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===[[Louis and Louise American Royals by Julie CohenKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
What would you be like, right now, if you'd been born Two and a different gender? Would it simply be a matter of geneticshalf centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and your life would still have unfolded in General George Washington was offered 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 abovecrown. Today, covering the stories House of Louis and Louise, born Washington still sit on the same day, thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the same parents, but in one storyline Lou is a boy, United States and in the other a girl. Does it really make a difference, the gender box that time for her reign 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..imminent. [[Louis and Louise American Royals by Julie CohenKatharine 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]], [[M for Mammy by Eleanor O'Reilly: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.
The Augustts are, like all families, a bit complicated. A loving irish family, their love binds them together – but all express that in very different ways. However, when misfortune strikes the 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 togetherMore fool me. [[M for Mammy Train Man by Eleanor O'ReillyAndrew Mulligan|Full Review]]
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===[[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel The Girl at the Window by Ruth HoganRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]]
Tilda returns to BrightonTrudy Heaton is going home, to tidy away a house where her roots burrow back through the remains of her centuries and to a mothershe hasn's life after t spoken to for sixteen years. Home, her death. Whilst thererefuge, she returns to the Paradise hotelPonden Hall, a haven for eccentrics and misfits. A place where people she can be themselves, heal herself and let go try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of thoughts that torment them elsewhereher husband. Little wonder that Tilda cannot forgive She needs to build bridges with her mother for banishing and convince her as a child, from this place of wondergrieving son that his father is dead. With Where better than the help house full of Queenie Malone, caring, light and gregariousshadow, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky and uncertain relationship she had with that nurtured her throughout her sometimes cruel and distant mother. childhood? [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel The Girl at the Window by Ruth HoganRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
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===[[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes]]===
===[[The Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[: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?''
Freddie arrives in London Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the early 2000s, answering story of four teenage girls facing the call for teachers. He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based difficulties brought on the British system, by high school and the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and about the River Thamesgrowing up as a girl in today's society. He thinks about the love The novel is told from four different perspectives, those of cricket Lucy, Ulana, Trina and footballSophia, shared by both countrieswhose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemies. And he thinks The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, and at times the generations thoughts of the diaspora who came before himthose characters could have been taken directly from my own. Freddy does well Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in his job our society, particularly in East London but he does have relation to face down some stereotypical attitudes from his pupils - all Jamaicans smoke weed, donthe ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''t they? Everybody knows that! . [[The Man Who Came to London We Are Not Okay by A S CooksonNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
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===[[Liberation Square Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Gareth RubinKate Tough]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical General Fiction|Historical General Fiction]], [[:Category:General Women's Fiction|General Women's Fiction]]
In an alternate 1952, Soviet Troops control British StreetsLife 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''. After D-Day goes horribly wrong, Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only Then Mark announced that he'd got a job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to be rescued by Russian soldiers from come with him or not. The ''not'' bit of the sentence was the East, way it worked out and Americans from the westRhona was left on her own. Dividing the nation between them Well, London soon finds itself split in twoshe wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, a wall running through but it like a scar. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for not the murder same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of his former wife, Jane is determined a couple. So Rhona had to clear his name. In doing sostart again, Jane follows rejoining a trail of corruption world that leads her right bore little resemblance to the highest levels one she'd left nine years ago - and there's a lot of difference between being in the state – middle of your twenties and soon finds herself desperate to stay one step ahead the middle of the murderous secret police… your thirties. [[Liberation Square Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Gareth RubinKate Tough|Full Review]]
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===[[When You Read This Equator by Mary AdkinsAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:43.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Smith Simonyi It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and Iris Massey worked together for four yearswoman, during which time Iris left her husband of course – can turn against fellow man at the altar on their wedding daybat of an eyelid. SmithBut this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, meanwhileand the attendant problems with gold rushes, relied on Iris, but his attention was on making enough money pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to cover his motherfind this book's nursing home fees in Wisconsinversion of Utopia, running namely the branding agency Equator, where everything is upside down, people walk on their heads with rocks in New York their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and losing money gambling when the pressures got too much for himwhere, who knows, things might actually be better. He was devastated when Iris developed But that equator is a terminal cancer long way away – and died at the age of thirty three. He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing there's a blog in the last six months whole adventure full of her life Mexico and her final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a book. Latin America between him and it… [[When You Read This Equator by Mary AdkinsAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Vera Magpie Needlemouse by Laura SolomonJane O'Connor]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
''I have murdered three husbands[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
