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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.

==Reviews of the The Best New Books==

'''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].

|author=Sylvie Cathrall|title=A Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary= There are few greater joys than a book which lives up to a compelling premise. And this is one of them.|isbn= 0356522776}}{{Frontpage|isbn=085752612X0008517061|title=Rodham: What if Hillary hadn't Married Bill?Death in a Lonely Place|author=Curtis SittenfeldStig Abell

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=I was tempted to read ''Rodham'' by Former Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the success future of Curtis Sittenfeld's ''American Wife''. That book wasn't marketed his life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, as being moving in together would mean a portrait lot of Laura Bush, but the word ''thinlycompromise: does Jake give up his off-veiled'' seemed grid and relaxing life to occur very regularly move in reviews. How would ''Rodham'' comparewith 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? Unfortunately, there is a difference: relatively little was known about Laura Bush, which gave For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and putting the future on the book a freshness which back burner.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4.5|genre=Crime|summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the first third of site was going to hold seventy-five 'luxury'Rodham'' lacksapartments - when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. We've all heard the storiesWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, read the books - about Hillary and particularly about BillDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's still an interesting conceptdifficult as Ruth knows, though: how would Hillary have fared if she hadnbut Nelson doesn't subsumed her own ambitions into Bill's career, if that she hadn't had to carry the burden is pregnant with his child as a result of all Bill's baggage and if she hadn't left her own run at the presidency so late? one night they spent together some three months ago. Could she have done better without the Clinton surname?Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness.

|isbn=07278892300008551324|title=The Red, Red SnowDevil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Caro RamsayNeil Lancaster

|summary=In Glasgow, Eric Callaghan of Inkermann Tattoo Parlour had been It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to approach the ice show with his wife, Geraldine police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the other. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and daughter, Lisa when he 's prepared to tell the police where the body of a missing person is buried and who was stabbed in Planet Burgerresponsible for her death. He died within minutesThis person, he promises, but his murder seemed motiveless is someone big and there were no cluesit will be worth the police doing what he wants. He was a genuine man And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the remainder of his sentence and a talented artist: those investigating his death had hit a dead endto get an early parole date. There were two deaths Not much to investigate in the north of Scotland: ask, is it wasn? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't thought wise think so and she's even prepared to involve the local murder team as someone on the Glen Riske police force was indirectly involved in do the case. Christmas other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that DS Max Craigie and a lot of snow were rapidly approachinganyone who works with him is kept well away from what's happening.

|isbn=Pronko0008405026|title=Tokyo Traffic A Stranger in the Family (Detective HiroshiMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Michael PronkoJane Casey|rating=45

|summary=There were three young women, girls really if you wanted to be pedantic about their agesIt's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. Sukayana She was Thai never found and she'd come to Japan in the belief that she'd be able investigation ground to pick up the documentation to get to the Statesa halt. Celeste was just fourteen Now, her mother, Helena, and when we meet her she's already father are dead of a heart attack caused by an overdose of amphetaminesin their bed. Then Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's Ratana, who's something about the de facto leader positioning of the group, but shebodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie's disappeared too with the groupdisappearance: others (such as Derwent's passportsboss, leaving Sukayana in the midst of a scene of carnage at the Jack and Jill Studios. The dead bodies Una Burt) are definitely not props thoughless convinced.

|isbn=B07S6DBCFT0571379877|title=Little Girls Tell TalesThe Kellerby Code|author=Rachel BennettJonny Sweet|rating=43.5

|summary=In 2004 RosalieEdward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper-class friends, Beth Robert and Dallin were walking in the boggy wetlands by Rosalie and DallinStanza. Robert's cottagea theatre director. Beth and DallinHe's also self-obsessed, both twelve-years-olddemanding, got ahead of ten-yearhandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. Edward has been in love with Stanza since their university days -old Rosalie and it wasnhe't long before she realised that she was losts drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. Trying to find her way back to the main path she found Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a skeleton, relationship had begun between them but when she finally got he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the road she could never find her way back to the bog when she'd seen the body. Most people didn't believe her, putting the story down to her vivid imaginationtwo of them kissing in a dark passageway.

