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===[[The Department of Sensitive Crimes American Royals by Alexander McCall SmithKatharine McGee]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm Two and a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new serieshalf centuries ago, described by America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Vargcrown. Today, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside House of Washington still sit on the usual police parameters. This particular book deals thrown with crimes including someone who is stabbed Princess Beatrice next in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolvesline. TheyBeatrice're s whole life has been building up to her ruling the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, United States 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 victimtime for her reign is imminent. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes American Royals by Alexander McCall SmithKatharine 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 Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy: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 final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotland, providing trade craft spy trainingMore fool me. 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 Train Man by Alan KennedyAndrew Mulligan|Full Review]]
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===[[A Danger to Herself and Others The Girl at the Window by Alyssa SheinmelRowan Coleman]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:TeensGeneral Fiction|TeensGeneral Fiction]], [[:Category:General FictionParanormal|General FictionParanormal]]
Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn''They needed someone t spoken to blamefor sixteen years. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and I was try to come to terms with the only available scapegoattraumatic loss of her husband. 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 She needs to build bridges with her parents tell mother and convince hergrieving son that his father is dead. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored Where better than the most sophisticated corners house full of the globe light and lived a life of luxury. shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[A Danger to Herself and Others The Girl at the Window by Alyssa SheinmelRowan Coleman|Full Review]]
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===[[Louis and Louise We Are Not Okay by Julie CohenNatalia Gomes]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
What would you be likeSet in a typical American town, right now, if you'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a matter 'We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of genetics, four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and your life would still have unfolded growing up as a girl in the same way? Or would the way you had been raised affect who you became in life? This latest today's society. The novel by Julie Cohen looks at all is told from four different perspectives, those of the aboveLucy, Ulana, covering the stories of Louis Trina and Louise, born on the same daySophia, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to the same parentssworn enemies. The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but in one storyline Lou is a boymore importantly their minds, and in at times the other a girlthoughts of those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Does it really make Gomes has created a difference, the gender box heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that is ticked when we arrive focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in this world? We all know that men and women are treated differentlyour society, but this story really highlights how things have been particularly in relation to the past, how they still are, and prompts you to think about how they could be.''Me Too Movement''.''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[Louis and Louise We Are Not Okay by Julie CohenNatalia Gomes|Full Review]]
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===[[M for Mammy Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Eleanor O'ReillyKate Tough]]===
[[image:4star4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
The Augustts are, like all families, Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a bit complicatedfoot out as Rhona Beech came past. A loving irish family, their love binds them She and Mark had been together – but all express for nine years and it was beginning to feel ''settled''. Then Mark announced that he'd got a job in very different waysCanada 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 own. However Well, when misfortune strikes the she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family they are forced to work together in order to understand each other again, as with a family as complicated as the Augustts but it's not always what is spoken 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 most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Maeone she'd left nine years ago -Anne moves in and takes charge. Full of stern words and common sense, shethere's a force lot of nature who must try her hardest to hold difference between being in the middle of your twenties and the family togethermiddle of your thirties. [[M for Mammy Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Eleanor O'ReillyKate Tough|Full Review]]
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===[[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel Equator by Ruth HoganAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Historical Fiction|General Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:HumourLiterary Fiction|HumourLiterary Fiction]], [[:Category:ParanormalGeneral Fiction|ParanormalGeneral Fiction]]
Tilda returns It strikes me that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to Brightonsee how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, to tidy away who bristles at the remains indignity of her motherwhite man against Native 's life after her deathIndian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man – and woman, of course – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. Whilst there But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, she returns to and the Paradise hotelattendant problems with gold rushes, a haven for eccentrics pioneer spirits and misfitsracial genocide. A place He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside down, people can be themselveswalk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and let go of thoughts that torment them elsewherewhere, who knows, things might actually be better. Little wonder But that Tilda cannot forgive her mother for banishing her as equator is a long way away – and there's a child, from this place whole adventure full of wonder. With the help of Queenie Malone, caring, Mexico and gregarious, Tilda begins to pick apart the tricky Latin America between him and uncertain relationship she had with her sometimes cruel and distant mother. it… [[Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel Equator by Ruth HoganAntonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor]]===
===[[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.[[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]]
''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?'' Freddie arrives in London in We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the early 2000sProf, answering the call for teachersis taking her out to lunch. He thinks about his own Jamaican education, based on This is her favourite day of the British systemyear, and not because it's her birthday but because of the way he was taught English nursery rhymes and about special time she gets to spend with the River Thamesman she loves. He thinks about '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 of cricket and footballthey can be together. She hasn't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, shared by both countries. And he thinks of but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the generations sexual part of the diaspora who came before himrelationship. Freddy does well in his job in East London but he does have to face down some stereotypical attitudes from his pupils There's time though - all Jamaicans smoke weed, donshe's only been the prof't they? Everybody knows that! s PA for fifteen years. [[The Man Who Came to London Needlemouse by A S CooksonJane O'Connor|Full Review]]
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===[[Liberation Square Vintage 1954 by Gareth RubinAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
