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<!-- Bowden AMS -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]] <!-- Kennedy -->
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===[[The Amber Maze Things That are Lost by Christopher BowdenAlan Kennedy]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Hugh Mullion goes away to Dorset for the weekend The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and, while waiting for his wife banished to arriveScotland, finds providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a mysterious key down prison to Alex as anything the back Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of an antique chair. The grubby the disinformation campaign, and torn label returned to which find her missing. A failed mission is attached reads.one thing but no Justine is quite another.Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Amber Maze Things That are Lost by Christopher BowdenAlan Kennedy|Full Review]]
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===[[The Water Thief A Danger to Herself and Others by Claire HajajAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionTeens|General FictionTeens]], [[:Category:Literary General Fiction|Literary General Fiction]]
Nick is ''They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored the middle most sophisticated corners of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London the globe and take up lived a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building life of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself intoluxury. [[The Water Thief A Danger to Herself and Others by Claire HajajAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[Landslide Louis and Louise by Melissa LeetJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4star5star.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 year older than Jill. Susie lived with her mother, an alcoholic, and Jill lived with ''her'' mother, who dedicated herself to her garden. Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the photographer, but he spent much of his time working away - often 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's home. ''Landslide'' is the story of how what happened determined the course of Jill's life and how great tragedy can breed resilience and hope. [[Landslide by Melissa Leet|Full Review]]
What would you be like, right now, if you'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a matter of genetics, and your life would still have unfolded in the same way? Or would the way you had been raised affect who you became in life? This latest novel by Julie Cohen looks at all of the above, covering the stories of Louis and Louise, born on the same day, to the same parents, but in one storyline Lou is a boy, and in the other a girl. Does it really make a difference, the gender box that is ticked when we arrive in this world? We all know that men and women are treated differently, but this story really highlights how things have been in the past, how they still are, and prompts you to think about how they could be... [[Louis and Louise by Julie Cohen|Full Review]] <!-- Wilson O'Reilly -->
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===[[Aftershocks M for Mammy by A N WilsonEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In a country very much The Augustts are, like New Zealandall families, but at the same time most avowedly nota bit complicated. A loving irish family, two women will find their lovebinds them together – but all express that in very different ways. Strong love tooHowever, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner was when misfortune strikes the only thing family they are forced to make sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd heard, and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted work together in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbole. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some timeorder to understand each other again, but as with a family as complicated as the Augustts it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the off, because of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one s not always what is spoken that hit Christchurch, but at makes the same time most avowedly notsense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. This book then is the combined exploration Full of the lovers stern words and the story common sense, she's a force of nature who must try her hardest to hold the quakefamily together. [[Aftershocks M for Mammy by A N WilsonEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
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===[[HellQueenie Malone's Unveiling Paradise Hotel by Laura SolomonRuth Hogan]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short StoriesGeneral Fiction|Short StoriesGeneral Fiction]], [[:Category:General FictionHumour|General FictionHumour]], [[:Category:FantasyParanormal|FantasyParanormal]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity Tilda returns to Brighton, to read tidy away the sequel, ''Hellremains of her mother's Unveiling''life after her death. It's probably not much of a spoiler Whilst there, she returns to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal''Paradise hotel, but the devil is not one to take defeat lying downa haven for eccentrics and misfits. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth A place where people can be themselves, and particularly on Marsha (who's thought let go of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell)thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed mother for banishing her as a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Thenchild, from this place of course there are all wonder. With the other children who are not only targetedhelp of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, but - worst of all - subverted Tilda begins to pick apart the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears tricky and weaknesses uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and as with many foster children, their self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Helldistant mother. [[HellQueenie Malone's Unveiling Paradise Hotel by Laura SolomonRuth Hogan|Full Review]]
