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===[[Four Vera Magpie by Andy JonesLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:44star.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]] <!-- Laura Solomon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:938689713X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/938689713X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Black Light by Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Jim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek. His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father. His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why: the looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired. Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift: he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[Black Light by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
Friends are nice, and couple friends are doubly nice, giving you like minded people to spend time with. A pair of pairs, or a couple of couples. Married couple Sally and Al have known Mike for ages – Sally from university, Al through work. His new girlfriend Faye completes their foursome and though she doesn't have their shared history, she's a lot of fun – a bit younger than the rest of them, an actress and so on. [[Four by Andy Jones|Full Review]]
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===[[A Child Called Happiness Redemptor Domus by Stephan CollishawGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe ValleyA 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, 2011 – Natalie hears a sharp cry that she thinks family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at first might be the school a birdvulnerable orphan, but turns out to be with an uncertain future. Plunged into a babyschool full of danger and betrayal, abandoned to the birds on the kopjeboy is seen as a trophy by friends and enemies alike. She is there with her uncle With them locked into their scheming and they take the childplotting, back it comes to his farm initially and then the boy to a local village where it is taken in. They do not report it attempt to clean up the policepit of filth that the school has become. [[A Child Called Happiness Redemptor Domus by Stephan CollishawGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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===[[Mr Peacock's Possessions The Long Path To Wisdom by Lydia SysonJan-Philipp Sendker]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Historical FictionShort Stories|Historical FictionShort Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On a remote volcanic island off my travels around the coast of New Zealandworld, I have a family of settlers struggle tendency to make such an unforgiving place a home. When a ship appearsend up in any bookshop that is selling English-language books, they feel that their wishes have been granted and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes are swiftly dashed when a vulnerable boy disappears. As both settlers and newcomers come together in while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the search next person, what I'm really looking for is the child'local' – the cookbook maybe, they uncover farthe maps definitely, far more than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both but above all: the island and those who inhabit itfolk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go. [[Mr Peacock's Possessions The Long Path To Wisdom by Lydia SysonJan-Philipp Sendker|Full Review]]
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===[[Underwater Breathing Katalin Street by Cassandra ParkinMagda Szabo]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
This is a story about the past. A tumblespecific past, certainly, in the form of pre-down Edwardian house war Budapest, but also a story about how that will sooner rather than later tumble down past can impact on the mud cliffs present and away into the sea is where we meet Jacob and Ellafuture. They share a bathroom in the turretIn this book, old and cold and not really supposed to be used…but this is where they hide away from the shouts first of their parents' arguments. Here they play three Magda Szabó wrote on the Underwater Breathing gamesame theme between 1969 and 1987 and now newly translated and reissued, submerging themselves in the water holding their breath for as long as they can. For sixteen year old Jacob it's just we witness a way of drowning out the arguments…but heart-rending nostalgia for Ella it is more than that. She is terrified of the seahappier days, guilt about those who did not survive, of the fact that it will come and swallow their house. She needs a dogged but doomed determination to know that she can survive under water. She has cling to practicelong-gone times, feelings and experiences which mark the here and now, staining and warping it into another, subtler misery. [[Underwater Breathing Katalin Street by Cassandra ParkinMagda Szabo|Full Review]]
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===[[The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:LGBT Fiction|LGBT FictionSanta Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston]]===
''The Great Believers'' follows a group of friends whose lives are devastated by the AIDS crisis in Chicago during the late 1980’s. Beginning in 1985, the reader follows Yale and his friends as they come to terms with the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their community, alongside their demonisation at the hands of a conservative America. Thirty years later Fiona, a devoted friend to Yale, is searching for her estranged daughter on the streets of Paris, trying to rebuild a relationship beset by memories and old hurt[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai:Category:For Sharing|Full ReviewFor Sharing]]
 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]]<!-- Koomson Mandeville -->
