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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Tom ConnollyOnyi Nwabineli|title= Men Like AirAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= One April Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in Manhattanher twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the destinies of four very different men are content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to collidestart her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Nineteen year old Finn has just arrived in Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the city along new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with his volatile girlfriend Dillyher father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, determined they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to even move the score with his older brother Jack for abandoning him in the UK in the aftermath of their parentsfamily 'Down South' deaths. Across town When you're from Yorkshire, successful gallery owner Leo Emerson Down South is haunted by lonelinessa frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, unsettled by the contrast between his life move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of his brother Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in law and oldest friend WilliamManhattan, New York, who is content in both his faith December 1923 and his marriageonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When Finn wanders she was back in to Leo's gallery, Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a series mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of unexpected and interconnected events unfoldher preference for her elder sister, changing the lives of all four men togetherJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908434880</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=How I Became a DrifterAlexander McCall Smith|authortitle=Christmas PhilipThe Perfect Passion Company|reviewerrating=Jill Murphy4.5

|summary=Fictionalised autobiography told The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a stream-of-consciousness stylewhile. An unconventional voice speaking Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the universal search for chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love , thanks to 44 Scotland Street and acceptancethe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|rating=3.5 |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>152463588X</amazonuk> 1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane CorryDean Koontz|title= My Husband's WifeThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary= Autumn 2000Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Newly married lawyer Lily Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and her artist husband Ed have it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a small apartment in Londonnice person. A really nice person. Fresh from So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the honeymoon, they're still settling in delivery to their his house is a new rolesfriend, a bad weather friend called Spike, and their neighbour Francesca and her 9 year old daughter Carla who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take the pressure off care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a little bitwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241256488</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Peter Ho DaviesKatherine Howe|title= The FortunesA True Account|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Clashes of cultures or cultural enrichment? Xenophobia or embracing diversity?Today's hot topics focus much on cultures meeting Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and notions being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of foreignness, especially some pirates in the context of migrationtown, she decides to go and watch. As such Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Peter Ho Davies could not have chosen Hannah finds herself embroiled in a more current and thought-provoking theme for young boy''The Fortunes'': through four different stories, s death at the novel documents some hands of the history of Chinese people in America over more than centurytwo vicious pirates. From railroad workers She hides away, laundry ownersso that they don't find and kill her too, and prostitutes then to escape them completely she runs away to film stars sea, dressing as a boy and adoptive parents, joining the notorious Ned Low''The Fortunes'' tells tales s pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of searching for identity things when there is a mutiny on both national board, and personal levelsfrom there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340980230</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Paul Read1471180158|title= The Art TeacherMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= Thrillers General Fiction|summary=Patrick Owen managed seven years at Highfields Secondary School without punching Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a pupil in control freak with all the facesubtlety of a half brick. A mediocre teacher Jamie's son, stuck in a struggling school ruled by violent pupils, Patrick goes home every night to an empty flatBo, and an existence filled with reminders of 'has his life as a faded rock starproblems'. When one pupil over steps He's asthmatic and the markmore you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a brief mistake plunges Patrick into a world of danger, violence, frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the glare of need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the mediawrong. It was going to come to a head. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079573</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall SmithB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Bertie Project: A 44 Scotland Street NovelRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=Catching up with old friends Petr is a pleasurean orphan. Rescued by the strange, and it's good to be back on Scotland Streetreclusive Bear, finding out what everyone he is getting brought up to. Irene is backfar from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of course, from her travels to the middle-eastWashington's Olympic Peninsula. Bruce has fallen After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in lovehuman company, Matthew and Elspeth have triplet troublesarmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, broadcasting the strange, wild and somebody has an extremely unfortunate accident…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973597</amazonuk>rarely heard voices he encounters.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rowan Hisayo BuchananSarah Marsh|title= Harmless Like YouA Sign of Her Own|rating= 3.5

|summary= This is the debut novel from Rowan Hisayo BuchananAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, but you would never know itEllen Lark loses her hearing. It is an accomplished, unusualSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, poetically written story everything about her life changes. Living in a young Japanese girltime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Yuki OyamaEllen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, who has lived most of her life in New Yorkbut physically restrained from signing. As suchFrom here, she feels an outsider: ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the American girls at school ignore her deaf and she finds the rituals of her parents' home suffocatingusing a system called Visible Speech. Her father has hopes of her studying medicineAt the same time, but the only thing Yuki enjoys Bell is artworking on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473638321</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Emma Claire SweeneyB0BC3YTCMR|title=Owl Song at DawnGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5