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 ===[[Staying On The Man Who Came to London by C M TaylorA S Cookson]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tony 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 perfectIn 1948, but he's living the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a mountain village just beyond the Costa Verde and running a pubship called "Empire Windrush". The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like They struggled to sell it and return to the UK, what with the uncertainty of Brexit and everything, but there are a couple of problemsfind housing. They worked as labourers. First offThey faced open discrimination, his wife - Laney - refuses forcing them to go back to the UKquickly form their own community. She'd have you believe that she's not wellDecades later, but there's a backstory there that's not being talked aboutFreddy makes the same journey. Then there's the pub, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning the swimming pools of expats who have left Spain and returned home, in order to make a bit of money to try and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meet. [[Staying On by C M Taylor|Full Review]]
''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?'' Freddie arrives in London in the early 2000s, answering the call for teachers. He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based on the British system, and the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and about the River Thames. He thinks about the love of cricket and football, shared by both countries. And he thinks of the generations of the diaspora who came before him. Freddy does well in his job in East London but he does have to face down some stereotypical attitudes from his pupils - all Jamaicans smoke weed, don't they? Everybody knows that! [[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson|Full Review]] <!-- Tanoh Rubin -->
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===[[The Day of the Orphan Liberation Square by Dr Nat TanohGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen andIn an alternate 1952, like many eighteenSoviet Troops control British Streets. After D-year oldsDay goes horribly wrong, his prime concerns are listening Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to what his mum calls ''hop-hip'', eating copious amounts of foodbe rescued by Russian soldiers from the East, and learning about girlsAmericans from the west. Living Dividing the nation between them, London soon finds itself split in an affluenttwo, liberal and protected suburb, he has a good lifewall running through it like a scar. However, When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for the suburb is in Africa, where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When murder of his friends and family are dragged into the conflict raging around the dictatorship that Saga lives underformer wife, he Jane is forced determined to become an unlikely revolutionaryclear his name. Can chubby Saga really stand up In doing so, Jane follows a trail of corruption that leads her right to the highest levels of the state – and soon finds herself desperate to a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead of the soldiers desperate to stop him? murderous secret police… [[The Day of the Orphan Liberation Square by Dr Nat TanohGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
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===[[Murmuration When You Read This by Robert LockMary Adkins]]===
[[image:3star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
''Murmuration'' follows Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years, during which time Iris left her husband at the lives of a host of characters from 1863 to the present altar on their wedding day. From a risqué comic Smith, meanwhile, relied on Iris, but his attention was on making enough money to a fortune tellercover his mother's nursing home fees in Wisconsin, we see running the birth of Blackpool branding agency in New York and its steadily fading glamourlosing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. There is He was devastated when Iris developed a hint terminal cancer and died at the age of mysticism to thirty three. He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog in the tale, with the mesmerising dance last six months of her life and her final request of starlings over Smith is that he gets the pier acting blog published as an anchor throughout the distinct narratives here, drawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by the seaa book. [[Murmuration When You Read This by Robert LockMary Adkins|Full Review]]
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===[[Smoking Kills Vera Magpie by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Meet Fabrice Valantine''I have murdered three husbands. He'' 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 headhuntertreasure, a keeper, and a successful one tooit'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 an office in Parisprison with a mandatory life sentence. All around him however his world Her only friend is changing – yesShirley, a lesbian, there is but Vera's not one to let herself be a new ban victim. She's not keen on smoking in all workplaces. Goaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtray, of sorts, he sees having a hypnotist who had success sexual relationship with a mutual friend Shirley (she wouldn't risk the security of her life in stopping their nicotine habit. The session seems to have been successful, however he faces prison for the prospect sake of having such a change to his own personalityfling), his imbued habits but she is keen on getting an education 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 itshe's what he replaces the habit with that will surprise the moststudying for a degree in English Literature. [[Smoking Kills Vera Magpie by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)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]]  <!-- Bennett Chase -->