|isbnauthor=0008273790Jo Callaghan|title=Remain Silent|author=Susie SteinerLeave No Trace

|summary=When we first meet Matis and Dimitri, Matis a man is found crucified on the top of a hill in a bad wayNuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her sidekick, vomiting and obviously traumatisedthe AI detective Lock. When heIt's able to speak he tells Dimitri that ''Lukas is dead''their first live case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. Lukas was in his late teens But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and he and Matis had come to Cambridgeshire from Klaipeda in Lithuania. They'd answered an advert offering good money and accommodation in return for their labour: they could have a decent life ''and'' send money home very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their families. Sadly, it doesn't work out like thatAI Future Policing project. When Will they arrive be able to solve the case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the UK - on an oldcase and, uncomfortable buspotentially, - they're dropped at out of a filthy house where several men have to share rooms and sleep on dirty mattresses on the floor. It's modern slavery, which isn't uncommon amongst agricultural workers.career?|isbn=139851120X

|authorisbn=Amin Maalouf1399613073|title=The DisorientedMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson

|genre=Literary FictionThrillers|summary= Adam has lived Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a bonus when you aim to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a perfectionist and a trauma doctor. Anjali is the free spirit of the group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they're at a drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to end in Paris for tragedy. We don't know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five yearslater 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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, speaks French more easily than you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his native Arabicbackground is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. In fact, There was no posh public school on his CV - but he hasn't had been back to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his homeland for 25 yearsability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. An old friend is dying…or Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as Adam prefers a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035021803|title=The Antique Hunter's Guide to think Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=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 him a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya's former-mentor and Carole's close friend, perhaps Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, to say the least. Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to the village: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. Even though they were in business together as harsh as an ex-friendantique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or maybepursue the profession she loved. The falling out was After the split, she worked in a long time agocafe, met and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, who was murdered) and AdamFreya and James have now divorced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's partner has no idea 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.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what it was abouthappens after you're eighteen. Well, even so she urges him 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 go knowing me but I'm left with the feeling that heit'll regret not doing sos all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Not knowing Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether heI'm reading someone who knows what they's going because he needs re talking about or wants the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|author=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 totry to care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, or simply because he was askedforms a bond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, heand keeps on venturing out of her room to try to capture what's on 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 next planeterrorists. |isbn=B07ZQSK9CY086154742X

|authorisbn=Anstey Harris1529153298|title=Where We BelongThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|summary= IIt've always believed that places and buildings absorb what happens within them s 1979 and reflect it back; this is how we can tell that a sacred space Margaret Thatcher is sacredPrime Minister. Cate Morris believes a similar thing(A woman? I mean, she believes that honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv'A house absorbs happinesss family, it blooms into the wallpaperthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, the wood of the window framesthey've been murdered, the bricks: thatbut to have 'disappeared' doesn's how it becomes a homet sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she' She is having these thoughts as she packs up s overheard that her home. She has father wants to leavemove the family 'Down South'. A combination of circumstances means that When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is not only redundant but also homelessa frightening, foreign place, best avoided. With nowhere else to go For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she has called on 'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her late husbandMum's family for help. Just for a few weeksstopped talking - to anyone.|isbn=1471173836

|isbn=17874776811398524085|title=A Shooting at Chateau Rock (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Martin WalkerNicci French|rating=45

|summary=It Charlotte Salter was a couple of days after old Driantexpected at her husband's funeral that Bruno Courrèges got an angry phone call from his sonfiftieth birthday party but never turned up. Gaston's father had sold the family farm in order to buy an insurance policy which he had used to secure a life of luxury at an expensive retirement home near SarlatHer children, sons Niall, Paul and Ollie and her daughter, Etty. are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, owned by a Russian oligarchis not. Before he even got to go there he diedShortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, apparently find the body of a heart attackGreg's father, Duncan Ackerley, and in the retirement home collected river. It was an easy assumption for the proceeds of the policy police to make that Duncan had murdered Charlie and Gaston and Claudette Driant were left with just the contents of then committed suicide when he couldn't stand the farmhouseguilt. The family hadnSalter children are not convinced but there't exactly fallen outs 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=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but Gaston lived some way away she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and Claudette had fallen out of favour only moved to Athens when she announced was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was gayraised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, but they weren't expecting to be almost completely disinheritedJackie.

|isbnauthor=B083Z3ZZ61Christopher Edge|title=Broken Silence (DS Nikki Parekh 2)|author=Liz MistryBlack Hole Cinema Club

|genre=CrimeConfident Readers|summary=When we first meet him Stefan Marcovici has been Lucas and his friends are all booked in the UK with his daughter Maria for a whilemovie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the nickname of 'The Black Hole'. He came expecting All big movie fans, they're looking forward to work lots of exciting films, and many, many snacks! However, as a gardener the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and Maria was to be a nannythey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. Stefan ends up doing slave labour in a chicken factory: you But as they lurch from one film genre to the next, can imagine they figure out what happens on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the cinema, and to an eighteen-year-old girl.their real lives?|isbn=1839942738

|author=Justine Avery and Daria YudinaRachel Greenlaw|title=This Book Is Alive! (Living Book)Compass and Blade|rating=43.5|genre=For SharingTeens|summary= Books ''want'' you to read them! They're not intimidating or standoffish or particular about readersI can hear the song of the sea. The call of the deep, the answering beat in my heart. Books ''want'' to be read.

