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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from most walks of literary life; fiction, biographynon-fiction, crime, cookery and children's books & self-published books plus author interviews and & top tens.</metadesc><h1 id="mf-title">The Bookbag</h1>Hello from The Bookbag, a site featuring books from all the many walks of literary life - [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. It's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.

Reviews by readers from all the many walks of literary life. With author interviews, features and top tens. You'll be sure to find something you'll want to read here. Dig in! Find us on [[File:facebook.gif|link=https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk|alt=Facebook]] [https://www.facebook.com/TheBookbagCoUk '''Facebook'''], [[File:twitter.gif|link=http://twitter.com/TheBookbag|alt=Follow us on Twitter]] [http://twitter.com/TheBookbag '''Twitter'''], [[File:instagram_classic_logo.png|link=https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/|alt=Follow us on Instagram]] [https://www.instagram.com/thebookbag.co.uk/ '''Instagram'''] and [[File:LinkedIn.png|link=https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-bookbag-1b12a264/|alt=LinkedIn]] There are currently '''{{PAGESINCATEGORY:Reviews}}''' [[:Category:Reviews|reviews ]] at TheBookbag.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

{'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->reviews of books about to be published]].<!-- Toon -->{{Frontpage|-author=Sylvie Cathrall| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|A Letter to the Luminous Deep[[image:147117946X.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147117946X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|Science Fiction===[[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's FictionFrontpage|isbn=0008517061|title=Death in a Lonely Place|Women's Fiction]]author=Stig Abell|rating=4Angie is someone who always wanted to travel, but it's taken her 27 years to leave the small mining town in south Australia which |genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has been the only home she's ever knownsettled into his rustic life at Little Sky. She doesn't do things by half though There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and once she her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does feel able Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to go (following a family death) she leaves move in with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not only this is the town, the state future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the country, but also moment they’re enjoying life in the continent, present and finds herself following in her mother's footsteps and heading to Italyputting the future on the back burner. [[If You Could Go Anywhere by Paige Toon|Full Review]]}}<!-- Nick Griffiths -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1786482126| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths[[image:1789018307.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789018307/ref5|genre=nosim?tagCrime|summary=thebookbagBuilders were demolishing an old house in Norwich -21]]  | style="verticalthe site was going to hold seventy-align: top; textfive 'luxury' apartments -align: left;"|===[[Mayhem in when they discovered the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths]]=== [[image:4starbones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]] In Latvia the conspirators meet in a rather unpleasant location Was this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, but itDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's their plans which matter to them. In Moscow two men delight in all the uncertainty in the Baltic. In Washington the Undersecretary difficult as Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she is pregnant with his child as a woman, but result of the personal pressures on her are the same as the men in Moscow are obliged to sufferone night they spent together some three months ago. In Stockholm three members of SÄPOHer condition will be obvious before long, the Swedish Secret Service, know that the time has come for them to make a movenot least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. They'd talk more, but their wives would get difficult and there's a rather pleasing tart which mustn't be missed. [[Mayhem in the Archipelago by Nick Griffiths|Full Review]]}}<!-- Neal -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=0008551324| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"The Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster[[image:1794467440|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1794467440/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[Watchwords by Philip Neal]]=== [[image:4starIt's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at least as beguiling as the provenance of Neither side likes or has any respect for the antique watches that inspired itother. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he was fond 's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and had been told who was like a 1930s Cartierresponsible for her death. Instead of mourning its loss This person, he began to collect vintage watches that resembled promises, is someone big and itwill be worth the police doing what he wants. And that's how what he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwellremainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The eBay purchase was a fake, but new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the friendship other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that grew between the buyer DS Max Craigie and the repairer of watches was not and the seed of an idea for a book was bornanyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening. [[ Watchwords by Philip Neal |Full Review]]}}<!-- Stephen Booth -->{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|-title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Jane Casey|rating=5[[image:0751567647.jpg|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0751567647/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Crime| stylesummary="verticalIt's sixteen years since nine-align: top; textyear-align: left;"|===[[Fall Down Dead (Cooper old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and Fry) by Stephen Booth]]=== [[image:4starthe investigation ground to a halt.