In an alternate 1952Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, Soviet Troops control British Streetsbefore deciding to run with them and formulate a plot. After D-Day goes horribly wrongSo we have an American biker, Britain is first occupied by Nazi Germany – only to be rescued by Russian soldiers from just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the East, and Americans from wife who shared his dream of visiting the westcity together. Dividing the nation between them, London soon finds itself split in twoWe have a goth girl who everyone recognises from an American crime show, but actually is a wall running through it like humble restorer of antiques. We have a scarcocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girl. When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for We also have a man ruling the murder roost over a whole suite of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his former wifefamily once owned. Finally something conspires to get them together, Jane is determined to clear his nameand drinking from the same bottle of a rare 1954 red wine. In doing soOnly, Jane follows one of them has a trail of corruption bizarre incidence in his family history that leads her right to also features the highest levels of the state same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, and soon finds herself desperate walked out the door one rainy morning, never to stay one step ahead be seen again. But of the murderous secret police… course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? [[Liberation Square Vintage 1954 by Gareth RubinAntoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]]
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===[[When You Read This The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Mary AdkinsFelicity McLean]]===
[[image:4.5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
Smith Simonyi When Tikka Molloy was eleven and Iris Massey worked together for four one-sixth yearsold, during which time Iris left her husband at the altar on their wedding dayVan Apfel sisters disappeared. SmithIn the long hot summer of 1992, meanwhilein an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, relied on Iris, but his attention was on making enough money to cover his motherthe girls vanished during the school's nursing home fees in Wisconsin, running Showstopper concert at the branding agency in New York and losing money gambling when riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the pressures got too much search for himthe sisters united the small community, they were never found. He was devastated when Iris developed a terminal cancer and died at the age Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of thirty three. He was surprised too when he discovered that Iris had been writing a blog strange moment in time – of the last six months of summer that shaped her life , and her final request of Smith is that he gets the blog published as a bookgirls she never forgot. [[When You Read This The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Mary AdkinsFelicity McLean|Full Review]]
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===[[Vera Magpie The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Laura SolomonAlexander McCall Smith]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General 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 have murdered three husbandsrather 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]]
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 Kennedy -->
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===[[Black Light by Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionThe Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]===
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[[image: if you were being honest you'd just say that he was very difficult, but Jim does his best with and for him4star. 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 driftjpg|link=Category: he's actually writing ''two'' novels and he reads excerpts from these to his friends in the pub. {{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Black Light by Laura Solomon: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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===[[Redemptor Domus A Danger to Herself and Others by Gamelyn ChaseAlyssa Sheinmel]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast''They needed someone to blame, sent far from his family in and I was the Far Eastonly available scapegoat. As the boy travels to Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the school, a family tragedy causes scapegoat was the boy to arrive at least I could do under the school a vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain futurecircumstances. Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, the boy is seen as a trophy by friends and enemies alike'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. With them locked into their scheming and plottingShe has dined in fancy restaurants, it comes to explored the boy to attempt to clean up most sophisticated corners of the pit globe and lived a life of filth that the school has becomeluxury. [[Redemptor Domus A Danger to Herself and Others by Gamelyn ChaseAlyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]
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===[[The Long Path To Wisdom Louis and Louise by Jan-Philipp SendkerJulie Cohen]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
On my travels around the worldWhat would you be like, right now, I have if you'd been born a different gender? Would it simply be a tendency to end up in any bookshop that is selling English-language booksmatter of genetics, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as 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 next personabove, what I'm really looking for is covering the 'local' – stories of Louis and Louise, born on the cookbook maybesame day, to the maps definitelysame parents, but above all: in one storyline Lou is a boy, and in the folk talesother a girl. If I ever get to BurmaDoes 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, I won't need and prompts you to hunt, I can read before I gothink about how they could be... [[The Long Path To Wisdom Louis and Louise by Jan-Philipp SendkerJulie Cohen|Full Review]]
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===[[Katalin Street M for Mammy by Magda SzaboEleanor O'Reilly]]===
[[image:5star4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]
This is The Augustts are, like all families, a story about the pastbit complicated. A specific pastloving irish family, certainlytheir 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 the form of pre-war Budapestorder to understand each other again, but also as with a story about how family as complicated as the Augustts it's not always what is spoken that past can impact on makes the present most sense. Things are shaken up further when Granny Mae-Anne moves in and the futuretakes charge. In this book, the first Full of three Magda Szabó wrote on the same theme between 1969 and 1987 and now newly translated stern words and reissuedcommon sense, we witness she's a heart-rending nostalgia for happier days, guilt about those force of nature who did not survive, and a dogged but doomed determination must try her hardest to cling to long-gone times, feelings and experiences which mark hold the here and now, staining and warping it into another, subtler miseryfamily together. [[Katalin Street M for Mammy by Magda SzaboEleanor O'Reilly|Full Review]]
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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]], [[Santa Goes on Strike by Jem Vanston: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:For SharingQueenie Malone's Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan|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 Cookson -->
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===[[Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] ==[[:Category:General Fiction|General FictionThe Man Who Came to London by A S Cookson]]===
Zoe believes in adding life to years as well as years to life. Her world, like her name, is bursting with life and colour. She is the sort of girl who would sing a rainbow is she could. Tristan (or ''Tree'' as she calls him) is the opposite. Fresh out of hospital following a prolonged stay in a psychiatric unit, he sees a world as a grey place[[image:4star. jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[Every Colour of You by Amelia Mandeville:Category:General Fiction|Full ReviewGeneral Fiction]]
<!-- Picoult -->|-| style=''In 1948, the first set of Caribbean nationals arrived in Great Britain on a ship called "width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;Empire Windrush"|[[image:1444788124.jpg|link=http://wwwThey struggled to find housing.amazonThey worked as labourers.coThey faced open discrimination, forcing them to quickly form their own community.uk/dp/1444788124/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]Decades later, Freddy makes the same journey.''
