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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gregory MaguireOnyi Nwabineli|title= After AliceAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=When Alice fell down Anuri spent her childhood on display to the rabbit holeworld, she found Wonderland as rife with inconsistent rule and abrasive egos as the world she left behind. But how did Victorian Oxford react thanks to Aliceher step-mother Ophelia's departure? When Aliceincreasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's friend Adachildhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, mentioned briefly monetary gain. Now Anuri is in ''Alice in Wonderland'' sets out her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to visit Aliceget her life back, she arrives a minute too late. Tumbling suing her step-mother to take down the rabbit hole herselfcontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, she embarks on an odyssey failing to find Alice start her PhD, undergoing therapy and bring secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her safely home from this surreal world below little sister, who is the worldnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472230469</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Isabel Allende1529153298|title= The Japanese LoverList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary= The Japanese Lover It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is an unassuming novelPrime Minister. The beginning leads the reader to anticipate an enjoyable light read (A woman? I mean, a good holiday book perhaps – a very well plotted story with an interesting cast of characters and settingshonestly... Irena) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, a Moldovan girl with elfin looks and a passion for fantasy novelsthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, starts working in bohemian care home Lark House in San Francisco. She meets the stately and somewhat aloof Alma Belascothey've been murdered, whose story starts but to unravel, beginning with have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her being brought over from Poland (just as Jews became increasingly vulnerable father wants to move the Nazis) to her wealthy aunt and uncle in Cliff Housefamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, San Franciscoforeign place, as a little girlbest avoided. Allende almost makes us think that this opening tone For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, entertaining but fairly shallowSharon, will continue for and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the rest of the noveldangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471152197</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Midge Raymond1035906708|title= My Last ContinentDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Only at the end We tend to think of the worldMaria Callas as Greek, among the glaciers and icebergs of Antarcticabut she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, do Deb and Keller feel at home. For a few blissful weeks each year they study the habits of penguinsNew York, finding solace in their work December 1923 and in each otheronly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Yet Antarctica, like their romance, is imperilled by the world Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the northStates. A new season has begun, When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and the two play tour guide to the passengers on the expedition ship that ferries them to their research destination. But when Keller fails to appear, Deb has to consider new feelings made no secret of love, loss, and a voyage deep into both the Antarcticher preference for her elder sister, and the human heartJackie. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1501124706</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Leah FlemingAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Last PearlPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5

|summary=''I always thinkThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, without run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the grit there would be no pearl. Sorrows have online apps in providing a way of strengthening the heart, never forget thatmore personal, childtailored service.'' Greta Costello lives in in poverty with Ness has asked her mother younger cousin Katie if she could come and siblings and must work look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a skivvy trip to put bread on the table. She manages Canada to find some joy in her work though, especially in her 'Sabbath' job working get away for a kindly old widowed Jewwhile. The two become friends Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and he offers so jumps at the chance to come home to take her on as his apprentice, stringing pearlsEdinburgh. Could And so begins this highly-skilled job be her key new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a better life? At the same timebusiness, or in match-making, many miles away but Ness has full confidence in Scotlandher abilities, Jem Baillie and his father can't contain their delight when they discover a magnificent, flawless freshwater pearl at the end of a long day of fishing. They call the pearl 'Queeniethere' s always her very helpful (and from that pivotal momentrather handsome) neighbour, the fates of GretaWilliam, Jem and Queenie will be inextricably linked.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471140970</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Matthew StephenDean Koontz|title= BaturiThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary= It's Nigeria Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the 80sthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. Matthew He is a VSOnice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, on a placement at bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a college teaching electronicsgood person. Or trying Spike is going to at any rate. When language skills are limited take care of Benny, and resources are scarce, you have to make the most will certainly take care of what youBenny've gots enemies, even if that means teaching the odd class on American culture rather than rewiring. If I tell you that the ''Prime Directive'' applies a lot when you're a VSOhe, Benny, you'll appreciate the difficulties Matthew has when his students want to stray further into the modern world and learn about how things work in Britain, concepts of inventions such as ATMs that are decades off reaching Nigeria Harper (Those days may still be some way off. I actually had a hand written bank card a few years ago while a VSO in a country not too far awaywaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure)can figure out who exactly they are. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00OISR3AK</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carys BrayKatherine Howe|title=The Museum of YouA True Account|rating=4.5