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] DS Dev Sharma is delighted - if delight is the right word to apply to a Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder case - /suicide but hethere's got a result when something about the husband positioning of a murder victim is found with the knife, standing over the body, bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and admitting to the murder. her boss DI Ben Cooper is concerned with a Josh Derwent suspicious death on Kinder Scout. A party of walkers What looked as though it was going to be an open- the New Trespassers Walking Group and- got lost in the fog and problems arose when one of the party was injuredshut case is now a complex double murder. The group split up to find helpKerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, or at least a mobile signal, but when they're rescued they're one short and the body of Faith Matthew was found at the bottom of Kinder DownfallUna Burt) are less convinced. It looked like a dreadful accident, but Cooper wasn't happy about the way the body had fallen. Things are not always as they seem - in either case. [[Fall Down Dead (Cooper and Fry) by Stephen Booth}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]]isbn=0571379877 <!-- Casey Cep -->|title=The Kellerby Code|-author=Jonny Sweet| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"3.5|genre=Crime[[image:1785150731.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza.amazon Robert's a theatre director.co.uk/dp/1785150731/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag He's also self-21]]  | style="verticalobsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep]]=== [[image:5starand he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:True Crime|True Crime]] Sometimes you begin reading Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a book and before yourelationship had begun between them but he've got s not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the bottom two of the first page you know that it's going to be brilliantthem kissing in a dark passageway. You sense the }}{{Frontpage|author's effortless grasp of her subject matter and you already know that her use of words is almost surgical in its precision. The hands holding you are safe, which considering that this =Jo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=When a man is found crucified on the top of a book about two subjects where facts are hill in short supplyNuneaton, is somewhat surprising. Our first subject is DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the Reverend Willie Maxwellcase alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. Over seven years, six people close to the Reverend had died, with Maxwell benefiting substantially from insurance policies which heIt'd taken out on s their lives. [[Furious Hours: Murderfirst live case together, Fraud having previously been very successful with several cold cases. But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and the Last Trial a very high profile case that draws a lot of Harper Lee by Casey Cep|Full Review]]unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. Will they be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X<!-- Weir -->}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=1399613073| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"Moral Injuries|author=Christie Watson[[image:1472227727|rating=4.jpg5|linkgenre=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472227727/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Thrillers| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of KleveOlivia, Queen Laura and Anjali met on the first day of Secrets by Alison Weir]]=== [[image:4medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Poor, frumpy Anne of Cleaves always gets Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a raw deal by history, of all the wives of Henry VIII she cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is the one who a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is known for being rejected. Anne Boleyn and Katheryn Howard were the sexy ones, Jane free spirit of the dutiful one who delivered group and she becomes a son, Katherine of Aragon clung on to her crown and Katharine Parr clung on to her life but poor frumpy Anne of Cleaves just rolled over GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and moved along. Not any more! Alison Weir presents us with a different view of this young woman who saw the opportunity to live an independent life alcohol-fuelled party and took it. [[Six Tudor Queens: Anna of Kleve, Queen of Secrets by Alison Weir|Full Review]] <!'s going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-- Mel Sherratt -->five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's their teenage children who are involved.}}{{Frontpage|-isbn=0241636604| styletitle="widthThe Trading Game: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson[[image:0008271070.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008271070/ref=nosim?tag5|genre=thebookbag-21]] Autobiography| stylesummary="verticalIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt]]=== [[image:3stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] We're in Stoke There was no posh public school on Trent. A group his CV - but he had been to the London School of young women who study at Dunwood Academy are running the cross-country courseEconomics. One of them Stevenson is bright - Lauren Ansell extremely bright - stops behind to tie her shoelace and is murdered, to the shock and devastation he has a facility with numbers which most of her friendsus can only envy. Twins Courtney and Caitlin Piggott, Sophie Bishop and Teagan Cole cling together for support - or do do as much as they can given He also realised that their parents are understandably reluctant most rich people expect poor people to let them out of their sightbe stupid. One of the parents is journalist Simon ColeIt was his ability at what was, boyfriend of DS Grace Allendaleessentially, who is charged a card game which got him an internship with investigating the murder under the guidance of DI Nick CarterCitibank. It's Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a struggle to keep their professional lives separatetrader. [[Tick Tock by Mel Sherratt|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Mark Billingham -->|isbn=1035021803|-title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"C L