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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published 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|plus 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.</metadesc>
'''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Val DoonicanSylvie Cathrall|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographyA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyScience Fiction|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainment. He may no longer have such There are few greater joys than a high profile – but he's outlasted them both. Over four decades he has refused book which lives up to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrongcompelling premise. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it And this is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.' With the possible exception one of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'them.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>0356522776
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Su Tong0008517061|title=The Boat to RedemptionDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell|rating=34|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Ku Dongliang and his fatherFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Ku WenxuanJake Johnson, are forced to live on has settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. There’s perhaps a barge on the river following Ku Wenxuan's fall from grace. Originally believed to be little uncertainty about the son future of a revolutionary martyrhis life with his vet girlfriend, Livia and her daughter Diana, it is eventually proved that Mr Ku was not so - as moving in together would mean a result, lot of compromise: does Jake give up his position off-grid and relaxing life to move in society takes a nose-dive. Dongliang suffers as a result of with Livia or does Livia move to Little Sky despite her reservations about whether or not this, finding it hard to make friends within is the future she wants for herself and her daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the barge community present and putting the future on shore. Then an orphaned girl moves onto the barges and finds a place in Dongliang's apparently cold heartback burner. Will she be able to take him out of himself? Or will she, too, turn her back on him?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561344X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Colin Cotterill1786482126|title=The Merry MisogynistJanus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=Dr Siri Paiboun is now married to Madame Daeng and despite Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the fact that they have a combined age of site was going on for a hundred and forty theyto hold seventy-five 'luxury're behaving like the newlyapartments -weds when they arediscovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Even being the reluctant coroner for the Republic of Laos can't dampen SiriWas this a ritual killing or murder? Inevitably, Dr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's enthusiasm for life. Welldifficult as Ruth knows, it canbut Nelson doesn't until he makes the gruesome discovery , that she is pregnant with his child as a man is wooing and wedding girls in various parts result of the country and then murdering them on honeymoon and binding their bodies to treesone night they spent together some three months ago. What he does Her condition will be obvious before long, not least because Ruth is prone to his victims leaves the morgue staff sickened. There's a determination to find the man responsible and bring him to justicesudden bouts of sickness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849160082</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicola Davies0008551324|title=Gaia WarriorsThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster
|rating=4.5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=The best way It's unusual for anyone from the Hardie family to read this book 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 treat it like tell the police where the body of a magazine: flip the pages missing person is buried and dip inwho was responsible for her death. I can guarantee that you This person, he promises, is someone big and it will find something to catch your eyebe worth the police doing what he wants. Fashion addicts could start on page 136 ''Dressing for And what he wants is to be transferred to an open prison to serve the climate'', foodies may prefer page 124 ''Rock-star food''. The array remainder of different typefaces his sentence and page colours make the book very easy to browseget 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 author excels at explaining difficult concepts in a straightforward way. So other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain sections in it could be considered not just as for older children or teen readers, but as an informative read for adults as that DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with him is kept wellaway from what's happening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406312347</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain Banks0008405026|title=The Steep Approach to GarbadaleA Stranger in the Family (Maeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey|rating=45|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=It took me '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 while to realise that Iain Banks ishalt. Now, her mother, Helena, most of alland her father are dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a teller straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the positioning of tales - I would call him a story-teller had this term not became a compliment-cum-invective usually reserved for the Jeffrey Archers bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and Dan Browns of the modern publishing worldher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. This ability What looked as though it was going to tell stories be an open- not to plot as much as to weave a yarn and- combines with shut case is now a penchant for creating appealing contexts for Bankscomplex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie' narratives to unfold in s disappearance: others (this gets magnificently realised in the world building of his [[:Category:Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks]] alter-egosuch as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) and populating them with memorable, larger than life but usually short of caricature, charactersare less convinced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349119287</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Malcolm Walker0571379877|title=The Stone CrownKellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=43.5|genre=TeensCrime|summary=Neither Emlyn nor Maxine feel completely at home in Yeaveburgh Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with his upper- yet they both have roots thereclass friends, Robert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. Emlyn He's come back to the town in which he was born because his mother and sisteralso self-obsessed, archaeologistsdemanding, are working on a dig nearbyhandsome and entitled and uses Edward to run errands for him. His father is Edward has been in a care home, having suffered a nervous breakdown. Maxine returned to the town love with Stanza since their university days - and he's drunkenly confided how he feels to live with her grandmother after her mother died of a heroin overdoseRobert. Emlyn is quiet and shy, Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a bit geeky, and lonely. Maxine is lonely too, relationship had begun between them but she'd never admit it. Shehe's too spiky and defensive. They both feel not like outsiders, and yet they both have most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the two of them kissing in a nagging sense that they are where they were meant to bedark passageway. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406321516</amazonuk>