This 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 key message in Justine Averyisland's latest offering, ''This Book Is Alive!'leader and Mira's father. By anthropomorphising the relationship between book Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as he is secretive and young readerwith only coordinates to guide her, she's sending an invitation sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the sea. With only nine days to all - pick me up, read me, be my friendunearth what might save her father, we can go on a as her journey together. Ittakes her from the watched streets of foreign islands to the heart of the smuggler's a great messageterritory, don't you think?Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to save the future of her home and the ones she holds most dear.|isbn= 19481244160008664730}}

|isbnauthor=0241984653James Sherwood Metts|title=I Made a Mistake|author=Jane CorryPlanet Storyland

|genre=ThrillersConfident Readers|summary=We know from Things have been a bit sticky for the very beginning Earthlings. AI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they're paid to do and other tasks that there's a tragedy about took time to happenaccomplish. On a January evening on a very crowded platform 3 Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of Waterloo Underground station a man falls under other, new ways to spend time, along came an oncoming trainawful pandemic. That man is Matthew Gordon. Much later we see Poppy Page in the witness box of a crown courtLife was pretty much shut down and, along with it, getting a very rough ride from all the prosecuting barristermany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|isbn=1736128426

|author= Maryse CondéMatthew Tree|title= The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and IvanaWe'll Never Know|rating= 4.5|genre= Literary Fiction|summary= We live in a post-world: post-colonialism, post-modernism, post-truth. The list goes on. There are numerous works that utilise the prefix post- in their categorisation, but perhaps none Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more so than Maryse Condé. In her new novelto be different from his father, ''The Wondrous a drunk and Tragic Life chronic underachiever whose dreams of Ivan being exceptional at any of his artistic passions all failed miserably and Ivana'', Condé writes with fervour about the scars left by colonialism on the countries who had endless crises of self confidence. So Tim applied himself to which it latched itself. Ivan and Ivana are twins born in Guadeloupehis studies, a French overseas department. They grow up with intense cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and passionate feelings for each other. As they grow up and move overseas, the ravages of a post-colonial society drive them apart with tragic consequencesset himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn=1642860697B0CVFXPGP8

|author= Abi ElphinstoneA G Slatter|title= Jungle Drop (The Unmapped Chronicles)Briar Book of the Dead|rating= 45|genre= Confident ReadersFantasy|summary= Abi Elphinstone has said '' There's a part of me that she connects with her world-building through her characterswants 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. In an interview with [Books For Keeps]'' Within a remote mountain pass, she described visualising her characters "wearing head torches which gradually reveal far away from the world they are seeing to her and to , lies Silverton; a town under the reader." Just as protection of the darkness of a mine is cut through by Briar's, a spear family of light so too do quarrelsome Fox witches who protect the town and Fibber get their first glimpse of the phantasmagorical glow-in-wider world from the Darklands. Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is thefirst non-dark realm of Jungle Drop when they emerge through witch to be born into her family for generations and as such since she was young, her training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the mouth of a Dragon on Briar Witch, the Here town's leader, and There ExpressEllie takes her place beside her. Running from As challenges come her way left, right and centre, Ellie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, putting her at the opprobrium heart of a maelstrom of their demanding and selfish parentschaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, they Ellie must address decide who to trust and determine what is in their hearts to find what do as the Briar witches' legacy, everything they seekhave sacrificed to survive, is under threat.|isbn= 14711736821803364548

|isbn=B084VNRRD61529900360|title=Killing Mind (D I Kim Stone)The Ghost Orchid|author=Angela MarsonsJonathan Kellerman|rating=54

|summary=It looked very like a suicidehadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, and Sturgis was reluctant to begin with, ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that was how both DI Kim Stone there were only open-and Keats-shut cases which didn't need the help of a psychologist only worked for a while. Finally, the pathologist called itwas Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. It She knew that the involvement was only later something that Stone and her team realised that when Samantha Brown cut her throat, hers was not the only hand holding the knifeman she loved needed. It was murderThe next case did look simple, though. Sammy's parents. Myles and Kate Two lovers were murdered in the swimming pool of a little bit reluctant to say what their daughter had been doing recentlyremote property in Bel Air. The property where He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she was found was less homely than most hotel rooms: her mother was about is married to accuse her husband of saying that Sammy was ready..an extremely rich man and it's not the Italian. But what which of them was Sammy ready ''for'' and where was their other daughter, Sophiethe primary target?

