobiography|summary=In the old tale, Branwen is the sister If you were to bring up an image of Bendigeidfran - the giant King of Britain. She marries the King of Irelanda city banker in your mind, who doesnyou't treat her wellre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling A hoodie and war jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and killings ensue. In this new talehis background is the East End, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers whowhere he was familiar with violence, in poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the wake London School of the devastating foot Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheep. She meets an old man who tells her he has a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower facility with numbers which most of Londonus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, propaganda work during World War IIessentially, and a card game which got him an equally doomed love affairinternship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Bohnet1035021803|title=Follow Your StarThe Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=It's three twenty years since Nanette Weston left MonacoFreya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She'd been engaged to s back now because of a Formula 1 racing driver request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and had lived Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the life of least. Arthur was the wealthy but a serious car accident reason why Freya had ended all thatnot been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. The accident could have killed her fiancé and Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she lost her driving licence because of has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the alcohol profession she'd consumedloved. Her slow recovery was hindered by After the end of her engagement but split, she's found some contentment worked in being a nanny to two young children. When her friend and employer, Vanessacafe, remarries met and takes an extended honeymoon in married James (on the Amazon Nanette is asked to take rebound from the children back to Monaco where their father liveslove of her life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
{{newreview|author=J R Stephenson|title=Crooked Justice|rating=2.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet Barry Johns. YouI'll see him coming - he's five hundred pounds if heve heard it said that 's an ounce. Just dontechnology't ever lend him money - he wonis what happens after you't pay it backre eighteen. A businessman with a share of a nightclub on CyprusWell, he goes I must confess that there for have been more than a customary break, and finds his sort-few decades of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as the bar dancertechnology in my lifetime. He manages I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to tread both on me but I'm left with the toes feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of his local colleague and some Greek rivalsit is - frankly - quite frightening. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides to pack up Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and shut end updown rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. It's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revengeway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen BakerSunny Singh|title=They've Got Your NumberHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceThrillers |summary=If you are The Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. Hiding from the slightest bit paranoidterrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, worry that ''Big Brother'' there is always watching or like to believe that you are not a numberSam, but a free man (or woman)wartime photographer and Abhi, then this may not be the book hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for youthe residents who are still alive in the hotel, as it will do nothing he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to dispel any of those worries. Ifbe cowed by events, and keeps on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling venturing out of humanityher room to try to capture what' sounds like one of s happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the sexiest things everphone, their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are chomping at discovered by the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to sayterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
 {{newreview|author=Rebecca Tope|title=Fear in the Cotswolds|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time it's winter and she's spending a month in the Cotswold village of Hampnett. It wouldn't be a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people and the area. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases but it looks as though that might have come to an end as the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbled. For the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby field. When the police finally arrive the body has disappeared and the police obviously wonder if she's imagined it all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tad Tuleja1529153298|title=A Dictionary The List of Foreign Words and Phrases|rating=3|genre=Home and Family|summary=Take a look at the cover design of this book, and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for all those foreign words that have taken part in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homes. But the title is definitely honest, for this is a dictionary book first, for reference, and a browser for the trivia buff second.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSuspicious Things|author=Anne Rice|title=Angel TimeJennie Godfrey|rating=2.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Toby OIt'Dare s 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion for musicPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, history and playing his beloved lutehonestly... He) She's not what's worrying Miv's also something of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years agofamily, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. One day while on a Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'job. When you' he re from Yorkshire, Down South is visited by an Angel who offers him a chance at redemptionfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. Toby agrees For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to become prevent that. She's not worried about the Angeldangers or that her Mum's human instrument and help save lives rather than take them. He is sent on an assignment stopped talking - to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century Englandanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mortimer1398524085|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French
|rating=5
|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=The medievalCharlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, in fact timeEtty. are all worried but - strangely -honouredher husband, Alec, view of King Henry V as one of England's greatest heroes was propagated though is not originated by Shakespeare. Shortly afterwards, Etty and again more recently to some extent by OlivierGreg, find the body of Greg's portrayal father, Duncan Ackerley, in filmthe river. At least one historian has called him ''It was an easy assumption for the greatest man police to make that ever ruled EnglandDuncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there's little else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Gregory1035906708|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</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDiva|author=Miss Read|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Set in the rural village We tend to think of Thrush GreenMaria Callas as Greek, this book is the latest but she was born to Greek parents in a series surrounding familiar characters. There is the feisty Ella BembridgeManhattan, New York, who is finally having in December 1923 and only moved to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight failsAthens when she was thirteen. Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her, but she refuses father changed it to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time Callas' to retire now make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that his wife, Nelly, is she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a successful cafe owner mother who mercilessly exploited her and can afford to take care made no secret of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity playpreference for her elder sister, despite a number of set-backsJackie. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt and DaveChristopher Edge|title=Yuck's Robotic BottomBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=It's concerned me Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a while that it's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princesses, magic soft toysmovie marathon at their local cinema, mermaids and pets abound – but there's a much smaller choice for boys. It's important too with early readers place that has the content is nickname of 'The Black Hole'interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' to do at school and moves into being fun. Matt and Dave have found the answer in Yuck.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John E Smelcer|title=The Great Death|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary='As Western Europeans settled AlaskaAll big movie fans, they brought with them diseases against which the indigenous people had no natural immunity. At the beginning 're looking forward to lots of the twentieth centuryexciting films, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from a pandemic of measlesand many, smallpoxmany snacks! However, and influenza. No community was spared. In most casesas the movie starts, half of a village's population died within a week. In some casesthey very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, there were no survivors. It was the end of and they are swept up into an ancient way of lifeadventure they couldn't even imagine. Natives still refer But as they lurch from one film genre to the dreadful period as next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the Great Death.'cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>1839942738
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maxine BarryRachel Greenlaw|title=River DeepCompass and Blade
|rating=3.5
|genre=Women's FictionTeens|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Ray's beloved hotel, 'I can hear the Ray song of Sunshine is on the river banksea. It's here that guests come who want to be pampered and looked after in The call of the way that only deep, the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks answering beat in to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking formy heart. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonus. There's just a slight doubt in his mind when a red-haired maid catches his eye.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Joe Gores|title=Spade Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and Archer|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Sam Spade decidesplundering the wrecks. Mira, bravelylike her mother before her, to set up his is one-man detective agency. It's of the 1920s in San Francisco so we have seven who swim out to survey the prohibition era ruins – rescuing any survivors and all any treasure that that entailslies within. Many locals, of course, choose But when the Council Watch lays a trap to disobey end the lawwrecking, stick two fingers up, so to speak they capture the island's leader and as a result thereMira's lots of bootleg liquorfather. Straight awayDesperate to save him from death, it's evident that Sam Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and with only coordinates to guide her, she sets off in search of a man family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to unearth what might save her father, as her journey takes her from the watched streets of few words. He has foreign islands to the mannerisms heart of a cat - stealthy, quick on his feet. Hethe smuggler's also a compulsive chain-smoker, but then againterritory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most people were. In that era, holding a cigarette was an elegant, almost essential accessory. How times have changeddear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140911323X</amazonuk>0008664730
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael Morpurgo and Emma Chichester ClarkJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Best of TimesPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Most children enjoy Things have been a good traditional tale bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and this lovely book by Michael Morpurgo seems to automation have all the right ingredients – a handsome prince and a beautiful princess who fall in lovebeen proceeding apace, get married often replacing jobs they're paid to do and live happily ever afterother tasks that took time to accomplish. Or do Just as they? Sadly, not long after Prince Frederico marries the lovely Princess Serafina, she becomes very sad. Nobody knows what has caused such great sadness, but poor Prince Frederico is desperate were beginning to get used to find a cure for his wife's misery. He tries everything in his power all this technological change and eventually decides starting to offer his kingdom think of other, new ways to anyone who can make her happy again before she dies of a broken heartspend time, along came an awful pandemic. Lots of people come to the palace to try Life was pretty much shut down and help but in , along with it, all the end the solution is a simple one provided by some very kind travellersmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405232552</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shirley JacksonMatthew Tree|title=We Have Always Lived In The Castle'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Mary Katherine Blackwood, also known as Merricat, is eighteenTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and lives with her older sister Constance in the family home where 'Blackwoods had always lived'. Merricat quickly draws the reader into her world by a series chronic underachiever whose dreams of matter being exceptional at any of fact but bizarre statements – her likes include her sister his artistic passions all failed miserably and death cap mushrooms, and everyone else in her family is deadwho had endless crises of self confidence. The wealthy Blackwood family has always kept the house 'steady against the world', shutting out other peopleSo Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams 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 tooset himself high but achievable ambitions.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141191457</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=A G Slatter
|title=The Briar Book of the Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Fantasy
|summary='' There's a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''
{{newreview|author=Simon Weston|title=Nelson to Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the Rescue|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Nelson used to pull Mike the Milk's milk floatworld, but he has now retired. He lives in lies Silverton; a town under the stable at the back protection of the dairy along with a couple of tricky rats, Rhodri and RhysBriar's, a pigeon who has no sense family of direction, a frog witches who thinks he's a secret agent spy protect the town and an old racehorse who spends most of his time sleepingthe wider world from the Darklands. Rhodri and Rhys find a mysterious message on Mike's fridge and the animals believe that Mike Though she has been invited to Buckingham Palace to receive an MBE. Somehow our heroalways wished for magic, Nelson, finds himself travelling down Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to London, pulling a ceremonial coach be born into her family for Prince Charles generations and as well such since she was young, her training 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 situation, steward revolved around letters and fear administration rather than spells and trepidation can be become your constant companionspotions. In this novellaWhen her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, we meet a young mother who is married to a logical scientist. They attempt to control their childrenthe town's futures on a scientific basisleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, growing their own fruit right and vegetablescentre, giving their children nothing sugaryEllie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, eating no eggs for putting her at the heart of a whole year until any adverse affects maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from them were disproved. But after meeting with an enigmatic stranger our young mother begins one family secret to struggle as he introduces ideas of freedom into her world. She begins an affair with himanother, begins Ellie must decide who to let things slip at home trust and with determine what to do as the childrenBriar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, yet finds she is still continuously haunted by the sense of an ever-present dangerunder threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844717216</amazonuk>1803364548