Miller|[[image:0751566977.jpg|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co3.uk/dp/0751566977/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"Crime|summary===[[Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham]]=== [[image:5starIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] There are times when two people come together She's back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former mentor and the whole Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is greater than dead and the sum of circumstances seem suspicious, to say the parts as in least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the case ofvillage: Arthur, sayshe feels, Morecambe and Wiselet her down badly. Sometimes two people come Even though they were in business together and we get ''Folie à Deux'' - a shared psychotic disorder which produces devastating consequencesas antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. One of After the prime examples is Ian Brady split, she worked in a cafe, met and Myra Hindley. But - I'm getting ahead married James (on the rebound from the love of myself as our story started with a suicideher life, who was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced. A middle-aged woman had been gulled out of £75,000 by a man called Patrick Jenkins, but once he had the money he disappeared and ghosted his former lover. She threw herself in front of a tube train. [[Their Little Secret by Mark Billingham}}{{Frontpage|Full Review]]isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover<!-- Motayne -->|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|-author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"5|genre=Science Fiction[[image:147367591X.jpg|linksummary=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147367591X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Nocturna by Maya Motayne]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] A thief without a face, a prince who was never meant to be king, Finn and Alfie collide, as if thrown together by fate, to bring about a series of catastrophes and set in motion the release of a darkness that seeks to consume all the goodness and magic in the world. These two unlikely allies must try to put their own personal battles behind them and join forces to stop the evil from destroying everything they hold dear. [[Nocturna by Maya Motayne|Full Review]] <!-- Eagle -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0571346308.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571346308/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Secret Starling by Judith Eagle]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]]Clara has lived in the crumbling Braithwaite Manor owned by her guardian, Uncle Edward, since she was a baby. It has been a lonely life as her uncle is strict and forbidding and she has been home schooled. Her only friend is Cook who looks after Clara with kindness and tells her stories of her own family and their adventures. Clara has recently become aware that something is wrong as many of the prized possessions such as paintings and porcelain are disappearing and then cook is dismissed. Shortly afterwards Uncle Edward abandons Clara in the local village with a fistful of money and disappears. Clara is now totally alone. [[The Secret Starling by Judith Eagle|Full Review]] <!-- Leah Hazard -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786331608.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786331608/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story by Leah Hazard]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]], [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] Over the past few years we've had a rash (sorry - no pun intended) of books by medical practitioners. Doctors have been at the forefront, but ''Hard Pushed'' is the first book I've seen by a midwife. It's an unusual profession in that it's one of the few callings within the medical system where most of the patients are healthy and the only one where one person comes into the system and (for the most part) more than one goes out. It's an amazing thing to be able to do - to escort new life into the world - and an enormous responsibility. Leah Hazard came to it after a career in television and ''Hard Pushed'' is the story of her career as a midwife - and the title tells more than one story. [[Hard Pushed: A Midwife's Story by Leah Hazard|Full Review]] <!-- Lucinda Riley -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1529014980.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1529014980/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Paradise. That's what it seemed like to nine-year-old Posy Anderson. Her father delighted in indulging her and playing with her. Together they caught butterflies and examined them before her father took them off to let them go free. Her mother was rather distant, but her father more than made up for that. The only blot on the horizon was that her father was a spitfire pilot, recovering from an injury, and it seemed likely that he would have to go back to the war. Everyone thought that it was drawing to a close, but men still had to go and fight - and risk their lives. Posy was staying with her grandmother in Cornwall when the news came through that her father had been killed in action. Her mother had travelled from Suffolk to tell her what was going to happen to her. [[The Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley|Full Review]] <!-- Carroll -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471160645.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471160645/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Words That Fly Between Us by Sarah Carroll]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]] Lucy is living in a beautiful, expensive house along with her joking, playful dad and her lovely mum. Everything should be perfect. Her dad is a property investor, making millions, and she and her mum don't lack for anything in their lives. But still, Lucy lives her life on edge, controlled by the words around her, whether they are spoken, or unspoken. You see, her dad is a bully, edging closer and closer towards physically abusing her mum, and Lucy is manipulated by him, unable to express her true feelings, or fully develop her artistic side which is where she feels her talents lie but her dad says won't ever lead to her having a successful life. [[The Words That Fly Between Us by Sarah Carroll|Full Review]] <!-- Kan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1911115847.