}}
|rating=4
|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=''When a man is found crucified on the Duke Returns''top of a hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the newest volume in case alongside her sidekick, the AI detective Lock. It'Desperate Duchesses' seriess their first live case together, continues the regency celebrity romp saga where [[Duchess by Night by Eloisa James|Duchess by Night]] left offhaving previously been very successful with several cold cases. The focus, this time But when there is a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is on Isidore, the Duchess suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of Conway: hot-headed, hot-blooded and Italian unwanted attention to boot, she was married by proxy at the age of sixteen and is still a virgin seven years latertheir AI Future Policing project. Isidore's cunning plot Will they be able to entice back solve the husband she has never seen from his travels case in Asia and Africa works perfectly and Simeontime, His Grace Duke of Conway is now back in England, ready to claim his estate or will Kat find herself taken off the case and, as Isidore presumespotentially, ready to claim his beautiful wife.out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340961104</amazonuk>139851120X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste1399613073|title=Sons, Servants and Statesmen: The Men in Queen Victoria's LifeMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyThrillers|summary=Like Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first Elizabeth more books than are strictly necessary have been written about Queen Victoriaday of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, but John Van der Kiste has taken the unusual step of using the men in her life which is a bonus when you aim to illuminate some dark corners which might other wise have remained unexploredbe a cardiothoracic surgeon. Of course the most famous man in her life, husband Laura is a perfectionist and Prince Consort Albert isn't 'son, servant or statesman' as promised by a trauma doctor. Anjali is the title free spirit of the book, but he established group and she becomes a trendGP. Victoria, often regarded as When we first meet them they're at a difficult woman drug and alcohol-fuelled party and it's going to please, would always have a man end in her life tragedy. We don't know who would, to a greater suffered the tragedy or lesser extentthe consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be an eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, dominate herit's their teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Maureen Emerson0241636604|title=Escape to ProvenceThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=In the 1920s two women, one American, one British, settled in the south If you were to bring up an image of France, both for different reasons. Elisabeth Starr had left her home a city banker in Philadelphia after an unhappy childhood and the deathyour mind, possibly suicide, of her fiancé, a nephew you're unlikely to think of the American Presidentsomeone like Gary Stevenson. Drawn to Paris, 'A hoodie and jeans replaces the chosen European city for the sophisticated pin-stripe suit and well-heeled of the New World', she worked as a nurse during his background is the Great WarEast End, then moved to Provence where she made her home in an ancient stone house, the Castellohe was familiar with violence, poverty and took French citizenshipinjustice. Winifred (Peggy) Fortescue There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the wife London School of the Royal Librarian at Windsor, who retired in 1926 with a knighthood Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and became he has a renowned (though hardly successful in financial terms) military historianfacility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. After the fall of the poundIt was his ability at what was, it was hard for them to make ends meet in Englandessentially, and they were drawn to find a property in Provence partly by the lifestylecard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, partly by this turned into permanent employment as a favourable exchange ratetrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955832101</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Colquhoun1035021803|title=Beyond Reason|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Antique Hunter''Beyond Reason'' is a deceptively complex novel - a black comedy about the conflicts within religion. The main focus of the plot, Edward Bunyan, is a radical within the Church of England who is trying to take religion in a new (and rather amusing) direction in order to get the public interested in it again. Bunyan claims s Guide to have a direct link with God as well as spiritual powers, such as being able to levitate and read minds, which leave his colleague and old college friend, Reverend Ralph 'Marmy' Marmaduke, unsure about both his friendship with Bunyan and his own religious beliefs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904529348</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMurder|author=Jonathan Hayes |title=A Hard DeathC L Miller|rating=43.5
|genre=Crime
|summary=I havenIt't read Jonathan Hayess twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She' bestseller s back now because of a request for help from her beloved aunt, Carole. Freya'Precious Bloods former mentor and Carole' so I was a fresh readers close friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, so to speaksay the least. His writing biography on Arthur was the inside cover of reason why Freya had not been back to the book is impressivevillage: Arthur, she feels, let her down badly. My expectations Even though they were highin business together as antique hunters, she has not felt able to be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. All After the ingredients are split, she worked in place for a good thriller. The location is The Everglades in Florida. Broodingcafe, enigmaticmet and married James (on the rebound from the love of her life, awe-inspiring who was murdered) and Freya and where we all seem to expect crocodiles to rear their heads out of the swampy waters every five minutesJames have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099538644</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover
|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.''