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Katherine May1529900360|title=Burning OutThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Violet has it all – a wellIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that there were only open-paid job, and -shut cases which didn't need the help of a luxurious apartment all to herselfpsychologist only worked for a while. Everything is catered for; her meals Finally, it was Robin, her clothesDelaware's partner, and her health are all how she would like them to bewho nudged Milo into asking for help again. But She knew that the involvement was something that the life man she is leading is beginning to take its tollloved needed. The next case did look simple, though. On Two lovers were murdered in the verge swimming pool of snapping, a drained remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and somewhat out-of-sorts Violet, withdraws back to her home town. There, she meets someone familiar, a ghost reminding her of how she used is married to be ten years earlier – a young carefree girl, full of life. Only this isnan extremely rich man and it't a ghost, but a girl living s not the life Violet once lived – exactly the sameItalian. Haunted by But which of them was the past Violet realizes history is repeating itself and is convinced events will happen again. Events that will in turn haunt the girl.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906727392</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Downum1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Drowning CitySecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=In Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a nutshellGP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, youparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father're reading this because you're wondering whether The Drowning City is good, bad or mediocres life. You've probably glanced at When he was seventeen he took the rating opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and guessed was convinced this was the latterjob for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. IIt hadn'm afraid it's not quite that simple. This is t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a debut that provokes decidedly mixed feelingschild. I started off convinced that I was going If anything, he'd wanted to love this book. The cover art is effortlessly cool, the premise intriguing, the characters laden with potential for greatness and the backdrop is certainly evocativebe a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841498149</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tove Jansson0861541774|title=The True DeceiverA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=54|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Most people of my age will have come across JanssonDCI Domenic Jejeune's work unwittinglyclose friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in Singapore to meet up with an old ally, via the televised renditions of the Moomin talesGuy Trueman. The readers amongst us Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would then have been entranced later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a few years ago charge of manslaughter but evidence came to discover light that suggested that at last Thomas Teal had set about he might have planned to murder the man. Now he could be facing the translation into English, first of The Summer Book death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and then of a collection of short stories which were published as 'A Winter Bookwouldn't help Danny at all. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954899571</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel Kehlmann Alexander McCall Smith|title=Me and KaminskiThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=After reviewing several long booksThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, it's been refreshing run by Ness and operating as an alternative to read such all the online apps in providing a fluent yet pared down story more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as 'Kaminski and Me'Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. In it, Sebastian Zollner Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the obnoxious main characterchance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, shoves himself forward in a desperate attempt bringing us to research a best seller which will re-ignite his career as an art critic. KaminskiEdinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the proposed subjectIsabel Dalhousie novels, was but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a fashionable painter long agobusiness, or in match-making, but nowNess has full confidence in her abilities, ancient and chronically illthere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, has virtually slid into oblivion. So the second-rate writer is on to lend a loser unless he can dig up some juicy details to hook the art world and general public.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847249892</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Louis Barfe0811771741|title=Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light EntertainmentInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=EntertainmentCrafts|summary=Light entertainment is often looked down upon, as if itMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a bit naffcollection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'long, tepid and ignorablecosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. What The projects are divided by the time they's often forgotten is that it's hugely popularll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, enjoyable ten to twenty hours and much of it is of more than twenty hours. All the highest qualityprojects are attractive, modern and useable. Louis Barfe I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's Turned Out Nice Again tells the complete story of British light entertainmentme being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843543818</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim Helmore and Karen WallDean Koontz|title=Oh No, Monster Tomato!The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=Marvin Benny is entering the Great Grislygust Grow-Offhaving a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, but just like himand someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his tomatoes arenhome, and it't growing s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very biglast person to deserve all this bad luck. He takes is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the only sensible course 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 being a good person. Spike is going to take care of action: Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he sings his tomatoes , Benny, and Harper (a songwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. The results are spectacular|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4. Victory 5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is surely within supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his graspfancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician's cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a world of frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140524741X</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph Delaney B0C47LV1PC|title=The Spook's Stories: WitchesFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Can you make a 'Warning: Not to be read after dark,' are the only words on the back of ''The Spook's StoriesYo birthing person''joke? And if you could, and on is the inside flapquestion should you make it? Or is the question if you did, 'would it land? The Times' warns us catch is that this book is 'seriously scary'the answer for both could well be....no.
