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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, the charity shop and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[: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.
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==Reviews of the The Best New Books==
'''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br>
'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].
{{Frontpage
|author= Karina Sainz Borgo and Elizabeth Bryer (translator)Sylvie Cathrall|title= It Would Be Night in CaracasA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating= 45|genre= Literary Science Fiction |summary= ''It Would Be Night in Caracas'' illuminates the everyday horrors of modern day VenezuelaThere are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. It begins with the death And this is one of Adelaida Falcon's mother and chronicles Adelaida's coming to terms with her new solitude in this world and her attempts to escape itthem. Danger stalks the shadows and, in a society where the establishment is crumbling, who can you turn to? |isbn=00629368670356522776
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=03494230670008517061|title=The Body Death in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary= Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does 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 moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the Train back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Kate Shackleton MysteriesDr Ruth Galloway)|author=Frances BrodyElly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime (Historical)|summary=From Christmas to Easter a train ran from Leeds City Station to King’s Cross, arriving before dawn so that Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the forced rhubarb it carried could be taken site was going to Covent Garden. In early March 1929 one of the porters who was unloading the boxes hold seventy-five 'luxury' apartments - when they discovered the body bones of a man, stripped naked and with child beneath a doorway. There was no means of identificationskull. Scotland Yard hit Was this a dead end and called on the services of Kate Shackleton in the hope that her knowledge and connections in Yorkshire would give them the lead they neededritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. Kate immediately found herself hamstrung: Commander Woodhead remembered her It's difficult as a child and could not come to terms with the fact Ruth knows, but Nelson doesn't, that she was now is pregnant with his child as a woman experienced in dealing with murderresult of the one night they spent together some three months ago. He was reluctant Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to give her all the information which the police heldsudden bouts of sickness.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=19258200250008551324|title=OnceThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's prepared to tell 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 it will be worth the police doing what he wants. And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get an early parole date. Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008405026|title=A Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=5|genre=Crime|summary=It'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, Helena, and her father are dead in their bed. Initially, I it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of the bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was Lovedgoing to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. He's also self-obsessed, demanding, handsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a dark passageway.}}{{Frontpage|author=Belinda LandsberryJo Callaghan|title=Leave No Trace
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=TockWhen a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the toy rabbitcase alongside her sidekick, is in a box of toys going to the charity shopAI detective Lock. He realises that heIt's not wanted any moretheir first live case together, but muses that it wasn't always this wayhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. ''Once''But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, he says, ''I was loved''Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. And he tells us of all Will they be able to solve the children who have loved him over case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the years.case and, potentially, out of a career?|isbn=139851120X
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Stephen Baxter1399613073|title= World Engines: DestroyerMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating= 4.5|genre= Science FictionThrillers|summary= Hundreds of years in the futureOlivia, Laura and Anjali met on a stagnating the first day of medical school and almost empty Earth, their friendship would keep them inseparable for a space shuttle pilot from the early days quarter of the 21st a century . Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is awoken from the cryogenic sleep he entered after a devastating accident. As he comes to terms with this new world, he begins bonus when you aim to realise that their history does not match what he remembers - and that only he may be able to stop the coming catastrophe destined to destroy the planeta cardiothoracic surgeon. Until he meets Laura is a young woman who seems to have perfectionist and a drive trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of her own, the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a plandrug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-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.|isbn=1473223172
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14063893310241636604|title=In the Key of CodeThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Aimee LucidoGary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Confident ReadersAutobiography|summary=Emmy is moving with her parents halfway across America, If you were to follow her father's dreams bring up an image of a big break city banker in his music careeryour mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. She leaves behind her friends A hoodie and her school in Wisconsinjeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and moves injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to California, knowing only what she has heard in songsthe London School of Economics. Her struggle to settle into her new life, make friends Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and feel happy and confident again, is agonisingly told in he has a way we facility with numbers which most of us can all relate only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people tobe stupid. There are many new opportunities and setbacks It was his ability at what was, essentially, taking the reader on a rollercoaster of emotionscard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, but it isn't until Emmy joins this turned into permanent employment as a coding class using computer language that she begins to feel she might have a chance to feel like she truly belongstrader.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=15294022551035021803|title=A Body in the Bookshop (Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries)The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=Helen CoxC L Miller
|rating=3.5
|genre=Crime