}}
|rating=3.5
|genre=TeensThrillers |summary=Charlotte Usher The Hotel Arcadia is desperate to be populara luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a terrorist group. She has spent Hiding from the entire summer break transforming herself to try terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, there is Sam, a wartime photographer and fit in with Abhi, the 'in' crowd all in an attempt hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try and attract to care remotely for the attention of Damen, a popular and handsome jock. Yet even after all her hard work she residents who are still remains invisible at best, despised at worst. Finally, alive in a moment of tragic bad luckthe hotel, Charlotte chokes on he forms a gummy bear, alone in a classroombond with Sam who refuses to be cowed by events, and dies. This isn't the end keeps on venturing out of the story however, ither room to try to capture what's actually just happened through her photography. Although they only ever talk over the beginningphone, because Charlotte isn't going their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and they both wait to let see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the little inconvenience of being dead get in her way..terrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755347714</amazonuk>086154742X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony Horowitz 1529153298|title=Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider)The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=Fans of Anthony HorowitzIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what' Alex Rider series have had a two-year wait for this installment of our young heros worrying Miv's escapades and family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they are not going 've been murdered, but to be disappointedhave 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. HeMiv's fourteen year old now and not only is he being targeted by a hitman, heupset because she's also being pursued by a journalist who overheard that her father wants to tell move the nation all about the fact that MI6 are using one of his tender years to do their dirty workfamily 'Down South'. The trouble When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is that he can't be positive that it was a sniper that caused frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the car he was in move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to skid off a Scottish road and land at the bottom of a Lochprevent that. And MI6 donShe't seem all that bothered s not worried about the journalist, unless, dangers or that is, Alex might be willing her Mum's stopped talking - to find some simple information from a GM crop research centre, in which case they might be able to have a quiet word with the gentlemananyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406310484</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cathi Unsworth 1398524085|title=Bad Penny BluesHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45
|genre=Crime
|summary=Step into the seedy underbelly of London on the cusp of the Swinging SixtiesCharlotte 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. 'Bad Penny Blues' are all worried but - strangely - her husband, Alec, is the story of the hunt for a brutal serial killer targeting prostitutes in the west of the citynot. Shortly afterwards, Etty and Greg, at find the time a melting pot body of immigrants from the Caribbean and IrelandGreg's father, bohemian artists and media typesDuncan Ackerley, and even peersin the river. Carnaby Street It was just becoming an easy assumption for the fashion centre of London 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 a new decade promised exciting possibilitieswonder about what really happened.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686784</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Celia Friedman 1035906708|title=The Wings of Wrath (The Magister Trilogy)|rating=4|genre=Fantasy|summary=The first part of Celia Friedman's ''Magister'' trilogy was a wonderfully dark piece of fantasy. It contained some beasts you wouldn't be surprised to come across in a horror novel and stretched the idea of magic being a draining power to an interesting place psychologically. The second part, ''Wings of Wrath'' is more of a straight fantasy novel, lacking some of the horror elements that made the first part such a draw for me, but it's still a very good read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841495336</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDiva|author=Bernard P Morgan and Rikin Parekh |title=The LighthouseDaisy Goodwin|rating=2|genre=For Sharing|summary=Bob the lighthouse keeper tries to warn the village of Quark that there's a big storm on the way. They don't listen to him, so Bob just sets about making preparations anyway. When the storm comes, the villagers are in a lot of trouble, but thankfully Bob is on hand to save the day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312764</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Blackstock |title=The Secret Symbol: The Original Masonic Documents Behind Dan Brown's Latest Bestseller|rating=3|genre=Spirituality and Religion|summary=Pop Quiz. What links Scott of the Antarctic, Jim Davidson, Churchill, and Rabbie Burns? Where and when might you come a cropper trying to spell Boaz, but starting with the B? And what has three stages - unless it's thirty-three, or even ten by the York system?