The whole thing kicks-off relatively tamely''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, thoughOregon, with a story about a young Spook (a sort of monster-hunter) who falls in love with a witch and is forced cautiously begins to bear the consequences when emerge from the witch's sister comes to stay and exhibits a taste for restrictions imposed during the neighbor-children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0370329961</amazonuk>covid pandemic
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Unger1529431735|title=Die For YouThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54
|genre=Crime
|summary=Best-selling novelist Isabel Connelly It's February 1991 and Essex is married to successful video game designer Marcus Rainebitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. Or so she thinks He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. But when her husband fails to The return has come about because he's had a letter 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 in hospital, while his coex-workers are killed. Things get worse for herwife, however, when investigating detective Grady Crowe reveals saying that Marcus Raine has been dead for several years, she's ill and the man she married was using a false identityhasn't long to live. Infuriated by the betrayal, and the realisation that she It's been living a lie for the past five yearshard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, Izzy takes matters into her own hands and sets out stripped to find her husband his underwear and work out why he lied sent to her for so long. Ignoring police warnings, she delves deeper and deeper into a nasty underworld, and finds a tale which has its roots watery grave in Prague and rivals anything she could have plotted in one the boot of her novelsa stolen Ford Sierra.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522179</amazonuk> Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa McMannAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=WakeThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Janie is seventeen and studying hard for college. She's also working lots of hours at a local nursing home to earn money for college as it's unlikely her alcoholic mother is going to provide much in the way of resources. College is Janie's only chance at a life better than the one she's lived so far and so you can'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>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jaclyn Moriarty
|title=The Spell Book of Listen Taylor
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Listen Taylor's father has just moved in with his girlfriend and they are adopted into the Zing family, with all of its delightful eccentricities and 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 with her home life, and her daughter's year two teacher is coming to terms with a break up. The stories of these people come together to create a tale of life, love, and ultimately, what being part of a family means.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330446363</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=F G Cottam
|title=The Magdalena Curse
|rating=2.5
|genre=Horror
|summary=Mark Hunter is the sort of father who would do anything for his son. After losing his wife and daughter in a tragic accident, his surviving son Adam has become his whole world. And Adam is an exceptional child – beautiful, incredibly smart and mature beyond his ten years – only recently he'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 Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the evening a word of advicehelper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. When you're being hounded by a circus master, and a magicianEli lives with his lovely gran, too – for the soul of there is a tiger that's contained generation missing in a tigerthe family. A few short years ago, Eli's egg that's contained in parents were both lost to the brain of your teddy beartitular race, and your best friend - a fallen angel globe- is trying her best trotting adventure where all entrants have to make sure navigate the other angels do not turn on you world in a big way - then you're probably living the third book in company of a fantasy trilogymagical beast. Still - never mindThis 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 only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the angel's efforts will involve you entering a dream world sole aim the prize of flight and cloud cities, magic at the chase after your enemies will take you across end – the world to desert oases and back, and friends new and old will be on board only thing to helppossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847384447</amazonuk>0571382231
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Townsend178763681X|title=Adrian Mole: The Prostrate YearsKnife Skills for Beginners|author=Orlando Murrin|rating=54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Adrian Mole is now 39¼ and living, quite literally, in Chef Paul Delamare took a teaching job at a pigsty, sharing an all too thin party wall with his parents and working residential cookery school in a bookshopBelgravia. It He didn's not quite how life was supposed t really want 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, but celebrity chef Christian Wagner had a way of getting both men and desperately attempting women to talk his mother out of her quest to appear on the vile do what he wanted. Paul ''Jeremy Kylesomehow'' show, worrying over his increasingly frequent visits to got the toilet is really the last thing impression that he needs. And yet, 'd be at the worst is still school to come. Think assist Paul, who had a crumbling economybroken arm, redundancy, affairs, death, a family member challenging him in the novel writing stakes and a query over the big C – but itdidn's going to be a tough year for the Moles, and there's little t turn out that ol' Adrian can do except sit back way. The teaching - and watch the problems - are all his life spin out of control around himown.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718153707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|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 The one thing he hadn's immediately drawn t expected was for someone toturn up dead. He seems determined to either ignore her or be outright rude to her Unfortunately, until he saves her life, was the person who discovered the body and everyone knows that the police consider that person to be the two of them end up drawn togetherprime suspect. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's ''Twilight'', but it certainly has striking similarities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385738935</amazonuk>
}}

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