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===[[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel American Royals by Ruth HoganKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
Tilda returns to BrightonTwo and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, to tidy away the remains House of her motherWashington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life after her death. Whilst there, she returns has been building up to the Paradise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With ruling the help of Queenie Malone, caring, United States and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with time for her sometimes cruel and distant motherreign is imminent. [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel American Royals by Ruth HoganKatharine 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]], [[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson: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:General FictionDavid Nicholls|General FictionDavid Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness.
''In 1948, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush"More fool me. 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.''[[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|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]] <!-- Rubin Coleman -->
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===[[Liberation Square The Girl at the Window by Gareth RubinRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical General Fiction|Historical General Fiction]], [[:Category:General FictionParanormal|General FictionParanormal]]
In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British Streets. After D-Day goes horribly wrongTrudy Heaton is going home, Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from a house where her roots burrow back through the East, centuries and Americans from the westto a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years. Dividing the nation between them Home, her refuge, London soon finds itself split in twoPonden Hall, a wall running through it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the murder traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his former wife, Jane father is determined to clear his namedead. In doing so Where better than the house full of light and shadow, Jane follows a trail of corruption that leads nurtured her right to the highest levels of the state – and soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of the murderous secret police… throughout her childhood? [[Liberation Square The Girl at the Window by Gareth RubinRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
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===[[When You Read This We Are Not Okay by Mary AdkinsNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of four years, during which time Iris left her husband at teenage girls facing the altar difficulties brought on their wedding dayby high school and growing up as a girl in today's society. SmithThe novel is told from four different perspectives, those of Lucy, meanwhileUlana, relied on IrisTrina and Sophia, but his attention was on making enough money whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to cover his mother's nursing home fees in Wisconsin, running the branding agency in New York and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for himsworn enemies. He was devastated when Iris developed The reader is presented with a terminal cancer glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, and died at times the age thoughts of thirty threethose characters could have been taken directly from my own. He was surprised too when he discovered Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that Iris had been writing a blog focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, particularly in relation to the ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the last six months reader of her life and her final request the importance of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a bookphrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[When You Read This We Are Not Okay by Mary AdkinsNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
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===[[Vera Magpie Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Laura SolomonKate Tough]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been together for nine years and it was beginning to feel ''settled''. Then Mark announced that he'd got a job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him or not. The ''not''I have murdered three husbandsbit of the sentence was the way it worked out and Rhona was left on her own. Well, she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a couple. So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to the one she'd left nine years ago - and there's a lot of difference between being in the middle of your twenties and the middle of your thirties. [[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough|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]] <!-- Laura Solomon Varenne -->
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===[[Black Light Equator by Laura SolomonAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Jim 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 university student buffalo hunt, andwho hates the way man – and woman, as of course – can turn against fellow man at the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seekbat of an eyelid. His father committed suicide when he was young But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and somehow he's never really managed to connect the attendant problems 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 difficultgold rushes, but Jim does his best with pioneer spirits and for himracial genocide. JimHe finds himself trying to find this book's in love with a womanversion of Utopia, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why: namely the looksEquator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the attitudeanti-gravity, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to where, who knows, things might actually be desiredbetter. Despite all But thatequator is a long way away – and there's he's not about to sit back a whole adventure full of Mexico and allow his life to drift: he's actually writing ''two'' novels Latin America between him and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. it… [[Black Light Equator by Laura SolomonAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Redemptor Domus Needlemouse by Gamelyn ChaseJane O'Connor]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the scenic North Wales coastProf, sent far from his family in the Far Eastis taking her out to lunch. As the boy travels to This is her favourite day of the schoolyear, a family tragedy causes not because it's her birthday but because of the boy special time she gets to arrive at spend with the school a vulnerable orphan, with man she loves. He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an uncertain future. Plunged into a school full of danger affair - and betrayal, Sylvia is convinced that the boy is seen as a trophy by friends Prof will then declare his love and enemies alikethey can be together. With them locked into their scheming and plotting She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, it comes but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the boy to attempt to clean up sexual part of the pit of filth that relationship. There's time though - she's only been the school has becomeprof's PA for fifteen years. [[Redemptor Domus Needlemouse by Gamelyn ChaseJane O'Connor|Full Review]]