|summary= It Hannah Masury is summerliving in Boston, school having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is out, to be a hanging of some pirates in the days are longtown, the bumblebees are big she decides to go and blousy watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the allotment where Clover helps her dad with the vegetables needs weeding and wateringhands of two vicious pirates. She likes the allotment; it helps hides away, so that they don't find and kill her think. This summertoo, Clover is going and then to escape them completely she runs away to unravel the mystery of her mothersea, Becky Brookfield dressing as a boy and work out what makes her father so sad. All joining the time. Itnotorious Ned Low's hard to be pirate ship as a kid with cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a dead mothermutiny on board, but Clover thinks it's even harder to be dad with a dead wifeand from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091959608</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Van Booy1471180158|title= Father's DayMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=When devastating news shatters the life of six year old HarveyJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, she finds herself in for a man who's a control freak with all the care subtlety of a veteran social workerhalf brick. Jamie's son, WandaBo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and alone in the world save for one relative she has never met - a disabled ex-conmore you read, haunted by a violent past the more you'll suspect that he can't escapes on the autistic spectrum. Moving between past and present, Father Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's Day weaves together a frequent flier in the story of Harveylocal A&E and sometimes Bo's childhood not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on Long Island, time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and her life as put in the wrong. It was going to come to a young woman in Parishead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749694</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela LambertB0CKD1L5JL|title=Kiss and KinRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=It's six months since Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the death of Harriet Capel's husband George. Looking back she's concluded that she was fond ofstrange, but probably not ''in love''reclusive Bear, with him. They had two sons he is brought up far from bustling cities and it's busy human society, in the elder forests of these, Roderick whoWashington's married to JenniferOlympic Peninsula. They have three childrenAfter Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, but there's been and armed with only a rather silly feud between the Capels and Jennifer's familypirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the Gauntsforest, which dates back to broadcasting the couple's weddingstrange, when Clarissa Gaunt, Jennifer's mother said something unpleasant in the church which dropped into one of those silences which always occur when you say something which you really shouldn't. Honours (or should it be ''dishonours''?) were even when George Capel later said something crass and vulgar about the bride's mother wild and was overheardrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861514301</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Liz FenwickSarah Marsh|title= Under a Cornish SkyA Sign of Her Own|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Under After a Cornish Sky'' is the story bout of two very different women who are forced to work together to complete scarlet fever as a common goalchild, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Their personalities couldn't be more different Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, so expect fireworks along everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the way! Shy Demi is use of sign language was seen as timid as a mouse and although she something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a skilled architect, school where she is never able taught to succeed in her career because others take credit for her worklip read, but physically restrained from signing. In relationships From here, she is easily manipulated into doing things she doesn't always feel comfortable with; ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a fact that is not lost on her sleazy current boyfriend, Mattsystem called Visible Speech. Lady-of- At the-Manor Victoriasame time, Bell is working on the other handinventions and ideas, simply oozes self confidence. Although she is and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in her sixties, she has the body of a much younger woman and has no trouble getting men to do exactly what she wants. Despite a long list complicated tangle of younger lovers providing a pleasurable distraction, her one true love is the family home of Boscawen, a glorious estate set in the picturesque Cornish countryside, not far from the seaespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409148289</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alison UmmingerB0BC3YTCMR|title= My Favourite Manson Girl|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= Fifteen year old Anna has had an excruciating year, topped off with new stepparents and a new school. So she ''borrows'' her family's credit card, and runs away to LA to crash with her sister. But Hollywood isn't the escape she needs, and it soon dawns on her: she's trapped in a town full of lost souls and wannabes, with no friends, no cash and no return ticket. When her sister's obsessive ex offers her a job researching the murderous Manson girls for his next indie film, she accepts – albeit reluctantly. This is not quite the summer Anna had in mind; but the more she learns about the girls and her fate, the more she comes to understand her family – and herself. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150848</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewGood Girls Die|author= Louise Candlish|title=The Swimming PoolAyura Ayira|rating=4.5