|summary=Maeve Maloney runs the Sea View Lodge guest house that her parents ran before ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of herfifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. The house has harboured many memories for Maeve over the past 80She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo -years-plus, most of which shepeople were afraid to hug her in case it's managed to keep at baycontagious. However, her suppression It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is endangered when Vincent comes to call84% white. Far from being an ordinary guest, Vincent is She had a link to that past Maeve crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she'd outrun but now has to relivewould tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. Add that She went to trying to teach Steph his house and Len he raped her. In shock, she even allowed him to fib effectively and life becomes very difficult indeedgive her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079670</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karin Slaughter1472263936|title=The Kept WomanFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=Special Agent Will Trent is backIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. Collected She was alone: her mother, Greek by his partnerbirth, Faithhad left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to attend the scene of a rather brutal murder, Trent queries why the GBI has been called family apartment in to what up-market Kolonaki would usually be a standard homicide investigation for Atlanta PDthe first of several annual visits. Arriving at She grew to love her grandmother and the scenefamily's maid, their bossDina, Deputy Director Amanda Wagner is somewhat characteristically pacing but was wary - and barking orders; the victim is none other than exfrightened -cop and all round bad eggof her grandfather, Dale Hardingretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. There is a lot He was proud of blood, presumably due his close connections to the doorJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes -knob and spindle sticking out of Hardinginherited from her father's neckScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780893574</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eowyn IveyDean Koontz|title=To After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael 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-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the Bright Edge shrouded bodies of the Worldhis dead friends and former 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|author=William Frank

|summary=If youThe village is isolated and poor. It're going to go pioneering across unexplored lands, at least be prepared to accept what you seek – namely, what you've never seen befores surrounded by a Witching Forest. That lesson seems quite obvious, but back in And the time of 1885 Allen Forrester is a little too naïve to heed itvillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. A career soldier, he is tasked with scouring the potential The black wood of the Wolverine River that threads south to the shores of Alaskaforest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even though the Russians (who gallows, if needed. The fear of course used to own being buried alive is an existential superstition in the Territory) have had all manner of lethal encounters with those already living there, village and even though a major stretch of that is the river has to be traversed in winter when entirely frozen overreason Volushka, as the cliffs either side are too impenetrable. Allen leaves a much youngerdrunken, new bride behind – and right from the getself-go his journals force him to pen words about strange happeningsindulgent, strange encounters and things lazy lout of legend coming to lifea man is tolerated. Like I say, what he's never seen before…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472208609</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gerald WeaverB0BYF82CXT|title=The First First GentlemanSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 3.54|genre= General Fiction|summary=Anyone picking up ''The First First Gentleman'' might be forgiven for snorting with laughter Bill and making Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a sarcastic comment about how timely depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and potentially satirical life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it sounds. In a way they’d be right – but probably seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for different reasonstragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993291759</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Liam BrownShalini Boland|title=Wild LifeThe Silent Bride|rating=4.53

|summary=Adam Britman goes from Alice and Seth are a man with it all to homeless match made in the sniff of a lineheaven. While looking He is everything she has been searching for somewhere to sleep Adam comes across an alternative community ; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the local parkinevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. They've come together When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and created structure (including an unofficial allotment) out of excitement as she surveys the disorder thatcongregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's normally equated with living on world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the streets. It seems perfect so Adam joins themaltar is, but perfection can sometimes be an illusion. As who is waiting for walking away… that's not going her to be easybecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079700</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sabine Durrant1787636003|title= Lie with MeThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary= Paul is lots of things. A writer. A famous name (or at least he It was a few years ago)the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. A bit of a snob. A cheapskate. A ladies Rachel wasn' man. And a liar. Oh boyt exactly innocent but she was, is he a liar. He fibsperhaps, he exaggeratesnaive, he omitsso when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, he tells porkiesshe was flattered rather than wary. Not about the really big stuff, nothing that will hurt anyone, just It was quite a few mistruths while before he made any sort of physical approach to see her and by that time she was obsessed by him through. It's Alistair worked for keeping up appearancesHenry Taylor, reallylooking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473608333</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andy JonesAmanda Craig|title=The Trouble with Henry and ZoeThree Graces|rating=34.5

