Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search

Newest General Fiction Reviews (view source)

Revision as of 15:11, 5 June 2019

3,383 bytes added ,  15:11, 5 June 2019
no edit summary
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
<!-- Wilson McGee -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17864960380241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17864960380241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Aftershocks American Royals by A N WilsonKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:34star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Two and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, the House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and the time for her reign is imminent. [[American Royals by Katharine McGee|Full Review]] <!-- 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 -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785032461.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
In Trudy Heaton is going home, to a country very much like New Zealand, but at the same time most avowedly not, two women will find love. Strong love too, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for house where her partner was roots burrow back through the only thing centuries and to make sense of all those exaggerated songs a mother shehasn'd heardt spoken to for sixteen years. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, and books and poems where she'd read, can heal herself and plays she'd acted in – works try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperboleher husband. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the off, because of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that hit Christchurch, but at the same time most avowedly nothis father is dead. This book then is Where better than the combined exploration house full of the lovers light and the story of the quake. shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[Aftershocks The Girl at the Window by A N WilsonRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
<!-- Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:93868972960008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/93868972960008291845/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Hell's Unveiling We Are Not Okay by Laura SolomonNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short StoriesTeens|Short StoriesTeens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequelSet in a typical American town, ''HellWe Are Not Okay's Unveiling''. It's probably not much tells the story of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but four teenage girls facing the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war difficulties brought on Planet Earth by high school and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of growing up as a 'goody two shoes' girl in Hell). Although a strong person, shetoday's vulnerable where her foster children are concernedsociety. Daniel The novel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Thentold from four different perspectives, those of course there are all the other children who are not only targetedLucy, Ulana, Trina and Sophia, but - worst of all - subverted whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to the devil's evil endssworn enemies. He's out to prey on The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster childrenlives, but more importantly their self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operationminds, either - and at times the devil thoughts of those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Gomes has set up created a training complex heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on earthprominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, complete with an elevator particularly in relation to Hellthe ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[Hell's Unveiling We Are Not Okay by Laura SolomonNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
<!-- C M Taylor Kate Tough -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:0715653377034914365X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0715653377034914365X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Staying On Keep Walking Rhona Beech by C M TaylorKate Tough]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Tony Metcalfe is Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a Yorkshireman through foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and through Mark had been together for nine years and being honest, Yorkshireit was beginning to feel ''settled''s where . Then Mark announced that he'd really like got a job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to become with him or not. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfect, but he The ''not''s living in a mountain village just beyond bit of the sentence was the Costa Verde way it worked out and running a pubRhona was left on her own. The Viva Espagñe isn Well, she wasn't flourishingcompletely on her own: Tony would really like to sell she had friends and family, but it and return to 's not the UKsame as having that special someone in your life, what with the uncertainty that someone who makes you part of Brexit and everything, but there are a couple of problems. First off So Rhona had to start again, his wife - Laney - refuses to go back rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to the UK. Sheone she'd have you believe that she's not well, but left nine years ago - and there's a backstory there that's not lot of difference between being talked about. Then there's the pub, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning in the swimming pools middle of expats who have left Spain your twenties and returned home, in order to make a bit the middle of money to try and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meetyour thirties. [[Staying On Keep Walking Rhona Beech by C M TaylorKate Tough|Full Review]]
<!-- Tanoh Varenne -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19121455610857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19121455610857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Day of the Orphan Equator by Dr Nat TanohAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is eighteen andPete Ferguson, like many eighteen-year olds, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''hop-hipwho bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', eating copious amounts of foodwho spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and learning who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. But this book is about girls. Living in an affluentso much more than the 1870s USA, liberal and protected suburbthe attendant problems with gold rushes, he has a good lifepioneer spirits and racial genocide. However He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the suburb Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in Africatheir pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where childhoods can , who knows, things might actually be snatched in an instantbetter. When his friends and family are dragged into the conflict raging around the dictatorship But that Saga lives under, he equator is forced to become an unlikely revolutionary. Can chubby Saga really stand up to a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of the soldiers desperate to stop Mexico and Latin America between him? and it… [[The Day of the Orphan Equator by Dr Nat TanohAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Lock Jane O'Connor -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1787198243B07GLCDXZL.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787198243B07GLCDXZL/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Murmuration Needlemouse by Robert LockJane O'Connor]]===