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683734</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonathan Buckley |title=Contact|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dominic Pattison's life began We tend to veer off course badly on a Tuesday in May. It's a fairly banal Tuesday. The kind think of Tuesday that Dominic probably experiences quite frequently. He feels the need Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to tell us about it. In detail. AndGreek parents in Manhattan, sadlyNew York, not in a particularly engaging styleDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003869</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jessica Porter |title=Sicilian Sunset|rating=3|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=Sarah Livingstone's jewellery business Her original surname was struggling Kalogeropoulos but she was still annoyed when her father called James Ross for help. Sarah and James had had a relationship some ten years earlier and Sarah really didnchanged it to 'Callas't want to work with him, particularly after her marriagemake it more manageable in the States. Most people thought When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her husband's death in a plane crash had been voice - she was raised under the cruel end to Nazi occupation by a good marriage. Only a few knew that he had been about to leave mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her to live with another woman. It's left Sarah very reluctant to get involved with any manelder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709089430</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sushila Anand Christopher Edge|title=Daisy: The Lives and Loves of the Countess of WarwickBlack Hole Cinema Club
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyConfident Readers|summary=Born Daisy Maynard Lucas and his friends are all booked in 1861for a movie marathon at their local cinema, a place that has the Countess nickname of Warwick lived a colourful life by any standards'The Black Hole'. She was notoriously promiscuousAll big movie fans, a spendthrift who did not hesitate they're looking forward to try lots of exciting films, and provoke a royal scandal to shore up her parlous financesmany, many snacks! However, as the movie starts, they very quickly realise that something about this new film format is very different, and although she relished her lifestyle they are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. But as they lurch from one film genre to the fullnext, she spent several years fighting wholeheartedly for can they figure out what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to the pioneer socialists in Britain.cinema, and to their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749909773</amazonuk>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.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex Hesz and Bambos Neophytou James Sherwood Metts|title=Guilt Trip: From Fear to Guilt on the Green BandwagonPlanet Storyland
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and SocietyConfident Readers|summary=Did you know that Horlicks, that great sleep aid, is sold in India as Things have been a start-the-day energy boost? Not another concoction under bit sticky for the same brand, but the Exact Same ProductEarthlings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>047074622X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=P C AI and Kristin Cast |title=Tempted (House of Night)|rating=3|genre=Teens|summary=Last time we left Zoeyautomation have been proceeding apace, sheoften replacing jobs they'd just banished Kalona, an ancient fallen immortal, from the Tulsa House of Night, along with evil High Priestess Neferetre paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Stevie Rae's Red Fledglings Just as they were regaining their humanitybeginning to get used to all this technological change and starting to think of other, but Starknew ways to spend time, second ever Red Vampire, was badly injuredalong came an awful pandemic. Her official boyfriend Life was Erikpretty much shut down and, but she's re-Imprinted along with Humanit, Heath, and Stark had pledged a Warrior's Oath to her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905654804</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jackie French and Bruce Whatley |title=Emily and all the Big Bad Bunyip|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=The author-illustrator partnership that created the 'Diary of a Wombat', [[Pete the Sheep by Jackie French|Pete the Sheep]] and 'Josephine Wants to Dance' bring all their Aussie characters together in a Christmas book with a Antipodean twistmany daily social interactions on which they depend so heavily.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007324278</amazonuk>1736128426
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary McCarthy Matthew Tree|title=The GroupWe'll Never Know
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='Given the attention paid Timothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to relations between the sexesbe different from his father, it would be tempting 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 call his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and set himself high but achievable ambitions.|isbn= B0CVFXPGP8}}{{Frontpage|author=A G Slatter|title=The Group a forerunner Briar Book of todaythe Dead|rating=5|genre=Fantasy|summary='' There's chick lita part of me that wants to keep this just to myself for however long I can. This secret magic of my own, all mine, at last. I just want to enjoy it for a while. It's not.'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charlie Huston 1529900360|title=My Dead Body (Joe Pitt Casebook)The Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman
|rating=4
|genre=HorrorCrime|summary=Joe PittIt hadn't been Lt Milo Sturgis's New York is one riddled with Vampyresfault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he felt responsible and even after Alex recovered, infected by a Vyrus Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. His assertions that makes them drink blood there were only open-and die in -shut cases which didn't need the sunhelp of a psychologist only worked for a while. It is also a wasteland of lawless tribes of VampyresFinally, gang warfare carving up Manhattan into territoriesit was Robin, each with their own leadersDelaware's partner, specialist workerswho nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the man she loved needed. The next case did look simple, fighters, animositiesthough. As we start book five, Joe's New York is actually a subterranean one, as he hides from everyone Two lovers were murdered in the sewers and tunnels, until the enterprise swimming pool of a top dog character flushes him out, remote property in Bel Air. He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and tells Pitt she is married to find his daughter - a messianic poster girl for an extremely rich man and it's not the future Italian. But which of them was the city.