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===[[The Brighton Mermaid Every Colour of You by Dorothy KoomsonAmelia Mandeville]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In 1993, two teenagers stumble across a horrific scene on the beach Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as they're sneaking home after an un-authorised night out: a body of a young womanyears to life. Her world, partially strippedlike her name, totally deceasedis bursting with life and colour. The find hits the girls in different ways. Nell becomes obsessed with finding She is the identity sort of the girl – who would sing a rainbow is she calls could. Tristan (or ''the Brighton MermaidTree'' because of a distinguishing tattoo – whereas Jude just wants to forget it ever happened. Fast forward 25 years and Nell as she calls him) is still haunted by what happened that nightthe opposite. With few leads to go on, the Police closed the case without cracking it, and so it remains one Fresh out of those unsolved mysteries that become part of local folklorehospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, but Nell struggles to let sleeping dogs, or even sleeping mermaids, lie. As for Jude, well no one knows if the discovery still haunts her because no one knows where she is. Shortly after that fateful night, she too disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. There's more to Brighton than Stag Dos and Gay Pride, it seemshe sees a world as a grey place. [[The Brighton Mermaid Every Colour of You by Dorothy KoomsonAmelia Mandeville|Full Review]]
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===[[Falling Short A Spark of Light by Lex CoultonJodi Picoult]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] The Center is the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi and is the source of great controversy when it comes to the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debate. It is at The Center where one man, George Goddard, takes it upon himself to get revenge for the loss of his grandchild, in the form of a mass-shooting. What arises is a novel that details the lives of the remaining hostages, as well as other characters central to the story. One of these characters is Hugh McElroy, a hostage negotiator called in to help deflate the situation, who soon discovers that his sister and daughter, Wren, happened to be at the clinic that day. [[A Spark of Light by Jodi 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]] 
[[image:4star.jpg|linkstyle=Category"vertical-align:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[top; text-align:Category:General Fictionleft;"|General Fiction]], ===[[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's FictionJess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent]]===
Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, and relationships[[image:4star. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleaguejpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton:Category:Crime|Full ReviewCrime]]
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]]<!-- Elisabeth Hyde Stone -->
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===[[Go Ask Fannie Farmer by Elisabeth Hyde]]===
===[[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone]]=== [[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Eighty-one-year-old Murray Blaire hoped for the best when he waited for his three children to arrive one Friday nightSasha has a lot on her plate. He might be a retired lawyer, a state legislator, elected congressman Husband Jeremy is distant and now an amateur farmer but he knew that there could be trouble when Ruth absent and George arrivedthe marriage needs work. Ruth, Son Zac is entering a corporate lawyer, would find fault rebellious adolescent phase and want it's hard to talk about know how to redirect him going into a retirement home. GeorgeMother Annie, a nursean alcoholic, would argue is beginning the journey into dementia and Lizziehas never been an easy person at the best of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, a professor of English LiteratureSebastian, who lived locally and kept and visited him regularly, would be unpredictable. Murray hoped that all would go smoothly, but that simply wasn't going to happenhis unconditional love. [[Go Ask Fannie Farmer What's Left Unsaid by Elisabeth HydeDeborah Stone|Full Review]]
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===[[The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan]]===
===[[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?''
Masha's son Gabriel died some years agoI think most women have felt like this shortly after having a baby. She'd been a single parent with help from her friend, Edward, who had grieved as much as Masha and whilst Edward has moved on (his boyfriend moved out Many of them simply managed to put one foot in the immediate aftermath front of the drowning, other until things calmed down but there's now a new love interest) Masha is still stricken, feeling that some will have found it would somehow be disloyal to Gabriel if she was to be happy. An independent, rebellious woman has somehow been diminished. harder and developed post-natal depression[[The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes Place Where Love Should Be by Ruth HoganElizabeth Ellis|Full Review]]
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===[[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary FictionThe Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden]]===
Jane Ashland is dying[[image:4star. That's a description of a very early scene here – but also, of course, a platitude that can apply to all of us. Jane's life, if anything, is going up and down in levels of pleasure, energy – sobriety – in these pages, but we soon learn that it recently found a very deeply dark down place. Here then, scattered through a timeline-bending narrative, we have her days finding a Lincolnesque lover as a student in New York, glimpses of therapy, a drive to find her ancestors that takes her from rural America to Norway – and a trip there with a new-found friend to watch the musk oxen, of all things. And nowhere in sight is anything like a platitude… jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator):Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
Hugh Mullion goes away to Dorset for the weekend and, 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... [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden|Full Review]] <!-- Rogers Hajaj -->
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===[[Tale of a Tooth The Water Thief by Allie RogersClaire Hajaj]]===