|summary= Stop for a moment and look down at your belly, in Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the centre you should have -nation novel. There's something that looks a little bit like a button. It may be an innieso utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, or crafting an outie, but just consider image of the country as it for a few momentsstands in one particular moment. Do you feel better? Nope, you shouldn't do as all To say that navel-gazing does Amanda Craig is make you over think thingsskilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. However, without She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the concept lives of her characters in a million romantic books would way that feels natural and lived-in, never be written as without the human compulsion to destroy things around making themciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, how can any tension arise?grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471142469</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Carol Shields152915118X|title= The Republic of LovePineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= The Republic of Love ''Pineapple Street'' is a mesh-like novel, peopled with a huge cast the story of characters interwoven in familialthree women: Sasha, friendly, neighbourly Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and romantic relationshipsSasha is married to their brother Cord. Winnipeg They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the city in which virtually all the action in Shieldtribe. The problem's novel takes place, ties them together. The story follows two singleexacerbated when the clan matriarch, thirty-something charactersTilda, Fay asks Cord and Tom, who live opposite each other Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a complicated array of mutual acquaintances but donstreet or so away, which they own. They won't know each other. Shields alternates between their two points need any of view as they are slowly drawn together. This is a domestic novel in the best sense; there is a focus on the beauty furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and mundanity of ordinary people's unremarkable lives Cord can move straight in an unexceptional city. Nominally, from Faythey had a choice but that wasn's satisfaction in t the pop sound reality. Darley and toasted crumb smell of her twin slice toaster, Georgiana start to Tomcall Sasha 's ungainly Saturday morning jogs. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380899</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Penny Parkes|title= Out of Practice|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=In a last-ditch attempt to save her failing marriage, GP Holly Graham relocates to the charming village of Larkford with her family to work at the local practicegold digger'. She finds life as a village doctor very different to her previous role 's living in a busy city hospital, and falls in love with the close-knit community and its quirky residents''their'' family home. But just as Larkford is beginning to feel like home, Holly is hit by a bombshell They use it so often that threatens to destroy everything she has worked so hard to achieve. Can she rise they abbreviate it to 'the challenge and fight for what she loves? Maybe she will discover something about herself in the processGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471153045</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven RowleyEmily Critchley|title=Lily and the OctopusOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Meet Ted Flask. A middle-aged, gay Los Angelino, he 84 year old Edie has lived in the one love of same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his lifefamily, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. While However, Edie is tormented by the fall-out memory of relationships with men sends him to therapyher childhood friend, Lucy, he can rely on Lilywho went missing over 60 years ago, and the Dachshund. They've been together through thick and thin, ever since worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the little pup – thing that reveals the runt, no less – seemed to pick Ted outtruth of what happened all that time ago. TedAfter 's sisterseeing's unusual marriage Lucy in the high street, just as she was almost marred by Lily being under the surgeon's knifelast time she saw her, at great expense – but on the whole they have life sortedshe starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. He tries to writeAnd yet as she remembers the past, but Friday night she is board games, Saturday night is movie night, forgetting more and Sunday night is pizza nightmore in her day to day life. Oh, and yes, Lily talks to Ted, either in Will she uncover the truth about Lucy''FULLY! CAPITALISED! EVER! EXCLAMATORY! BARKS!'' or in regular speech. Ohs disappearance before her move, and yes, Lily has an octopus on before her head.memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471154343</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julie CohenMadelaine Lucas|title=FallingThirst for Salt