|summary=''The Swimming PoolThis story is not for everyone.'' is the story  Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of a woman - Natalie - whose eyes are dazzled by a glamorous couple who live nearbyher fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. Natalie and husband Ed have She was a 13-year-old daughtervery bright student, Mollya bit too nerdy if truth be told, and are the kind of parents you'd steer clear of at the school gates for fear of offending their politically correct sensibilities. Molly has a phobia of water. Rather than keep her away suffered from rivers and pools, they subject vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her to a childhood of therapy. They keep up with changes to Mollyin case it's phone code so they can check up on her messagescontagious. They don It't believe in private education and they eat nutritionally supplemented pizzass not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. Louise Candlish pokes delicious fun at this couple, particularly at dull She had a crush on seventeen-asyear-ditchwater Ed whose moral rectitude stifles poor Natalie, desperate to break out of old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her mould. Enter Lara Channing. Lara is a champion synchronised swimmer and former starlet. Her beauty, wealth Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and warmth have a magnetic attraction for Natalie who proves powerless to resist Lara's charms, although Reggie asked if she is less sure of Lara's enigmatic husband, Mileswould tutor him. The novel charts Natalie's journey as She readily agreed: tutoring was something she is enticed away from Ed and into Lara's web, and there is gladly did at church: this was just an increasing sense of unease as events unfoldextension. Add She went to this heady mix a few additional ingredients, a heatwave, an outdoor pool his house and a gaggle of teenagershe raped her. In shock, and you have she even allowed him to give her a recipe for disasterlift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405927321</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kit de Waal1472263936|title=My Name is LeonThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=Everything It was in 1968 that is precious Helena McCloud made her first trip to Leon gets taken awayGreece. His Action Man toysShe was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, his had left the family home, his mum, and his brother. The world seems utterly unfairrefused to return, but Mary and so he sneaks 20p here, and 50p there, out of peopleHamish (Helena's purses, whilst building parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up a rucksack full -market Kolonaki would be the first of all several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the things hefamily's going to need when he finds his baby brothermaid, Dina, but was wary - and reunites his familyfrightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. Through all He was proud of his planning he still manages close connections to find enjoyment in small things, like a Curly Wurly, or riding the Junta and expected his bike, or planting seeds with family to uphold his new friends on the allotments, values but how will he cope when he finally faces the truth of his new life without his familysaw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241207088</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rufi ThorpeDean Koontz|title= Dear Fang, With LoveAfter Death|rating= 43|genre= General Fiction|summary= After seventeen yearMichael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-old Vera's mental breakdownhazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, her father Lucas takes her on he has a trip sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the tiny Lithuanian town shrouded bodies of Vilnius to recover his dead friends and reconnect with their family historyformer colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|amazonukauthor=<amazonuk>1472152158</amazonuk>William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon BillB0BYF82CXT|title= Artist in ResidenceSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 54

|summary= The nameless protagonist of artist Simon Bill's first novel is almost instantly dislikeable. He's Bill and Amanda are living in a slob with an alcohol problem whose endeavours semi-detached house, stuck in the art world appear lackadaisical a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and who seems to have behaved questionably to his ex-girlfriend Susanvery much in love – move in next door. In his antiheroDespite their different outlooks on life, Bill gives himself an uphill struggle the couples befriend each other and life appears to keep the reader turning pages, let alone engage their sympathyimprove for both pairs. And yet, Artist in Residence But all is a funnynot what it seems, thought-provoking, informative read which is all the more enjoyable and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for the mental and emotional demands it places on the readertragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745576</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paul CornellShalini Boland|title= Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?The Silent Bride|rating= 4.53|genre= Fantasy General Fiction|summary=The Great Detecitve's ghost Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has walked London's streets been searching for an age; handsome, given shape by people's memoriesaccomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. Now someone's put a ceremonial dagger throug his chest. But what's the motive? And who - or what - She is all he could kill possibly want in a ghost? When policing London's supernatural underworldwife; beautiful, successful, eliminating confident… and so the impossible inevitable proposal is not an option. DI James Quill eagerly accepted by Alice and his detectives have learnt this the hard waywedding is planned and set. Gifted When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the Sightcongregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, theyAlice'll pursue a criminial genius - s world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who'll lure them into a Sherlockian maze of clues and evidence. The team also have thier own demons to fight. They've been to Hell and back (literally) but now the unit man at the altar is, who is falling apart..waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447273265</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Veronica Henry1787636003|title=How to Find Love in a Book ShopThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45

