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===[[A Child Called Happiness American Royals by Stephan CollishawKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe Valley, 2011 – Natalie hears a sharp cry that she thinks at first might be Two and a birdhalf centuries ago, but turns out to be a babyAmerica won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, abandoned to the birds House of Washington still sit on the kopjethrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. She is there with Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her uncle ruling the United States and they take the child, back to his farm initially and then to a local village where it time for her reign is taken in. They do not report it to the policeimminent. [[A Child Called Happiness American Royals by Stephan CollishawKatharine McGee|Full Review]]
<!-- Syson Mulligan -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1784742716.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784742716/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan]]=== [[image:2.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, even though it is [[:Category:Andy Mulligan|the author's]] debut in the adult novel market (hence the more mature name – he used to be an Andy). I thought it simple to sum up, the tale of a middle-aged man who knows too much about train travel having his life turned around in the most pleasant way. I hadn't opened it when I'd shelved it alongside [[:Category:Chris Cleave|Chris Cleave]], and [[:Category:David Nicholls|David Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness. More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]] <!-- Coleman -->
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===[[Mr Peacock's Possessions The Girl at the Window by Lydia SysonRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Historical General Fiction|Historical General Fiction]], [[:Category:General FictionParanormal|General FictionParanormal]]
On Trudy Heaton is going home, to a remote volcanic island off house where her roots burrow back through the coast of New Zealand, centuries and to a family of settlers struggle mother she hasn't spoken to make such an unforgiving place a homefor sixteen years. When a ship appears Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, they feel that their wishes have been granted where she can heal herself and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes are swiftly dashed when a vulnerable boy disappearstry to come to terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. As both settlers She needs to build bridges with her mother and newcomers come together in the search for the child, they uncover far, far more convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both the island house full of light and those who inhabit it. shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[Mr Peacock's Possessions The Girl at the Window by Lydia SysonRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
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===[[Underwater Breathing We Are Not Okay by Cassandra ParkinNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A tumble-down Edwardian house that will sooner rather than later tumble down Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the mud cliffs and away into story of four teenage girls facing the sea is where we meet Jacob difficulties brought on by high school and Ella. They share growing up as a bathroom girl in the turrettoday's society. The novel is told from four different perspectives, those of Lucy, Ulana, old Trina and cold and not really supposed Sophia, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to be used…but this sworn enemies. The reader is where they hide away from presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, and at times the shouts thoughts of their parents' argumentsthose characters could have been taken directly from my own. Here they play the Underwater Breathing gameGomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, submerging themselves particularly in relation to the water holding their breath for as long as they can''Me Too Movement''. For sixteen year old Jacob it's just a way of drowning out 'We Are Not Okay'' reminds the arguments…but for Ella it is more than that. She is terrified reader of the sea, importance of the fact that it will come and swallow their house. She needs to know that she can survive under water. She has to practicephrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[Underwater Breathing We Are Not Okay by Cassandra ParkinNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
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===[[The Great Believers Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Rebecca MakkaiKate Tough]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|LGBT Women's Fiction]]
Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been together for nine years and it was beginning to feel ''settled''. Then Mark announced that he'd got a job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him or not. The Great Believers'' follows a group not'' bit of friends whose lives are devastated by the AIDS crisis in Chicago during sentence was the late 1980’sway it worked out and Rhona was left on her own. Beginning in 1985 Well, she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the reader follows Yale and his friends same as they come to terms with the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their communityhaving that special someone in your life, alongside their demonisation at the hands that someone who makes you part of a conservative Americacouple. Thirty years later Fiona So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a devoted friend world that bore little resemblance to Yale, is searching for her estranged daughter on the streets one she'd left nine years ago - and there's a lot of difference between being in the middle of Paris, trying to rebuild a relationship beset by memories your twenties and old hurtthe middle of your thirties. [[The Great Believers Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Rebecca MakkaiKate Tough|Full Review]]