|summary= Evie Bowes is very conscious It's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She's back now because of the scars on a request for help from her facebeloved aunt, Carole. They were acquired when she was rescued from a car in Freya's former mentor and Carole's close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the River Ouse by Inspector Halloranleast. She’d Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been suspected of back to the murder of her boyfriendvillage: Arthur, Owenshe feels, and let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the process of clearing her name profession she and her best friend, Kitt Hartley developed a taste for detectionloved. Kitt developed After the split, she worked in a taste for Inspector Halloran Toocafe, but they’re taking it slowly. Wellmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, sort of slowlywho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn= Alexandra ChristoAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= Into the Crooked PlaceAll Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= TeensScience Fiction|summary= In ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' 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 world thriving few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with black magicthe feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, four young crooks embark on a quest to take I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down their criminal leader after rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they discover 're talking about or the plot behind his dangerous new magiclatest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.|isbn=1250318378
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Kathlaine C Gill and D Clark GillSunny Singh|title=Madness Between Light and DarkHotel Arcadia
|rating=3.5
|genre=FantasyThrillers |summary=It's 1912The 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, and at New Hope Sanatoriumkilling everyone on site, Christine Agnes Tupper there is fast growing up. Abandoned there by parents who were ashamed of her hunchbackSam, she's nevertheless grown up to an intelligent girl with a good heartwartime photographer and Abhi, the hotel manager. Her encounters with As Abhi continues to try to care remotely for the inhabitants of residents who are still alive in the asylum swiftly take her on hotel, he forms a fascinatingbond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, thrilling and sometimes terrifying journey keeps on venturing out of self discoveryher room to try to capture what's happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the phone, allowing Agnes their friendship grows as Abhi tries to prove that, even with a twisted spine, help her heart is in keep safe and they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the right place!terrorists.|isbn=1641110708086154742X
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=190874572X1529153298|title=Letters from ToveThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|summary=Back at the beginning of the century It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I went on holiday to Nepalmean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort of friends Women have been disappearing. I can Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't remember if it was on sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that holiday or her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Janssonfrightening, foreign place, best avoided. I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer BookFor Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that I eagerly awaited the . She''Sort Of'' translations of s not worried about the rest of Janssondangers or that her Mum's work and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on themstopped talking - to anyone.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=17847427831398524085|title=The Benefit of Hindsight (Simon Serrailler)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Susan HillNicci French
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=A superficial look would suggest to you that Simon Serrailer has been lucky 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 - all things considered strangely - his life her husband, Alec, is as good as it could benot. He's back at work after a long break to recuperate from Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, find the violent incident which cost him his arm and almost his life. When hebody of Greg's not at work he's spending his time father, Duncan Ackerley, in the cathedral roof drawing the medieval angels which are being restoredriver. There's talk of It was an exhibition of his drawings. Lafferton seems easy assumption for the police to be quite settled as far as crime is concerned until one night make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and then committed suicide when two local men open their front door to a couple seeking shelter. Ithe couldn's t stand the usual story of a broken-down car, and a phone which won't make a callguilt. The man Salter children are generous and welcoming and have no suspicions that the couple are simply not convinced but there to plan a robbery. It's a serious error of judgement in the course of this investigation which will throw Simon Serrailler's future into doubtlittle else they can do but get on with their lives and wonder about what really happened.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=140638853X1035906708|title=Somebody Give This Heart a PenDiva|author=Sophia ThakurDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=AnthologiesGeneral Fiction|summary=Sophia Thakur's debut anthology is a collection We tend to think of poems that are all uniqueMaria Callas as Greek, whether but she was born to Greek parents in relation to their styleManhattan, length or theme. The collection is split into four sectionsNew York, titled 'grow','wait','break'in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'grow againCallas', guiding you through a process which is one of to make it more manageable in the foundations States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the anthology is built on. Each section begins with a foregrounded title page containing various small pieces of writing, ranging from a quote Nazi occupation by a Nigerian playwright, to African proverbs. This provides a nice introduction to the section before you are immersed into the beautifully written mother who mercilessly exploited her and eloquent poems that Thakur has clearly put made no secret of her preference for her heart and soul intoelder sister, Jackie.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1910989460Christopher Edge|title=Flember: The Secret Book|author=Jamie SmartBlack Hole Cinema Club|rating=54
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=A mysterious island. A strange Lucas and mystical power called Flember. A boy-inventor called Devhis friends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, who uncovers a long forgotten secretplace that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. And a giant All big movie fans, they're looking forward to lots of exciting films, and many, red robot bear?many snacks! The sleepy village of Eden However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is about very different, and they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to descend into hilarious chaos - the next, can disastrous Dev save his brand new best friendthey figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to their real lives? Find out in this fully illustrated mad-cap adventure.|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.''