|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=Here is the story of three women''Love, from three generations within the same family. There is JoI'd read, was supposed to be a forty year old single mother whose first husband diedlight and weightless feeling, and whose second husband ran off with their nanny. She is left caring but I had always longed for her older teenage daughtergravity'' Told from a retrospective view, Lydia, and her two little ones, Oscar and Iris, whilst harbouring a secret young woman unravels the year-long relationship that she feels she cannot share once defined her. Overlaid with anyone. Her daughter Lydia is later wisdom, the second female character, and as well as narrator relives the usual teenage angst she is also dealing affair with grief, still, over a man twenty years her fathersenior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town 's death, anger with her mother 'Thirst for her second disastrous marriage, and her own very difficult secret that she is unable to talk to anyone about. Finally thereSalt's Honor who is Jo's mother in law, details the mother of Jo24-year-old narrator's first husbanddeepening relationship with her older lover, Stephen. Honor has a falldepicting its all-consuming nature, breaks how it changed her hip, perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and is forced to move in with Jo for a time as she has no one else who can help how it altered her. She too is hiding a secret from the world, and as you read the story you begin to wonder if any of these characters actually know who the others are, and if any of them will ever start telling the truthirrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784160636</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jenn Ashworth0008506337|title=FellThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=Now her parents have diedThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, Annette returns to sell her old childhood home but there's work to do apparently on the decrepit building firstboth sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. As she wanders around Richard was twenty-one and tries to make some order of the overgrown shambles, shedescribed by Margo's watched by the ghost of her mother, Netty; a spirit with regretsas 'an older man'. Netty reminisces about AnnetteHer parents worried that Richard's childhood influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the turning point their lives reached when event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the mysterious healer Timothy Richardson came Isle of Wight. Margo did go to stayOxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. It The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was a time that promised so much but one for which Netty now needs to make amendslived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, even if the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she is beyond the gravewould never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473630606</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jill Ciment1914585402|title= Act of God|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Act of God'' is a story about two ageing twins who find a worrying mushroom growing in their cupboard, a landlady searching for the spotlight and a Russian immigrant whose greatest fear Dashboard Elvis is insignificance. What the insurance company describes as an act of God brings their already overlapped, Brooklyn lives in to sharper focus. What do you do when disaster threatens? Is it survival of the fittest or should we love thy neighbour? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782272119</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewDead|author=Fredrik Backman|title=Britt-Marie Was HereDavid F Ross|rating=4.5

|summary= Brett-Marie has never met I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a kitchen she doesn't want to clean. In fact, permanently armed with bicarbonate couple of soda years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and window cleaner, she's always ready to clean anythingaffecting it was. Her husband Kent is an entrepreneurIt was a gripping, you knowemotionally wounding read, with excellent taste and expensive clothes. Yet here she is, in Borg, a rundown small town, in search rereading my review of her first job for 40 yearsit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it. Life takes some odd turns sometimes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473617200</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rodrigo Hasbun and Sophie Hughes (translator)Lucy Ashe|title=AffectionsClara and Olivia

