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===[[M for Mammy American Royals by Eleanor O'ReillyKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The Augustts are, like all families, Two and a bit complicated. A loving irish familyhalf centuries ago, their love binds them together – but all express that in very different waysAmerica won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. HoweverToday, when misfortune strikes the family they are forced to work together in order to understand each other again, as House of Washington still sit on the thrown 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 Princess Beatrice next in and takes chargeline. Full of stern words and common sense, sheBeatrice's a force of nature who must try whole life has been building up to her hardest to hold ruling the United States and the family togethertime for her reign is imminent. [[M for Mammy American Royals by Eleanor O'ReillyKatharine McGee|Full Review]]
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===[[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan]]===
[[image:2.5star.jpg| stylelink="vertical-alignCategory:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[: top; text-alignCategory: left;"General Fiction|===General Fiction]], [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]===
I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, even though it is [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionAndy Mulligan|General Fictionthe 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:HumourChris Cleave|HumourChris Cleave]], and [[:Category:ParanormalDavid Nicholls|ParanormalDavid Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness.
Tilda 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 motherMore fool me. [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel Train Man by Ruth HoganAndrew Mulligan|Full Review]]
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===[[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman]]===
===[[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]=== [[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''In 1948, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush". They struggled to find housing. They worked as labourers. They faced open discrimination, forcing them to quickly form their own community. Decades later, Freddy makes the same journey.'' ''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?''[[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
Freddie arrives in London in the early 2000sTrudy Heaton is going home, answering to a house where her roots burrow back through the call centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for teacherssixteen years. He thinks about his own Jamaican education Home, her refuge, based on the British systemPonden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the way he was taught English nursery rhymes traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and about the River Thamesconvince her grieving son that his father is dead. He thinks about Where better than the love house full of cricket light and footballshadow, 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 theythat nurtured her throughout her childhood? Everybody knows that! [[The Man Who Came to London Girl at the Window by A S CooksonRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
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===[[Liberation Square We Are Not Okay by Gareth RubinNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:ThrillersTeens|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical FictionTeens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In an alternate 1952Set in a typical American town, Soviet Troops control British Streets''We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a girl in today's society. After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain The novel is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers told from the Eastfour different perspectives, those of Lucy, Ulana, Trina and Americans Sophia, whose friendship statuses vary from the westBFFs to sworn enemies. Dividing the nation between themThe reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, London soon finds itself split in twobut more importantly their minds, a wall running through it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for and at times the murder thoughts of his former wife, Jane is determined to clear his namethose characters could have been taken directly from my own. In doing so, Jane follows Gomes has created a trail of corruption heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that leads her right focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, particularly in relation to the highest levels ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the state – and soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead importance of the murderous secret police… phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[Liberation Square We Are Not Okay by Gareth RubinNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
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===[[When You Read This Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Mary AdkinsKate Tough]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
Smith Simonyi Life has just hidden behind a corner and Iris Massey worked stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been together for four nine years, during which time Iris 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 way it worked out and Rhona was left on her husband at the altar on their wedding dayown. SmithWell, meanwhile, relied she wasn't completely on Irisher own: she had friends and family, but his attention was on making enough money to cover his motherit's nursing home fees not the same as having that special someone in Wisconsinyour life, running the branding agency in New York and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for himthat someone who makes you part of a couple. He was devastated when Iris developed So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a terminal cancer world that bore little resemblance to the one she'd left nine years ago - and died at the age there's a lot of thirty three. He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog difference between being in the last six months middle of her life your twenties and her final request the middle of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a bookyour thirties. [[When You Read This Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Mary AdkinsKate Tough|Full Review]]
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===[[Vera Magpie Equator by Laura SolomonAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
''I have murdered three husbands.'' As an opening line It strikes me that must take some beating, but Vera's telling us nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the truthwalls of a theme park. The first two husbandsOur agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, Gary and Harry were abusivewho bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', but Larry was who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a treasure, a keeperbuffalo hunt, and it's difficult to understand why Vera would have killed himwho hates the way man – and woman, particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life sentenceof course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. Her only friend But this book is Shirleyabout so much more than the 1870s USA, a lesbianand the attendant problems with gold rushes, but Vera's not one to let herself be a victimpioneer spirits and racial genocide. SheHe finds himself trying to find this book's not keen version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on having a sexual relationship their heads with Shirley (she wouldn't risk rocks in their pockets to keep them on the security of her life in prison for ground to counter the sake of a fling)anti-gravity, and where, who knows, but she things might actually be better. But that equator is keen on getting an education a long way away – and shethere's studying for a degree in English Literature. whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[Vera Magpie Equator by Laura SolomonAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Black Light Needlemouse by Laura SolomonJane O'Connor]]===