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841496820</amazonuk>primary target?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aeronwy Thomas 1529395224|title=My Father's PlacesLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: A portrait The Secret Life of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughtera Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Aeronwy Thomas Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was six years old when she a GP and her family came Rowlands didn't want to settle after a nomadic existence at Laugharnefollow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on -call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the Welsh coast, in 1949job for him. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on the BBCBefore long, and while he continued to travel to London regularly for the purpose (was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as well as to carouse with friends in so many students - been his old haunts)dream since he was a child. If anything, somewhere off the beaten track was he'd wanted to be a more suitable working environmentprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Graham Oakley0861541774|title=The Church MouseA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows|rating=4.5|genre=For SharingCrime|summary=Arthur the church mouse lives DCI Domenic Jejeune's close friend and former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a short holiday in peace Singapore to meet up with Sampson the meek church catan old ally, but he gets lonely from time to timeGuy Trueman. He hits on Maik was involved in a great idea: street brawl - he'll invite all the other mice of the town to come would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a knife - and live with themhe killed a Ghurka. The parson agrees Initially, as long as they agree he faced a charge of manslaughter but evidence came to light that suggested that he might have planned to do a few odd jobs around murder the man. Now he could be facing the placedeath penalty. Then one day, Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police force could provoke a burglar breaks in diplomatic incident and therewouldn's no-one around to stop him but Arthur, Sampson and the mice..t help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1840116102</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Keith HernAlexander McCall Smith|title=Bangers and MashThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=Home and FamilyGeneral Fiction|summary=Keith Hern found The Perfect Passion Company is a small lump dating agency in his neck Edinburgh, run by Ness and when the results of the tests came through he tried operating as an alternative to put all the appointment off as he had something online apps in providing a more pressing to dopersonal, but the doctor was insistenttailored service. He knew then that he had cancer. The lump in his neck was, in factNess has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a secondary tumour with the primary being in the back of his tonguewhile. But for the secondary tumour the discovery Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the primary might have been too late for successful treatmentchance to come home to Edinburgh. Keith takes And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us through to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the discovery of his cancerIsabel Dalhousie novels, his reactions but with some new characters who quickly begin to the diagnosischarm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, his treatment and the titular meal of bangers there's always her very helpful (and mash – the first solid food which he had attempted for some time.rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904312772</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Janet Charters and Michael Foreman0811771741|title=The GeneralInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman
|rating=4
|genre=For SharingCrafts|summary=General Jodhpur keeps his soldiers busy, polishing their boots and practising shootingMelissa Leapman's ''InstaKnits for Baby'' gives us a collection of knits from toys to blankets. He wants to become Some will be quick knits - others are of the most famous general 'long, cosy afternoons in front of the whole worldfire' variety. One day The projects are divided by the time they'll take to complete - less than five hours, he's thrown off his horsefive to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and discovers the joys of lying in the grassmore than twenty hours. On his walk home, he gets a chance to smell All the flowersprojects are attractive, modern and soon sets useable. I perhaps show my age when I wonder about putting his soldiers to more peaceful activities'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0763648752</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alison Jackson and Keith GravesDean Koontz|title=Desert RoseThe Bad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=For SharingParanormal|summary=Desert Rose Benny is mucking out the pig stallshaving a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, when she stumbles across and someone has delivered a giant gold nugget. She decides to buy the fattest hog in Texasreally weird, so she can win first prize at the state fair disturbing coffin- a gal's gotta have a dream. Howeversized object to his home, she gets one highfalutin hog who won't do as and it's toldpossible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, so she ropes in all Benny is the other inhabitants of Laredo very last person to help her out, and win the prizedeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802198</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gary Blackwood|title=Mysterious Messages - A History of Codes and Ciphers|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=There's something utterly cool about codes and ciphersreally nice person. It's not just the spies with their secret world, So fortunately for Benny it's turns out that the mystery of an ostensibly random set of letters or pictures. It's being able delivery to unravel them and see what they're hiding. It's his house is a new friend, a combination of geeky riddle solving (and geeks are coolbad weather friend called Spike, so there) and uncovering the unknown meaningswho has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Gary Blackwood treats us Spike is going to a history take care of codes Benny, and cipherswill certainly take care of Benny's enemies, looking at their creationif he, the stories behind themBenny, and how to crack themHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0525479600</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Daniel PennacAdam Stower|title=DogMurray and Bun