[[image:3star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Women's Fiction|Historical Women's Fiction]]
''Murmuration'' follows We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the lives Prof, is taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of a host the year, not because it's her birthday but because of characters from 1863 the special time she gets to spend with the present dayman she loves. From a risqué comic He's told her that he and his wife are going to a fortune teller, we see divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the birth of Blackpool Prof will then declare his love and its steadily fading glamourthey can be together. There is a hint of mysticism She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the tale, with the mesmerising dance sexual part of starlings over the pier acting as an anchor throughout relationship. There's time though - she's only been the distinct narratives here, drawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by the seaprof's PA for fifteen years. [[Murmuration Needlemouse by Robert LockJane O'Connor|Full Review]]
<!-- Laurain -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19104775401910477672.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19104775401910477672/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Smoking Kills Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain , Jane Aitken (translator) and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Meet Fabrice Valantine. He's a headhunterVintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a successful one tooplot. So we have an American biker, in an office just landing in Parisbut unfortunately not with the wife who shared his dream of visiting the city together. All around him however his world is changing – yesWe have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, there but actually is a new ban on smoking in all workplaceshumble restorer of antiques. Goaded by his non-smoking wifeWe have a cocktail barman, even though they met infatuated with the goth girl. We also have a man ruling the roost over an ashtraya whole suite of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, and drinking from the same bottle of sorts, he sees a hypnotist who had success with a mutual friend in stopping their nicotine habitrare 1954 red wine. The session seems to have been successfulOnly, however he faces the prospect one of having such them has a change to bizarre incidence in his own personalityfamily history that also features the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, his imbued habits and lifestyle, with fearwalked out the door one rainy morning, when he realises it will never to be seen again grant him . But of course nobody will be doing any pleasure. He needs this pleasure when further changes at work come about disappearing now, though – but it's what he replaces the habit with that will surprise the most. they? [[Smoking Kills Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain , Jane Aitken (translator) and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Bennett McLean -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14714075351786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14714075351786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Island Van Apfel Girls are Gone by M A BennettFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensThrillers|TeensThrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A contemporary take on When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the savage classic ''Lord of Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the Flies'': a group long hot summer of mismatched1992, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on a deserted island. Link is a fish out in an isolated suburb of water. Newly arrived from AmericaAustralia surrounded by Bushland, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney Schoolgirls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understandDid they run away? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast Were they can run round taken? While the search for the sisters united the school quad - however ancient small community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of that quad may be? When Link runs strange moment in time – of the slowest time in yearssummer that shaped her, he immediately becomes and the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others..girls she never forgot. [[The Island Van Apfel Girls are Gone by M A BennettFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
<!-- Cullen AMS -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:07181891401408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07181891401408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Lost Letters Department of William Woolf Sensitive Crimes by Helen CullenAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
William Woolf is 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 letter new detectivenamed Ulf Varg, working who works in the Dead Letters Depot 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 East London. He spends his days deciphering smudged addressesthe knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, tracking down mysterious people and reading endless letters a case of lovepotential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, guiltand I rather enjoyed them, deathespecially the stabbing where you find that actually, hopeyou identify with the person who committed the crime, and everyday liferather than the victim. [[The Lost Letters Department of William Woolf Sensitive Crimes by Helen CullenAlexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
<!-- Laura Solomon Kennedy -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19792174400993202349.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19792174400993202349/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[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|FantasyThe Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]===