|authorisbn= Hana Tooke1529395224|title= Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The UnadoptablesSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating= 3.5|genre= Confident ReadersAnimals and Wildlife|summary= In the winter of 1880, five babies are abandoned at the Little Tulip orphanage Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in Amsterdamhis footsteps, much to particularly when he considered the annoyance of matron Gasbeekstrain that being on-call put on his father's life. Twelve years later, Milou, When he was seventeen he took the last opportunity of the five babies to be abandoned back in that winter, struggles to doing work out the identity of her parents from the clues she was abandoned experience with: a small coffin with claw-marks on the outside, family friend who was a cat doll made by someone called Bram Poppenmaker vet and a velvet blanket. She, along with was convinced this was the other four, patiently wait job for Milou's parents to come back and take her homehim. However Before long, when the five children are sold to the dodgy merchant Meneer Rotman, they know they have to escapehe was at Liverpool University. And It hadn't - as with so begins the adventure of many students - been his dream since he was a lifetime as the Unadoptables join forces child. If anything, he'd wanted to reunite Milou with her parents, all the time being pursued by the Kinderbureau and Rotman…|isbn=0241417465be a professional footballer.

|authorisbn= Alison Weir0861541774|title= Six Tudor Queens: Katheryn Howard The Tainted QueenA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating= 4|genre= Historical FictionCrime|summary= DCI Domenic Jejeune''Katheryn was seven when her mother died''s close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, thus we are thrust into this tumultuous time has taken a short holiday in young Katheryn's lifeSingapore to meet up with an old ally, trying to find Guy Trueman. Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a home, both figuratively knife - and literally, where she can grow and grievehe killed a Ghurka. Unfortunately Initially, Katheryn is followed by bad luck and she learns an important lesson, she is too young, too poor and too unimportant 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 of facing the death penalty. Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any value to anyone, but she is beautiful interference from another police force could provoke a diplomatic incident and surely, that will count for something in the end, wonwouldn't it?|isbn=1472227778help Danny at all.

|isbnauthor=1405946172Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Glass House|author=Eve ChasePerfect Passion Company

|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=Rita lost both her parents The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a car crash when she was just six years old: since then she's always craved a familymore personal, tailored service. She'd lived with Ness has asked her grandmother in Torquay until younger cousin Katie if she got could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a job as while. Katie is coming out of a nanny break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the Harrington family in Londonchance to come home to Edinburgh. Soon her engagement And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to Fredan Edinburgh we already love, a Torquay butcher, fell through thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Harringtons became her familyIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. In 1971, after Katie has no experience in running a fire at the London housebusiness, Jeannie Harringtonor in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her childrenabilities, 13-year-old Hera and 6-year-old Teddy, along with Rita went to the familythere's house in the Forest of Dean. It wasn't ''quite'' dilapidatedalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, but it certainly wasn't the same standard as the London house had been before the fire.to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596

|isbn=00083861370811771741|title=Just My LuckInstaKnits for Baby|author=Adele ParksMelissa 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 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' variety. The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and more than twenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. 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

|genre=ThrillersParanormal|summary=Elaine Winterdale took 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 thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the fall 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 landlord. Aged 37delivery to his house is a new friend, she got a suspended sentence because bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a faulty gas boiler had caused the deaths good person. Spike is going to take care of 29-year-old Reveka Albu and her 2-year-old son Benke. Toma AlbuBenny, husband and fatherwill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, had found them when if he returned home, 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

|author=Justine Avery and Ema Tepic Adam Stower|title=I Dreamed YouMurray and Bun

|genre=For SharingConfident Readers |summary=It Murray is always supposed to be a pleasure humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to review a new book by Justine Avery sleep and eat and eat and sleep and ''I Dreamed You'' carries on , well, whatever takes his fancy next of the tradition beautifullytwo. This little book is the perfect exemplar of our category name, But he''For Sharing''. It is s a motherbad magician's love letter to her childcat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, told in rhyme form.|isbn=1948124505}} {{Frontpage|author=Sharon Blackie|title=If Women Rose Rooted|rating=5|genre= Biography|summary= I normally say that you and the catflap they both use can tell how much chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure world of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one I've borrowedfrightening adventure and whiffs. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the third expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was, to be honest, but clichés exist for a reason he's turned up and Ihe'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.ll have to do…|isbn=19128360170008561249

|authorisbn=Patrick NessB0C47LV1PC|title=BurnFragility|author=Mosby Woods|rating=54|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=Can you make a ''On a cold Sunday evening in early 1957 - Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, is the question should you make it? Or is the very day, in factquestion if you did, would it land? The catch is that Dwight David Eisenhower took the oath of office answer for the second time as President of the United States of America - Sarah Dewhurst waited with her father in the parking lot of the Chevron gas station for the dragon he'd hired to help on the farmboth could well be.... no.''

