Difference between revisions of "Forthcoming Publications"

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=='''18 MARCH'''==
+
=='''9 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1913193527
+
|author=Tom Percival
|title=Bound (Detective Sam Shephard)
+
|title=The Wrong Shoes
|author=Vanda Symon
+
|rating=5
|rating=4.5
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|genre=Crime
+
|summary=Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of waysHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accidentThrow into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every directionAnd yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope.  He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
|summary=Dunedin was shocked when it heard of the murder of a wealthy and apparently respectable businessman out at SeacliffHis wife had been bound and gagged and placed so that she was forced to watch the murder, with the scene being discovered by their son, Declan, when he returned home from an evening outThe subsequent investigation would prove that John Henderson had been involved in some activities which might have been considered shady and certainly questionable if not illegalHis company, Eros Global, manufactured and marketed ''vitamin-type supplements and, well, sexual enhancers, that kind of thing'', as Henderson's employee, Blair Harvey-Boyd explained.
+
|isbn=1398527122
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
=='''23 MAY'''==
=='''23 MARCH'''==
 
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Dean Koontz
+
|author=Onyi Nwabineli
|title=The Other Emily
+
|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=Our hero David Thorne is an author, who shares his life between the two US coasts.  It's the western coast we're concerned with, a place he has to return to, and a place he has to be able to leave.  David lost contact with his partner there ten years ago, when she vanished from a remote road late at night.  He's paying for contact with the man he thinks the only suspect, a lifer now, who went a bit Hannibal Lecter, and has a dozen and more unfound Jane Does on his record.  David is trying to pry the connection between the murderer and his girl from the man's mind, but to no avail.  He's also having a recharge ready for his next hit novel when into the restaurant walks the sheer spitting image, the very embodiment, the virtual resurrection, of his love.  What is a man to do?
 
|isbn=1542019958
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''1 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=B08R7LXQ9S
 
|title=Remy: A book about believing in yourself
 
|author=Mayuri Naidoo and Caroline Siegal
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=For Sharing
 
|summary=Remy is feeling miserable. He's let himself down ''again''. The school bully Jayden,  together with his sidekicks Ryan and Brandon, have been laughing at Remy, calling him names because he is short and has small eyes. They are mean but they are not stupid. They are careful to wind up Remy when nobody can see and then push him just that little bit further when the other kids are around. So, when Remy reacts, it looks as though he was the instigator. And then he gets into trouble at school and the teachers don't believe him when he tries to explain what happened.
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Ruth Hogan
 
|title=Madame Burova
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connectedSo we have a bullied half-cast boy (as he would have been called then), a girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, the third generation of Madame Burova, ''Tarot-Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant'', to use her family's sea-front boothThe singer, the scryer and the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a revamped holiday camp, but just before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stallWe also see her on her last day, fifty years later, in possession of a pair of letters that will change everything for a woman called BillieJust who is she, and who delivered the secrets about her to Imelda, and why did it have to remain a secret all this time?
+
|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gainNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her.  Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing soMost importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empireCan she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?
|isbn=152937331X
+
|isbn=0861546873
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''4 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=Jessie Greengrass
+
|author=Stuart Douglas
|title=The High House
+
|title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Charles Darwin taught that all living matter evolved to pass on its genetic material with the implied belief that your progeny will then pass on theirs. However, that train of thought is slowly seems to have fallen out of favour. Today's young generation are discovering that their parents and their parents' parents did not seem to think that far ahead. Or they did think that far ahead and thought "it's not my problem" or "there's nothing I can do". Raising a child and living in a world on the precipice of catastrophe is what drives ''The High House'' by Jessie Greengrass. This is not a science-fiction novel. This is our reality. This is the life our children and their children will have to live.
 
|isbn=1800750072
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author= Jonathan Stroud
 
|title= The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Teens
 
|summary= Scarlett McCain is an outlaw, rejecting the draconian conformity of the Surviving Towns and Faith Houses to wander the wildlands between the Seven Kingdoms of Britain, robbing banks and shooting other outlaws to keep herself alive. But then she meets Albert Browne, a dark boy with dark powers and a darker past. With mysterious militiamen hunting them down, they plan to flee to the mythical Free Isles of the London Lagoon. Together, they must brave man-eating wildlife, the cannibalistic Tainted and all the horrors of post-apocalyptic society to reach the Free Isles, but will they be any more accepted there than they are in the rest of Britain?
 
|isbn=1406394815
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''14 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Polly Barton
 
|title=Fifty Sounds
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.
 
