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===[[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]] <!-- Ellis Kennedy -->
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===[[The Place Where Love Should Be Things That are Lost by Elizabeth EllisAlan Kennedy]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It'Edward is six weeks old s stifling and suffocating and I’ve had no sleepfeels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. I had thirty stitches in my perineumAnd where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the wounds still tug disinformation campaign, and itchreturned to find her missing. They had to do A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the stitches twice because the first lot became infected. service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The oldThings That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]] <!-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention to personal hygiene- Schienmel -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon. I must shower twice a day, or better still, take a salt bathco. Do they really expect me to do thatuk/dp/1492667242/ref=nosim? Have they ever tried tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Danger to shower when a baby is crying Herself and you’re so tired you can barely stand and your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late for work again?''Others by Alyssa Sheinmel]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
''They needed someone to blame, and I think most women have felt like this shortly after having a babywas 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. Many of them simply managed to put one foot She has dined in front fancy restaurants, explored the most sophisticated corners of the other until things calmed down but some will have found it harder globe and developed post-natal depressionlived a life of luxury. [[The Place Where Love Should Be A Danger to Herself and Others by Elizabeth EllisAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[Louis and Louise by Julie Cohen]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4starWhat 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...jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionLouis and Louise by Julie Cohen|General FictionFull Review]]
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]] <!-- Hajaj O'Reilly -->
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===[[The Water Thief M for Mammy by Claire HajajEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Nick is The Augustts are, like all families, a bit complicated. A loving irish family, their love binds them together – but all express that in very different ways. However, when misfortune strikes the middle of wedding preparations when he decides family they are forced to leave his fiancée behind work together in London and take up order to understand each other again, as with a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for family as complicated as the building of a childrenAugustts it's hospital. He has no idea not always what he is getting himself intospoken that makes the most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of stern words and common sense, she's a force of nature who must try her hardest to hold the family together. [[The Water Thief M for Mammy by Claire HajajEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
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===[[Landslide Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Melissa LeetRuth Hogan]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's FictionHumour|Women's FictionHumour]]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:Category:Paranormal|Full ReviewParanormal]]
Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother. [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan|Full Review]] <!-- Wilson Cookson -->
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===[[Aftershocks by A N Wilson]]===
===[[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]=== [[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
''In a country very much like New Zealand1948, but at the same time most avowedly not, two women will first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush". They struggled to find lovehousing. Strong love tooThey worked as labourers. They faced open discrimination, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner was the only thing forcing them to make sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd heard, and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbolequickly form their own community. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the offDecades later, because of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurch, but at Freddy makes the same time most avowedly notjourney. This book then is the combined exploration of the lovers and the story of the quake. [[Aftershocks by A N Wilson|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]] <!-- Laura Solomon Rubin -->
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===[[Hell's Unveiling Liberation Square by Laura SolomonGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short StoriesThrillers|Short StoriesThrillers]], [[:Category:General Historical Fiction|General Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:FantasyGeneral Fiction|FantasyGeneral Fiction]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain is first occupied by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from the opportunity to read East, and Americans from the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''west. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested Dividing the devil nation between them, London soon finds itself split in ''Marsha's Deal''two, but the devil is not one to take defeat lying downa wall running through it like a scar. HeWhen Jane Cawson's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought husband is arrested for the murder of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong personhis former wife, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel Jane is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission determined to return to live with Marshaclear his name. ThenIn doing so, Jane follows a trail of course there are all corruption that leads her right to the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst highest levels of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out state – and soon finds herself desperate to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - stay one step ahead of the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. murderous secret police… [[Hell's Unveiling Liberation Square by Laura SolomonGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