[[image:3.5star.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 whyCategory: the looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired. Despite all thatWomen's heFiction|Women'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 ReviewFiction]]
We 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. [[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor|Full Review]]
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===[[Redemptor Domus Vintage 1954 by Gamelyn ChaseAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A young boy arrives at 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 exclusive faith school on American biker, just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from wife who shared his family in dream of visiting the Far Eastcity together. As the boy travels to the schoolWe have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually is a family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the school humble restorer of antiques. We have a vulnerable orphancocktail barman, infatuated with an uncertain futurethe goth girl. Plunged into We also have a school full man ruling the roost over a whole suite of danger individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, and betrayal, drinking from the boy is seen as same bottle of a trophy by friends and enemies alikerare 1954 red wine. With Only, one of them locked into their scheming has a bizarre incidence in his family history that also features the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, and plottingwalked out the door one rainy morning, it comes never to the boy to attempt to clean up the pit be seen again. But of filth that the school has become. course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? [[Redemptor Domus Vintage 1954 by Gamelyn ChaseAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[The Long Path To Wisdom Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Jan-Philipp SendkerFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short StoriesThrillers|Short StoriesThrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On my travels around When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the worldlong hot summer of 1992, I have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language booksan isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the next person, what Igirls vanished during the school'm really looking s Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for is the 'local' – sisters united the cookbook maybesmall community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the maps definitelysummer that shaped her, but above all: and the folk tales. If I ever get to Burma, I won't need to hunt, I can read before I gogirls she never forgot. [[The Long Path To Wisdom Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Jan-Philipp SendkerFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
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===[[Katalin Street The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Magda SzaboAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
This is Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a story about the pastdie-hard fan of AMS. A specific past So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, certainlydescribed 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 form of pre-war BudapestDepartment for Sensitive Crimes, but also a story about how solving those crimes that past can impact on the present and perhaps fall outside the futureusual police parameters. In this This particular bookdeals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the first disappearance 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 survivean imaginary boyfriend, and a dogged but doomed determination case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to cling to long-gone timesdeal with, feelings and experiences which mark I rather enjoyed them, especially the here and nowstabbing where you find that actually, staining and warping it into anotheryou identify with the person who committed the crime, subtler miseryrather than the victim. [[Katalin Street The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Magda SzaboAlexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
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===[[Santa Goes on Strike The Things That are Lost by Jem VanstonAlan Kennedy]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For SharingGeneral Fiction|For SharingGeneral Fiction]]
The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]]
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 Schienmel -->
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===[[Every Colour of You A Danger to Herself and Others by Amelia MandevilleAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as years ''They needed someone to life. Her worldblame, like her name, is bursting with life and colourI was the only available scapegoat. She is Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow is she least I coulddo under the circumstances. Tristan (or ''Tree'' as she calls him) is the oppositeSeventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay She has dined in a psychiatric unitfancy restaurants, he sees explored the most sophisticated corners of the globe and lived a world as a grey placelife of luxury. [[Every Colour of You A Danger to Herself and Others by Amelia MandevilleAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[A Spark of Light Louis and Louise by Jodi PicoultJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The Center is What 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 last remaining abortion clinic way you had been raised affect who you became in life? This latest novel by Julie Cohen looks at all of the state above, covering the stories of Mississippi Louis and is Louise, born on the source of great controversy when it comes same day, to the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debate. It same parents, but in one storyline Lou is at The Center where one man, George Goddard, takes it upon himself to get revenge for the loss of his grandchilda boy, and in the form of other a mass-shootinggirl. What arises is Does it really make a novel that details the lives of the remaining hostagesdifference, as well as other characters central to the story. One of these characters gender box that is Hugh McElroyticked when we arrive in this world? We all know that men and women are treated differently, a hostage negotiator called but this story really highlights how things have been in to help deflate the situationpast, how they still are, who soon discovers that his sister and daughter, Wren, happened prompts you to think about how they could be at the clinic that day... [[A Spark of Light Louis and Louise by Jodi PicoultJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
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===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death M for Mammy by M B VincentEleanor O'Reilly]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[: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.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]Full of stern words and common sense, she's a force of nature who must try her hardest to hold the family together. [[:Category:CrimeM for Mammy by Eleanor O'Reilly|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 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]], [[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone: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]]
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 Cookson -->
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===[[The Place Where Love Should Be Man Who Came to London by Elizabeth EllisA S Cookson]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  ''In 1948, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "Empire Windrush". They struggled to find housing. They worked as labourers. They faced open discrimination, forcing them to quickly form their own community. Decades later, Freddy makes the same journey.''
