Changes

|author=Frederic Beigbeder and Frank Wynne (translator)Andrew Sharp|title=A Life Without EndThe Chef, the Bird and the Blessing

|genre=Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, General Fiction|summary=I looked at Chef Mlantushi - Mozzy to his employer - is, in his mind, the calendar the other week, and disappointedly realised I have head chef of a birthday this year – I know, yet another onesafari business catering to VIP guests in an unnamed African country. It won't be one Mozzy is earnest and dedicated to his task and he puts all of himself into creating fine cuisine dishes for the major numbers, guests at BOD-W safaris but his dream is to become the time when I have the same number as Heinz varieties looms on the horizonhead chef of a restaurant in London or a big American city. And then Even to win a few of the big 0-numbersMichelin star. He is thwarted in this ambition by his boss, Mr Bin (Ben to you and me) who incurs Mozzy's disapproval for his scruffy ways, his uninterest in his guests and if all goes well- shock, Ihorror - his allowing of bush animals into the house.|isbn=B09926MK8H}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1901514978|title=There'll be an OBEs a Problem With Dad|author=Carlos Alba|rating=4. (Which of course stands 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Life is different for Over Bloody EightyGeorge Lovelace and he can't really understand why.) Now if thatHe's the extent of my midalways done everything he ought to: steady worker, husband and father -life crisis, I guess I have to be happyand a father who was always there for school plays and sports days. Our author here doesnSo why is he never quite in tune with those around him? Why does he upset people? Why is someone with such a ''good''t use that exact phrase, but he might be said mind unable to be living one. Determined progress at work or to find out how relate to prolong life for as long as his colleagues? Why does he wants – he would like make so many breath-taking gaffes? It's almost become a cliche these days to see 400 – he hops right into bed with suggest that someone who is a little different is 'on the spectrum', but George Lovelace has all the assistant symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome: high-functioning autism.}}{{Frontpage|author=Freya Sampson|title=The Last Library|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I am always a little nervous to start a story about a library, since I am a librarian. I always grit my teeth slightly at the thought of the incoming cardigan-wearing, hair in a bun, cat-owning, glasses on a chain stereotypes! In this story, the first geneticist he interviewsmain character, June, does put her hair in a bun, and they end up with she does own a childcat (called Alan Bennett), which is at least and she has barely any friends and spends her evenings eating the same Chinese takeaway meal once a way week whilst reading books alone! But I didn't immediately throw the book out of continuing the life of his geneswindow, because I found I was interested in June, and why she lived as she did. Her mum used to be a motive to keep librarian at the village library, but when she got sick, June gave up on going. But how can he get to not flick University and stayed at home to take care of her mum, as well as taking on a job as library assistant at the local library. And even though her mum sadly died some years ago, she is still working there, still eating her mum'final way outs favourite takeaway meal, and still reading her mum' switchs old books. June is stuck, especially when foie gras tastes so nice?but little does she know, everything in her life is about the change.|isbn=1642860670183877369X

|isbnauthor=B08774SJYNEmily Critchley|title=The Greenbecker Gambit|author=Ben GraffTiny Gestures of Small Flowers|rating=53

|summary=''I suppose The Tiny Gestures of Small Flowers had all the odd fleeting sense hallmarks of loneliness is a price all truly successful people must pay for our giftssomething good. I tell myself that I do so willingly.'' Tennessee Greenbecker. Isn't that a name to conjure with? There are hints that it might not have been was intrigued by the name he was given at birthplot, but many liked the design of us have moved onthe book, so far as names go, from and thought the one we were originally saddled with. Greenbeckerauthor's life is one of constant reinventionwork sounded interesting. He tells us that he's From the foremost chess player never to have been world champion, and outset it does seem that he has some considerable talent as far as chess goesall looked incredibly promising. He's determined that he's going to fulfil So what he sees as his destiny. He just needs to do some study to be able to beat the current players ranked at numbers one and two in the world. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana will not stand in his way.on earth went wrong here?|isbn= 1911427091