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===[[The Long Path To Wisdom Vintage 1954 by Jan-Philipp SendkerAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On my travels around 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 worldwife who shared his dream of visiting the city together. We have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, I but actually is a humble restorer of antiques. We have a tendency 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 end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language booksget them together, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as drinking from the next personsame bottle of a rare 1954 red wine. Only, what I'm really looking for is one of them has a bizarre incidence in his family history that also features the 'local' same plonk – the cookbook maybewhere a grandfather imbibed, and walked out the maps definitelydoor one rainy morning, but above all: the folk talesnever to be seen again. If I ever get to BurmaBut of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I go. though – will they? [[The Long Path To Wisdom Vintage 1954 by Jan-Philipp SendkerAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Katalin Street The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Magda SzaboFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
This is a story about When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the pastVan Apfel sisters disappeared. A specific past, certainlyIn the long hot summer of 1992, in the form an isolated suburb of pre-war BudapestAustralia surrounded by Bushland, but also a story about how that past can impact on the present and girls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the futureriverside amphitheatre. In this book, Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the first of three Magda Szabó wrote on sisters united the same theme between 1969 and 1987 and now newly translated and reissuedsmall community, we witness a heart-rending nostalgia for happier daysthey were never found. Returning home years later, guilt about those who did not surviveTikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the summer that shaped her, 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 miserygirls she never forgot. [[Katalin Street The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Magda SzaboFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
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===[[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith]]===
===[[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For SharingGeneral Fiction|For SharingGeneral Fiction]]
Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
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 Kennedy -->
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===[[Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville]]===
===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Zoe believes The final novel in adding life Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to years Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as well much like a prison to Alex as years anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to life. Her world''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, like her nameinstigator of the disinformation campaign, is bursting with life and colourreturned to find her missing. She A failed mission is the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow one thing but no Justine is she couldquite another. Tristan (or Alex can''Tree'' as she calls him) is the opposite. Fresh t get Justine out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, he sees a world as a grey placehis head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[Every Colour of You The Things That are Lost by Amelia MandevilleAlan Kennedy|Full Review]]
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===[[A Spark of Light Danger to Herself and Others by Jodi PicoultAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The Center is ''They needed someone to blame, and I was the last remaining abortion clinic in only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the state of Mississippi and is scapegoat was the source of great controversy when it comes to least I could do under the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debatecircumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. It is at The Center where one man, George GoddardShe has dined in fancy restaurants, takes it upon himself to get revenge for explored the loss most sophisticated corners of his grandchild, in the form of globe and lived a mass-shooting. What arises is a novel that details the lives life of the remaining hostages, as well as other characters central to the story. One of these characters is Hugh McElroy, a hostage negotiator called in to help deflate the situation, who soon discovers that his sister and daughter, Wren, happened to be at the clinic that dayluxury. [[A Spark of Light Danger to Herself and Others by Jodi PicoultAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[Jess Castle Louis and the Eyeballs of Death Louise by M B VincentJulie Cohen]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:4starWhat would you be like, right now, if you'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a matter of genetics, and your life would still have unfolded in the same way? Or would the way you had been raised affect who you became in life? This latest novel by Julie Cohen looks at all of the above, covering the stories of Louis and Louise, born on the same day, to the same parents, but in one storyline Lou is a boy, and in the other a girl.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Does it really make a difference, the gender box that is ticked when we arrive in this world? We all know that men and women are treated differently, but this story really highlights how things have been in the past, how they still are, and prompts you to think about how they could be... [[:Category:CrimeLouis and Louise by Julie Cohen|CrimeFull Review]]
Dr Jess Castle, the self proclaimed failure of the prestigious Castle family has returned home to the sleepy, idyllic chocolate box town of Castle Kidbury. Rather than being delighted, her family are suspicious, especially her father, the judge. Luckily for Jess, she doesn't have to try too hard to dodge her family's suspicions as a series of gruesome local murders are taking place and that's all anyone is talking about. Jess accidentally finds herself in the thick of the investigation, and to her delight finds that she can actually be useful. But with the small population dwindling and the sense of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? [[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death by M B Vincent|Full Review]]<!-- Stone O'Reilly -->
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===[[M for Mammy by Eleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4starThe 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 family they are forced to work together in order to understand each other again, as with a family as complicated as the Augustts it's not always what is spoken that makes the most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of stern words and common sense, she's a force of nature who must try her hardest to hold the family together.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionM for Mammy by Eleanor O'Reilly|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 Hogan -->
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===[[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]===
[[image:4starTilda returns to Brighton, to tidy away the remains of her mother's life after her death. Whilst there, she returns to the Paradise hotel, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people can be themselves, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewhere. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as a child, from this place of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan|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 Cookson -->