|summary=If you thought your teenaged years were a struggle to work out the world, The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and yourselfOlivia are sisters, consider that of Heidi Ertltwins no less. Or either of her sisters – this book serves as a sort of tribute to these three real-life womenIdentical on the outside but not, we learn, and on the lives that came out of their very disjointed youthinside. And not on stage, forced to be rarefied from the norm by their family uprootingeither. Father Hans was one of Leni RiefenstahlBecause there's key cameramen, and a Nazi military photographerlot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, before taking the whole family into post-war exile in Bolivia. Their mother would have followed him attention to the ends of the earth detail – as in part would their daughtersand some things, the older two of which start the book by joining him on an expedition to discover a lost Incan city. Heidi finds youngthat ''je ne sais quoi'', instant love on that don't come from the trek – but sees the dark side of such emotions, tooclassroom. Older sister MonikaA stage presence, who might well be manic depressivea charm, finds something else, while the baby of the family stays at home with a maudlin mother''joie de vivre''. So much here could be the hook on which to hang The difference between a full novelhard-worker, but if anything it's the reaction of them all to this unusual formative journey that inspires this bookand a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782272135</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jemma WayneHeather Fawcett|title= Chains Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of SandFaeries|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= Chains of Sand Emily Wilde is a great read about familyan expert academic scholar on faerie lore, faithand she has travelled extensively, survivaland researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and lovespeaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. It follows So when she finds herself far, far North in the story of two young men: Udi a veteran small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the Israeli army who longs for a new future in Londonvillage matriarch, and Danielshe is not sure what she has done, a London banker unsatisfied with his life nor how to redeem herself and yearning put her final investigations for something more. The story focuses her book back on their desires to change their lives by moving to different worlds and how this impacts their relationships with friends and familythe right track. As the story unfolds Enter Wendell Bambleby, the two protagonists' histories are slowly uncovered her dashingly handsome and they both have to overcome the difficulties in their new lives in order to achieve their dreams. Meanwhileinsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, the fate of star-crossed love between a Jewish girl all charm and an Arabic man in Jerusalem a decade earlier intertwines with Danieldelight, much to Emily's life, complicating all that frustration. But why is he here? What does he thinks has become clear.want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079727</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Marie-Sabine Roger1398515388|title= Soft in The Boy and the HeadDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= This novel will make you smile. It's a feel-good storyFirst of all, it was the earthquake, unusual deep in its premise the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and originalthis, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. Germaine is a 45 year old man who is illiterateThe result was complete and utter devastation. He has a group of drinking friends who frequently make him the butt of their jokes, a mother who calls him a 'half-wit', amongst other thingsThe deaths were uncountable, and a girlfriend whom he appears afraid the loss of committing tolivelihoods was widespread. Germain spends The fact that many afternoons in pets were separated from their owners came far down the park, counting pigeons and writing his name among the dead list of priorities but - six months after the war memorialtsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. It is here He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he meets Margueritte, a tiny 85 year old woman who tells him she also counts would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the pigeonsdog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271589</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gregory MaguireChristopher Bowden|title= After AliceMr Magenta|rating= 4|genre= FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=When Alice fell down the rabbit hole, she found Wonderland as rife with inconsistent rule and abrasive egos as the world she left behind. But how did Victorian Oxford react to AliceChristopher Bowden's departure? When Alicelatest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's friend Adalife, mentioned briefly in ''Alice in Wonderland'' sets carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of indulgence to visit Alice, she arrives a minute too late. Tumbling down the rabbit hole herself, she embarks on young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an odyssey obligation to find Alice and bring her safely home from this surreal world below the worldit all out. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472230469</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Isabel AllendeJennifer Mason|title= The Japanese LoverPartitions of Unity|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= The Japanese Lover is an unassuming novel. The beginning leads the reader to anticipate an enjoyable light readHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, a good holiday book perhaps – a very well plotted story with an interesting cast of characters dominatrix and settings. Irenaunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], a Moldovan girl with elfin looks when she investigated and unravelled a passion for fantasy novels, starts working in bohemian care home Lark House in San Franciscoseries of disappearances. She meets the stately and somewhat aloof Alma Belasco, whose story starts to unravelIn ''Partitions of Unity'', beginning with she sets her being brought over from Poland (just as Jews became increasingly vulnerable mind to the Nazis) to her wealthy aunt and uncle in Cliff House, San Francisco, as solving a little girlmurder.. Allende almost makes us think that this opening tone, entertaining but fairly shallow, will continue for the rest of the novel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471152197</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Midge RaymondWill Carver|title= My Last ContinentThe Daves Next Door|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Only at the end of the world, among the glaciers and icebergs of Antarctica, do Deb and Keller feel at home. For Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a few blissful weeks each year they study the habits of penguins, finding solace in their work and in each otherLondon tube line. Yet Antarctica, like As their romancefates overlap, the story is imperilled by the world to the north. A new season has begun, 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 appeartold in backwards order, Deb has leading up to consider new feelings of love, loss, and a voyage deep into both the Antarctic, and the human heartfateful moment. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1501124706</amazonuk>1914585186}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Leah FlemingJennifer Mason|title=The Last PearlPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery

|summary=''I always thinkA struggling poetry zine, without a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the grit there would be no pearl. Sorrows have Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a way state-of strengthening -the heart-art S&M dungeon, never forget thata man serving a life sentence in Alabama, childan enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...''

Greta Costello lives This is just a sample of the cast of characters and settings in in poverty with her mother and siblings and must work as a skivvy to put bread on Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|isbn=B09STS96HS}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0B2N7MVYM|title=The Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's the table10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. She manages Just to find some joy put what happens in her work thoughcontext, especially the Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in her 'Sabbathpeople' job working for a kindly old widowed Jews minds. The two become friends and he offers world has barely had a chance to take her on as his apprenticebreathe out. But for Joe Marr, stringing pearls. Could this highly-skilled job be her key to a better life? At it's not the same time, many miles away in Scotland, Jem Baillie and his father canmissile crisis that't contain their delight when they discover a magnificent, flawless freshwater pearl s at the end front of a long day his mind. He's been convicted of fishingmurder. They call With the pearl current state of medical knowledge, it'Queenies hard to think otherwise than that the prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's Bench, a relatively new prison. He' and from that pivotal moments just getting used to his roommate, the fates of GretaMervyn, Jem and Queenie will learning to be inextricably linkedwary of the McArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471140970</amazonuk>