''Does he find a place to live? Does he face stereotypes? Has Britain moved forward?''
| style="verticalFreddie 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 -align: top; text-align: left;"|===all Jamaicans smoke weed, don't they? Everybody knows that! [[The Man Who Came to London by A Spark of Light by Jodi PicoultS Cookson|Full Review]]===
[[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 man, George Goddard, takes it upon himself to get revenge for the loss of his grandchild, in the form of a mass-shooting. What arises is a novel that details the lives 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 day. [[A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult|Full Review]] <!-- Vincent Rubin -->
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===[[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death Liberation Square by M B VincentGareth Rubin]]===
[[image:4star5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|General Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:CrimeGeneral Fiction|CrimeGeneral Fiction]]
Dr Jess CastleIn an alternate 1952, the self proclaimed failure of the prestigious Castle family has returned home 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 sleepyEast, idyllic chocolate box town of Castle Kidburyand Americans from the west. Rather than being delightedDividing the nation between them, her family are suspiciousLondon soon finds itself split in two, especially her father, the judgea wall running through it like a scar. Luckily When Jane Cawson's husband is arrested for Jessthe murder of his former wife, she doesn't have Jane is determined to try too hard to dodge her family's suspicions as clear his name. In doing so, Jane follows a series trail of gruesome local murders are taking place and corruption that's all anyone is talking about. Jess accidentally finds herself in leads her right to the thick highest levels of the investigation, state – and soon finds herself desperate to her delight finds that she can actually be useful. But with the small population dwindling and stay one step ahead of the sense of danger moving ever closer to home, has Jess made a grave mistake getting involved? murderous secret police… [[Jess Castle and the Eyeballs of Death Liberation Square by M B VincentGareth Rubin|Full Review]] <!-- Stone Mary Adkins -->
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===[[When You Read This by Mary Adkins]]===
[[image:4.5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[What's Left Unsaid by Deborah Stone: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]]
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 Laura Solomon -->
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===[[Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Place Where Love Should Be by Elizabeth Ellis:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]===
[[image:4star''I have murdered three husbands.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''
As an opening line that must take some beating, but Vera''Edward is six weeks old s telling us the truth. The first two husbands, Gary and I’ve had no sleep. I had thirty stitches in my perineumHarry were abusive, but Larry was a treasure, a keeper, the wounds still tug and itch. They had it's difficult to do the stitches twice because the first lot became infected. The old-school midwife told me I wasn’t paying enough attention understand why Vera would have killed him, particularly when she was likely to personal hygieneget found out very quickly and now she's in prison with a mandatory life sentence. I must shower twice Her only friend is Shirley, a daylesbian, or better still, take but Vera's not one to let herself be a salt bathvictim. Do they really expect me to do that? Have they ever tried to shower when 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 baby fling), but she is crying keen on getting an education and you’re so tired you can barely stand and your partner is banging around downstairs because he’s late she's studying for work again?''a degree in English Literature. [[Vera Magpie by Laura Solomon|Full Review]]
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 Laura Solomon -->
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===[[Black Light by Laura Solomon]]===
[[image:3.5star.jpg|link===Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[The Amber Maze by Christopher Bowden: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]]
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]]
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===[[The Water Thief Redemptor Domus by Claire HajajGamelyn Chase]]===
[[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]]
Nick is A young boy arrives at an exclusive faith school on the scenic North Wales coast, sent far from his family in the middle of wedding preparations when he decides Far East. As the boy travels to leave his fiancée behind in London and take up the school, a post in some un-named west African country providing engineering support for family tragedy causes the boy to arrive at the building school a vulnerable orphan, with an uncertain future. Plunged into a school full of danger and betrayal, the boy is seen as a children's hospitaltrophy by friends and enemies alike. He With them locked into their scheming and plotting, it comes to the boy to attempt to clean up the pit of filth that the school has no idea what he is getting himself intobecome. [[The Water Thief Redemptor Domus by Claire HajajGamelyn Chase|Full Review]]
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