|authorisbn=J Paul HendersonB093VPBL5L|title=DaisyCape Henry House|author=Jolly Walker Bittick

|summary=This is the story of Herod SMeet Bosner, or, to give him his full title, Petty Officer Third Class Bosner. Pinkney, We never really find out if he has a rather unusual (yet somehow charming) man who is in search of first name: there's merely a woman called Daisy, whom hint that he had the nickname 'Secretary' at one point. He's simply Bosner to one and all. When we first sees in an episode encounter him he's exploring his memories of Judge Judy 2008 when he was a greaser on television and instantly falls in love with her! Rod is writing the novel of his questhelicopters (or helos, guided by an embittered ex-literary agent who is now clearing glasses in a pub for as they were called) at a livingnaval establishment. Determined to find The hours could be long and meet Daisy, he was often working nights but at the book takes us through Rod's lifeage of twenty-one, introduces us there was always a way to his friends, work some fun (think drinking and tells us of what happens in eating) into his quest for loveday.|isbn=0857303309

{{Frontpage |isbn=1529123941 B095CY7NBN|title=The Silent Treatment Autumn Camp|author=Abbie Greaves Barry Fowler|rating=4.5 |genre=General Fiction |summary= When we meet Professor Frank Hobbs It was to be Brian's last camp. He'd founded the organisation some four years ago and his wifehad done all the organisation since but he was leaving school and the time had come to hand the reins to someone else. The obvious person was Gary, Maggiewho'd always been the fun element of the camps and Brian had said that on this camp, Frank is playing chess against his computerGary should act as the leader and he'd just be there to observe. The problem with this was that Gary wasn't really an organiser, although not very successfullyan administrator if you like. MaggieHe was the entertainer, on the other hand, has just taken some pills person who basked in the spotlight and made things fun - eight of them, so Brian stepped in fact and did the organising. He handed the camp over - and before long she will collapsethen took it back. And Gary determined to have his revenge. This should have been ''his'' camp.}} {{Frontpage|author=John Boyne|title=The Echo Chamber|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Meet George Cleverley. When Frank rings He is self-defined as "one of the few television personalities over the emergency services in Oxford he has a bit age of fifty without a problemcriminal record". He has starts this book a bit worried when his mistress tells him she's carrying his child, but then his author wife is getting her kicks with the Ukrainian partner "Strictly Come Dancing" paired her with. They have three children, who are a sad-sack with absolutely no social skills whatsoever, a girl who hangs around with a virtue-signalling, keyboard warrior "wokester" who wants to admit that he save the world's homeless with out-of-date food, and Maggie haven't actually spoken for a whilefit young lad doing the gay hustle thing. How long? WellAdd in a few other characters – therapists, lawyers, it's about six months since he spoke random transgender types – that all have two very different connections to Maggie his life, and he can't really say if it's likely you have something that Maggie has tried suggests an almost farcical approach to take her own lifethe modern world. What suggests the farcical approach even more, however, is the fact this is bloody funny.|isbn=0857526219

|authorisbn=Camilla Bruce0008444501|title=You Let Me InThe Answer to Everything|author=Luke Kennard

|summary= Eccentric, isolated romance novelist Cassandra Tipp has Life should have been missing good for Emily. She had a year lovely husband, Steven, who was a speech therapist. We'll pass over the fact that they rarely speak to each other and don't even sleep in the same bed. It isn't so much that Emily has been pronounced legally dead by left the marital bed as that she's sharing a bed with one of her lawyerschildren as it's the only way to get him to sleep during the night. Her will instructs her niece Arthur and Matty are gorgeous but they are a handful and nephew Emily has a job to enter her cope with too - she teaches drama two days a week. They've not long moved into a new home and find the key to their inheritance in an old manuscript left in her officeCriterion Gardens: the last story sheit's a trendy area that has been gentrified and it'll ever tells run on semi-communal lines. The residents even share eco-friendly electric cars rather than owning their own.|isbn=1787633179

