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===[[Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''I have murdered three husbands.'' As an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera's telling us the truth. The first two husbands, Gary and Harry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a keeper, and it's difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life sentence. Her only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but Vera's not one to let herself be a victim. She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn't risk the security of her life in prison for the sake of a fling), but she is keen on getting an education and she's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon|Full Review]] <!-- Santorella Laura Solomon -->
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===[[Dyed Souls Black Light by Gary SantorellaLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:43.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The USAJim is a university student and, early 1980s. Charlie (or Charlesas the saying goes, if hehasn's feeling belligerent, t got his troubles to seek. His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he often is) is being taken back 's never really managed to connect with his home by his dropstep-out, slutty motherfather. The home is called a Cottage, and while the book doesn His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: if you were being honest you't guide us to understand it perfectly, it seems to mean d just say that he has a private room in a large self-contained bungalowwas very difficult, on a gated compound but Jim does his best with round-the-clock adult supervisionand for him. There Jim's in love with a paddock with horses for woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why: the looks, the kids to rideattitude, their own school – the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all the adults are armed with Thorazine leave a lot to calm the kids downbe desired. Charlie, despite Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his obvious bookish intelligence, is struggling to get life to grips with why and how drift: he's ended up where he is, but it must have something to do with his single parent mother being violent, actually writing ''two'' novels and the fact he is no longer allowed reads excerpts from these to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, as he tries to build a relationship with a girl friends in a different Cottage, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-oldthe pub. [[Dyed Souls Black Light by Gary SantorellaLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Two Steps Forward Redemptor Domus by Graeme Simsion Gamelyn Chase]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to the school, a family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school a vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain future. Plunged into a school full of danger and Anne Buistbetrayal, the boy is seen as a trophy by friends and enemies alike. With them locked into their scheming and plotting, it comes to the boy to attempt to clean up the pit of filth that the school has become. [[Redemptor Domus by Gamelyn Chase|Full Review]] <!-- Sendker -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1846974658.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1846974658/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Long Path To Wisdom by Jan-Philipp Sendker]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go. [[The Long Path To Wisdom by Jan-Philipp Sendker|Full Review]] <!-- Szabo -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058452.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Katalin Street by Magda Szabo]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
When I read This is a story about the blurb for this bookpast. A specific past, certainly, I found myself instantly interested in its premise the form of two people trying to start their lives again following serious life changespre-war Budapest, but also a story about how that past can impact on the present and the future. The In this book , the first of three Magda Szabó wrote on the same theme between 1969 and 1987 and now newly translated and reissued, we witness a heart-rending nostalgia for happier days, guilt about those who did not disappointsurvive, and a dogged but doomed determination to cling to long-gone times, feelings and experiences which mark the here and now, staining and warping it into another, subtler misery. [[Two Steps Forward Katalin Street by Graeme Simsion and Anne BuistMagda Szabo|Full Review]]
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===[[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman]]===
===[[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionFor Sharing|General FictionFor Sharing]]
''I Have Lost My Way'' tells the story of three individuals who have each lost something important to them leading to them losing their way. Freya has lost her voice, Harun has lost his love and Nathaniel has lost everything. However, these three elements do not give justice to the extent of what each character has lost. In this expertly written novel, Gayle Forman writes about how these three dissimilar individuals each came to lose what was most important to them, causing them to all meet one fateful day in New York City. [[I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman|Full Review]]