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===[[The Island Redemptor Domus by M A BennettGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A contemporary take young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the savage classic ''Lord of scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to the Flies'': school, a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight family tragedy causes the boy to survive on arrive at the school a deserted islandvulnerable orphan, with an uncertain future. Link Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, the boy is seen as a fish out of watertrophy by friends and enemies alike. Newly arrived from AmericaWith them locked into their scheming and plotting, he is finding it hard comes to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions boy to attempt to understand? And what kind clean up the pit of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient filth 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..has become. [[The Island Redemptor Domus by M A BennettGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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===[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Long Path To Wisdom by Helen CullenJan-Philipp Sendker]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionShort Stories|General FictionShort Stories]], [[:Category:Literary General Fiction|Literary General Fiction]]
William Woolf On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is a letter detectiveselling English-language books, working in and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the Dead Letters Depot in East London. He spends his days deciphering smudged addressesnext person, tracking down mysterious people and reading endless letters of lovewhat I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, guiltthe maps definitely, deathbut above all: the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, hopeI won't need to hunt, and everyday lifeI can read before I go. [[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Long Path To Wisdom by Helen CullenJan-Philipp Sendker|Full Review]]
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===[[Marsha's Deal Katalin Street by Laura SolomonMagda Szabo]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:4starThis is a story about the past. A specific past, certainly, in the form of pre-war Budapest, but also a story about how that past can impact on the present and the future.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]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 survive, and a dogged but doomed determination to cling to long-gone times, feelings and experiences which mark the here and now, [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]staining and warping it into another, subtler misery. [[:Category:FantasyKatalin Street by Magda Szabo|FantasyFull Review]]
Marsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around. She'd been afflicted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva], a rare disease which turned parts of her body to bone when they were damaged. Finally she was unable to stand her life any longer and went to Dignitas, the Swiss euthanasia clinic. She'd thought that would be the end, but after cremation her body went straight to hell and she found herself face-to-face with the devil. And that was when she made the pact. In exchange for details about some of those who had been close to her - their strengths and weaknesses - she would be reborn on the same day to the same parents, but would live her life free of disease. [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Teens|TeensSanta Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston]]===
Miryem comes from a long line of moneylenders – but her Father isn't very good at it at all[[image:4star. Lending freely and rarely collecting, he leaves the family on the edge of poverty, until Miryem must step in. Hardening her heart and collecting what is owed from local villagers, she becomes a person of great interest when she borrows a pouch of silver pennies from her Grandfather and returns it full of gold, soon becoming entangled with an array of strange creatures, from the dark beings that haunt the wood through to a King who's eager to exploit Miryem's talents – she soon becomes aware that her skills may be more trouble than they're worth… jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: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]]<!-- Jones Mandeville -->
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===[[Four Every Colour of You by Andy JonesAmelia Mandeville]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Friends are niceZoe believes in adding life to years as well as years to life. Her world, and couple friends are doubly nicelike her name, giving you like minded people to spend time is bursting withlife and colour. A pair She is the sort of pairs, or girl who would sing a couple of couplesrainbow is she could. 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 doesnTristan (or ''Tree''t have their shared history, as she's calls him) is the opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a lot of fun – prolonged stay in a bit younger than the rest of thempsychiatric unit, an actress and so onhe sees a world as a grey place. [[Four Every Colour of You by Andy JonesAmelia Mandeville|Full Review]]