|author= Becky Albertalli and Aisha SaeedLouise Beech|title= Yes No Maybe So This Is How We Are Human|rating= 4|genre= TeensGeneral Fiction|summary= Veronica is a devoted single mother to her son, Sebastian - but she can''We might t give him everything he wants. Sebastian has decided that it our all and crash and burn's time for him to have sex. But we might win. We might actually change thingsas an autistic 20 year-old, that's easier said than done. And that maybe makes it still worth going for's starting to cause them both problems. |isbn=1913193713}} {{Frontpage|author=Ananda Devi|title=Eve Out of Her Ruins|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=At not even 200 pages, donEve Out of Her Ruins is one of the shortest books I't you think?ve read in a long while, but it's one of the most dramatic. It'Jaime has been spending his summer helping his cousin with campaigning s also told in time for a special electionway that I can only describe as brutal: it spares nothing and pulls very few punches, the descriptions stark and unromantic. When his mother encourages him to go canvassing|isbn=0993009344}} {{Frontpage|author=C J Carey|title=Widowland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's April 1953, he canand Adolf Hitler't think s schedule includes going to Moscow to attend the state funeral of anything worse. HoweverJoseph Stalin then within weeks coming to London, Jaime has always wanted to be parading around a politician bit, and decides there is no time like watching over the present sanctioned return to conquer the throne of Edward VIII with his fear wife, Queen Wallis. For yes, Britain caved in the lead-up to the World War Two that certainly didn't happen as we know it, and we are now a protectorate – well, we share enough of speaking to the publicsame blood as the Germanic peoples on ''the mainland''. Maya But this is most certainly a Pakistanidifferent Britain, for Nazi-American Muslim girl who is having the worst summer styled phrenology, and ideas of female purpose, has put all of her life. Her parents are going through that gender into a separationcaste system, she has zero plans for ranging from high-brow office bigwigs to the summer drudges, and beyond those, right on down to help take her mind off things the childless, the husbandless and her only close friend the widows. Female literacy is permanently busyactively discouraged. To help occupy her And in this puritanical existence, our heroine, Rose Ransom, her parents offer to buy her a car if she agrees to go canvassing. The pair could possibly be is employed with the worst canvassing duo in history, as neither task of them really want bowdlerising classical literature to take all encouragement for female emancipation out of it – after all, not every book can be therebanned, but as and not every story excised immediately from British civilisation, and so they just get a hefty tweak towards the campaign goes on party line before they discover that they care're stamped ready for reprint. That is her job, a lotat least, about until the election - and maybe even about each other?first emerging signs of female protest come to light, with their potential to spoil Hitler's visit.|isbn=1471184668152941198X

|isbn=0857527231|title=Dog Days|author=Ericka Waller|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=George Dempsey is exceedingly angry. It's eight days since his wife, Ellen, died and it's the first time that she's let him down. He's lost, bereft without her ( he ''needs his wife, like a snail needs its shell''). He misses their ordered life and rather than bringing him meals to leave on the doorstep, he'd much rather have a good row with someone. He's particularly angry about the dachshund puppy which Helen brought home just three weeks before she died. She even dared to contradict him when he told her that the dog wasn't staying. Now he's lumbered with a dog he doesn't want and a load of busybodies who are trying to interfere in his life. Worst of all is Betty, who won't take no for an answer. Betty knits jumpers for Lucky, her greyhound. Lucky spends a lot of time trying to escape from and destroy them.}}{{Frontpage|author=Elliot ReedMartin Venning|title=A Key to Treehouse LivingThe Primary Objective|rating=42