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1911115847/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Literary Fiction| Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]] ''Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with a vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of hope. [[Nights of the Creaking Bed by Toni Kan|Full Review]] <!-- Macdibble -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1910646482.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910646482/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Confident Readers|Confident Readers]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]] Set in a dystopian Australia, this is the story of Ella and Emery and their dogs travelling across the outback together. A red fungus has wiped out all the crops and grasses, and with the food chain grinding to a halt, society is collapsing. Ella's mum has been gone for a long time - she left for work one day and then never came home. Ella and her half brother Emery have been living at home with their dad and their dogs, hoping for the best, but one day their dad decides to go out and try to find Ella's mum. When he also fails to return, Emery decides that their best chance of survival is to set out with the dogs to travel across the outback to his grandfather's house where, he believes, there will still be food and a safe place for them to live until their father can find them again. [[The Dog Runner by Bren MacDibble|Full Review]] <!-- Sara Sheridan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1472127110.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1472127110/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime (Historical)|Crime (Historical)]] Life has changed dramatically for Mirabelle, our favourite fifties sleuth, since the war, and not always for the better. When she first settled in Brighton she was alone, rudderless and secretly grieving for Jack, the lover who died before he could leave his wife. As time went by she found in herself an ability to solve crimes, made friends including an ebullient and determined young woman called Vesta who refused to let a little thing like racial prejudice stop her doing what she wanted, and even found consolation in the arms of a rather charming policeman. [[Indian Summer: a Mirabelle Bevan Mystery by Sara Sheridan|Full Review]] <!-- Gomes -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291845/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a girl in today's society. The novel is told from four different perspectives, those of Lucy, Ulana, Trina and Sophia, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemies. The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, and at times the thoughts of those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, particularly in relation to the ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes|Full Review]]  <!-- Doescher -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1683691172.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1683691172/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls by Ian Doescher]]=== [[image:2.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour|Humour]] A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, all the Star Wars films were crunched up against Shakespeare, and the marriage seemed a perfectly suitable one. So much so – so easily did the plots and characters converse in Shakespearean dialogue, and behave with Shakespearean stage directions – that the producers tried again, with [[William Shakespeare's Get Thee Back to the Future! by Ian Doescher|Back to the Future]] no less. And that worked. But simultaneously they put a real test out. A film I can't even really remember seeing was transcribed into the original Elizabethan lingo. A cult following I had never followed whatsoever was given the brand new, yet oh so ancient, dressing. Here was the true challenge – would I manage to enjoy this, based on little foreknowledge? Oh damn those shiny gold stars for letting the game away… [[William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls by Ian Doescher|Full Review]] <!-- Jane Casey -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008149038.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008149038/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Cruel Acts by Jane Casey]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] They called him 'the white knight' because he picked the women 'Opening up when they were in difficulties. But they called him a serial killer too, because he murdered them and everyone heaved a sigh of relief when he went down for life. Then one of the jurors self-published his story new ways of thinking about the trial which explained how he and another juror had looked up Stone's history and found a trail shape of violence. After that, he explained, they knew that Stone was guiltythings to come. The juror got two months for contempt of court and Stone was released on bail pending a retrial. [[Cruel Acts by Jane Casey|Full Review]] <!-- Doescher -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:168369094X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/168369094X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 

I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor=Sunny Singh|title=Hotel Arcadia|rating=3.5|genre=Thrillers |summary=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 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 hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, 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 discovered by the terrorists.|isbn=086154742X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she'verticals overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a 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 her Mum's stopped talking -align: top; textto anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398524085|title=Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Her children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but -align: left;strangely - her husband, Alec, is not. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the body of Greg's father, Duncan Ackerley, in the river. It was an easy assumption for the police to make that Duncan 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.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=[[William ShakespeareGeneral Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's Get Thee Back to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Edge|title=Black Hole Cinema Club|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Lucas and his friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the Futurenickname of 'The Black Hole'. All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! by Ian Doescher]] However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives?|isbn=1839942738}}{{Frontpage|author=Rachel Greenlaw|title=Compass and Blade|rating=3.5|genre=Teens|summary=''I can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart.''