Something's gone horribly wrong. It's Christmas Eve and everything is very busy in Santa's grotto. The presents are all ready and waiting to be loaded onto the sleigh and the reindeer are itching to get going. But Santa? Santa is just not in the mood. He is tired of delivering the latest toys to children who only play with them for five minutes. He wishes people would remember what Christmas is really about - a time for families to come together for love and friendship and goodwill to one another. [[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston|Full Review]]<!-- Schimmelpfennig Mandeville -->
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===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning Every Colour of the Twenty-First Century You by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)Amelia Mandeville]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
First, forgive me if I don't refer Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as years to this book with its full title oftenlife. It's pointedly preciseHer world, accuratelike her name, is bursting with life and rather ungainly – when in fact the book it describes has only the former two attributes in any quantitycolour. What happens in January She is that a wild wolf walks across the frozen river separating Poland and eastern Germany. Which means that, when the book starts properly, mid-February, it has had time to get sort of girl who would sing a lot closer to Berlin – within 80 kilometres, to be precise, for that rainbow is the road marker where one of our main characters sees itshe could. He Tristan (or ''Tree'' as she calls him) is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a monthpsychiatric unit, and to be with his girlfriend, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was away. Also fancying the bright lights and big city are sees a teenaged pair of love-birds, the boy and girl next door to each other in an eastern village, who flee an unhappy lot on the off-chance of world as a better onegrey place. You just know there is a chance that these characters – human and lupine alike – are sucked into one combined narrative, but you won't know quite what that will entail…[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning Every Colour of the Twenty-First Century You by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)Amelia Mandeville|Full Review]]
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===[[W A Spark of Light by John BanksJodi Picoult]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On The Center is the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi and is the slopes source of Mt Hood in Oregon, an 1000great controversy when it comes to the Pro-year old Viking is discovered frozen Life versus Pro- three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking explorationChoice debate. Josh Kinninger It is inspired by at The Center where one man, George Goddard, takes it upon himself to get revenge for the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angryloss of his grandchild, unmoored and with his world in turmoilthe form of a mass-shooting. Beginning What arises is a journey westwardnovel that details the lives of the remaining hostages, as well as other characters central to the story. One of these characters is Hugh McElroy, he's filled with a desire hostage negotiator called in to help deflate the situation, who soon discovers that his sister and daughter, Wren, happened to wreak vengeance on be at the individuals he finds morally corruptclinic that day. [[W A Spark of Light by John BanksJodi Picoult|Full Review]] <!-- Vincent -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471168239.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471168239/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Crime|Crime]] Dr Jess Castle, the self proclaimed failure of the prestigious Castle family has returned home to the sleepy, idyllic chocolate box town of Castle Kidbury. Rather than being delighted, her family are suspicious, especially her father, the judge. Luckily for Jess, she doesn't have to try too hard to dodge her family's suspicions as a series of gruesome local murders are taking place and that's all anyone is talking about. Jess accidentally finds herself in the thick of the investigation, and to her delight finds that she can actually be useful. But with the small population dwindling and the sense of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? [[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent|Full Review]]<!-- Hepworth Stone -->
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===[[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth]]===
===[[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sasha has a lot on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant and absent and the marriage needs work. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase and it's hard to know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at the best of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, and his unconditional love. [[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone|Full Review]] <!-- Ellis -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789014204.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789014204/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  ''Edward is six weeks old and I’ve had no sleep. I had thirty stitches in my perineum, the wounds still tug and itch. They had to do the stitches twice because the first lot became infected. The old-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention to personal hygiene. I must shower twice a day, or better still, take a salt bath. Do they really expect me to do that? Have they ever tried to shower when a baby is crying and you’re so tired you can barely stand and your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late for work again?''