[[image:5star4star.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]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Landslide by Melissa Leet]]===
Danny lives in [[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 fact that Susie was a small Sussex town year older than Jill. Susie lived with his her mother, an alcoholic, and Jill lived with ''her'' mother, Nataliewho dedicated herself to her garden. Life is poor Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the photographer, but they manage he spent much of his time working away - until theyoften for months on end. In reality there was little difference between the two families: Mrs Smith's alcoholism caused serious illness whilst Susie was still young. Joy and tragedy would visit Jill're threatened by a benefits sanctions home. A Job Centre employee looks to be their salvation - but her impact on ''Landslide'' is the family goes far beyond story of how what they first expect, happened determined the course of Jill's life and the resulting changes are described to the reader through the naive yet perceptive how great tragedy can breed resilience and wholly original eyes of four-year-old Dannyhope. [[Tale of a Tooth Landslide by Allie RogersMelissa Leet|Full Review]]
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===[[Claudia Aftershocks by Anthony TrevelyanA N Wilson]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
When Claudia is called to In a country very much like New Zealand, but at the reception of same time most avowedly not, two women will find love. Strong love too, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her Manchester Office block partner was the only thing to meet a visitor, make sense of all those exaggerated songs she doesn't expect it to be her father figure – a man d heard, and books and poems she hasn't seen for fifteen years. Samson Glaze – otherwise known as Wild Samsond read, The Aztec and The Sun King, walked out of Claudiaplays she's life and into a world d acted in – works of success as a solar panel salesman – art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbole. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but now he's returned and he needs Claudia's help. Reggieit does burgeon, Samsonor so we's sonre promised from the off, has joined because of something quite drastic – a mysterious cult called ''Tarantula''major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurch, a group who prepare for but at the same time most avowedly not. This book then is the end combined exploration of the world lovers and encourage humanity to embrace their impending doom. Claudia's journey takes her far from her home in Manchester to the end story of the world – where encounters with hammer-wielding assassins make things very difficult indeed… quake. [[Claudia Aftershocks by Anthony TrevelyanA N Wilson|Full Review]]
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===[[The Man I Think I Know Hell's Unveiling by Mike GayleLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
James DeWitt 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's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a 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 Danny Allen particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are both men in their early thirties whose lives havenconcerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't taken them where they were supposed commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to golive with Marsha. At an Then, of course there are all time low time for both the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst of them, all - subverted to the two men reconnect and slowly find theydevil're exactly what the other needss evil ends. Together He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, they help each other put their lives back togetherself esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a beautiful story about friendship and what it really means training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to help another personHell. [[The Man I Think I Know Hell's Unveiling by Mike GayleLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae Staying On by Stephanie ButlandC M Taylor]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Ailsa Rae has been sick her whole lifeTony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and being honest, Yorkshire's where he'd really like to be. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfect, but he's living in a mountain village just beyond the Costa Verde and running a pub. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like to sell it and just as she was edging closer return to death she finallythe UK, finally got what with the call that she neededuncertainty of Brexit and everything, that but there are a heart was available for her couple of problems. First off, his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to the UK. She'd have you believe that she's not well, but there's a transplantbackstory there that's not being talked about. Previously she had felt so helpless that she had used her blog to make decisions for herThen there's the pub, running polls amongst her readers which isn't doing well enough to decide on her actionssell. But with her new heartIn fact Tony's cleaning the swimming pools of expats who have left Spain and returned home, she has been given in order to make a new life. Can Ailsa manage bit of money to start to live on her owntry and make ends at least come in sight of each other, and will her mother let her do that? even if they never meet. [[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae Staying On by Stephanie ButlandC M Taylor|Full Review]]
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===[[Falling Leaves The Day of the Orphan by Stefan MohamedDr Nat Tanoh]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]],