[[image:Rosevear, a remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a trap to end the wrecking, they capture the island's leader and Mira's father. Desperate to save him from death, 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 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 foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's territory, Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn=0008664730}}{{Frontpage|author=James Sherwood Metts|title=Planet Storyland|rating=4.5star5|genre=Confident Readers|summary= Things have been a bit sticky for the Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and, along with it, all the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Humour{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Briar Book of the Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|Humour]]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, [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.''

A long time agoWithin a remote mountain pass, in a publishing house far awayfrom the world, [[:Category:Ian Doescher|someone]] thought it wonderfully wacky to rewrite lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the story Briar's, a family of Star Wars in Shakespearean pentameterwitches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, colliding two entirely different genres Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her family for generations and styles in as such since she was young, her training as a clever steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the Briar Witch, the town's leader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and determine what to do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they seemed perfectly suitedhave sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529900360|title=The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It 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-and-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. It Finally, it was then duly repeated Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for all help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the other films swimming pool of a remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and it's not the main Star Wars cycleItalian. But which of them was the primary target?}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, and clearly someoneparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's buffing their quills ready life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for Episode Ninehim. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, the he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0861541774|title =A Nye of which became public knowledge Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has 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 he killed a Ghurka. Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to murder the day before I writeman. In Now he could be facing the hiatusdeath penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and wouldn't help Danny at all.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, howeverrun by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, the effort tailored service. Ness has been made to see asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the same shtick works business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with other textsa bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to riff on other seemingly unlikely source materials in iambscome home to Edinburgh. And could so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we have anything more suitably unsuitablealready love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-seeming than Back making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0811771741|title=InstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=4|genre=Crafts|summary=Melissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. Some will be quick knits - others are of the Future'long, with its tales cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time travelthey'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, bullyingten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and parent/child strife like no other? [[William Shakespeareuseable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's Get Thee Back me being picky.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the Futurething that has trashed his house! by Ian Doescher The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the 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 Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Adam Stower|title=Murray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=Confident Readers |summary=Murray is 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 fancy 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…|isbn=0008561249}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0C47LV1PC|title=Fragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|Full Review]]summary= Can you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would it land? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no.

<!''Fragility'' is set as the city of Portland, Oregon, cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529431735|title=The Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=It's February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about because he's had a letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn't long to live. It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?}}{{Frontpage|author=Alex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and 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 family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the titular race, a globe- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->trotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast. 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 only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to possibly save his gran.|isbn=0571382231}}