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===[[The Brighton Mermaid Equator by Dorothy KoomsonAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:43.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In 1993, two teenagers stumble across a horrific scene on It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the beach as they're sneaking home after an un-authorised night out: a body walls of a young womantheme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, partially strippedwho bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', totally deceased. The find hits the girls who spends days being physically sick while indulging in different ways. Nell becomes obsessed with finding a buffalo hunt, and who hates the identity way man – and woman, of the girl course who she calls ''can turn against fellow man at the Brighton Mermaid'' because bat of a distinguishing tattoo – whereas Jude just wants to forget it ever happenedan eyelid. Fast forward 25 years and Nell But this book is still haunted by what happened that night. With few leads to go onabout so much more than the 1870s USA, and the Police closed the case without cracking itattendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and so it remains one racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of those unsolved mysteries that become part of local folkloreUtopia, but Nell struggles to let sleeping dogsnamely the Equator, or even sleeping mermaidswhere everything is upside down, lie. As for Judepeople walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, well no one knows if the discovery still haunts her because no one knows and where she is. Shortly after that fateful night, she too disappearedwho knows, never to things might actually be seen or heard from againbetter. There But that equator is a long way away – and there's more to Brighton than Stag Dos a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and Gay Pride, it seems. it… [[The Brighton Mermaid Equator by Dorothy KoomsonAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Falling Short Needlemouse by Lex CoultonJane O'Connor]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Lex Coulton's debut novel is a story about mistakes, failures, We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and relationships. The main protagonisther boss, Frances Pilgrimthe Prof, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the year, not because it's her birthday but because of the special time she gets to spend with the man she loves. He's told her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is grappling with convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be together. She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the increasingly eccentric behaviour sexual part of her motherthe relationship. This relationship is complicated by There's time though - she's only been the fact that Francesprof's father disappeared at sea when she was five PA for fifteen years old. [[Falling Short Needlemouse by Lex CoultonJane O'Connor|Full Review]]
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===[[Go Ask Fannie Farmer Vintage 1954 by Elisabeth HydeAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Eighty-one-year-old Murray Blaire hoped for Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a plot. So we have an American biker, just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the best when he waited for wife who shared his three children to arrive one Friday nightdream of visiting the city together. He might be We have a retired lawyergoth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually is a state legislatorhumble restorer of antiques. We have a cocktail barman, elected congressman and now an amateur farmer but he knew that there could be trouble when Ruth and George arrivedinfatuated with the goth girl. Ruth, We also have a man ruling the roost over a corporate lawyerwhole suite of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, would find fault and want to talk about him going into drinking from the same bottle of a retirement homerare 1954 red wine. GeorgeOnly, one of them has a nurse, would argue and Lizzie, bizarre incidence in his family history that also features the same plonk – where a professor of English Literaturegrandfather imbibed, who lived locally and kept and visited him regularlywalked out the door one rainy morning, would never to be unpredictableseen again. Murray hoped that all would go smoothlyBut of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, but that simply wasn't going to happen. though – will they? [[Go Ask Fannie Farmer Vintage 1954 by Elisabeth HydeAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Hogan McLean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the long hot summer of 1992, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the summer that shaped her, and the girls she never forgot. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]] <!-- AMS -->
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===[[The Particular Wisdom Department of Sally Red Shoes Sensitive Crimes by Ruth HoganAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
MashaLong-time followers of The Bookbag will know I's son Gabriel died some years agom a die-hard fan of AMS. She'd been 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 single parent with help from her friendnew detective named Ulf Varg, Edwardwho 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 had grieved as much as Masha and whilst Edward has moved on (his boyfriend moved out is stabbed in the immediate aftermath knee, the disappearance of the drowningan imaginary boyfriend, but thereand a case of potential werewolves. They's now a new love interest) Masha is still stricken, feeling re the crimes that it perhaps nobody else would somehow be disloyal bother to Gabriel if she was to be happy. An independentdeal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rebellious woman has somehow been diminishedrather than the victim. [[The Particular Wisdom Department of Sally Red Shoes Sensitive Crimes by Ruth HoganAlexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
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===[[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)]]===
===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Jane Ashland is dying. ThatThe final novel in Alan Kennedy's a description of a very early scene here – but alsoWW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, of course, a platitude that can apply to all of usproviding trade craft spy training. JaneIt's life, if anything, is going up stifling and suffocating and down in levels of pleasure, energy – sobriety – in these pages, but we soon learn that it recently found feels as much like a very deeply dark down placeprison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. Here then, scattered through a timeline-bending narrative, we have And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her days finding a Lincolnesque lover as a student in New Yorksince he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, glimpses instigator of therapythe disinformation campaign, a drive and returned 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, missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of all thingshis head. And nowhere in sight is anything like a platitude… Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland Things That are Lost by Nicolai Houm and Anna Paterson (translator)Alan Kennedy|Full Review]]