|isbn=1913097501
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''15 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1529124255
 
|title=The Whispers
 
|author=Heidi Perks
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=We know straight away that there's going to be a body.  It's on the beach under Crayne's Cliff near the town of Clearwater and it's new year's day.  To understand what happened we're going to have to go back to the previous September.  Grace Goodwin has a soft Australian accent - she's lived there since her teens and now, in her mid-thirties, she's returned to her home town to live.  Her husband, Graham, works in Singapore and she and her eight-year-old daughter, Matilda, might as well be in the lovely apartment she's found.  Grace's best friend, Anna Robinson, is still in Clearwater and she has an eight-year-old child too.  Ethan's in the class Matilda will be joining.  It's perfect!
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Lucy Holland
 
|title=Sistersong
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Literary Fiction
 
|summary=Sistersong is part of a genre I particularly enjoy, the modern retelling of folk and fairy tales. These stories, for most of us, are a cornerstone of childhood and I relish seeing them retold with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective. If handled well these retellings give new life and new meaning to stories that are now becoming increasingly narrow and outdated, fleshing out characters, examining relationships and re-evaluating the role of women. Sistersong is a perfect example of a modern retelling done well, the plot is handled with care, keeping its archaic historical feel but allowing the characters to come to life, to feel real and human, most importantly they feel relatable in a modern world whilst still feeling appropriate for the pre-Saxon age they live in. This is a masterpiece of storytelling and I was captivated from beginning to end.
 
|isbn=1529039037
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Goldy Moldavsky
 
|title=The Last Girl
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=teens
 
|summary= Rachel Chavez is the new girl at Manchester Prep. A school filled to the brim with the richest children in the city – and Rachel doesn't belong. She's not rich, she has no ties to some royal family in Serbia, and most of all, she spends the majority of her spare time watching horror movies as a source of comfort. She struggles to find anyone to connect with, until one day she stumbles upon the Mary Shelley Club. A secret society with one aim: pull off the best prank in true horror movie style, and unless someone screams, you have failed. Rachel becomes immediately engrossed in the competition. But as the pranks escalate, and Rachel finally feels like she has found her place in this school, things start to go wrong; a masked figure keeps showing up to the pranks, and people begin to get hurt. When the competition then takes a deadly turn, Rachel must figure out who this masked figure is before it's too late.
 
|isbn=0755501527
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Sarah Sultoon
 
|title=The Source
 
|rating=2.5
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by a military base, struggling to care for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another binge. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats, and offers an exclusive invitation to army parties, things start to look a little less bleak...
 
|isbn=1913193594
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''27 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Kristen O'Neal
 
|title=Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary= Having recently been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease, Priya has to come to terms with the fact that she may be in constant pain for the rest of her life. She joins ''Oof Ouch My Bones'', an online support group where she talks to a bunch of other teens living with chronic illnesses. They talk about their troubles and help each other out, while also providing an escape to just joke and mess around. When Brigid—one of her closest friends—doesn't respond to the chat for a while, Priya becomes concerned. She decides to steal her parents' car and drive to Brigid's house to check up on her. But what she doesn't expect to find there is a werewolf in the basement – and for that werewolf to be the girl she has been talking to online for the past few months.
 
|isbn=1683692349
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''29 APRIL'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=1471181405
 
|title=Nighthawking
 
|author=Russ Thomas
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Crime
 
|genre=Crime
|summary=Sheffield's [http://www.sbg.org.uk/ Botanical Gardens] (on Clarkehouse Road, if you'd like to visit) are an oasis of calm in what's otherwise thought of as an industrial city but this was disrupted when the body of a young woman was discoveredIt had obviously been buried in one of the beds but who would have started to dig her up?  It had been in the earth for months and could have been undiscovered for yearsThe police need to establish who stabbed her - and who left the two, very rare, gold aurei on her eyesDCI Diane Jordan is the Investigating Officer and her foot soldiers are DS Adam Tyler and DC Mina Rabbani. They're joined by DS Guy Daley who's just returned from extended sick leave.  Mina thinks he's as obnoxious as ever but suspects that he's not fully recovered from his injuries.
+
|summary=During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoirThe police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters furtherThey travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World WarBut is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives?
 +
|isbn=1803368209
 
}}
 
}}
 +
=='''6 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author= Jennifer Saint
+
|author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton
|title= Ariadne
+
|title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial
|rating= 4.5
+
|rating=4
|genre= Women's Fiction
+
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary= This re-telling of the myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur is interesting and unusual. Jennifer Saint presents the story in a way that is sympathetic to its origins but also appealing to a modern audience. Saint's narrative is told predominantly through the viewpoint of Ariadne, spanning from her childhood to her death, allowing the reader to really connect with Ariadne as a character in her own right rather than just a prop in the heroics of Theseus.
+
|summary=Meet Kit.  Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the wayUnfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is neededPossibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed?
|isbn=1472273869
+
|isbn=1839945184
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0241985137
 
|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)
 
|author=Cara Hunter
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds.  There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a student.  When Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim?  The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina FisherJust to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial IntelligenceShe has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followers.  When the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'' public.
 
