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===[[Katalin Street American Royals by Magda SzaboKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] This is a story about the past. A specific past, certainly, in the form of pre-war Budapest, but also a story about how that past can impact on the present and the future. In this book, the first of three Magda Szabó wrote on the same theme between 1969 and 1987 and now newly translated and reissued, we witness a heart-rending nostalgia for happier days, guilt about those who did not survive, and a dogged but doomed determination to cling to long-gone times, feelings and experiences which mark the here and now, staining and warping it into another, subtler misery. [[Katalin Street by Magda Szabo|Full Review]]
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]]
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| 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]], [[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]===
I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, even though it is [[image:4starCategory:Andy Mulligan|the author's]] debut in the adult novel market (hence the more mature name – he used to be an Andy).jpg|link= 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:{{{rating}}} Star ReviewsChris Cleave|Chris Cleave]] , and [[:Category:For SharingDavid Nicholls|For SharingDavid Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness.
More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]]
Something's gone horribly wrong. It's Christmas Eve and everything is very busy in Santa's grotto. The presents are all ready and waiting to be loaded onto the sleigh and the reindeer are itching to get going. But Santa? Santa is just not in the mood. He is tired of delivering the latest toys to children who only play with them for five minutes. He wishes people would remember what Christmas is really about - a time for families to come together for love and friendship and goodwill to one another. [[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston|Full Review]]<!-- Mandeville Coleman -->
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===[[Every Colour of You The Girl at the Window by Amelia MandevilleRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
Zoe believes in adding life Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years as well as years to life. Her world Home, like her namerefuge, is bursting Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with life and colourthe traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow is she coulddead. Tristan (or ''Tree'' as she calls him) is Where better than the opposite. Fresh out house full of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unitlight and shadow, he sees a world as a grey place. that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[Every Colour of You The Girl at the Window by Amelia MandevilleRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
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===[[A Spark of Light We Are Not Okay by Jodi PicoultNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The Center is the last remaining abortion clinic Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the state story of Mississippi four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a girl in today's society. The novel is the source told from four different perspectives, those of great controversy when it comes Lucy, Ulana, Trina and Sophia, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debatesworn enemies. It The reader is at The Center where one manpresented with a glimpse into each of their lives, George Goddardbut more importantly their minds, takes it upon himself to get revenge for and at times the loss thoughts of his grandchild, in the form of a mass-shootingthose characters could have been taken directly from my own. What arises is Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that details the lives of the remaining hostagesfocuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, as well as other characters central particularly in relation to the story''Me Too Movement''. One ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of these characters is Hugh McElroy, a hostage negotiator called in to help deflate the situation, who soon discovers that his sister and daughter, Wren, happened to be at the clinic that dayimportance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[A Spark of Light We Are Not Okay by Jodi PicoultNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
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===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death Keep Walking Rhona Beech by M B VincentKate Tough]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:CrimeWomen's Fiction|CrimeWomen's Fiction]]
Dr Jess Castle, the self proclaimed failure 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 ''not'' bit of the prestigious Castle family has returned home to sentence was the sleepy, idyllic chocolate box town of Castle Kidbury. Rather than being delighted, way it worked out and Rhona was left on her family are suspicious, especially her father, the judgeown. Luckily for Jess Well, she doesnwasn't have to try too hard to dodge completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's suspicions not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a series of gruesome local murders are taking place couple. So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to the one she'd left nine years ago - and thatthere's all anyone is talking about. Jess accidentally finds herself a lot of difference between being in the thick middle of the investigation, and to her delight finds that she can actually be useful. But with the small population dwindling your twenties and the sense middle of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? your thirties. [[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death Keep Walking Rhona Beech by M B VincentKate Tough|Full Review]] <!-- Stone Varenne -->
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===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4starIt 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 book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. 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 on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[:Category:General FictionEquator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|General FictionFull Review]]
Sasha has a lot on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant and absent and the marriage needs work. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase and it's hard to know how to redirect him. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning the journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at the best of times. Thank heavens for her lovely dog, Sebastian, and his unconditional love. [[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone|Full Review]] <!-- Ellis Jane O'Connor -->
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===[[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis: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]]
''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 this shortly after having a baby. Many of them simply managed to put one foot in front of the other until things calmed down but some will have found it harder and developed post-natal depression[[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis|Full Review]] <!-- Bowden Laurain -->
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===[[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4starVintage 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 a humble restorer of antiques. We have a cocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girl. We also have a man ruling the roost over a 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 a rare 1954 red wine. Only, one of them has a 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.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? [[:Category:General FictionVintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|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 McLean -->
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===[[The Water Thief Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Claire HajajFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionThrillers|General FictionThrillers]], [[:Category:Literary General Fiction|Literary General Fiction]]