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===[[Tale of a Tooth A Danger to Herself and Others by Allie RogersAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Danny lives in a small Sussex town with his mother''They needed someone to blame, Natalieand I was the only available scapegoat. Life is poor, but they manage - until theyTheir daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.''re threatened by a benefits sanctionSeventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. A Job Centre employee looks to be their salvation - but her impact on the family goes far beyond what they first expectShe has dined in fancy restaurants, and explored the resulting changes are described to the reader through most sophisticated corners of the naive yet perceptive globe and wholly original eyes lived a life of four-year-old Dannyluxury. [[Tale of a Tooth A Danger to Herself and Others by Allie RogersAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[Claudia Louis and Louise by Anthony TrevelyanJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
When Claudia is called to the reception of her Manchester Office block to meet a visitorWhat would you be like, right now, she doesnif you't expect d been born a different gender? Would it to simply be her father figure – a man she hasn't seen for fifteen years. Samson Glaze – otherwise known as Wild Samsonmatter of genetics, The Aztec and The Sun Kingyour 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, walked out covering the stories of Claudia's life Louis and into Louise, born on the same day, to the same parents, but in one storyline Lou is a world of success as boy, and in the other a solar panel salesman – but now he's returned and he needs Claudia's helpgirl. Reggie, Samson's son, has joined Does it really make a mysterious cult called ''Tarantula''difference, a group who prepare for the end of 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 world past, how they still are, and encourage humanity prompts you to embrace their impending doomthink about how they could be... Claudia's journey takes her far from her home in Manchester to the end of the world – where encounters with hammer-wielding assassins make things very difficult indeed… [[Claudia Louis and Louise by Anthony TrevelyanJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
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===[[The Man I Think I Know M for Mammy by Mike GayleEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
James DeWitt and Danny Allen The Augustts are both men in , like all families, a bit complicated. A loving irish family, their early thirties whose lives haven't taken love binds them where together – but all express that in very different ways. However, when misfortune strikes the family they were supposed are forced to go. At an all time low time for both of themwork together in order to understand each other again, as with a family as complicated as the two men reconnect and slowly find theyAugustts it're exactly s not always what is spoken that makes the other needsmost sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. TogetherFull of stern words and common sense, they help each other put their lives back together. This is she's a beautiful story about friendship and what it really means force of nature who must try her hardest to help another personhold the family together. [[The Man I Think I Know M for Mammy by Mike GayleEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
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===[[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Stephanie ButlandRuth Hogan]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's FictionHumour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Women's FictionParanormal]]
Ailsa Rae has been sick Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her whole mother's lifeafter her death. Whilst there, and just as she was edging closer returns to death she finally, finally got the call that she neededParadise hotel, that a heart was available haven for her to have a transplanteccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Previously she had felt so helpless Little wonder that she had used Tilda cannot forgive her blog to make decisions mother for banishing heras a child, running polls amongst her readers to decide on her actionsfrom this place of wonder. But with her new heartWith the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she has been given a new life. Can Ailsa manage to start to live on had with her own, sometimes cruel and will her distant mother let her do that? . [[The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Stephanie ButlandRuth Hogan|Full Review]]
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===[[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionThe Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], ===
When your best friend vanishes, how can you begin to move on? How can you live your life not knowing whether they're okay? And what would you do if they reappeared in your life? – all questions that Vanessa faces every day, even seven years after her best friend Mark vanished[[image:4star. When he reappears, she's shocked not only by his presence back in her life, but also by the fact that he hasn't aged a day – for him, no time has passed since his disappearance. Shocked, confused and emotionally reeling, Vanessa must return to her home town in order to help Mark find the answers he so desperately craves. But what's waiting for them is far more surprising than either of them could ever have dreamt… jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Falling Leaves by Stefan Mohamed:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
''In 1948, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush". They struggled to find housing. They worked as labourers. They faced open discrimination, forcing them to quickly form their own community. Decades later, Freddy makes the same journey.'' ''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]] <!-- Santorella Rubin -->