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===[[A Child Called Happiness Spark of Light by Stephan CollishawJodi Picoult]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe ValleyThe 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, 2011 – Natalie hears a sharp cry that she thinks at first might be a birdGeorge Goddard, but turns out takes it upon himself to be get revenge for the loss of his grandchild, in the form of a mass-shooting. What arises is a babynovel that details the lives of the remaining hostages, abandoned as well as other characters central to the birds on the kopjestory. She One of these characters is there with her uncle and they take Hugh McElroy, a hostage negotiator called in to help deflate the childsituation, back to who soon discovers that his farm initially sister and then to a local village where it is taken in. They do not report it daughter, Wren, happened to be at the policeclinic that day. [[A Child Called Happiness Spark of Light by Stephan CollishawJodi Picoult|Full Review]]
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===[[Mr Peacock's Possessions Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by Lydia SysonM B Vincent]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Historical General Fiction|Historical General Fiction]], [[:Category:General FictionCrime|General FictionCrime]]
On a remote volcanic island off Dr Jess Castle, the coast self proclaimed failure of New Zealandthe prestigious Castle family has returned home to the sleepy, a idyllic chocolate box town of Castle Kidbury. Rather than being delighted, her family of settlers struggle to make such an unforgiving place a homeare suspicious, especially her father, the judge. When a ship appearsLuckily for Jess, they feel that their wishes she doesn't have been granted to try too hard to dodge her family's suspicions as a series of gruesome local murders are taking place and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes are swiftly dashed when a vulnerable boy disappearsthat's all anyone is talking about. As both settlers and newcomers come together Jess accidentally finds herself in the search for thick of the childinvestigation, they uncover far, far more than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both and to her delight finds that she can actually be useful. But with the island small population dwindling and those who inhabit it. the sense of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? [[Mr Peacock's Possessions Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by Lydia SysonM B Vincent|Full Review]]<!-- Stone -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1789014921.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789014921/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
 | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[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]] <!-- Parkin Ellis -->
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===[[Underwater Breathing by Cassandra Parkin]]===
===[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis]]=== [[image:5star4star.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?''
A tumble-down Edwardian house that will sooner rather than later tumble down the mud cliffs and away into the sea is where we meet Jacob and Ella. They share a bathroom in the turret, old and cold and not really supposed to be used…but I think most women have felt like this is where they hide away from the shouts of their parents' arguments. Here they play the Underwater Breathing game, submerging themselves in the water holding their breath for as long as they can. For sixteen year old Jacob it's just shortly after having a way of drowning out the arguments…but for Ella it is more than thatbaby. She is terrified Many of the sea, them simply managed to put one foot in front of the fact that other until things calmed down but some will have found it will come harder and swallow their house. She needs to know that she can survive under water. She has to practice. developed post-natal depression[[Underwater Breathing The Place Where Love Should Be by Cassandra ParkinElizabeth Ellis|Full Review]]
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===[[The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai]]===
===[[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT General Fiction|LGBT General Fiction]]
''The Great Believers'' follows a group of friends whose lives are devastated by Hugh Mullion goes away to Dorset for the AIDS crisis in Chicago during the late 1980’s. Beginning in 1985weekend and, the reader follows Yale and while waiting for his friends as they come wife to terms with the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their communityarrive, alongside their demonisation at finds a mysterious key down the hands back of a conservative Americaan antique chair. Thirty years later Fiona, a devoted friend The grubby and torn label to Yale, which is searching for her estranged daughter on the streets of Paris, trying to rebuild a relationship beset by memories and old hurtattached reads... [[The Great Believers Amber Maze by Rebecca MakkaiChristopher Bowden|Full Review]]
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===[[The Brighton Mermaid Water Thief by Dorothy KoomsonClaire Hajaj]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
In 1993, two teenagers stumble across a horrific scene on Nick is in the beach as they're sneaking home after an un-authorised night out: a body middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a young woman, partially stripped, totally deceased. The find hits the girls post in different ways. Nell becomes obsessed with finding some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the identity building of the girl – who she calls a children''the Brighton Mermaid'' because of a distinguishing tattoo – whereas Jude just wants to forget it ever happeneds hospital. Fast forward 25 years and Nell is still haunted by He has no idea what happened that night. With few leads to go on, the Police closed the case without cracking it, and so it remains one of those unsolved mysteries that become part of local folklore, 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 he 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 seemsgetting himself into. [[The Brighton Mermaid Water Thief by Dorothy KoomsonClaire Hajaj|Full Review]]
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