Nick is in When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the middle long hot summer of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind 1992, in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the building of a childrenschool's hospitalShowstopper 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. He has no idea what he is getting himself intoReturning 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 Water Thief Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Claire HajajFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
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===[[Landslide The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Melissa LeetAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]The area where Jill and Susie lived wasn't highly populated so it was fortunate that they became such good friends, despite the fact that Susie was a year older than Jill. Susie lived with her mother, an alcoholic, and Jill lived with ''her'' mother, who dedicated herself to her garden. Jill's father was Jay Tutle, the photographer, but he spent much of his time working away - often for months on end. In reality there was little difference between the two families: Mrs Smith's alcoholism caused serious illness whilst Susie was still young. Joy and tragedy would visit Jill's home. ''Landslide'' is the story of how what happened determined the course of Jill's life and how great tragedy can breed resilience and hope. [[Landslide by Melissa Leet|Full Review]]
Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]] <!-- Wilson Kennedy -->
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===[[Aftershocks by A N Wilson]]===
===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:3.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In a country very 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 New Zealand, but at a prison to Alex as anything the same time most avowedly not, two women will find loveGermans would provide. Strong love too, for our narrator will say that And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her first attraction for her partner was the only thing since he went to make sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd heard, and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbole. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time, but it does burgeon, or so we're promised from the off' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, because instigator of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one that hit Christchurch, thing but at the same time most avowedly notno Justine is quite another. This book then is the combined exploration Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the lovers and the story of the quake. service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[Aftershocks The Things That are Lost by A N WilsonAlan Kennedy|Full Review]]
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===[[Hell's Unveiling A Danger to Herself and Others by Laura SolomonAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[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]] They needed someone to blame, and I was delighted by the opportunity to read only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested scapegoat was the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but least I could do under the devil is not one to take defeat lying downcircumstances. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell 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 with Marsha. ThenShe has dined in fancy restaurants, of course there are all explored the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst most sophisticated corners of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears globe and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up lived a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Helllife of luxury. [[Hell's Unveiling A Danger to Herself and Others by Laura SolomonAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[Staying On Louis and Louise by C M TaylorJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and being honestWhat would you be like, right now, Yorkshire's where heif you'd really like to been born a different gender? Would it simply be. You suspect that Scarborough a matter of genetics, and your life would be perfect, but he's living still have unfolded in a mountain village just beyond the Costa Verde and running a pub. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony same way? Or would really like to sell it and return to the UKway you had been raised affect who you became in life? This latest novel by Julie Cohen looks at all of the above, what with covering the uncertainty stories of Brexit Louis and everythingLouise, but there are a couple of problems. First offborn on the same day, his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to the UK. She'd have you believe that she's not wellsame parents, but there's in one storyline Lou is a backstory there that's not being talked about. Then there's the pubboy, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning the swimming pools of expats who have left Spain and returned home, in order to the other a girl. Does it really make a bit of money to try difference, the gender box that is ticked when we arrive in this world? We all know that men and make ends at least come women are treated differently, but this story really highlights how things have been in sight of each otherthe past, how they still are, even if and prompts you to think about how they never meetcould be... [[Staying On Louis and Louise by C M TaylorJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
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===[[The Day of the Orphan M for Mammy by Dr Nat TanohEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen andThe Augustts are, like many eighteen-year oldsall families, his prime concerns are listening to what his mum calls ''hop-hip''a bit complicated. A loving irish family, eating copious amounts of food, and learning about girls. Living their love binds them together – but all express that in an affluent, liberal and protected suburb, he has a good lifevery different ways. However, when misfortune strikes the suburb is family they are forced to work together in Africaorder to understand each other again, where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When his friends and as with a family are dragged into as complicated as the conflict raging around Augustts it's not always what is spoken that makes the dictatorship that Saga lives under, he is forced to become an unlikely revolutionarymost sense. Can chubby Saga really stand Things are shaken up to further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of stern words and common sense, she's a murderous regime? And can he stay one step ahead force of nature who must try her hardest to hold the soldiers desperate to stop him? family together. [[The Day of the Orphan M for Mammy by Dr Nat TanohEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
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===[[Murmuration Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Robert LockRuth Hogan]]===
[[image:3star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical FictionHumour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Historical FictionParanormal]]
''Murmuration'' follows Tilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the lives remains of a host of characters from 1863 her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the present dayParadise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. From a risqué comic to a fortune tellerA place where people can be themselves, we see the birth and let go of Blackpool and its steadily fading glamourthoughts that torment them elsewhere. There is Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a hint child, from this place of mysticism to wonder. With the talehelp of Queenie Malone, with the mesmerising dance of starlings over the pier acting as an anchor throughout the distinct narratives herecaring, and gregarious, drawing together disparate stories of lives captivated by Tilda begins to pick apart the seatricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother. [[Murmuration Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Robert LockRuth Hogan|Full Review]]