As an opening line that must take some beatingWe first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, but Vera's telling us the truthProf, is taking her out to lunch. The first two husbandsThis is her favourite day of the year, Gary and Harry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a keeper, and not because it's difficult to understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when her birthday but because of the special time she was likely gets to get found out very quickly and now spend with the man she's in prison with a mandatory life sentenceloves. Her only friend is Shirley, a lesbian, but VeraHe's not one told her that he and his wife are going to let herself divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be a victimtogether. Shehasn't fully constructed 's not keen on having a sexual relationship with Shirley (together' in her own mind - she wouldnenvisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't risk yet progressed to the security sexual part of her life in prison for the sake of a fling), but she is keen on getting an education and relationship. There's time though - she's studying only been the prof's PA for a degree in English Literaturefifteen years. [[Vera Magpie Needlemouse by Laura SolomonJane O'Connor|Full Review]]
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===[[Black Light Vintage 1954 by Laura SolomonAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:34.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Jim is a university student and, as the saying goes, he hasn't got his troubles to seek. His father committed suicide when he was young and somehow he's never really managed to connect with his step-father. His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him. Jim's in love with a woman, but she finds him repulsive and you can understand why: the looks, the attitude, the (lack of) conversational ability and the clothing all leave a lot to be desired. Despite all that's he's not about to sit back and allow his life to drift: he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[Black Light by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a plot. So we have an American biker, just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the wife who shared his dream of visiting the city together. We have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually is 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. But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? [[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Redemptor Domus The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Gamelyn ChaseFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the scenic North Wales coastlong hot summer of 1992, sent far from his family in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the Far East. As the boy travels to girls vanished during the school, a family tragedy causes the boy to arrive 's Showstopper concert at the school a vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain futureriverside amphitheatre. Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayalDid they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small community, the boy is seen as a trophy by friends and enemies alikethey were never found. With them locked into their scheming and plottingReturning home years later, it comes to Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the boy to attempt to clean up the pit of filth summer that shaped her, and the school has becomegirls she never forgot. [[Redemptor Domus The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Gamelyn ChaseFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
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===[[The Long Path To Wisdom Department of Sensitive Crimes by Jan-Philipp SendkerAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my travels around the world, I have excitement at reading a tendency to end up brand new book in any bookshop that is selling English-language booksa brand new series, and while I buy described by the author himself as many second-hand escapist tales Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the next personDepartment for Sensitive Crimes, what I'm really looking for solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the 'local' – the cookbook maybeknee, the maps definitelydisappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, but above all: the folk talesand a case of potential werewolves. If I ever get They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to Burmadeal with, and I won't need to huntrather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, I can read before I gorather than the victim. [[The Long Path To Wisdom Department of Sensitive Crimes by Jan-Philipp SendkerAlexander McCall Smith|Full Review]]
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===[[Katalin Street by Magda Szabo]]===
[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionThe Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]===
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[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Katalin Street by Magda Szabo:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his head. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]]
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===[[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4star''They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored the most sophisticated corners of the globe and lived a life of luxury.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:For SharingA Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel|For SharingFull 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 Cohen -->
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===[[Every Colour of You Louis and Louise by Amelia MandevilleJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Zoe believes 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 way you had been raised affect who you became in adding 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 years as well as years to life. Her worldthe same parents, like her namebut in one storyline Lou is a boy, is bursting with life and colour. She is in the sort of other a girl who would sing . Does it really make a rainbow difference, the gender box that is she 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 couldbe. Tristan (or ''Tree'' as she calls him) is the opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, he sees a world as a grey place. [[Every Colour of You Louis and Louise by Amelia MandevilleJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
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===[[A Spark of Light M for Mammy by Jodi PicoultEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
The Center is the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi and is the source of great controversy when it comes to the Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice debate. It is at The Center where one manAugustts are, George Goddardlike all families, takes it upon himself to get revenge for the loss of his grandchilda bit complicated. A loving irish family, their love binds them together – but all express that in the form of a mass-shootingvery different ways. What arises is a novel that details However, when misfortune strikes the lives of the remaining hostagesfamily they are forced to work together in order to understand each other again, as well with a family as complicated as other characters central to the storyAugustts it's not always what is spoken that makes the most sense. One Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of these characters is Hugh McElroystern words and common sense, she's a hostage negotiator called in to help deflate the situation, force of nature who soon discovers that his sister and daughter, Wren, happened must try her hardest to be at hold the clinic that dayfamily together. [[A Spark of Light M for Mammy by Jodi PicoultEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
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===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by M B VincentRuth Hogan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Humour|Humour]], [[: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.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]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. [[:Category:CrimeQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan|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 Cookson -->
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===[[What's Left Unsaid The Man Who Came to London by Deborah StoneA 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.''