|summary=This is the story of Sometimes a young boybook starts off slowly, William Tyce, who is being raised by his uncle after but eventually draws you in to caring about the death of his mother and his father's abandonmentcharacters or simply wanting to know what happens next. However, Sometimes it isndoesn't told in the usual narrative way. Instead, the book The basic premise is made up of glossary entries, written by Williama good one – a clandestine organisation, operating as a way of describing certain eventscharity, situations but funded by various governments around the world and emotions. It runs alphabeticallypartially (maybe, I'm not sure) under the auspices of the UN, starting with ABSENCEthe primary objective of keeping the peace, then moving to ALPHABETICAL ORDERby any means possible. As I began Diplomacy is always the first option and sometimes one that needs to read I did find myself thinking 'what on earth?!' be carried out by third parties, but I soon grew used for situations when that looks unlikely to the styleyield results Peace International maintains a call-on list of field operatives, ex-military, medics, scientists or anyone else with a taste for adventure and was instead caught up in William's storywilling to risk their life for the sake of it.|isbn=19115454181800461100

|author= T R HendrickKaren M McManus|title= What if They KnewThe Cousins|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary= It's 2025. Underneath The rich and famous Story family led a lodge in life of luxury on Gull Cove Island, until 25 years ago when each of the Blue Mountain resort in PennsylvaniaStory children - Anders, is Archer, Adam and Allison - received a secret facilitymysterious letter from their mother and were cut off completely. HereBut now, Dr Benton and his team are making some critical scientific advances on behalf a quarter of the Benefactora century later, their anonymous funder. Already, the team children have succeeded in teleporting small primates from one place been called to return to anotherthe island for the summer by their grandmother. But, unbeknownst to What does she want with the cousins? Why did she cut off her children all those years ago? Are the Benefactordeaths on Gull Cove Island really what they seem? The dark web of twisted lies, Dr Benton secrets and tragedy that has also coded held the Story family up - and held them apart - for another type a quarter of teleportation altogether - travel through time. And he's ready a century is about to testcome crashing down. If successful, Benton has a very specific use for his technology in mind|isbn=17342772110241376947

|author=H G Parry Ruth Hogan|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepMadame Burova|rating=4.5

|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley This book lets us discover several people in different stages of life in the early 1970s, all vaguely connected. So we have struggled to see eye to eye for years a bullied half- Rob cast boy (as he would have been called then), a sensible lawyer who exists girl in a humdrum job wanting to become a singer, and chiefly, Imelda, the "normal" world third generation of Madame Burova, ''Tarot- Reader, Palmist and Charley a man who is blessed with an ability he canClairvoyant'', to use her family't fully control s sea- one which allows him to bring literary characters into the real worldfront booth. After years of protecting Charley The singer, Rob wants to discharge his duties the scryer and leave Charley to his own devices - the sufferer's mother will all become staff at a revamped holiday camp, but circumstances soon take choices out of both their handsjust before then we see Imelda fly solo for the first time in the family stall. As literary characters begin to appear everywhere We also see her on her last day, fifty years later, it soon becomes clear in possession of a pair of letters that someone out there shares Charley's powers and intends to use them will change everything for nefarious gainsa woman called Billie. Rob Just who is she, and Charley must team up to stop who delivered the madness - in a battle secrets about her to win before theyImelda, the characters and the world reach The End…why did it have to remain a secret all this time?|isbn=0356513777152937331X

|isbnauthor=1643785036Stephen Clarke|title=The Wondrous Apothecary|author=Mary E MartinSpy Who Inspired Me

|summary=Those who have known Alexander WainwrightThis is a spoof spy story, the landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning ''The Hay Wagon'', and Rinaldo, renowned conceptual artist would say that theyisn're chalk and cheese, if not sworn enemiest about James Bond. Or Ian Fleming. If youBut it features a man called Ian Lemming, who dresses well and 've watched likes the relationship, as has our narrator, art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, youladies'd have said that they were magnetsand who works for the secret service, drawing and repulsing each other but in equal measurethe planning side of things more than the active service. Wainwright was at Lemming finds himself put on a mission with a female spy called Margaux, and the socially acceptable pair end of the artistic continuumup stranded in Normandy, but with Rinaldo it was all too obvious that there was but Margaux on a fine dividing line between conceptual art desperate mission to unearth traitors in the resistance network, and public nuisance. As time has worn on, he's frequently been brought Lemming desperately trying to the attention of the police. On this latest occasion we see him charged keep up with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagon''.her!|isbn=2952163855