''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 Does he find a salt bath. Do they really expect me place to do thatlive? Does he face stereotypes? 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 againHas Britain moved forward?''
I think most women have felt like this shortly after having a babyFreddie 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. Many And he thinks of them simply managed to put one foot in front the generations of the other until things calmed diaspora who came before him. Freddy does well in his job in East London but he does have to face down but some will have found it harder and developed poststereotypical attitudes from his pupils -natal depressionall Jamaicans smoke weed, don't they? Everybody knows that! [[The Place Where Love Should Be Man Who Came to London by Elizabeth EllisA S Cookson|Full Review]]
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===[[Liberation Square by Gareth Rubin]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4starIn 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.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] 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… [[:Category:General FictionLiberation Square by Gareth Rubin|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 Mary Adkins -->
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===[[The Water Thief When You Read This by Claire HajajMary Adkins]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Nick is in Smith Simonyi and Iris Massey worked together for four years, during which time Iris left her husband at the middle of altar on their wedding preparations when he decides day. Smith, meanwhile, relied on Iris, but his attention was on making enough money to leave cover his fiancée behind mother's nursing home fees in London Wisconsin, running the branding agency in New York and take up losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for him. He was devastated when Iris developed a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for terminal cancer and died at the building age of a children's hospitalthirty three. He has no idea what was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog in the last six months of her life and her final request of Smith is getting himself intothat he gets the blog published as a book. [[The Water Thief When You Read This by Claire HajajMary Adkins|Full Review]]
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===[[Landslide Vera Magpie by Melissa LeetLaura Solomon]]===
[[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]]
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 | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Aftershocks by A N Wilson]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] In a country very much like New ZealandAs an opening line that must take some beating, but at Vera's telling us the same time most avowedly nottruth. The first two husbands, two women will find love. Strong love tooGary and Harry were abusive, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner but Larry was the only thing to make sense of all those exaggerated songs she'd hearda treasure, a keeper, and books and poems sheit'd reads difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when she was likely to get found out very quickly and plays now she'd acted s in – works of art that had until then seemed sheer hyperboleprison with a mandatory life sentence. It was entirely unrequited love for quite some time Her only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but it does burgeon, or so weVera's not one to let herself be a victim. She's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn're promised from t risk the off, because security of her life in prison for the sake of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurchfling), but at the same time most avowedly not. This book then she is the combined exploration of the lovers keen on getting an education and the story of the quakeshe's studying for a degree in English Literature. [[Aftershocks Vera Magpie by A N WilsonLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Hell's Unveiling Black Light by Laura Solomon]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
[[image:3Jim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek.5star His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father.jpg|link=Category His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[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:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]]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:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[:Category:FantasyBlack Light by Laura Solomon|FantasyFull Review]]
A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. 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 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. Then, of course there are all the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears 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 a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hell. [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Staying On Redemptor Domus by C M TaylorGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Tony Metcalfe is a Yorkshireman through and through and being honestA young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, Yorkshire's where he'd really like sent far from his family in the Far East. As the boy travels to be. You suspect that Scarborough would be perfectthe school, but he's living in a mountain village just beyond family tragedy causes the Costa Verde and running a pub. The Viva Espagñe isn't flourishing: Tony would really like to sell it and return boy to arrive at the UKschool a vulnerable orphan, what with the uncertainty an uncertain future. Plunged into a school full of Brexit danger and everythingbetrayal, 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 boy is seen as a backstory there that's not being talked abouttrophy by friends and enemies alike. Then there's the pubWith them locked into their scheming and plotting, which isn't doing well enough it comes to sell. In fact Tony's cleaning the swimming pools of expats who have left Spain and returned home, in order boy to make a bit of money attempt to try and make ends at least come in sight clean up the pit of each other, even if they never meetfilth that the school has become. [[Staying On Redemptor Domus by C M TaylorGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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