When your best friend vanishesSaga is eighteen and, like many eighteen-year olds, how can you begin his prime concerns are listening to move on? How can you live your life not knowing whether theywhat his mum calls ''hop-hip''re okay? And what would you do if they reappeared , eating copious amounts of food, and learning about girls. Living in your life? – all questions that Vanessa faces every dayan affluent, liberal and protected suburb, even seven years after her best friend Mark vanished. When he reappears, she's shocked not only by his presence back in her has a good life. However, but also by the fact that he hasn't aged a day – for himsuburb is in Africa, no time has passed since where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When his disappearance. Shocked, confused friends and emotionally reelingfamily are dragged into the conflict raging around the dictatorship that Saga lives under, Vanessa must return he is forced to her home town in order become an unlikely revolutionary. Can chubby Saga really stand up to help Mark find the answers a murderous regime? And can he so desperately craves. But what's waiting for them is far more surprising than either stay one step ahead of them could ever have dreamt… the soldiers desperate to stop him? [[Falling Leaves The Day of the Orphan by Stefan MohamedDr Nat Tanoh|Full Review]]
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===[[Dyed Souls Murmuration by Gary SantorellaRobert Lock]]===
[[image:4.5star3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensGeneral Fiction|TeensGeneral Fiction]], [[:Category:General Historical Fiction|General Historical Fiction]]
The USA, early 1980s. Charlie (or Charles, if he's feeling belligerent, and he often is) is being taken back 'Murmuration'' follows the lives of a host of characters from 1863 to his home by his drop-out, slutty motherthe present day. The home is called From a Cottage, and while the book doesn't guide us risqué comic to understand it perfectly, it seems to mean he has a private room in a large self-contained bungalowfortune teller, on a gated compound with round-we see the-clock adult supervisionbirth of Blackpool and its steadily fading glamour. There's is a paddock with horses for hint of mysticism to the kids to ridetale, their own school – and all the adults are armed with Thorazine to calm the kids down. Charlie, despite his obvious bookish intelligence, is struggling to get to grips with why and how he's ended up where he is, but it must have something to do with his single parent mother being violent, and mesmerising dance of starlings over the fact he is no longer allowed to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, pier acting as he tries to build a relationship with a girl in a different Cottagean anchor throughout the distinct narratives here, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-olddrawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by the sea. [[Dyed Souls Murmuration by Gary SantorellaRobert Lock|Full Review]]
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===[[Two Steps Forward Smoking Kills by Graeme Simsion Antoine Laurain and Anne BuistLouise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
When I read the blurb for this bookMeet 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, I found myself instantly interested there is a new ban on smoking in its premise all workplaces. Goaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtray, of two people trying 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 start their lives his own personality, his imbued habits and lifestyle, with fear, when he realises it will never again following serious life grant him any pleasure. He needs this pleasure when further changes. The book did not disappointat work come about – but it's what he replaces the habit with that will surprise the most. [[Two Steps Forward Smoking Kills by Graeme Simsion Antoine Laurain and Anne BuistLouise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[I Have Lost My Way The Island by Gayle FormanM A Bennett]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A contemporary take on the savage classic ''I Have Lost My WayLord of the Flies'' tells the story : a group of three individuals who have each lost something important to them leading mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to them losing their waysurvive on a deserted island. Freya has lost her voice, Harun has lost his love and Nathaniel has lost everythingLink is a fish out of water. HoweverNewly arrived from America, these three elements do not give justice he is finding it hard to settle into the extent of what each character has lostvenerable and prestigious Osney School. In this expertly written novel, Gayle Forman writes about how these three dissimilar individuals each came Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to lose understand? And what was most important to themkind 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, causing them he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to all meet one fateful day in New York Citymake his life more miserable than others... [[I Have Lost My Way The Island by Gayle FormanM A Bennett|Full Review]]
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===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning The Lost Letters of the Twenty-First Century William Woolf by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)Helen Cullen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
First, forgive me if I don't refer to this book with its full title often. It's pointedly preciseWilliam Woolf is a letter detective, accurate, and rather ungainly – when working in fact the book it describes has only the former two attributes Dead Letters Depot in any quantity. What happens in January 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 a lot closer to Berlin – within 80 kilometres, to be precise, for that is the road marker where one of our main characters sees itEast London. He is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time in a month, and to be with spends his girlfrienddays deciphering smudged addresses, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was away. Also fancying the bright lights tracking down mysterious people and big city are a teenaged pair reading endless letters of love-birds, the boy guilt, death, hope, and girl next door to each other in an eastern village, who flee an unhappy lot on the off-chance of a better oneeveryday life. 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 The Lost Letters of the Twenty-First Century William Woolf by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)Helen Cullen|Full Review]]
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