Pleasant Court is I think most women have felt like this shortly after having a cul-de-sac a few minutes from the beach in Melbournebaby. Kids play in the street and it's the sort Many of place people aspire them simply managed to. Certainly that's how the families who live there feel and there's a good sense put one foot in front of community. Ben and Essie are glad that Essie's mother is living next door as Essie had a mental breakdown three years ago when her first daughter was having difficulty sleeping. Mia's come through that stage, but now there's Poppy, who's been the perfect baby for the first six months of her life, other until things calmed down but is just starting to be difficult. Ben, in particular, is pleased that he can rely on Barbara to keep an eye on the situation whilst he's out at work. some will have found it harder and developed post-natal depression[[The Family Next Door Place Where Love Should Be by Sally HepworthElizabeth Ellis|Full Review]]
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===[[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton]]===
===[[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden]]=== [[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:AutobiographyGeneral Fiction|AutobiographyGeneral Fiction]] Hugh Mullion goes away to Dorset for the weekend and, [[:Category:Entertainment|Entertainment]]while waiting for his wife to arrive, finds a mysterious key down the back of an antique chair. The grubby and torn label to which is attached reads... [[:Category:General FictionThe Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden|General FictionFull Review]]
Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950's and early 1960's, but he has chosen to write it in the form of a novel, claiming in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle, and begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfather. This catapults him into a love of music, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet. [[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton|Full Review]]<br><!-- Bala Hajaj -->
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===[[The Boat People Water Thief by Sharon BalaClaire Hajaj]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] Nick is in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. [[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj|Full Review]] <!-- Melissa Leet -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1943826331.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1943826331/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
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Among | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Landslide by Melissa Leet]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]The area where Jill and Susie lived wasn't highly populated so it was fortunate that they became such good friends, despite the 500 Sri Lankans in fact that Susie was a rickety boat making its way to Vancouver Island are Mahindan and his six-year-old son Sellianolder than Jill. When the boat arrives the Canadian authorities take all the passengers into custody Susie lived with her mother, an alcoholic, placing the women and children in a separate facility from Jill lived with ''her'' mother, who dedicated herself to her garden. Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the men. A gruelling series photographer, but he spent much of hearings will decide his time working away - often for months on end. In reality there was little difference between the fate of each individual or familytwo families: whether they will be allowed to stay in Canada, or deported back to Sri LankaMrs Smith's alcoholism caused serious illness whilst Susie was still young. Joy and tragedy would visit Jill's home. The government fears that up to half ''Landslide'' is the story of these asylum-seekers may have links to how what happened determined the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group, so judges are instructed to have a firm handcourse of Jill's life and how great tragedy can breed resilience and hope. [[The Boat People Landslide by Sharon BalaMelissa Leet|Full Review]]<br>
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===[[The Hoarder Aftershocks by Jess KiddA N Wilson]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Cathal Flood is an oldIn a country very much like New Zealand, belligerent manbut at the same time most avowedly not, living in a filthytwo women will find love. Strong love too, crowded house for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner was once a family home. When Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic is employed the only thing to look after the ancient Cathalmake sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd heard, and books and poems she assumes 'd read, and plays she'll just be the next d acted in a long line – works of short-term dogsbodies art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbole. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the old man. Insteadoff, Maud finds herself drawn into the mysteries concealed within Cathal's once great house because of something quite drastic – and as Maud begins to clean and sort a major earthquake very much like the rooms she uncovers secrets about one that hit Christchurch, but at the old man that awaken long-hidden memories within Maud herselfsame time most avowedly not. With This book then is the aid combined exploration of her highly glamourous yet utterly agoraphobic landlady the lovers and a troop of holy ghosts, Maud must uncover the secrets at the heart story of the house – and exactly why they were buried… quake. [[The Hoarder Aftershocks by Jess KiddA N Wilson|Full Review]]<br>
