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| − | =='''27 MAY'''== | + | =='''9 MAY'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |isbn=0008395594
| + | |author=Tom Percival |
| − | |title=Both of You
| + | |title=The Wrong Shoes |
| − | |author=Adele Parks
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Thrillers
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| − | |summary=You could be forgiven for thinking that Leigh Fletcher has it all: great husband and two gorgeous stepsons whom she adores. Then, one Monday, she went to work and never came home. Mark, Oli and Seb are shattered. Well, Mark and Seb are but Oli's sixteen and at the stage where he thinks boredom is his best look. He's been a bit off with Leigh for a while but she put it down to him growing up and starting to become independent. Seb's only twelve and Leigh's absence hits him hard. Then Daan Janssen, a wealthy Dutch businessman, reports his wife, Kai missing. She too has vanished without trace.
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=1473685745
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| − | |title=Unbreak Your Heart
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| − | |author=Katie Marsh
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Women's Fiction
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| − | |summary=When Beth Carlyle and Simon Withers first met they were on opposite ends of an angry exchange - well, Simon was angry and Beth was doing her best to apologise for having knocked Simon's son, Jake, off his bike. He wasn't hurt but Jake has history. He has HLHS - that's Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome for those of you who are not ''au fait'' with your medical acronyms. When he was born, the left side of his heart hadn't developed properly and he needed open-heart surgery when he was a few days old. So, Simon has every right to be over-protective particularly when someone isn't looking where they're driving.
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=walker14
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| − | |title=The Coldest Case (A Bruno, Chief of Police Novel)
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| − | |author=Martin Walker
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=It was when he saw Elisabeth Daynes' work in the prehistory museum at Les Eyzies that chief of police Bruno Courreges had the idea which he thought might help his boss, chief of detectives Jalipeau, known as J-J, to solve a case that had haunted him for thirty years. The body of a young male was found in the woods but he was never identified and his killer never brought to justice. What if an artist could recreate the face from the skull and the resulting publicity be used to identify the young man? J-J calls the skull 'Oscar' and has a picture on his door: he sees it every time he leaves his office: he doesn't want to forget Oscar until his killer has been brought to justice.
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=0008404925
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| − | |title=The Killing Kind
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| − | |author=Jane Casey
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| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=Difficult clients were nothing new to barrister Ingrid Lewis but John Webster came as something of a surprise. After all, it was her cross-examination of the 'victim' which saved him from a lengthy prison sentence. He'd been accused of stalking the woman but it didn't take long to establish that - if anything - it was the other way around. Soon Ingrid never seemed to be free of John Webster and then she came to see him as a threat and was forced to remember that the police officer at his trial had told her that this was the best chance they'd had to put Webster away for a long time: he was a very dangerous man.
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''3 JUNE'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=1846975719
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| − | |title=For Any Other Truth (DCI Jim Daley)
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| − | |author=Denzil Meyrick | |
| − | |rating=3.5
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=We learn that MI5 is having its problems with environmental terrorists supergluing themselves to awkward places. But that's London, isn't it? What's happening in Kinloch?
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| − | | |
| − | When a light aircraft crash lands at Machrie airport, DCI Jim Daley and his colleague, Acting DI Brian Scott, head off for the airport straight away. It soon becomes evident though that both occupants of the plane were dead before take off. How could that be? The sort of tech which would make that possible isn't available to the paying public. And why have the man no identification on them - or even labels in their clothes?
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |isbn=0241400120
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| − | |title=The Girl Who Died | |
| − | |author=Ragnar Jonasson and Victoria Cribb
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=Crime
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| − | |summary=Una was not thriving in Reykjavik: it was some years since her beloved father had committed suicide without leaving any explanation and since then she'd given up her medical studies and retrained as a teacher. She was thirty years old and money was tight. Her friend, Sara, showed her an advert for a job in Skalar on the Langanes Peninsula. There were only ten people in the village but a teacher was required for two children: a salary would be paid and accommodation provided. Una was the only applicant and the job meant that she could let her flat in Reykjavik and, hopefully, save some money over the winter which her contract covered.
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| − | }}
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=M G Leonard
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| − | |title=Twitch
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| | |rating=5 | | |rating=5 |
| | |genre=Confident Readers | | |genre=Confident Readers |
| − | |summary=Twitch is a boy who loves birds. He keeps pigeons at home, and chickens, and even has swallows nesting in his bedroom! His time spent watching and helping birds is easy compared to that of his time in school. But things are about to change for Twitch in all aspects of his life as there is a dangerous bank robber on the run, and it's possible that the missing bank haul is hidden somewhere in Aves Wood, the place where Twitch has his secret hide and that he knows like the back of his hand! Can Twitch solve the mystery, and find the missing millions? | + | |summary=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. |
| − | |isbn=1406389374 | + | |isbn=1398527122 |
| | }} | | }} |
| | + | =='''23 MAY'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Hannah Whitten | + | |author=Onyi Nwabineli |
| − | |title=For the Wolf | + | |title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself |
| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=Fantasy
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| − | |summary=In Red's family, the first daughter becomes queen, and the second daughter becomes a sacrifice. To Red's misfortune, she is the second daughter. Sent alone into the woods with nothing but the cape on her back, Red knows what to expect: within the woods is a wolf, and he is the one who will decide the fate of their kingdom. If she is not a worthy sacrifice, the monsters he keeps contained to the woods will be released, and the fabled kings he keeps hostage will never be returned—or so the stories go. But when Red enters the woods, expecting nothing more than to be killed within the hour, she finds that the legends are lies. The wolf is not a monster—he's a man.