It's 1950s America but not 'Fragility'' is set as we know it. In this alternate US, there is still a Cold War with the Russians, still a concomitant arms race. And the stain of racism is just as crushing - something mixed-race Sarah and her Japanese American friend Jason are only too well aware city of. As is the deeply unpleasant town deputyPortland, Kelby. But one thing is ''very'' different. In this alternate worldOregon, there are dragons. The dragons live in an uneasy peace with humans and communication is minimal. But a few of these winged creatures do hire out their labour cautiously begins to human in return for gold - they are dragons, after all.Poor Frankie! |isbn= 1406375500emerge from the restrictions imposed during the covid pandemic

|authorisbn= Angela Woolfe1529431735|title= Roxy and Jones: The Great Fairytale Cover-UpWinter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating= 4.5|genre= Confident ReadersCrime|summary= After her father gets married for the umpteenth time, Roxy Humperdinck It's February 1991 and Essex is sent to live with her half-sister Gretel in Rexopolisbitingly cold, which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the capital city of more surprising. He'd been exiled on the Kingdom of Illustria. Gretel works Costa del Sol as a toilet cleaner wanted drug smuggler for the Ministry of Soupa decade. Why does The return has come about because he's had a country like Illustria need an entire ministry dedicated to soupletter from his ex-wife, you ask? Well, after Roxy finds a secret passage in her bathroom saying that she's ill and meets a snarky young woman known only as Jones, she soon finds out whyhasn't long to live. Turns out, fairy tales are real It's hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to his underwear and sent to a watery grave in the Ministry’s official job is to safeguard all knowledge boot of them and monitor the living fairy talesa stolen Ford Sierra. And, when an evil queen breaks out of Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a maximum-security prison and threatens problem closer to reinstate her reign of terror, Roxy and Jones hold the fate of the world in their young hands…so, no pressure then!|isbn=1406391379home?

|author=Kat DunnAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Dangerous RemedyThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts|rating=4.5|genre=TeensConfident Readers|summary= It's Paris, 1794. The Revolution Eli is five years old and the country a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the midst of violent political turmoil between the Revolutionaries, trying to maintain their control wondrous library we start by whatever means necessaryvisiting with him, and in the Royalists, still loyal to monarchy intent. Caught in evening a no man's land between helper at the two warring factions dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his lovely gran, too – for there is a generation missing in the Battalion of the Deadfamily. Led by a disillusioned revolutionary A few short years ago, Eli's daughter, parents were both lost to the band of outcasts have made a name for themselves rescuing innocent citizens from the violent fallout. But they may have gotten in over their heads with their latest rescuetitular race, Olympe, a girl with a disturbing history and powers that might just make her the spark that blows up the powderglobe-keg of revolutionary Paris. |isbn=1789543649}} {{Frontpage|author=Joanne M Harris|title=A Pocketful of Crows|rating=5|genre= Confident Readers|summary= I trotting adventure where all entrants have always been of the mind that once you're above picture-book level and before you get to graphic sex & violence, there is no difference between books for children and books for adults. There are good books and poor ones. And Joanne Harris does not produce poor ones. ''A Pocketful of Crows'' is clearly aimed at the younger readers as witness the use of navigate the middle initial world in the author's name to differentiate from her adult offers. Ignore that if you have loved anything from ''Chocolat'' onwards you will know that Harris is mistress company of the modern fairy talea magical beast. This is no different. It is an utter delight.|isbn=1473222184}}{{Frontpage|author= Maggie Tokuda-Hall|title= The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea|rating= 5|genre= Teens|summary= On the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl has assumed made the identity of Florian the man in an attempt race anathema to fit in with the crew. Life is hard as pair – but when a pirate, trust and empathy are bad incident at the first things eatery leads to be discardeda confession from gran, but anything has Eli knows his only hope is to dare to be better than starving on the streets. Meanwhileenter what he most hates, with the young Lady Evelyn Hasegawa boards sole aim the Dove, headed off to be married to a military man she's never met on some far-flung colony prize of magic at the Nipran Empireend – the only thing to possibly save his gran. Neither of them expects to be thrown together by fate, never mind fall in love…|isbn=15362043150571382231