Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search

Newest General Fiction Reviews (view source)

Revision as of 15:11, 5 June 2019

3,135 bytes added ,  15:11, 5 June 2019
no edit summary
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
<!-- Mandeville McGee -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:07515716950241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07515716950241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Every Colour of You American Royals by Amelia MandevilleKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:44star.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.
Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as years to life. Her world, like her name, is bursting with life and colour. She is the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow is she could. Tristan (or ''Tree'' as she calls him) is the opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, he sees a world as a grey placeMore fool me. [[Every Colour of You Train Man by Amelia MandevilleAndrew Mulligan|Full Review]]
<!-- Picoult Coleman -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14447881241785032461.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14447881241785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[A Spark of Light The Girl at the Window by Jodi PicoultRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
The Center Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi centuries and is the source of great controversy when it comes to the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debatea mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years. It is at The Center where one man Home, her refuge, George GoddardPonden Hall, takes it upon himself where she can heal herself and try to come to get revenge for terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his grandchild, in the form of a mass-shootingfather is dead. What arises is a novel that details Where better than the lives house full 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 light and daughtershadow, Wren, happened to be at the clinic that day. nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[A Spark of Light The Girl at the Window by Jodi PicoultRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
<!-- Vincent -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14711682390008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14711682390008291845/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death We Are Not Okay by M B VincentNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionTeens|General FictionTeens]], [[:Category:CrimeGeneral Fiction|CrimeGeneral Fiction]]
Dr Jess CastleSet in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the self proclaimed failure story of four teenage girls facing the prestigious Castle family has returned home to the sleepydifficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a girl in today's society. The novel is told from four different perspectives, idyllic chocolate box town those of Castle Kidbury. Rather than being delightedLucy, her family are suspiciousUlana, especially her fatherTrina and Sophia, the judgewhose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemies. Luckily for JessThe reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, she doesn't and at times the thoughts of those characters could have to try too hard to dodge her family's suspicions as been taken directly from my own. Gomes has created a series of gruesome local murders are taking place heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that's all anyone is talking about. Jess accidentally finds herself focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in the thick of the investigationour society, and particularly in relation to her delight finds that she can actually be usefulthe ''Me Too Movement''. But with ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the small population dwindling and reader of the sense importance of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death We Are Not Okay by M B VincentNatalia Gomes|Full Review]] <!-- Stone Kate Tough -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1789014921034914365X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789014921034914365X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough]]===
===[[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone]]=== [[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Sasha Life has just hidden behind a lot on her platecorner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. Husband Jeremy is distant She and absent 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 ''not'' bit of the sentence was the marriage needs workway it worked out and Rhona was left on her own. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase Well, she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's hard not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a couple. So Rhona had to know how start again, rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into dementia one she'd left nine years ago - and has never been an easy person at there's a lot of difference between being in the best middle of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, your twenties and his unconditional lovethe middle of your thirties. [[What's Left Unsaid Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Deborah StoneKate Tough|Full Review]]
<!-- Ellis Varenne -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17890142040857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17890142040857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
===[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis]]=== [[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  ''Edward is six weeks old and I’ve had no sleep. I had thirty stitches in my perineum, the wounds still tug and itch. They had to do the stitches twice because the first lot became infected. The old-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention to personal hygiene. I must shower twice a day, or better still, take a salt bath. Do they really expect me to do that? Have they ever tried to shower when a baby is crying and you’re so tired you can barely stand and your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late for work again?''
I think most women have felt like 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 Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. But this shortly after having a babybook is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. Many He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them simply managed on the ground to put one foot in front of counter the other until anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things calmed down but some will have found it harder might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and developed post-natal depressionit… [[The Place Where Love Should Be Equator by Elizabeth EllisAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Bowden Jane O'Connor -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:B07FRH481FB07GLCDXZL.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FRH481FB07GLCDXZL/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]===
[[image:4starWe first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is 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 that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is 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 sexual part of the relationship. There's time though - she's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionNeedlemouse by Jane O'Connor|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 Laurain -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17860739431910477672.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17860739431910477672/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Water Thief Vintage 1954 by Claire HajajAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Nick 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 wife who shared his dream of visiting the city together. We have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually is in a humble restorer of antiques. We have a cocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girl. We also have a man ruling the middle roost over a whole suite of wedding preparations when he decides individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to leave his fiancée behind in London get them together, and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for drinking from the building same bottle of a children's hospitalrare 1954 red wine. He Only, one of them has no idea what he is getting himself intoa bizarre incidence in his family history that also features the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, and walked out the door one rainy morning, never to be seen again. But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? [[The Water Thief Vintage 1954 by Claire HajajAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