|author=Mary H.K. ChoiAndrea Bajani and Elizabeth Harris (translator)|title=Permanent If You Kept a Recordof Sins|rating=4.5|genre=TeensLiterary Fiction|summary=PabloThis was an incredibly readable novella, but one that left me a college drop-out, is working little conflicted. We start as our hero arrives at a New York bodega. He's massively in debtBucharest airport, and before we even know his gender or the nature of the person he's avoiding addressing in his mothersecond person monologue of a narration, and he finds we see him picked up by his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one evening, hemother's surprised chauffeur, and carted off to discover that do all the girl he necessary introductions before said mother is chatting buried the following day. The mother was a businesswoman, who clearly left northern Italy and settled in Romania with as he serves is a superher (night-famous pop star time andbusiness) partner, as unlikely as it may seem, they start a relationshipand feelings of abandonment are still strong. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyoneAnd so we flit from current (well, and this came out in the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over original Italian in 2007, so moderately current) Bucharest, to the world, itlad's an interesting clash as they come together. This isn't just a love story thoughchildhood, and actually it's really see just Pab's story, about the journey what he takes in his life via his meet-up with Leanna Smarthas to tell her as a private farewell address.|isbn=03490034591939810965

|author=Daniel KrausDavid F Ross|title=Blood SugarThere's Only One Danny Garvey|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Years ago, Danny Garvey was a footballing prodigy playing for his local club. Everyone predicted a bright future – but his career in professional football never quite worked out. Thirteen years on, convinced to return home by his "uncle" Higgy to visit his dying mother, Danny takes over the shambolic and once-great team he used to play for and tries to reform them.|isbn= 1913193500}} {{Frontpage|author=Gail Honeyman|title=Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine|rating=4.5

|summary=This Eleanor Oliphant is almost 30. She lives in Glasgow, alone. And she likes it that way. She works 9-5, 5 days a difficult readweek, and spends the weekend not drunk, but not sober. alone. And not because of the dark subject matter – she likes it that'll come later – but because of the way in which it's told. This might put She lives by a lot of readers offroutine, and to be honest itthat'd be hard to blame thems fine, thankyouverymuch. Nothing is missing from her life. Except everything is. Kraus tells the story Until one day, at a concert she won tickets for in a distinctive voice unlike any other I've read; an erratic dialect with heavy and frequent slangoffice raffle, she sees the man she is sure will be her husband. The immediate effect is disorientating and distractingEleanor begins a journey to make herself the best version of herself that she can, and it takes some time in order to feel naturalsecure this beautiful musician. ItThen, as she's on her way home one Friday, she and the new IT guy at her office see a struggle man collapse in the street and stay close to acclimatise to Jodyhim in hospital. Then, before she knows it, her once quiet life becomes a hubbub of social engagements with the man's voicefamily and friends, with Raymond from IT and of course her side project of falling in love with Johnnie Lomond. But just as her life seems to get acquainted with his mannerismsbe looking up, but things take a turn for the story wouldnworse. Is Johnnie all he't s cracked up to be ? What secrets does Eleanor have from her childhood? Eleanor's walls have been broken down and she has to fight her way out of the same without it, and somehow it works. It shouldnshadows - but maybe she doesn't, but have to do it doesalone.|isbn=17890919340008172145

|isbn=B07W4MNBSGB08GFSK2WZ|title=Be Careful Who You MarryThe Karma Trap|author=Lizzy MumfreyLisette Boyd