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| − | |isbn=0356516369
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''10 JUNE'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=C J Carey
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| − | |title=Widowland
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| − | |rating=4
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| − | |genre=General Fiction
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| − | |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.
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| − | |isbn=152941198X
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| − | }}
| |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Terry Miles
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| − | |title=Rabbits
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| | |rating=4.5 | | |rating=4.5 |
| − | |genre=Science Fiction
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| − | |summary=Welcome to the world of The Game. Or should that be the game, for while it ought to be capitalised to high heaven, it never leaves lower case throughout this book. It's also called Rabbits, although only as a slangy term for it – as far as anyone knows, it has no official title, no official source, no hard and fast structure, and to the average person no obvious entry point. A bit like the game of life then. Yes, this is the game of life for a certain tribe of people – the fan of the conspiracy, the computer game, the hack from the darkest of webs. People like our hero, K, named like that in the least Kafkaesque manner possible. K and his bezzies are trying to be historians of the game, and have studied amongst many things the most unique of high score boards, for the lists of who has successfully won the game are in the most peculiar places, and are still very short. However this time it's different. This time the game seems the most dangerous, nay lethal, the most broken it's ever been – morally and otherwise. Unfortunately for K, in trying to sort out what the game is doing, if it's even being played, and how his loved ones might be kept safe, he is only to find out that the line between observing and learning about the game, and playing it, is a very thin one indeed...
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| − | |isbn=1529016932
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| − | }}
| |
| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Louise Beech
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| − | |title=This Is How We Are Human
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| − | |rating=4
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| | |genre=General Fiction | | |genre=General Fiction |
| − | |summary=Veronica is a devoted single mother to her son, Sebastian - but she can't give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that it's time for him to have sex. But as an autistic 20 year-old, that's easier said than done. And it's starting to cause them both problems. | + | |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 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? |
| − | |isbn=1913193713 | + | |isbn=0861546873 |
| | }} | | }} |
| | + | =='''4 JUNE'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |isbn=1409181669 | + | |author=Stuart Douglas |
| − | |title=The Maidens | + | |title=Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries - Death at the Dress Rehearsal |
| − | |author=Alex Michaelides
| + | |rating=3.5 |
| − | |rating=5 | |
| | |genre=Crime | | |genre=Crime |
| − | |summary=Mariana was convinced that Professor Edward Fosca had committed two murders and looked likely to get away with them both. She needed to think carefully about what she knew and decide how she should proceed. | + | |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 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? |
| − |
| + | |isbn=1803368209 |
| − | Everything - or so she thought - had begun with the death of Tara Hampton on the Paradise nature reserve in Cambridge. She'd been brutally stabbed and Mariana's niece, Zoe, had telephoned her in distress. Tara had been her best friend and she was struggling to cope. Mariana wasn't ''entirely'' happy about having to go to Cambridge, but she caught the first fast train from King's Cross. Mariana and Zoe were close and had been made all the more so by the death of Mariana's husband, Sebastian, in a swimming accident on Naxos some fourteen months earlier. Zoe had been their surrogate daughter after the death of Zoe's mother and Mariana's sister, Eliza.
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| | }} | | }} |
| | + | =='''6 JUNE'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Maisie Chan | + | |author=Kieran Larwood and Joe Todd-Stanton |
| − | |title=Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths
| + | |title=Dungeon Runners: Hero Trial |
| − | |rating=4.5
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| − | |genre=Confident Readers
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| − | |summary=Danny is eleven years old, and what he really, really loves to do is draw. He creates fantastical comics, whilst his best friend Ravi adds the words. Danny's dad, however, wants Danny to concentrate on his maths, and forget about the drawing, because he says nobody can make a living from drawing! At least Danny has his own room, where he can draw in secret and in peace. But then one day his parents tell him they have a surprise for him, and this surprise turns out to be his grandmother who has come over from China to live with them, and who will not only be sharing Danny's bedroom but she will also be sleeping on the top bunk of his bunk bed! Danny is horrified! His Nai Nai (grandmother) speaks no English, and Danny finds himself forced into being her babysitter, and showing her around the town. Poor Danny, stuck on a maths project, frustrated with his bedroom situation, and then he even has a falling out with Ravi...how on earth will things ever get better?!