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?''
Sasha has a lot Freddie arrives in London in the early 2000s, answering the call for teachers. He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based on her plate. Husband Jeremy is distant the British system, and absent the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and about the marriage needs workRiver Thames. Son Zac is entering a rebellious adolescent phase He thinks about the love of cricket and it's hard to know how to redirect himfootball, shared by both countries. Mother Annie, an alcoholic, is beginning And he thinks of the journey into dementia and has never been an easy person at generations of the best of timesdiaspora who came before him. Thank heavens for her lovely dogFreddy 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, Sebastian, and his unconditional love. don't they? Everybody knows that! [[What's Left Unsaid The Man Who Came to London by Deborah StoneA 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 Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis: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]]
''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 Mary Adkins -->
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===[[When You Read This by Mary Adkins]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4starSmith 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, but his attention was on making enough money 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 him. He was devastated when Iris developed a terminal cancer and 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 her life and her final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a book.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionWhen You Read This by Mary Adkins|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 Laura Solomon -->
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===[[The Water Thief Vera Magpie by Claire HajajLaura 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:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]''
Nick is in As an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera's telling us the middle of wedding preparations 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 he decides she was likely to leave his fiancée behind get found out very quickly and now she's in London and take up 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 post sexual relationship with Shirley (she wouldn't risk the security of her life in some un-named west African country providing engineering support prison for the building sake of a childrenfling), but she is keen on getting an education and she's hospital. He has no idea what he is getting himself intostudying for a degree in English Literature. [[The Water Thief Vera Magpie by Claire HajajLaura Solomon|Full Review]]
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===[[Landslide Black Light by Melissa LeetLaura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star3.5star.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]]
<!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-- Wilson -->|-| style="widthfather. His younger brother would be kindly described as having learning difficulties: 10%; vertical-alignif 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: top; text-alignthe 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: center;"|he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. [[image:1786496038.jpgBlack Light by Laura Solomon|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786496038/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21Full Review]]
| 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 Zealand, but at the same time most avowedly not, two women will find love. Strong love too, for our narrator will say that her first attraction for her partner was the only thing 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, because of something quite drastic – a major earthquake very much like the one that hit Christchurch, but at the same time most avowedly not. This book then is the combined exploration of the lovers and the story of the quake. [[Aftershocks by A N Wilson|Full Review]] <!-- Laura Solomon Chase -->
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===[[Hell's Unveiling Redemptor Domus by Laura SolomonGamelyn Chase]]===
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A little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the opportunity to read scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''Far East. It's probably not much of a spoiler As the boy travels to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal''school, but a family tragedy causes the devil is not one boy to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as arrive at the school a 'goody two shoes' in Hell)vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain future. Although Plunged into a strong personschool full of danger and betrayal, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel the boy is framed for seen as a crime he didn't commit trophy by friends and sent enemies alike. With them locked into their scheming and plotting, it comes to juvenile detention and refused permission the boy to return attempt to live with Marsha. Then, of course there are all clean up the other children who are not only targeted, but - worst pit 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 - filth that the devil school has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to Hellbecome. [[Hell's Unveiling Redemptor Domus by Laura SolomonGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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