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
|isbnauthor=0241355222James Sherwood Metts|title=Frostheart|author=Jamie LittlerPlanet Storyland|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Way out in Things have been a bit sticky for the furthest part of the known worldEarthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, a tiny stronghold exists all on its own, cut off from the rest of human-kin by monsters often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that lurk beneath the Snow Seatook time to accomplish. There, a little boy called Ash waits for the return Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of his parentsother, singing a forbidden lullaby new ways to remind him of them..spend time, along came an awful pandemic. Life was pretty much shut down and doing his best to avoid his very, VERY grumpy yeti guardianalong with it, Tobuall the many daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426}}{{Frontpage|author=Matthew Tree|title=We'll Never Know|rating=4. But life is about 5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to get a whole lot more crazy-adventurous for Ash. When a brave rescue attempt reveals he has amazing magical powers, he's whisked aboard the Frostheartbe different from his father, a sleigh packed full drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of daring explorers being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and who could use had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his helpdaydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions. But can they help him find his family?|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=1913101037A G Slatter|title=The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures Briar Book of Bronte Mettlestone|author=Jaclyn Moriartythe Dead
|rating=5
|genre=Confident ReadersFantasy|summary=Bronte doesn't miss her parents, and she' There's not particularly sad when she learns a part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of their terrible fate my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while.'' Within a remote mountain pass, far away from the hands world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of piratesthe Briar's, a family of witches who protect the town and the wider world from the Darklands. And why should Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be? After all, they just dumped born into her on Aunt Isabelle (without even asking if it would be a convenient arrangement family for either party) when generations and as such since she was young, her training as a 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 babymaelstrom of chaos. They swanned off Reeling from one family secret to have adventuresanother, Ellie must decide who to trust and never once came back determine what to check if their only child was healthy and happydo as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn=1803364548
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=14012800481529900360|title=Batman: Nightwalker: The Graphic NovelGhost Orchid|author=Marie Lu, Stuart Moore and Chris WildgooseJonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=TeensCrime|summary=The young man called Bruce Wayne is a very noticeable one – It hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he can hardly go anywhere without people – bystanders, paparazzifelt 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 suchlike – reminding him he-shut cases which didn's a billionaire at t need the age help of eighteena psychologist only worked for a while. Feeling rather stuck with the legacy heFinally, it was Robin, Delaware's inherited from his murdered parentspartner, he wants to do charitable deedswho nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. But one nightThe next case did look simple, when he speeds off though. Two lovers were murdered in his posh new car in pursuit the swimming pool of a criminal, he goes too far as far as remote property in Bel Air. He was the authorities are concerned, heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to an extremely rich man and gets given it's not the most unlikely stretch Italian. But which of community service instead – cleaning 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, particularly when he considered the home for violent criminals strain that is Arkham Asylumbeing on-call put on his father's life. There When he was seventeen he learns took the opportunity of some other people doing work experience with a family friend who also allege charitable intent – was a vet and was convinced this was the Nightwalkersjob for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a gang who steal any ten-figure bank account contents they can, and murder the ownerchild. Can If anything, he get close 'd wanted to one of them and get the truth of their schemes, or will the manipulative Madeleine be a step too far for the young do-gooder?professional footballer.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B07W4MNBSG0861541774|title=Be Careful Who You MarryA Nye of Pheasants|author=Lizzy MumfreySteve 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 man. Now he could be facing the death 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=It was coming up The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to Halloween all the online apps in 1987 and providing a group of sixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fiftymore personal, tailored service. When you're only seventeen that seems positively ancientNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, but Liz was convinced that ''your entire life depends on who you marry''as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers and the idea Katie is coming out of living in a farmhouse and having break up with a couple of children called Will bad boyfriend, and Olly appealed so jumps at the chance to Charlotte, or perhaps William and Oliver if you were Elizabeth who was determined come home to marry the rather superior Patrick Shepley-BothamEdinburgh. The place And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to start their search was obviously 44 Scotland Street and the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekendIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. There was just one problem Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match- making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there