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Dog was the runt of the litter. Unwanted. Half-drowned Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and left friendly cat, one who is able to die on a rubbish tipsleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, you can imagine better starts in life for this scruffy-looking little puppywhatever takes his fancy next of the two. But ithe's a bad magician's not cat, so bad. Black Nose takes him under her wing his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and gives him the catflap they both use can chuck them out, not into the regular back garden, but into a little world of her milk frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a lot of her love. More importantlyViking land, she teaches him the rubbish tip ropes and gives him as much advice about doghood and ownerhood as she possibly can. And then... there's an accident. The last thing Black Nose says to Dog where a troll hunter is ''If you go to the townexpected – well, watch out for the cars. Dodgeone much bigger than Murray was, little oneto be honest, remember.but he's turned up and he'll have to do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406322741</amazonuk>0008561249
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=B0C47LV1PC
|title=Fragility
|author=Mosby Woods
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|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.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Crowther1529431735|title=Cars - A Pop-Up Book Of AutomobilesThe Winter Visitor|author=James Henry|rating=3.54|genre=Children's Non-FictionCrime|summary=Robert Crowther tells the story of the car, from CugnotIt's steam engineFebruary 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, Trevithickwhich made Bruce Hopkins's road locomotive and Benz's Motorwagen, right through to return all the record-breaking Thrust SSC and to future cars, like the biodegradable Eco Onemore surprising. There are plenty of pop-ups and pull tabs to bring it all to life, and it He's packed with detail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406312274</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Marie-Louise Jensen|title=Daughter of Fire and Ice|rating=3|genre=Teens|summary=Welcome to Viking timesd been exiled on the Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a decade. The land is ruled by a pitiless and greedy Chieftain, Bjorn Svanson, who always gets what he wants. And what return has come about because he wants is Thora. She is a healer – very useful when you're going to set out on s had a voyageletter from his ex-wife, and also very pretty. The Chieftainsaying that she's destination is the land of fire ill and ice, also known as Iceland. Impatiently, the Chieftain kidnaps Thora, but what he doesnhasn't know is that Thora has powers. Yes, a historical fantasy where the heroine has powers – didn't see that coming did you? She can read auras and at times, see the futurelong to live. And what she sees is her new master It's murder. Before you know it, he has been stabbed and Thora and a mysterious male slave are free. What hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is their destination still? The land of fire and ice. Impersonating Bjorn Svansonabducted, the male slave commandeers stripped to his ships underwear and they sail away sent to Iceland, where a precarious future awaitswatery grave in the boot of a stolen Ford Sierra. Will Svanson's men follow them across the oceans for revenge? Can they live with what they have done? Will they ever get Is it a warning from a Spanish gang or a chance problem closer to be togetherhome? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0192728814</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lili St CrowAlex Bell and Tim McDonagh|title=Betrayals: A Strange Angels NovelThe Glorious Race of Magical Beasts
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Sabrax Clyke. Not allowed to sit around Eli is a busy lad – by day an apprentice in the hole wondrous library we start by visiting with him, and in the dry-stone wall he evening a helper at the dessert cafe his gran owns and runs. Eli lives with his family call homelovely gran, and admire too – for there is a generation missing in the pretty girl who's just moved in next doorfamily. A few short years ago, heEli's persuaded by an urgent message from distant relatives to go parents were both lost to their aid regarding some unmentionable, awful predicament. His journey there and the task itself will involve metal dragonstitular race, odd standing stones, eartha globe-shattering movements, and unearthly nastiestrotting adventure where all entrants have to navigate the world in the company of a magical beast.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955644216</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Ray|title=Snow White|rating=3.5|genre=For Sharing|summary=Jane Ray This has taken made the classic fairy tale of Snow White, race anathema to the dwarves and pair – but when a bad incident at the wicked queeneatery leads to a confession from gran, and created beautiful three-dimensional tableaux. It's a much-loved story that everyone Eli knows his only hope is familiar to dare to enter what he most hates, with, and this is a great opportunity the sole aim the prize of magic at the end – the only thing to rediscover a classic in an interesting new waypossibly save his gran.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1406311839</amazonuk>0571382231
}}