}}
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Mercedes Helnwein
 
|title=Slingshot
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Gracie Welles has resigned herself to being lonely. As a secret illegitimate daughter of a man with a "real" family, she is used to not being a priority in people's lives. But when she defends a random boy in her class with her slingshot, her simple existence is changed for good. No longer can she spend her time writing novels in solitude, for her life now has a boy in it that she never asked for: Wade Scholfield.
 
|isbn=152905818X
 
 
}}
 
}}
=='''3 MAY'''==
+
=='''13 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1635862353
+
|isbn=1635866847
|title=The Sandalmaking Workshop
+
|title=The Lavender Companion
|author=Rachel Corry
+
|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Crafts
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=A sandal-making workshop?  I couldn't really believe it, mainly because I'd always thought that you'd need more equipment than the average home was likely to be able to contain but I was intriguedRachel Corry started sandal making accidentally - a small fire destroyed some of her shoes.  One pair had come apart and she could see how the sandal was constructed.  Then she realised that she couldn't afford to replace all her shoes.  Could she combine these two facts to create a new and worthwhile craft?  She showed quite a few people her first pair and they all either wanted to know how to do it - or if she'd make them a pair.  A new career was born.
+
|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for youBefore I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepageI don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally(There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of itNotes in the margins are sanctionedYou get to fold down the corners of pages.  You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem.  I ''loved'' this book already.
}}
 
=='''7 MAY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|isbn=0241985137
 
|title=The Whole Truth (D I Fawley)
 
|author=Cara Hunter
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Crime
 
|summary=DI Adam Fawley's team got to Edith Launceleve College first, called there by Jancis Appleby to see the Principal, Professor Hilary Reynolds.  There had been an accusation of sexual assault by a professor on a studentWhen Fawley arrived he was almost cross: what was the alleged perpetrator doing in the room before they'd even got the details from the victim?  The problem was that Caleb Morgan ''was'' the 'victim' and the alleged perpetrator was Professor Marina FisherJust to complicate matters further, Caleb's mother is Petra Newson, the local MP, and Professor Fisher is a big name is Artificial IntelligenceShe has an eight-year-old son, buys her wine by the case from Berry Brothers & Rudd, spends more than £1000 a month on clothes and has more than ten thousand Twitter followersWhen the excrement encounters the ventilation equipment, this is going to be ''very'' public.
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
=='''10 JUNE'''==
+
=='''4 JULY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
{{Frontpage
|author=C J Carey
+
|author=Max Boucherat
|title=Widowland
+
|title=The Last Life of Lori Mills
|rating=4
 
|genre=General Fiction
 
|summary=It's April 1953, and Adolf Hitler's schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of Joseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, parading around a bit, and watching over the sanctioned return to the throne of Edward VIII with his wife, Queen Wallis.  For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of the same blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''.  But this is most certainly a different Britain, for Nazi-styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of that gender into a caste system, ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the drudges, and beyond those, right on down to the childless, the husbandless and the widows.  Female literacy is actively discouraged.  And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, is employed with the task of bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be banned, and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the party line before they're stamped ready for reprint.  That is her job, at least, until the first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.
 
|isbn=152941198X
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''17 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Joseph Knox
 
|title=True Crime Story
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary= Joseph Knox, known for his series surrounding Detective Aidan Waits, has created a new genre with his latest novel, "True Crime Story". The story follows the disappearance of Zoe Nolan from her university halls of residence. Split into four parts, the reader is taken through the life and disappearance of Zoe through the eyes of her twin sister, other family, friends and professionals, such as the police. The various accounts help the reader get to know Zoe, or at least the Zoe she presented to others. However, the twists and turns at the end of each chapter leave you shocked, confused and unsure of what is true or fabricated. Whose accounts can we trust?
 
|isbn=0857527703
 
}}
 
 
 
=='''24 JUNE'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Catherine Steadman
 
|title=The Disappearing Act
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary= British actress Mia Eliot is on the cusp of success. Great success. If the rumours are true, award season is going to treat her well, acknowledging her for her latest, critically acclaimed production. She's going places but so, unfortunately, is her partner. And the places he's going take him towards lies, deceit and a pretty young thing in the form of his new co-star. It's a good time for Mia to escape, and pilot season in LA provides just the excuse.
 