were too many Elizabeths in the class.'s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Michael J Malone0811771741|title=In The Absence of MiraclesInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=ThrillersCrafts|summary=John DochertyMelissa Leapman's mother has been taken into ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a nursing home following a massive strokecollection of knits from toys to blankets. It is thought unlikely that she Some will ever be able quick knits - others are of the 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to live independently againcomplete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. Faced with I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's 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 sell his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the family home in order very last person to pay deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for her nursing care, Docherty starts the clear Benny it turns out. In that the attic he finds delivery to his house is a childhood picture of himselfnew friend, holding a toddler – bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a toddler he knows nothing aboutgood person. He also 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 a blood-stained shoeherself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=191237479X1662500491
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbnauthor=0692853545Adam Stower|title=The Things We Do|author=Kay PfaltzMurray and Bun|rating=4.5|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers |summary=It's 2015 and Dr Eleanor Hartley Murray is supposed to be a prison psychologist at the state penitentiary humble, tidy and she knows that her next patient friendly cat, one who is not going able to be easysleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he'Jane Does a bad magician' s cat, so his favourite bun has been convicted of turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the murder regular back garden, but into a world of two men - one a police officerfrightening adventure and whiffs. She pleaded guilty and since then has been silent: even her identity This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is in doubt. She expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was carrying identification as Jane Dunlap when she was arrested, to be honest, but ithe's been proved to be false. There seem to be no family or friends who are missing her. Eleanorturned up and he's task is ll have to get Jane talking, to find out why a seemingly normal young woman would murder two men.do…|isbn=0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|authorisbn=Patti SmithB0C47LV1PC|title=Year of the MonkeyFragility|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyLiterary Fiction|summary=On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In Can you make a stranger's words, 'Yo birthing person''Anything joke? And if you could, is possible: after allthe question should you make it? Or is the question if you did, would itland? The catch is that the answer for both could well be.... no. 's the year of the monkey'Fragility''. As Smith wanders is set as the coast city of Santa Cruz in solitudePortland, she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and aging are faced head onOregon, as it cautiously begins to emerge from the restrictions imposed during the shifting political waters in America. |isbn=1526614758covid pandemic
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|authorisbn=Margaret Atwood1529431735|title=The TestamentsWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=4.5|genre=Dystopian FictionCrime|summary= Finally! Almost forty years on, we have a sequel to [[The HandmaidIt's Tale by Margaret Atwood|The HandmaidFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins's Tale]]return all the more surprising. I don He't want to tell you too much d been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The return has come about the plot because ithe's had a novel that is entirely plot driven. Suffice it to say letter from his ex-wife, saying that she's ill and hasn'The Testaments'' takes place fifteen years later, fifteen years after Offred gets into a van, not knowing what will happen nextt long to live. It's told by three narrators: Aunt Lydia, who hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is secretly writing her memoirs in Ardua Hall; Agnesabducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a girl brought up watery grave in Gilead with the expectation she will marry boot of a commander; Daisy, stolen Ford Sierra. Is it a rebellious teenage girl in Canada who knows of Gilead only warning from school lessons and its Pearl Girl missionaries who occasionally call into the store owned by her parents...|isbn=1784742325a Spanish gang or a problem closer to home?
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|author=Anne BodenAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=The Money RevolutionGlorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre= Business and FinanceConfident Readers|summary= Money Eli is changing. It might not be a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the ways you think. We’re not suddenly getting evening a 3p or £3 coin (helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and have you ever even found runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a country that offers anything different generation missing in the family. A few short years ago, Eli's parents were both lost to the 1titular race, 2, 5 model?) We’re getting a lot more digital with payments, which seems globe-trotting adventure where all entrants have to suit most people apart from charity collectors and navigate the homeless on world in the street, but although this book company of a magical beast. This has made the subtitle that includes race anathema to the word ‘’digital’’pair – but when a bad incident at the eatery leads to a confession from gran, it’s not really about this either. Instead it’s about Eli knows his only hope is to dare to enter what he most hates, with the sole aim the ‘’management’’ prize of your finances, and how magic at the end – the only thing to take controlpossibly save his gran.|isbn=17896606100571382231
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