|summary=It is with a heavy heart was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that Emilia Nightingale returns home to she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the pretty Cotswold town of Peasebrookisland. Her beloved father Julius has just passed away; his legacy Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, a wellso when thirty-four-year-loved bookshop that serves as a beating heart old Alistair Wright started to the communitytake an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. Julius It was loved by all: quite a while before he always had time made any sort of physical approach to listen to his customers her and share a recuperative cuppa in times of needby that time she was obsessed by him. However Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his finances were another matter entirely interests on the island and Emilia wonders how she can keep in particular in the bar where all the bookshop open with an ever-mounting pile of debtgirls either worked or partied. Greedy property developer Ian Mendip would be only ''too'' happy to help out, but can Emilia really give up on her father's dream?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140914688X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dorothy KoomsonAmanda Craig|title=When I Was InvisibleThree Graces

|summary=Veronika Harper met Veronica Harper aged 8, form Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the start both deciding they-nation novel. There'd stay firm friends. Nika s something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and Roni did everything together including their beloved ballet… until something goes terribly wrongcapture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. This leads to a series of events To say that donAmanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she't just tear their friendship but also s practically synonymous with the lives they would otherwise leadgenre of contemporary social fiction at this point. They wish She has such a gift for invisibility weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and choose different ways to accomplish it lived-in, never making them ciphers for the sake of their survival; physical as well as emotionalsocial commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780893361</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith152915118X|title=My Italian BulldozerPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson

|summary=I do love ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to sit down with their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a new book Stockton by AMSbirth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the excitement was doubled on this occasion since Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a new standalone story meant lots street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of brand new characters to meetthe furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and also Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the book has a very intriguingly bizarre title! reality. In this story we get Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to meet Paul'the GD'.}}{{Frontpage|author=Emily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a food writer who, after a rather upsetting break-up move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his girlfriendfamily, heads as Edie is starting to Tuscany to finish writing his booklose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. So farAfter 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, so normaljust as she was the last time she saw her, but she starts to find pockets of course things soon get a little unusualmemories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, beginning with Paul’s arrest on his arrival she is forgetting more and more in Italy and moving swiftly on her day to day life. Will she uncover the point where instead of a hire car he finds himself with a hired bulldozer…truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973554</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Grady HendrixMadelaine Lucas|title= My Best Friend's ExorcismThirst for Salt|rating= 5|genre= HorrorLiterary Fiction|summary=1988''Love, CharlestonI'd read, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby was supposed to be a light and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth gradeweightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity'' Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. But Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins finishing university – to actits sorrowful end the summer after...different. SheSet against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''s moody. SheThirst for Salt's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she's nearby. Abbydetails the 24-year-old narrator's investigation leads deepening relationship with her to some startling discoveries older lover, depicting its all- consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby familial relationships and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?how it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frederic Dard and David Bellos (translator)0008506337|title=Bird in a CageThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=A man returns to the flat he grew up The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and where his described by Margo's mother died without his knowledge, and finds it too desolate for the time of year it is – Christmas Eveas 'an older man'. Bursting for more life, despite being a solitary character, he goes Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a restaurantglittering career. In the event, they eloped and finds a connection with a mother with Richard took her daughteraway from the Isle of Wight. They dine, then Margo did go to the cinema, Oxford and sit together, and things happen from there – in went on to become a gentle, no-pressure, no-names-nowell-packdrill wayrespected journalist. If this isn't a reasonable start to a novellaThe couple had three children: Rachel, consider the tag it has as a noir classicImogen and Sasha. And consider Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the fact family home on the strange woman is the spitting image Isle of Wight. Even then the mandoubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's dead wife…mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''. Then Richard left them.}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1914585402|title=Dashboard Elvis is Dead|amazonukauthor=<amazonuk>1782271996</amazonuk>David F Ross|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer DonnellyLucy Ashe|title=These Shallow GravesClara and Olivia|rating=34.5|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite booksThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there''A Gathering Light''s a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, so I was very excited attention to read her latest novel detail – and see how it compared. Like some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'A Gathering Light', that don't come from the classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''These Shallow Gravesjoie de vivre'' is . The difference between a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart hard-worker, and a feisty heroine who challenges the standards of the daystar. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471405176</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Virginia IronsideHeather Fawcett|title=No, Thanks! IEmily Wilde'm Quite Happy Standing!: Marie Sharp 4s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