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:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral 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's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. 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 service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]] <!-- Novik Schienmel -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:15098990140349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/15098990141492667242/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Spinning Silver A Danger to Herself and Others by Naomi NovikAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:FantasyTeens|FantasyTeens]], [[: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'They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Lending freely and rarely collecting, he leaves Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the family on least I could do under the edge of poverty, until Miryem must step incircumstances. Hardening '' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so 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 parents tell her Grandfather and returns it full of gold. She has dined in fancy restaurants, soon becoming entangled with an array explored the most sophisticated corners of strange creatures, from the dark beings that haunt the wood through to globe and lived 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… life of luxury. [[Spinning Silver A Danger to Herself and Others by Naomi NovikAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
<!-- Jones Cohen -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736804091409179826.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736804091409179826/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Four Louis and Louise by Andy JonesJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Friends are niceWhat would you be like, and couple friends are doubly niceright now, giving if you like minded people to spend time with. A pair 'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a matter of pairsgenetics, or a couple of couples. Married couple Sally and Al your life would still have known Mike for ages – Sally from universityunfolded 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, Al through work. His new girlfriend Faye completes their foursome covering the stories of Louis and though she doesn't have their shared historyLouise, born on the same day, to the same parents, but in one storyline Lou is a boy, she's and in the other a lot of fun – girl. Does it really make a bit younger than difference, the rest of themgender 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, an actress and so onprompts you to think about how they could be... [[Four Louis and Louise by Andy JonesJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
<!-- Collishaw O'Reilly -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1787198812147367235X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787198812147367235X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[A Child Called Happiness M for Mammy by Stephan CollishawEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe ValleyThe Augustts are, like all families, 2011 – Natalie hears a sharp cry that she thinks at first might be a birdbit complicated. A loving irish family, their love binds them together – but turns out to be a babyall express that in very different ways. However, abandoned to the birds on when misfortune strikes the kopje. She is there with her uncle and family they take the child, back are forced to his farm initially and then work together in order to understand each other again, as with a local village where family as complicated as the Augustts it 's not always what is taken spoken that makes the most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves inand takes charge. They do not report it Full of stern words and common sense, she's a force of nature who must try her hardest to hold the policefamily together. [[A Child Called Happiness M for Mammy by Stephan CollishawEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
<!-- Syson Hogan -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:Syson_Peacock1473669065.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17857618621473669065/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Mr PeacockQueenie Malone's Possessions Paradise Hotel by Lydia SysonRuth Hogan]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category: Historical General Fiction|Historical General Fiction]], [[:Category:General FictionHumour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|General FictionParanormal]]
On a remote volcanic island off Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the coast remains of New Zealandher mother's life after her death. Whilst there, a family of settlers struggle she returns to make such an unforgiving place the Paradise hotel, a homehaven for eccentrics and misfits. When a ship appearsA place where people can be themselves, they feel and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that their wishes have been granted and their community reinvigorated – but high hopes are swiftly dashed when Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a vulnerable boy disappearschild, from this place of wonder. As both settlers and newcomers come together in With the search for the childhelp of Queenie Malone, they uncover farcaring, far more than they were looking for – discovering dark secrets about both and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the island tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and those who inhabit itdistant mother. [[Mr PeacockQueenie Malone's Possessions Paradise Hotel by Lydia SysonRuth Hogan|Full Review]]
<!-- Parkin Cookson -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17871984050955489059.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17871984050955489059/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Underwater Breathing by Cassandra Parkin]]===
===[[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]=== [[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General 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?''
A tumble-down Edwardian house that will sooner rather than later tumble down Freddie arrives in London in the mud cliffs and away into early 2000s, answering the sea is where we meet Jacob and Ellacall for teachers. They share a bathroom in He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based on the turretBritish system, old and cold the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and not really supposed to be used…but this is where they hide away from about the shouts of their parents' argumentsRiver Thames. Here they play He thinks about the Underwater Breathing gamelove of cricket and football, submerging themselves in the water holding their breath for as long as they canshared by both countries. For sixteen year old Jacob it's just a way And he thinks of drowning out the arguments…but for Ella it is more than that. She is terrified generations of the sea, of the fact that it will come and swallow their housediaspora who came before him. She needs Freddy does well in his job in East London but he does have to know face down some stereotypical attitudes from his pupils - all Jamaicans smoke weed, don't they? Everybody knows that she can survive under water. She has to practice. ! [[Underwater Breathing The Man Who Came to London by Cassandra ParkinA S Cookson|Full Review]]
<!-- Makkai Rubin -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:07088991370718187091.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07088991370718187091/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Great Believers Liberation Square by Rebecca MakkaiGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:LGBT Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|LGBT General Fiction]]