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===[[Kintu Hell's Unveiling by Jennifer Nansubuga MakumbiLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:43.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell'Kintus Unveiling'' opens with unbridled authority and mercilessness. In just It's probably not much of a few pages spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a man has been hunted down by an angry mob 'goody two shoes' in UgandaHell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. He Daniel is then brained with framed for a concrete slab; his woman is left in widowhood crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and has refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course there are all the hard task other children who are not only targeted, but - worst of dealing with her manall - subverted to the devil's debtevil ends. Blood flows easily He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, and quicklytheir self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, when your family's steps are haunted by either - the devil has set up a curse that spans generationstraining complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. [[Kintu Hell's Unveiling by Jennifer Nansubuga MakumbiLaura Solomon|Full Review]]<br>
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===[[Anatomy of a Scandal Staying On by Sarah VaughanC M Taylor]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Sophie had been married to James for twelve years Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and two children: to be being honest she was more than a little bit in awe of him. James Whitehouse was an MP and junior minister: perhaps most importantly he was a friend of the prime minister, so when Yorkshire's where he had 'd really like to admit be. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfect, but he'd been having an affair he was confident that some contrition, s living in a mountain village just beyond the Costa Verde and running a public admission that hepub. The Viva Espagñe isn'd been wrong, that he was not perfect, t flourishing: Tony would soon have his career back on track. And really like to sell it seemed as though that was and return to the UK, what with the way it was goinguncertainty of Brexit and everything, until but there are a friend couple of the 'other woman'problems. First off, parliamentary researcher Olivia Lytton, persuaded her his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to the policeUK. There was no dispute She'd have you believe that the relationship had been consensualshe's not well, but after James had finished the affair there was an incident in 's a lift in House of Commons and backstory there that's not being talked about. Then there's the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted pub, which isn't doing well enough to rapesell. The prosecuting counsel is Kate Woodcroft and sheIn fact Tony's very determined that Whitehouse is going cleaning the swimming pools of expats who have left Spain and returned home, in order to be brought make a bit of money to booktry and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meet. [[Anatomy of a Scandal Staying On by Sarah VaughanC M Taylor|Full Review]]<br>
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===[[Dark Pines The Day of the Orphan by Will DeanDr Nat Tanoh]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tuva Moodyson works for a local paper in small town Sweden Saga is eighteen and, like many eighteen- there year olds, his prime concerns are listening to be near an ailing Motherwhat his mum calls ''hop-hip'', but desperate for the big break that will have her moving on to pastures new. Just outside eating copious amounts of her town, Gavrikfood, two bodies lie deep in the forest - brutally murdered and their eyes ripped outlearning about girls. They bring back dark memories for a town that has seen this crime before - Living in an affluent, liberal and Tuva is desperate to find the killer. At firstprotected suburb, she's just out to write he has a good story - but as life. However, the crimes continue she finds herself drawn deeper suburb is in Africa, where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When his friends and deeper family are dragged into the forests outside of Gavrikconflict raging around the dictatorship that Saga lives under, filled with stranger characters and dark secretshe is forced to become an unlikely revolutionary. Will she find Can chubby Saga really stand up to a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead of the killer before they find hersoldiers desperate to stop him? [[Dark Pines The Day of the Orphan by Will DeanDr Nat Tanoh|Full Review]]
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===[[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece Murmuration by Stephen FryRobert Lock]]===
[[image:5star3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
The Greek Myths are, arguably, ''Murmuration'' follows the lives of a host of characters from 1863 to the greatest stories ever toldpresent day. So old and influential they cast From a risqué comic to a shadow over western tales and traditionsfortune teller, yet remain relatable we see the birth of Blackpool and readable millennia laterits steadily fading glamour. Here comedian, actor, television presenterThere is a hint of mysticism to the tale, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent to these special stories and recreates them with a wit, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving mesmerising dance of starlings over the pier acting as an anchor throughout the honour and respect that such ancient and influential distinct narratives here, drawing together disparate stories deserveof lives captivated by the sea. [[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece Murmuration by Stephen FryRobert Lock|Full Review]]
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===[[Water & Glass Smoking Kills by Abi CurtisAntoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Meet Fabrice Valantine. He's a headhunter, and a successful one too, in an office in Paris. All around him however his world is changing – yes, there is a new ban on smoking in all workplaces. Goaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtray, of sorts, he sees a hypnotist who had success with a mutual friend in stopping their nicotine habit. The session seems to have been successful, however he faces the prospect of having such a change to his own personality, his imbued habits and lifestyle, with fear, when he realises it will never again grant him any pleasure. He needs this pleasure when further changes at work come about – but it's what he replaces the habit with that will surprise the most. [[Smoking Kills by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Bennett -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1471407535.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471407535/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]
Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue.| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Island by M A Bennett]]===
It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones[[image:5star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
A contemporary take on the savage classic ''Lord of the Flies'': a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on a deserted island. Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others... [[The Island by M A Bennett|Full Review]] <!-- Hill Cullen -->
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===[[Strange Weather The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Joe HillHelen Cullen]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:HorrorGeneral Fiction|HorrorGeneral Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Literary Fiction|General Literary Fiction]]
Strange Weather William Woolf is a collection letter detective, working in the Dead Letters Depot in East London. He spends his days deciphering smudged addresses, tracking down mysterious people and reading endless letters of four short novels all linked bylove, unsurprisinglyguilt, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitinglydeath, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautifulhope, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beautyeveryday life. [[Strange Weather The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Joe HillHelen Cullen|Full Review]]
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{{newreview
|author=Michelle de Kretser
|title=The Life to Come
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''The Life to Come'' tells the story of several ''interesting'' characters who are all linked by one person: Pippa. The novel is split into five chapters with each one focusing on a different person, from Cassie and her bizarre relationship with Ash to George who has finished his thesis and is in the process of writing his first novel. Pippa, who is also a writer, appears in each of these chapters, in some cases just as a background character. However, what I found most fascinating about this novel was that de Kretser tells the story of Pippa's life through all these various appearances and leaves the reader with a real sense of who she is as a person and having watched her development as a character.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760296708</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 29/12 -->
|title=Servants of the Underground
|author=David Ssembajjo
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Having experienced a terrible famine in his own country, Kalamchi leaves to travel and learn. He returns with a burning desire to feed his people - but not only to feed their stomachs but to feed their minds, too. Kalamchi wants to raise his people's consciousness so that they can fight against the dictator Bamutu - chillingly known as ''president for life and after death''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848765800</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->
|author=Rob Murphy
|title=Rotten to the Core
|rating=4
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=It's 2009, and Russia look like being awarded the football World Cup hosting rights for the oh-so-distant 2018 tournament - that is, until England stick their oar in. They have solved their hooligan problem, and improved their transport system, and so at last are valid final holders. Watching this is France, who have to reciprocate with the Russians who helped them get France '98, and they have a plan. At this stage the UEFA European championship of 2016 has not been awarded, and while France remain favourites to get the job, again some upstart idea has poked its head above the parapet - a joint offering from Wales and Scotland. Yes, these two tiny countries, separated by 200 miles and without a brilliant connection from one to the other, and without some vital posh hotels here and there, and with no serious claim to soccer fame when it comes to winning things, are unlikely hosts. But what if France could persuade the world it was a good idea - and let Russian espionage prove it not to be so, with all the while the French around to pick up the pieces? All of the UK would be damaged, meaning England '18 would be dead in the water, and Russia would win out. And who's to say the Brits, with their devolution habits, and their first coalition government in a long time, could not get through without damaging themselves?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1546282998</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->
|author=Paul Stidolph
|title=Forests in the Sahara
|rating=4
|genre=Thrillers
|summary=''Everyone I speak to thinks you are going to come to some sort of sticky end.'' Those are not the most promising words a man can hear from his new partner, but she doesn't lie in this instance. He is Jeffrey Harvey, a young Cambridge professor, who has been dabbling with some extra-curricular work, creating GM trees that can keep vast quantities of water purified. Get an iceberg or three worth of H2O near Africa, where clean water is still a scarce resource, and the trees can do their bit and the water will advance the place and make Jeffrey a well-respected global entrepreneur. If, that is, he can get round all the problems in his life - fractions in the start-up involved in the project, a finance officer embezzling the funds for gambling - oh, and a man ready to accuse Jeffrey of murder and theft of research data on a case reaching back several years. It seems the lovely girlfriend was right to see no shortage of possible sticky ends...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1546282351</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author= Ellen Wiles
|title=The Invisible Crowd
|rating= 4
|genre= General Fiction
|summary=This novel follows the plight of Eritrean Yonas Kelati as he tries to make a life for himself in England. He and a good friend, Gebre, escape from prison only to be thrown into captivity again: trafficked in a shellfish factory where they have to earn their ‘payment’ to the malicious Aziz for entering the UK illegally. When Yonas escapes, the story really starts.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008228817</amazonuk>
}}
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