<!-- Melissa Leet McLean -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19438263311786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19438263311786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Landslide The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Melissa LeetFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionThrillers|General FictionThrillers]], [[:Category:Women's General Fiction|Women's General Fiction]]The area where Jill and Susie lived wasn't highly populated so it was fortunate that they became such good friends, despite the fact that Susie was a year older than Jill. Susie lived with her mother, an alcoholic, and Jill lived with ''her'' mother, who dedicated herself to her garden. Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the photographer, but he spent much of his time working away - often for months on end. In reality there was little difference between the two families: Mrs Smith's alcoholism caused serious illness whilst Susie was still young. Joy and tragedy would visit Jill's home. ''Landslide'' is the story of how what happened determined the course of Jill's life and how great tragedy can breed resilience and hope. [[Landslide by Melissa Leet|Full Review]]
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]] <!-- Wilson AMS -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17864960381408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17864960381408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Aftershocks The Department of Sensitive Crimes by A N WilsonAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In 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 country very much like New Zealandbrand new book in a brand new series, but at 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 same time most avowedly notDepartment for Sensitive Crimes, two women will find lovesolving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. Strong love too This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner was the only thing to make sense disappearance of all those exaggerated songs she'd heardan imaginary boyfriend, and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted in – works a case of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbolepotential werewolves. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but it does burgeon, or so we They're promised from the offcrimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, because of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like especially the one stabbing where you find that hit Christchurchactually, but at the same time most avowedly not. This book then is you identify with the combined exploration of person who committed the lovers and the story of crime, rather than the quakevictim. [[Aftershocks The Department of Sensitive Crimes by A N WilsonAlexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
<!-- Laura Solomon Kennedy -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:93868972960993202349.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/93868972960993202349/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon]]===
===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|MarshaThe final novel in Alan Kennedy's Deal]] WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and I was delighted by the opportunity banished to read the sequelScotland, ''Hell's Unveiling''providing trade craft spy training. It's probably not stifling and suffocating and feels as much of like a spoiler prison to say that Marsha bested Alex as anything the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil Germans would provide. And where is not one to take defeat lying down. HeJustine? Alex hasn's out t seen her since he went to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoesthat' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live disastrous meeting with Marsha. ThenJohn Cabot, instigator of course there are all the other children who are not only targeteddisinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil endsno Justine is quite another. HeAlex can's t get Justine out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self esteem is very fragileof his head. This is no small-scale operation, either - Has she left the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[Hell's Unveiling The Things That are Lost by Laura SolomonAlan Kennedy|Full Review]]
<!-- C M Taylor Schienmel -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:07156533770349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07156533771492667242/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Staying On A Danger to Herself and Others by C M TaylorAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and being honest, Yorkshire's where he'd really like They needed someone to be. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfectblame, but he's living in a mountain village just beyond and I was the Costa Verde and running a pubonly available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like to sell it and return to Playing the UK, what with scapegoat was the uncertainty of Brexit and everything, but there are a couple of problems. First off, his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to least I could do under the UKcircumstances. She'd have you believe that she's not well, but there's a backstory there that's not being talked aboutSeventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. Then there's the pubShe has dined in fancy restaurants, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning explored the swimming pools most sophisticated corners of expats who have left Spain the globe and returned home, in order to make lived a bit life of money to try and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meetluxury. [[Staying On A Danger to Herself and Others by C M TaylorAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
<!-- Tanoh Cohen -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19121455611409179826.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19121455611409179826/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Day of the Orphan Louis and Louise by Dr Nat TanohJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen andWhat would you be like, like many eighteen-year oldsright now, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''hop-hip'if you'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a matter of genetics, eating copious amounts 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 foodthe above, covering the stories of Louis and learning about girls. Living Louise, born on the same day, to the same parents, but in an affluentone storyline Lou is a boy, liberal and protected suburb, he has in the other a good lifegirl. However Does it really make a difference, the suburb gender box that is ticked when we arrive in Africathis world? We all know that men and women are treated differently, where childhoods can be snatched but this story really highlights how things have been in an instant. When his friends and family the past, how they still are dragged into the conflict raging around the dictatorship that Saga lives under, he is forced and prompts you to become an unlikely revolutionarythink about how they could be... 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 Louis and Louise by Dr Nat TanohJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
<!-- Lock O'Reilly -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1787198243147367235X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1787198243147367235X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Murmuration M for Mammy by Robert LockEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:3star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]]
''Murmuration'' follows 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 lives of a host of characters from 1863 family they are forced to the present day. From a risqué comic work together in order to understand each other again, as with a fortune teller, we see family as complicated as the Augustts it's not always what is spoken that makes the birth most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of Blackpool stern words and its steadily fading glamour. There is common sense, she's a hint force of mysticism nature who must try her hardest to hold the tale, with the mesmerising dance of starlings over the pier acting as an anchor throughout the distinct narratives here, drawing family together disparate stories of lives captivated by the sea. [[Murmuration M for Mammy by Robert LockEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
<!-- Laurain Hogan -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19104775401473669065.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19104775401473669065/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Smoking Kills Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Ruth Hogan]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