''The Great Believers'' follows a group of friends whose lives are devastated by the AIDS crisis in Chicago during the late 1980’sIn an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. Beginning in 1985After D-Day goes horribly wrong, the reader follows Yale and his friends as they come Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to terms with be rescued by Russian soldiers from the increasingly virulent illness spreading throughout their communityEast, alongside their demonisation at and Americans from the hands of a conservative Americawest. Thirty years later FionaDividing the nation between them, London soon finds itself split in two, a devoted friend to Yale, wall running through it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is searching arrested for her estranged daughter on the streets murder of Parishis former wife, trying Jane is determined to rebuild clear his name. In doing so, Jane follows a relationship beset by memories trail of corruption that leads her right to the highest levels of the state – and old hurt. soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of the murderous secret police… [[The Great Believers Liberation Square by Rebecca MakkaiGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
<!-- Koomson Mary Adkins -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:178089600X1473673313.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178089600X1473673313/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Brighton Mermaid When You Read This by Dorothy KoomsonMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In 1993Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years, during which time Iris left her husband at the altar on their wedding day. Smith, meanwhile, relied on Iris, two teenagers stumble across a horrific scene but his attention was on the beach as theymaking enough money to cover his mother're sneaking s nursing home after an un-authorised night out: a body of a young womanfees in Wisconsin, partially stripped, totally deceased. The find hits running the girls branding agency in different waysNew York and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. Nell becomes obsessed with finding the identity of He was devastated when Iris developed a terminal cancer and died at the girl – who she calls ''the Brighton Mermaid'' because age of a distinguishing tattoo – whereas Jude just wants to forget it ever happenedthirty three. Fast forward 25 years and Nell is still haunted by what happened He was surprised too when he discovered that night. With few leads to go on, Iris had been writing a blog in the Police closed the case without cracking it, last six months of her life and so it remains one her final request of those unsolved mysteries Smith is 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 he gets the discovery still haunts her because no one knows where she is. Shortly after that fateful night, she too disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. There's more to Brighton than Stag Dos and Gay Pride, it seemsblog published as a book. [[The Brighton Mermaid When You Read This by Dorothy KoomsonMary Adkins|Full Review]]
<!-- Coulton Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736695881512235857.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736695881512235857/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Falling Short Vera Magpie by Lex CoultonLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.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, and relationships'I have murdered three husbands. The main protagonist, Frances Pilgrim, is a sixth form English teacher who has recently fallen out with her best friend Jackson, a work colleague, and is grappling with the increasingly eccentric behaviour of her mother. This relationship is complicated by the fact that Frances's father disappeared at sea when she was five years old. [[Falling Short by Lex Coulton|Full Review]]'
As an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera's telling us the truth. The first two husbands, Gary and Harry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a keeper, and it's difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life sentence. Her only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but Vera's not one to let herself be a victim. She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn't risk the security of her life in prison for the sake of a fling), but she is keen on getting an education and she's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon|Full Review]] <!-- Elisabeth Hyde Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1473679737938689713X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473679737938689713X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Go Ask Fannie Farmer Black Light by Elisabeth HydeLaura 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:4if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him.5star 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.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]]
Eighty-one-year-old Murray Blaire hoped for the best when he waited for his three children to arrive one Friday night. He might be a retired lawyer, a state legislator, elected congressman and now an amateur farmer but he knew that there could be trouble when Ruth and George arrived. Ruth, a corporate lawyer, would find fault and want to talk about him going into a retirement home. George, a nurse, would argue and Lizzie, a professor of English Literature, who lived locally and kept and visited him regularly, would be unpredictable. Murray hoped that all would go smoothly, but that simply wasn't going to happen. [[Go Ask Fannie Farmer by Elisabeth Hyde|Full Review]]
<!-- Hogan Chase -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14736689991789010098.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14736689991789010098/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes Redemptor Domus by Ruth HoganGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Masha's son Gabriel died some years ago. She'd been a single parent with help A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from her friend, Edward, who had grieved as much as Masha and whilst Edward has moved on (his boyfriend moved out family in the immediate aftermath of Far East. As the boy travels to the drowningschool, but there's now a new love interest) Masha family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school a vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain future. Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, the boy is still strickenseen as a trophy by friends and enemies alike. With them locked into their scheming and plotting, feeling that it would somehow be disloyal comes to the boy to Gabriel if she was attempt to be happy. An independent, rebellious woman clean up the pit of filth that the school has somehow been diminishedbecome. [[The Particular Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes Redemptor Domus by Ruth HoganGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
|}
Retrieved from "http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/Special:MobileDiff/149991...152080"

Navigation menu