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| − | |isbn=180078001X
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''17 JUNE'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Joseph Knox
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| − | |title=True Crime Story | |
| | |rating=4 | | |rating=4 |
| − | |genre=Thrillers
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| − | |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?
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| − | |isbn=0857527703
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| − | }}
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| − |
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| − | =='''24 JUNE'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Catherine Steadman
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| − | |title=The Disappearing Act
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| − | |rating=4.5
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| − | |genre=Thrillers
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| − | |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.
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| − | |isbn=1471189783
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| − | }}
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| − |
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| − | =='''1 JULY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Darren Shan
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| − | |title=Archibald Lox and the Forgotten Crypt: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 1 of 3
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| − | |rating=4.5
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| − | |genre=Confident Readers
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| − | |summary=The second trilogy in Shan's ''Merge'' saga opens with our hero, Archie, back in London in the world of the Born. It's not been easy, explaining to his foster parents where he's been, or slipping back into ordinary life and forgetting about Inez and his other friends in the Merge, but Archie has done his best.... well, except for visiting veteran locksmith Winston in Big Ben's clock tower and except for fiddling with that sneaky master lock in Seven Dials every time he can sneak away.
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| − | |isbn=B093H8DPQZ
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| − | }}
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| − |
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| − | =='''8 JULY'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Hannah Peck
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| − | |title=Kate on the Case
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| − | |rating=3.5
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| | |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 style. It's definitely a case for a new young investigative journalist... | + | |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 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? |
| − | |isbn=184812970X | + | |isbn=1839945184 |
| | }} | | }} |
| − | | + | =='''13 JUNE'''== |
| − | =='''13 JULY'''== | |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Sarah Langan | + | |isbn=1635866847 |
| − | |title=Good Neighbours | + | |title=The Lavender Companion |
| | + | |author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci |
| | |rating=4.5 | | |rating=4.5 |
| − | |genre=Thrillers | + | |genre=Lifestyle |
| − | |summary= If you're of a certain vintage, it's hard to read the words ''Good Neighbours'' without adding a sing-song ''that's when Good Neighbours…become…good friends''. Maple Street is no Ramsay Street, though, Arlo and Gertie live a world apart from the Melbourne suburbs. They're one of 18 households on the crescent, quite new arrivals having moved in a year earlier. They're not quite like all the other families (he's an ex rocker, she's a former beauty queen) but they've made some friends and their kids have settled in, and it's all going ok. Until it isn't. One hot, clammy, sticky, sweaty summer, a sinkhole opens up in the park across the way. It's a revolting mess of dirt and chaos, but for the residents of Maple Street, the worst is yet to come. | + | |summary=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 [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ 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. |
| − | |isbn=1789098211
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| | }} | | }} |
| | | | |
| − | =='''22 JULY'''== | + | =='''4 JULY'''== |
| | {{Frontpage | | {{Frontpage |
| − | |author=Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Victoria Cribb (translator) | + | |author=Max Boucherat |
| − | |title=Girls Who Lie | + | |title=The Last Life of Lori Mills |
| − | |rating=3
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| − | |genre=Thrillers
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| − | |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 again. This 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 adopters. But 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?
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| − | |isbn=191319373X
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| − | }}
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| − | | |
| − | =='''3 AUGUST'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=Darren Shan
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| − | |title=Archibald Lox and the Slides of Bon Repell: Archibald Lox series, Volume 2, book 2 of 3
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| | |rating=4.5 | | |rating=4.5 |
| | |genre=Confident Readers | | |genre=Confident Readers |
| − | |summary=INSERT FIRST PARAGRAPH OF YOUR REVIEW | + | |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 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? |
| − | |isbn=B093J9TF73 | + | |isbn=0008666482 |
| | }} | | }} |
| − |
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| − | =='''5 AUGUST'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=John Boyne
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| − | |title=The Echo Chamber
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| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=General Fiction
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| − | |summary=Meet George Cleverley. He is self-defined as "one of the few television personalities over the age of fifty without a criminal record". He starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's carrying his child, but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. They have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to save the world's homeless with out-of-date food, and a fit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. Add in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to his life, and you have something that suggests an almost farcical approach to the modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the fact this is bloody funny.
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| − | |isbn=0857526219
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| − | }}
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| − |
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| − | =='''7 OCTOBER'''==
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| − | {{Frontpage
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| − | |author=John Gwynne
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| − | |title=The Shadow Of The Gods
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| − | |rating=5
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| − | |genre=Fantasy
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| − | |summary=The Shadow Of The Gods is the first installment of the Bloodsworn Saga, set in the era of the Vikings in the shadow of Ragnarok, when the Gods have battled and their bones lie scattered for all to see. This story is the ultimate in High Fantasy, and John Gwynne certainly does justice to the genre, with mythical creatures, archaic language and battles galore. This is a thick book, with an intricate plot and fascinating characters that are woven together to create a wonderfully realistic and gritty world in which our heroes must do battle.
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| − | |isbn=0356514218
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| − | }}
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| | <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> | | <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE --> |
| | 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]]. |