Meet Fabrice Valantine. HeTilda 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 headhunterhaven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and a successful one too, in an office in Parislet go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. All around him however his world is changing – yes, there is Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a new ban on smoking in all workplaces. Goaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtraychild, from this place of sorts, he sees a hypnotist who had success with a mutual friend in stopping their nicotine habitwonder. The session seems to have been successful, however he faces With the prospect help of having such a change to his own personalityQueenie Malone, caring, his imbued habits and lifestylegregarious, 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 Tilda begins to pick apart the habit tricky and uncertain relationship she had with that will surprise the mosther sometimes cruel and distant mother. [[Smoking Kills Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)Ruth Hogan|Full Review]]
<!-- Bennett Cookson -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:14714075350955489059.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/14714075350955489059/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Island by M A Bennett]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionThe Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]===
A contemporary take on the savage classic ''Lord of the Flies''[[image: a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on a deserted island. Link is a fish out of water. Newly arrived from America, he is finding it hard to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney School. Who knew there could be so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient that quad may be? When Link runs the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes the butt of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others..4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Island by M A Bennett: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]] <!-- Cullen Rubin -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:07181891400718187091.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/07181891400718187091/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Liberation Square by Helen CullenGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|General Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary General Fiction|Literary General Fiction]]
William Woolf In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain is a letter detective, working in first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from the Dead Letters Depot in East London. He spends his days deciphering smudged addresses, tracking down mysterious people and reading endless letters of loveAmericans from the west. Dividing the nation between them, guiltLondon soon finds itself split in two, deatha wall running through it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for the murder of his former wife, hopeJane is determined to clear his name. In doing so, Jane follows a trail of corruption that leads her right to the highest levels of the state – and everyday life. soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of the murderous secret police… [[The Lost Letters of William Woolf Liberation Square by Helen CullenGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
<!-- Laura Solomon Mary Adkins -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:19792174401473673313.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/19792174401473673313/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Marsha's Deal When You Read This by Laura SolomonMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]
Marsha didn't have an easy ride in life the first time around. She'd been afflicted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva]Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years, a rare disease during which turned parts of time Iris left her body to bone when they were damagedhusband at the altar on their wedding day. Finally she Smith, meanwhile, relied on Iris, but his attention was unable on making enough money to stand her life any longer and went to Dignitascover his mother's nursing home fees in Wisconsin, running the Swiss euthanasia clinic. She'd thought that would be the end, but after cremation her body went straight to hell branding agency in New York and she found herself face-to-face with losing money gambling when the devilpressures got too much for him. And that He was devastated when she made Iris developed a terminal cancer and died at the pactage of thirty three. In exchange for details about some of those who He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been close to writing a blog in the last six months of her - their strengths life and weaknesses - she would be reborn on the same day to the same parents, but would live her life free final request of diseaseSmith is that he gets the blog published as a book. [[Marsha's Deal When You Read This by Laura SolomonMary Adkins|Full Review]]
<!-- Novik Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:15098990141512235857.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/15098990141512235857/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Spinning Silver Vera Magpie by Naomi NovikLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:5star4star.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'I have murdered three husbands. Lending freely and rarely collecting, he leaves the family on the edge of poverty, until Miryem must step in. Hardening her heart and collecting what is owed from local villagers, she becomes a person of great interest when she borrows a pouch of silver pennies from her Grandfather and returns it full of gold, soon becoming entangled with an array of strange creatures, from the dark beings that haunt the wood through to a King who's eager to exploit Miryem's talents – she soon becomes aware that her skills may be more trouble than they're worth… [[Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik|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]] <!-- Jones Laura Solomon -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:1473680409938689713X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473680409938689713X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[Four Black Light by Andy JonesLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:43.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Jim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek. His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father. His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why: the looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired. Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift: he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[Black Light by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
Friends are nice, and couple friends are doubly nice, giving you like minded people to spend time with. A pair of pairs, or a couple of couples. Married couple Sally and Al have known Mike for ages – Sally from university, Al through work. His new girlfriend Faye completes their foursome and though she doesn't have their shared history, she's a lot of fun – a bit younger than the rest of them, an actress and so on. [[Four by Andy Jones|Full Review]]
<!-- Collishaw Chase -->
|-
| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|
[[image:17871988121789010098.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/17871988121789010098/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|
===[[A Child Called Happiness Redemptor Domus by Stephan CollishawGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Mazowe ValleyA young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to the school, 2011 – Natalie hears a sharp cry that she thinks family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at first might be the school a birdvulnerable orphan, but turns out to be with an uncertain future. Plunged into a babyschool full of danger and betrayal, abandoned to the birds on the kopjeboy is seen as a trophy by friends and enemies alike. She is there with her uncle With them locked into their scheming and they take the childplotting, back it comes to his farm initially and then the boy to a local village where it is taken in. They do not report it attempt to clean up the policepit of filth that the school has become. [[A Child Called Happiness Redemptor Domus by Stephan CollishawGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
<!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->
|}
Retrieved from "http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/Special:MobileDiff/150413...152080"

Navigation menu