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 ===[[Smoking Kills The Man Who Came to London by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)A S Cookson]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Meet Fabrice Valantine. He's a headhunter'In 1948, and a successful one too, in an office the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Paris. All around him however his world is changing – yes, there is a new ban Great Britain on smoking in all workplaces. Goaded by his non-smoking wife, even though they met over an ashtray, of sorts, he sees a hypnotist who had success with a mutual friend in stopping their nicotine habitship called "Empire Windrush". The session seems They struggled to have been successfulfind housing. They worked as labourers. They faced open discrimination, however he faces the prospect of having such a change forcing them to his quickly form their own personalitycommunity. Decades later, his imbued habits and lifestyle, with fear, when he realises it will never again grant him any pleasureFreddy makes the same journey. He needs this pleasure when further changes at work come about – but it's what he replaces the habit with that will surprise the most. [[Smoking Kills by Antoine Laurain and Louise Rogers-Lalaurie (translator)|Full Review]]'
''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?'' Freddie arrives in London in the early 2000s, answering the call for teachers. He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based on the British system, and the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and about the River Thames. He thinks about the love of cricket and football, shared by both countries. And he thinks of the generations of the diaspora who came before him. Freddy does well in his job in East London but he does have to face down some stereotypical attitudes from his pupils - all Jamaicans smoke weed, don't they? Everybody knows that! [[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson|Full Review]] <!-- Bennett Rubin -->
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===[[The Island Liberation Square by M A BennettGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensThrillers|TeensThrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A contemporary take on In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from the East, and Americans from the savage classic ''Lord of west. Dividing the Flies'': nation between them, London soon finds itself split in two, a group of mismatched, modern-day teenagers must fight to survive on wall running through it like a deserted islandscar. Link When Jane Cawson's husband is a fish out arrested for the murder of water. Newly arrived from Americahis former wife, he Jane is finding it hard determined to settle into the venerable and prestigious Osney Schoolclear his name. Who knew there could be In doing so many strange traditions to understand? And what kind , Jane follows a trail of school ranks its students by how fast they can run round the school quad - however ancient corruption that quad may be? When Link runs leads her right to the slowest time in years, he immediately becomes highest levels of the butt state – and soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of every school joke. And some students are determined to make his life more miserable than others... the murderous secret police… [[The Island Liberation Square by M A BennettGareth Rubin|Full Review]]
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===[[The Lost Letters of William Woolf When You Read This by Helen CullenMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
William Woolf is a letter detectiveSmith 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, working but his attention was on making enough money to cover his mother's nursing home fees in Wisconsin, running the Dead Letters Depot branding agency in East LondonNew York and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. He spends his days deciphering smudged addresses, tracking down mysterious people was devastated when Iris developed a terminal cancer and reading endless letters died at the age of thirty three. He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog in the last six months of love, guilt, death, hope, her life and everyday lifeher final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a book. [[The Lost Letters of William Woolf When You Read This by Helen CullenMary Adkins|Full Review]]
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===[[Marsha's Deal Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:4star''I have murdered three husbands.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]''
Marsha didnAs an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera't have an easy ride in life s telling us the first time aroundtruth. She'd been afflicted with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrodysplasia_ossificans_progressiva fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva]The first two husbands, Gary and Harry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a rare disease which turned parts of her body keeper, and it's difficult to bone understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when they were damaged. Finally she was unable likely to stand her get found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life any longer and went to Dignitas, the Swiss euthanasia clinicsentence. She'd thought that would be the endHer only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but after cremation her body went straight Vera's not one to hell and she found let herself face-to-face with the devilbe a victim. And that was when She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she made wouldn't risk the pact. In exchange for details about some security of those who had been close to her - their strengths and weaknesses - she would be reborn on life in prison for the same day to the same parentssake of a fling), but would live her life free of diseaseshe is keen on getting an education and she's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Marsha's Deal Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Spinning Silver Black Light by Naomi NovikLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Teens|Teens]]
Miryem comes from Jim is a long line of moneylenders – but her Father isnuniversity student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't very good at it at allgot his troubles to seek. Lending freely His father committed suicide when he was young and rarely collecting, somehow he leaves the family on the edge of poverty, until Miryem must 's never really managed to connect with his step in-father. Hardening her heart 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 collecting what is owed from local villagersfor him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she becomes a person of great interest when she borrows a pouch of silver pennies from her Grandfather finds him repulsive and returns it full of goldyou can understand why: the looks, soon becoming entangled with an array of strange creaturesthe attitude, from the dark beings that haunt (lack of) conversational ability and the wood through clothing all leave a lot to a King whobe desired. Despite all that's he's eager not about to sit back and allow his life to exploit Miryemdrift: he's talents – she soon becomes aware that her skills may be more trouble than theyactually writing ''two''re worth… novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[Spinning Silver Black Light by Naomi NovikLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Four Redemptor Domus by Andy JonesGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Friends are niceA young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, and couple friends are doubly nicesent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to the school, giving you like minded people a family tragedy causes the boy to spend time arrive at the school a vulnerable orphan, withan uncertain future. A pair Plunged into a school full of pairsdanger and betrayal, or the boy is seen as a couple of couples. Married couple Sally trophy by friends and Al have known Mike for ages – Sally from university, Al through workenemies alike. His new girlfriend Faye completes With them locked into their foursome scheming and though she doesn't have their shared historyplotting, she's a lot it comes to the boy to attempt to clean up the pit of fun – a bit younger than filth that the rest of them, an actress and so onschool has become. [[Four Redemptor Domus by Andy JonesGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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