|summary=It was coming up to Halloween in 1987 Between life and death there is a group of sixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fiftylibrary. When you're only seventeen that seems positively ancientAnd so, 38 minutes after Nora decided to die, but Liz was convinced she finds herself in the Midnight Library. Everything that could've gone wrong in Nora'your entire s life depends on who you marry'has. Her cat died, she lost her job, her brother won't speak to her, her parents are dead, the boy she teaches piano to no longer cares about piano, she called off her wedding, and old Mr Banerjee next door no longer needs her help. The only eligible boys were She gave up on all the Young Farmers and things that would've let her escape the idea wet, cold town of living in a farmhouse Bedford and having a couple of children called Will given her life some purposeful direction. So at 23:22, she realises that she isn't made for life and Olly appealed decides to Charlottedie. But instead of death, or perhaps William and Oliver if you were Elizabeth who was determined to marry she finds the rather superior Patrick Shepley-Bothamlibrary. The place Each infinite shelf is filled with books, each book providing a chance to start their search was obviously the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekendtry another life she could have lived, in a parallel time. There was And so, just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths in after midnight on Tuesday the class18th of April, Nora Seed begins to live every life she could've.|isbn=1786892731

{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- Will Carver -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1912374838.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912374838/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult read. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages. [[Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver|Full Review]] <!-- Claire North -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:williamabbey.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0316316849/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]  When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880's South Africa, he finds himself cursed by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most… [[The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North|Full Review]] <!-- Oates -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785656775.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785656775/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Bobby is an angry, damaged man - damage that came from being abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, and then being thrown from one foster home or detention centre to another, never far from violence or abuse. Eager to succeed as a musician, he arrives in Hollywood to find his dream - but it soon becomes clear that his paranoid delusions and seething rage will enable a capacity for acts of extreme violence. Unpublished for 40 years, this edition of ''The Triumph of the Spider Monkey'' comes combined with a connected novella – ''Love, Careless Love''. [[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates|Full Review]] <!-- Ellory -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1542007232.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1542007232/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Berlin, 1989. Miriam is in the middle of a city freshly united, with the Wall newly broken down and people able to cross at liberty for the first time in decades. She is in the middle of such euphoria, but cannot feel it, for she has not left her father's apartment in weeks, nursing him as he lies dying. One standard bed-bath, however, is very different, when he gasps the name ''Frieda'' that she does not recognise – and she sees for the first time ever a tattoo for his camp inmate identity under his watch. One bombshell outside, then, and two inside. And inside her father, Henryk, what is going Move on, as he has a first person narrative alternating with her story? What will we find happened, as he remembers back to the real Frieda, a young woman that shook him to the core when he was her literature professor? That's right, more bombshells… [[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory|Full Review]] <!-- McGee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241365953.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[American Royals by Katharine McGee]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Two and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, the House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and the time for her reign is imminent. [[American Royals by Katharine McGee|Full Review]] <!-- Mulligan -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1784742716.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784742716/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | 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]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, even though it is [[:Category:Andy Mulligan|the 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:Chris Cleave|Chris Cleave]], and [[:Category:David Nicholls|David Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness. More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]] <!-- Coleman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785032461.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father is dead. Where better than the house full of light and shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman|Full Review]] |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291845/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Set in a typical American town, ''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. The novel is told from four different perspectives, those of Lucy, Ulana, Trina and Sophia, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemies. The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their lives, but more importantly their minds, and at times the thoughts of those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, particularly in relation to the ''Me Too Movement''. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes|Full Review]]  <!-- Kate Tough -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034914365X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034914365X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been together for nine years and it was beginning to feel ''settled''. Then Mark announced that he'd got a job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him or not. The ''not'' bit of the sentence was the way it worked out and Rhona was left on her own. Well, she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a couple. So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to the one she'd left nine years ago - and there's a lot of difference between being in the middle of your twenties and the middle of your thirties. [[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}