|isbn=1471189783
 
}}
 
 
=='''8 JULY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Hannah Peck
 
|title=Kate on the Case
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Meet Kate, although I got the impression she'd rather be a Catherine and one specific Catherine at that.  For Catherine Rodriguez is Kate's idol, and the author of our heroine's favourite possession, ''The Special Correspondent Manual''Armed with a plucky father, that book, and her talking mouse called Rupert, she is all equipped to manage a train ride to the Arctic, to see her scientist mother for the first time in yonks.  However, this is a train ride with a difference, for on board is a greedy-seeming harridan and her cat, a thief – and two glowing eyes, shining from the darkness in a blink-and-you'll-miss-them styleIt's definitely a case for a new young investigative journalist...
+
|summary=We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesomeWhat could possibly go wrong?  Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's worldBut first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spookyFor the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tamperingWhen malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn?
|isbn=184812970X
+
|isbn=0008666482
}}
 
 
 
=='''22 JULY'''==
 
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Victoria Cribb (translator)
 
|title=Girls Who Lie
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Thrillers
 
|summary=You might be forgiven for thinking that all the dark corners of Iceland have featured in their noirish thrillers and crime books before now.  You think, seeing on the map that we're set in Akranes, and finding it's only twenty kilometres from the capital city, that this author is clutching at the few final straws left.  However just because the book aims for the usual small-town feel, it's not just in Akranes that our interests lie.  Six months ago a woman failed to turn up for her date evening, and was never seen againThis left a teenaged girl not at all disappointed that she could now live permanently with the couple who had given her foster care before her mother had asked for the girl back, and a couple of delighted adoptersBut it left our three detectives at a quandary – mobile phone use was at a high level until it stopped all of a sudden, in one place, the woman's car was found miles away in a second place, and now, after six months, the body has been discovered, in a third, even more remote place.  Meanwhile, this narrative is interrupted by a confessional monologue from a mother who found herself with heavy post-natal depression, and very little maternal feeling in her body.  Is the assumption that is so easy for the reader to make the right one?
 
|isbn=191319373X
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
 
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You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting [[Newest Animals and Wildlife Reviews|here]].
 
You can work your way through the newest review, category by category, starting [[Newest Animals and Wildlife Reviews|here]].

Latest revision as of 08:04, 26 April 2024

9 MAY

1398527122.jpg

Review of

The Wrong Shoes by Tom Percival

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Will's life is difficult, in a multitude of ways. He is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have enough money for even the most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that his mum and dad are separated, and Will's life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has a tiny amount of hope. He is good at art, and clings to the moments of joy when he is drawing, that feel like a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Full Review

23 MAY

0861546873.jpg

Review of

Allow Me to Introduce Myself by Onyi Nwabineli

4.5star.jpg General Fiction

Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time? Full Review

4 JUNE

1803368209.jpg

Review of

Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal by Stuart Douglas

3.5star.jpg Crime

During location filming for his 1970's sitcom 'Floggit and Leggit', leading man Edward Lowe stumbles across the dead body of a woman on the edge of a reservoir. The police seem happy to assign it as an accidental death, but something about the whole thing bothers Lowe, and he enlists the help of a fellow actor, John Le Breton to help him investigate matters further. They travel across the country during their days off filming, uncovering more possible murders and, seemingly, a link to death during the Second World War. But is there really a link between the deaths? And will they manage to uncover who is responsible before more people lose their lives? Full Review

6 JUNE

1839945184.jpg

Review of

Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial by Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton

4star.jpg Confident Readers

Meet Kit. Like most of the people in his world, it seems, he is an avid fan of Dungeon Running – the sport where a team of warrior, mage and healer enter specially prepared, century-old, magical mazes, and race to the exit, perhaps bothering with the treasure or the big bad and the points they grant you along the way. Unfortunately for Kit, the only thing he's seen of the latest race on the inn TV equivalent is that one team has been retired, eaten, and a new trio of questors is needed. Possibly very unfortunately indeed for Kit, he has taken to the goading from the token bully of his world and stumbled into declaring he'll enter as a team. What chance does this friendless, muscle-free-zone have in actually managing that, and how could he possibly hope to succeed? Full Review

13 JUNE

1635866847.jpg

Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

It's strange, the things that make you immediately feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading The Lavender Companion, I visited the author's website and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

4 JULY

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Review of

The Last Life of Lori Mills by Max Boucherat

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We meet Lori on the first evening she's got the house to herself – no neighbour to pop in, babysitter poorly, mother at work, just an avidly rule-breaking eleven year old, on her lonesome. What could possibly go wrong? Snuggled in a blanket fort, she has one main intention, and that is to log on to Voxminer, the world-building, critter-collecting game that is a hit in Lori's world. But first Lori has a tiny inkling that this stormy night doesn't find herself entirely on her own, and then she finds something even more spooky. For the server she and her bestie and nobody else should be able to enter shows signs of tampering. When malevolent eyes spark up on her phone screen, and her safe place in the game has been doctored – well, where is a girl to turn? Full Review

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