|summary=Retired art teacher Marie Sharp Emily Wilde is wondering whether it's time an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to move house to be nearer write her son Jack and grandson Gene. The wondering doesnlife't take up all her time thoughs work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. For a start there's the new, new-age lodger Robin Whilst she is brilliant at research andspeaking to faeries, talking about men, Marie she is getting on really well not so good with her ex-husband Davidpeople. This single life So when she finds herself far, far North in which they dib into each other's worlds the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on a regular basis seems the perfect way forwardright track. However not Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all is rosy: friend Pennycharm and delight, much to Emily's drinking too much plus a holiday in India has unexpected conclusionfrustration. Oh But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|isbn=0356519120}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398515388|title=The Boy and there's the burglaries tooDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4. Who says that retirement is relaxing and uneventful?5|amazonukgenre=<amazonuk>1782069321</amazonuk>General Fiction|amazonussummary=<amazonus>1782069321</amazonus>First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= William ThackerChristopher Bowden|title= Lingua FrancaMr Magenta|rating= 2.54|genre= General Fiction|summary= Clichéd as it may soundChristopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, language finds itself at the very core of human existence and experiencecarried out by her nephew after she has died. On the one hand, it defines individual cognition The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and thoughts and serves as a way little bit of communicating these thoughts indulgence to others; on the other, a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it defines the social sphere, giving social values seems to him an obligation to things, reflecting history, and constructing a common identity. It is also what William Thacker's second novel, ''Lingua Franca'', revolves aroundfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079743</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice AdamsJennifer Mason|title=Invincible SummerPartitions of Unity|rating=3.54|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=As Alice Adams's debut novel opens in the summer of 1995Here at Bookbag Towers, four university friends are lounging on Bristol's Brandon Hillwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, drinking dominatrix and contemplating what the future holds. There's Eva Andrews, raised unintentional detective in Sussex [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by a single father; siblings Sylvie and Lucien MarchantJennifer Mason|Preposterous]], neglected by their alcoholic mother; when she investigated and Benedict Waverleyunravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity'', she sets her mind to solving a rich kid whose parents have a holiday home on Corfumurder.. Eva has a crush on Lucien, while Benedict is besotted with Eva.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509814701</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Catherine BannerWill Carver|title=The House at Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, the Edge of Nightstory is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=54

|summary=''The House at the Edge of Night'' is an epic family sagaA struggling poetry zine, spanning some 95 years a mom-and several generations. The story begins when Amedeo Esposito arrives at -pop mobile diner in the isolated Sicilian island of Castellamare to serve as Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the first doctor in the island2004 Olympics, a women's history. He is immediately captivated by this strange little community; track coach with a heady mix of traditionyen for bullwhips, superstition and ritual. An island so small is naturally a hotbed billionaire with a state-of gossip, with 'overheard' confessions being dutifully relayed across -the five-mile island within minutes of being heardart S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia.. The benevolent Saint Agata watches over her people and bestows the odd miracle upon the fortunate. '' This is just a sample of the place that Amedeo chooses to make his home cast of characters and together with his resourceful wife Pinasettings in Preposterous. As you can see, they slowly restore the 'cursed' House at the Edge some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of Night to its former glory as a bar and meeting place for the localsthis mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091959322</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chuck PalahniukB0B2N7MVYM|title=Make Something UpThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey

|genre=Short Stories General Fiction|summary=What are It's the 10th of December 1962 when we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on the front cover – ''stories you can't unread''? first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Does that not apply Just to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation of the authorput what happens in context, and the baggage his name brings to the pageCuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people's minds. We'd expect The world has barely had a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced chance to shrink backbreathe out. But a lot of for Joe Marr, it's not the contents donmissile crisis that't quite go that fars at the front of his mind. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- (He''The Price is Right''-, and Kardashian-) free happinesss been convicted of murder. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it With the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes the plot summaries current state of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking of whichmedical knowledge, donit't turn s hard to think otherwise than that the three-page entrant here as a taster, itprosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely heres Bench, a nothing story)relatively new prison. A call centre worker can't convince people heHe's on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back just getting used to him. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violationshis roommate, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festivalMervyn, in a very clever couple and learning to be wary of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been takenMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>