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===[[The Amber Maze Man Who Came to London by Christopher BowdenA S Cookson]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Hugh Mullion goes away to Dorset for the weekend and, while waiting for his wife to arrive''In 1948, finds a mysterious key down the back first set of an antique chairCaribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush". The grubby and torn label They struggled to which is attached readsfind housing.They worked as labourers.They faced open discrimination, forcing them to quickly form their own community. Decades later, Freddy makes the same journey. [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden|Full Review]]''
<!-- Hajaj -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786073943.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786073943/ref=nosim''Does he find a place to live?tag=thebookbag-21]]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]]
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] Nick is in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for the building of a children's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself into. [[The Water Thief by Claire Hajaj|Full Review]] <!-- Melissa Leet Rubin -->
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===[[Landslide Liberation Square by Melissa LeetGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionThrillers|General FictionThrillers]], [[:Category:Women's Historical Fiction|Women's Historical 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:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
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 west. Dividing the nation between them, London soon finds itself split in two, a wall running through it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for the murder of his former wife, Jane 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 soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead of the murderous secret police… [[Liberation Square by Gareth Rubin|Full Review]] <!-- Wilson Mary Adkins -->
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===[[Aftershocks When You Read This by A N WilsonMary Adkins]]===
[[image:34.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In a country very much like New ZealandSmith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years, but during which time Iris left her husband at the same time most avowedly notaltar on their wedding day. Smith, meanwhile, two women will find love. Strong love toorelied on Iris, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner but his attention was the only thing on making enough money to make sense of all those exaggerated songs shecover his mother'd heards nursing home fees in Wisconsin, running the branding agency in New York and books and poems she'd read, and plays she'd acted in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperbolelosing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. It He 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 – devastated when Iris developed a major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurch, but terminal cancer and died at the same time most avowedly notage of thirty three. This book then is He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog in the combined exploration last six months of the lovers her life and the story her final request of Smith is that he gets the quakeblog published as a book. [[Aftershocks When You Read This by A N WilsonMary Adkins|Full Review]]
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===[[Hell's Unveiling Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:3''I have murdered three husbands.5star.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 [[MarshaAs an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] telling us the truth. The first two husbands, Gary and I Harry were abusive, but Larry was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequela treasure, a keeper, ''Hell's Unveiling''. Itand it's probably not much of a spoiler difficult to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal''understand why Vera would have killed him, but the devil is not one particularly when she was likely to take defeat lying down. He's get found out to wage war on Planet Earth very quickly and particularly on Marsha (whonow she's thought of as a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Although prison with a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concernedmandatory life sentence. Daniel Her only friend is framed for Shirley, a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course there are all the other children who are not only targetedlesbian, but - worst of all - subverted to the devilVera's evil endsnot one to let herself be a victim. HeShe's out to prey not keen on their fears and weaknesses and as having a sexual relationship with many foster childrenShirley (she wouldn't risk the security of her life in prison for the sake of a fling), their self esteem but she is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex keen on earth, complete with getting an elevator to Helleducation and she's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Hell's Unveiling Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Staying On Black Light by C M TaylorLaura Solomon]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[imageJim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek. His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father. His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why:4starthe looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired.jpg|link=Category Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[:Category:General FictionBlack Light by Laura Solomon|General FictionFull Review]]
Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and being honest, Yorkshire's where he'd really like to be. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfect, but he's living in a mountain village just beyond the Costa Verde and running a pub. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like to sell it and return to the UK, what with the uncertainty of Brexit and everything, but there are a couple of problems. First off, his wife - Laney - refuses to go back to the UK. She'd have you believe that she's not well, but there's a backstory there that's not being talked about. Then there's the pub, which isn't doing well enough to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning the swimming pools of expats who have left Spain and returned home, in order to make a bit of money to try and make ends at least come in sight of each other, even if they never meet. [[Staying On by C M Taylor|Full Review]]
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===[[The Day of the Orphan Redemptor Domus by Dr Nat TanohGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Saga is eighteen and, like many eighteen-year oldsA young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his prime concerns are listening family in the Far East. As the boy travels to what his mum calls ''hop-hip''the school, eating copious amounts of fooda family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school a vulnerable orphan, and learning about girlswith an uncertain future. Living in an affluent, liberal Plunged into a school full of danger and protected suburb, he has a good life. Howeverbetrayal, the suburb boy is in Africa, where childhoods can be snatched in an instant. When his seen as a trophy by friends and family are dragged enemies alike. With them locked into their scheming and plotting, it comes to the conflict raging around boy to attempt to clean up the dictatorship pit of filth that Saga lives under, he is forced to the school has become an unlikely revolutionary. 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 Redemptor Domus by Dr Nat TanohGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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