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===[[Staying On When You Read This by C M TaylorMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through Smith Simonyi and being honestIris Massey worked together for four years, Yorkshire's where he'd really like to beduring which time Iris left her husband at the altar on their wedding day. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfect Smith, meanwhile, relied on Iris, but hehis attention was on making enough money to cover his mother's living nursing home fees in a mountain village just beyond Wisconsin, running the Costa Verde branding agency in New York and running losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. He was devastated when Iris developed a pub. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like to sell it terminal cancer and return to the UK, what with died at the uncertainty age of Brexit and everything, but there are a couple of problemsthirty three. First off, his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to the UK. She'd have you believe He was surprised too when he discovered that she's not well, but there's Iris had been writing a backstory there that's not being talked about. Then there's the pub, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning blog in the swimming pools last six months of expats who have left Spain her life and returned home, in order to make her final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a bit of money to try and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meetbook. [[Staying On When You Read This by C M TaylorMary Adkins|Full Review]]
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===[[The Day of the Orphan Vera Magpie by Dr Nat TanohLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen and, like many eighteen-year olds, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''hop-hipI have murdered three husbands.'' As an opening line that must take some beating, eating copious amounts of foodbut Vera's telling us the truth. The first two husbands, Gary and learning about girls. Living in an affluentHarry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a keeper, liberal and protected suburbit's difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, he has particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a good mandatory lifesentence. However Her only friend is Shirley, the suburb is in Africaa lesbian, where childhoods can but Vera's not one to let herself be snatched in an instanta victim. When his friends and family are dragged into She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn't risk the conflict raging around security of her life in prison for the dictatorship that Saga lives undersake of a fling), he but she is forced to become keen on getting an unlikely revolutionaryeducation and she's studying for a degree in English Literature. Can chubby Saga really stand up to a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead of the soldiers desperate to stop him? [[The Day of the Orphan Vera Magpie by Dr Nat TanohLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Murmuration Black Light by Robert LockLaura Solomon]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[imageJim 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:3starif you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him.jpg|link=Category Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[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:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[:Category:Historical FictionBlack Light by Laura Solomon|Historical FictionFull Review]]
''Murmuration'' follows the lives of a host of characters from 1863 to the present day. From a risqué comic to a fortune teller, we see the birth of Blackpool and its steadily fading glamour. There is a hint of mysticism to the tale, with the mesmerising dance of starlings over the pier acting as an anchor throughout the distinct narratives here, drawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by the sea. [[Murmuration by Robert Lock|Full Review]]
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===[[Smoking Kills Redemptor Domus by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Gamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Meet Fabrice ValantineA young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the Far East. He's As the boy travels to the school, a headhunter, and family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school a successful one toovulnerable orphan, in with an office in Parisuncertain future. All around him however his world is changing – yesPlunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, there the boy is seen as a new ban on smoking in all workplacestrophy by friends and enemies alike. Goaded by his non-smoking wifeWith them locked into their scheming and plotting, 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 it comes to have been successful, however he faces the prospect of having such a change boy to attempt 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 clean up the habit with pit of filth that will surprise the mostschool has become. [[Smoking Kills Redemptor Domus by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Gamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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===[[The Island Long Path To Wisdom by M A BennettJan-Philipp Sendker]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensShort Stories|TeensShort Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A contemporary take on On my travels around the savage classic ''Lord of the Flies'': world, I have a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight tendency to survive on a deserted island. Link end up in any bookshop that is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from Americaselling English-language books, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so while I buy as many strange traditions to understand? And second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round I'm really looking for is the 'local' – the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs cookbook maybe, the slowest time in yearsmaps definitely, he immediately becomes but above all: the butt of every school jokefolk tales. And some students are determined If I ever get to make his life more miserable than others..Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go. [[The Island Long Path To Wisdom by M A BennettJan-Philipp Sendker|Full Review]]
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===[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Katalin Street by Helen CullenMagda Szabo]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:5starThis 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:General Fiction|General Fiction]]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, staining and warping it into another, subtler misery. [[:Category:Literary FictionKatalin Street by Magda Szabo|Literary FictionFull Review]]
William Woolf is a 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 love, guilt, death, hope, and everyday life. [[The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen|Full Review]]
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===[[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|FantasySanta Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston]]===
Marsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around. She'd been afflicted with [https[image://en4star.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressivajpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]], 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: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]]<!-- Novik Mandeville -->
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===[[Spinning Silver Every Colour of You by Naomi NovikAmelia Mandeville]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
Miryem comes from a long line of moneylenders – but her Father isn't very good at it at all. Lending freely and rarely collecting, he leaves the family on the edge of poverty, until Miryem must step Zoe believes inadding life to years as well as years to life. Hardening her heart and collecting what is owed from local villagersHer world, she becomes a person of great interest when she borrows a pouch of silver pennies from like her Grandfather and returns it full of goldname, soon becoming entangled is bursting with an array life and colour. She is the sort of strange creatures, from the dark beings that haunt the wood through to girl who would sing a King whorainbow is she could. Tristan (or ''Tree's eager to exploit Miryem's talents – as she soon becomes aware that her skills may be more trouble than they're worth… calls him) is the opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, he sees a world as a grey place. [[Spinning Silver Every Colour of You by Naomi NovikAmelia Mandeville|Full Review]]
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===[[Four A Spark of Light by Andy JonesJodi 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:4.5star1471168239.jpg|link=Categoryhttp:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews//www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471168239/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] [[  | style="vertical-align:Categorytop; text-align:General Fictionleft;"|General Fiction===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent]]===
Friends are nice, and couple friends are doubly nice, giving you like minded people to spend time with[[image:4star. A pair of pairs, or a couple of couples. Married couple Sally and Al have known Mike for ages – Sally from universityjpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], 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: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]]<!-- Collishaw Stone -->
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===[[A Child Called Happiness by Stephan Collishaw]]===
===[[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe Valley, 2011 – Natalie hears Sasha has a sharp cry that she thinks at first might be lot on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant and absent and the marriage needs work. Son Zac is entering a birdrebellious adolescent phase and it's hard to know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, but turns out to be a babyan alcoholic, abandoned to is beginning the birds on journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at the kopjebest of times. She is there with Thank heavens for her uncle lovely dog, Sebastian, and they take the child, back to his farm initially and then to a local village where it is taken in. They do not report it to the policeunconditional love. [[A Child Called Happiness What's Left Unsaid by Stephan CollishawDeborah Stone|Full Review]]
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===[[Mr Peacock's Possessions by Lydia Syson]]===
===[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On a remote volcanic island off ''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 coast of New Zealand, a family of settlers struggle first lot became infected. The old-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention to make such an unforgiving place a homepersonal hygiene. When I must shower twice a ship appearsday, or better still, take a salt bath. Do they feel really expect me to do that their wishes have been granted and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes are swiftly dashed ? Have they ever tried to shower when a vulnerable boy disappears. As both settlers baby is crying and you’re so tired you can barely stand and newcomers come together in the search your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late for the child, they uncover far, far more than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both the island and those who inhabit it. [[Mr Peacockwork again?''s Possessions by Lydia Syson|Full Review]]
I think most women have felt like this shortly after having a baby. Many of them simply managed to put one foot in front of the other until things calmed down but some will have found it harder and developed post-natal depression[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis|Full Review]] <!-- Parkin Bowden -->
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===[[Underwater Breathing by Cassandra Parkin]]===
===[[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A tumble-down Edwardian house that will sooner rather than later tumble down the mud cliffs and Hugh Mullion goes away into to Dorset for the sea is where we meet Jacob weekend and Ella. They share a bathroom in the turret, old and cold and not really supposed while waiting for his wife to be used…but this is where they hide away from the shouts of their parents' arguments. Here they play the Underwater Breathing gamearrive, submerging themselves in finds a mysterious key down the water holding their breath for as long as they can. For sixteen year old Jacob it's just a way back of drowning out the arguments…but for Ella it is more than thatan antique chair. She The grubby and torn label to which is terrified of the sea, of the fact that it will come and swallow their houseattached reads. She needs to know that she can survive under water. She has to practice. [[Underwater Breathing The Amber Maze by Cassandra ParkinChristopher Bowden|Full Review]]
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===[[The Great Believers Water Thief by Rebecca MakkaiClaire Hajaj]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT General Fiction|LGBT General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
''The Great Believers'' follows a group of friends whose lives are devastated by the AIDS crisis Nick is in Chicago during the late 1980’s. Beginning middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in 1985, the reader follows Yale London and his friends as they come to terms with the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their community, alongside their demonisation at take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the hands building of a conservative Americachildren's hospital. Thirty years later Fiona, a devoted friend to Yale, He has no idea what he is searching for her estranged daughter on the streets of Paris, trying to rebuild a relationship beset by memories and old hurtgetting himself into. [[The Great Believers Water Thief by Rebecca MakkaiClaire Hajaj|Full Review]]
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