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===[[Dyed Souls Liberation Square by Gary SantorellaGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensThrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|TeensHistorical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The USAIn an alternate 1952, early 1980sSoviet Troops control British Streets. Charlie (or Charles, if he's feeling belligerentAfter D-Day goes horribly wrong, and he often Britain is) is being taken back first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to his home be rescued by his drop-outRussian soldiers from the East, slutty motherand Americans from the west. The home is called a Cottage, and while Dividing the book doesn't guide us to understand it perfectlynation between them, it seems to mean he has a private room London soon finds itself split in two, a large self-contained bungalow, on wall running through it like a gated compound with round-the-clock adult supervisionscar. ThereWhen Jane Cawson's a paddock with horses husband is arrested for the kids to ride, their own school – and all the adults are armed with Thorazine to calm the kids down. Charlie, despite murder of his obvious bookish intelligenceformer wife, Jane is struggling determined to get to grips with why and how he's ended up where he isclear his name. In doing so, but it must have something Jane follows a trail of corruption that leads her right to do with his single parent mother being violent, the highest levels of the state – and the fact he is no longer allowed soon finds herself desperate to stay with his grandfather. This book is a slightly woozy look at his thoughts, as he tries to build a relationship with a girl in a different Cottage, and work out his lot. He certainly has a lot on his plate for a thirteen-year-old. one step ahead of the murderous secret police… [[Dyed Souls Liberation Square by Gary SantorellaGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
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===[[Two Steps Forward When You Read This by Graeme Simsion and Anne BuistMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
When I read Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years, during which time Iris left her husband at the blurb for this bookaltar on their wedding day. Smith, meanwhile, relied on Iris, but his attention was on making enough money to cover his mother's nursing home fees in Wisconsin, I found myself instantly interested running the branding agency in its premise New York and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. He was devastated when Iris developed a terminal cancer and died at the age of two people trying to start their lives again following serious life changesthirty three. The He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog in the last six months of her life and her final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a book did not disappoint. [[Two Steps Forward When You Read This by Graeme Simsion and Anne BuistMary Adkins|Full Review]]
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===[[I Have Lost My Way Vera Magpie by Gayle FormanLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:5star4star.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'I Have Lost My Way'' tells the story of three individuals who s difficult to understand why Vera would have each lost something important killed him, particularly when she was likely to them leading to them losing their wayget found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life sentence. Freya has lost her voice Her only friend is Shirley, Harun has lost his love and Nathaniel has lost everything. Howevera lesbian, these three elements do but Vera's not give justice one to let herself be a victim. She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn't risk the extent security of what each character has lost. In this expertly written novelher life in prison for the sake of a fling), Gayle Forman writes about how these three dissimilar individuals each came to lose what was most important to them, causing them to all meet one fateful day but she is keen on getting an education and she's studying for a degree in New York CityEnglish Literature. [[I Have Lost My Way Vera Magpie by Gayle FormanLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century Black Light by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)Laura 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: 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:4starthe looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired.jpg|link=Category Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[:Category:General FictionBlack Light by Laura Solomon|General FictionFull Review]]
First, forgive me if I don't refer to this book with its full title often. It's pointedly precise, accurate, and rather ungainly – when in fact the book it describes has only the former two attributes 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 it. He is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time in a month, and to be with his girlfriend, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was away. Also fancying the bright lights and big city are a teenaged pair of love-birds, the boy and girl next door to each other in an eastern village, who flee an unhappy lot on the off-chance of a better one. 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 of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[W Redemptor Domus by John BanksGamelyn Chase]]===
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On A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the slopes of Mt Hood scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in Oregonthe Far East. As the boy travels to the school, a family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school a vulnerable orphan, with an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking explorationuncertain future. Josh Kinninger Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, the boy is inspired seen as a trophy by the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored friends and with his world in turmoilenemies alike. Beginning a journey westwardWith them locked into their scheming and plotting, he's filled with a desire it comes to the boy to attempt to wreak vengeance on clean up the pit of filth that the individuals he finds morally corruptschool has become. [[W Redemptor Domus by John BanksGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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