Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diney CosteloeOnyi Nwabineli|title=The New NeighboursAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5

|summary=Dartmouth Circle has always been Anuri spent her childhood on display to the epitome world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of British middle class proprietyAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Manicured lawns, well-kept house facades… All Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is where it should be slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is orderedbattling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, with the disrupting influence of the town's university students out of sight undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and out of mindreceiving money from them for doing so. ImagineMost importantly, thenshe is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the horror when the good citizens new focus of the Circle hear that one of their houses… THEIR houses… has been bought as student accommodationOphelia's online empire. Will it be Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the harbinger of doom they expectsame time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784972665</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1529153298|title=A Distant View The List of EverythingSuspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|summary=Ah, Isabel Dalhousie! It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? The more I read about Isabelmean, the more I like herhonestly... ) I could seeShe's not what's worrying Miv's family, in this book in particularthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, how annoying she could potentially be as a friendthey've been murdered, since but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she is forever gazing off into the distance, heading into 's overheard that her inner imaginings rather than staying focussed on father wants to move the conversationfamily 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, and yet I think she would be an interestingDown South is a frightening, and thought-provokingforeign place, sort of friend to havebest avoided. In thisFor Miv, the eleventh novel in the seriesmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, Isabel finds herself once more embroiled in someone elseand she's businessll do anything to prevent that. She, and her husband Jamie, are starting to be resigned to 's not worried about the fact dangers or that she just canher Mum't help but get involved! Mysteries abound, both in this business and in her own family life, as we watch her day s stopped talking - to day doings up in Edinburghanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408709392</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Margaret Forster1035906708|title= How to Measure a CowDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Seeking We tend to escape her pastthink of Maria Callas as Greek, Tara has left London, resettling way up north but she was born to Greek parents in Cumbria where no-one knows her. She quickly settles into an anonymousManhattan, unexciting lifeNew York, observed in December 1923 and only by Nancy, moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her elderly neighbour who begins father changed it to 'Callas' to develop an odd obsession with hermake it more manageable in the States. Meanwhile, When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her three childhood friends are baffled voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her disappearance, and resolve to get back in touch with made no secret of her preference for herelder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784702307</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven AnthonyAlexander McCall Smith|title=Isaac Montgomery for the Love of BethThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5

|summary=There are words The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to describe the Isaac Montgomery we meet at all the beginning of the story. Unfortunately they're not words you usually use online apps in polite company. He'd worked for many years in stockbroking and had made providing a substantial fortune, but his life was devoid of much in the way of more personal relationships. When he required a woman as an escort, he paidtailored service. He assumed that Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if he was having she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a good time, then she were too - if he even bothered trip to Canada to think about itget away for a while. He had Katie is coming out of a break up with a friend whom he didn't see all that often bad boyfriend, and it was when he thought about Phil that a little ''jealousy'' crept into Isaac's heartso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. You seeAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, Phil was engaged thanks to Penelope 44 Scotland Street and they were obviously happythe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Isaac began to wonder what love was Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match- making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and how you went about finding someone there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to share your life with.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>152466815X</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kate BeaufoyDean Koontz|title= The Gingerbread HouseBad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary=''The Gingerbread House'' Benny is not having a cottage from terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a fairytale where a wicked old witch lives but really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it 's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is in a wonderful rural setting, perfect for getting away from it Benny is the very last person to deserve allthis bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. Or So fortunately for Benny it would be, if it weren't for turns out that the lady who lives there whodelivery to his house is a new friend, while far from a witchbad weather friend called Spike, can be who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a bit good person. Spike is going to take care of a b*tch. It's not entirely her fault. Eleanor has dementia and her fading mind makes her confusedBenny, angry and quite hard work to will certainly take care for. With her current carer off to attend her daughterof Benny's weddingenemies, Eleanorif he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's daughter in law Tess steps up to assume this role in the interim, bringing her precocious daughter Katia with herwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785300865</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pam JenoffKatherine Howe|title=The Orphan's TaleA True Account

|summary=Herr Neuroff's circus has Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a secret: as well as young age. When she hears there is to be a much needed wartime source hanging of entertainmentsome pirates in the town, it's also refuge she decides to Jews escaping uncertain concentration camp fatesgo and watch. One such person, Astrid, a trapeze Enthralled and high wire artisthorrified in equal measure, lives Hannah finds herself embroiled in a precarious life in which her possible discovery would be more dangerous than her nightly actyoung boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. Shehides away, so that they don's an expert who has perfected t find and kill her art over time too, and therefore resents Neuroff demanding then to escape them completely she teach Noaruns away to sea, dressing as a non-circus family new comer, quickly. Thereboy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a reason behind the circus owner's demand thoughcabin boy. Noa arrives at She soon finds herself in the circus endangered by an act thick of kindness: things when there is a Jewish baby she stole mutiny on board, and from a Nazi train before leaving the Netherlands. It was a spur there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the moment decision that will bind her to Astrid and their future, no matter how long… or short… a time that may beocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848455364</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more 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 frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CKD1L5JL|title=Radio Free Olympia|author=Otto de Kat Jeffrey Dunn|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, broadcasting the strange, wild and Laura Watkinson (translator)rarely heard voices he encounters.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=The Longest NightA Sign of Her Own

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Emma After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a philosophy – system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=1035401614}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR|title=Good Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''This story is not for everyone.''let the dead rest Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and love the livingsuffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. The problem with that, as She had a 96crush on seventeen-year-old, is that there are too few living left, Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and so while the love remains Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she will go through gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his house and he raped her memories. In shock, taking she even allowed him to give her a woozy, diaphanous path through all the major events of lift home.}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her lifefirst trip to Greece. Starting in wartime Berlin with one husbandShe was alone: her mother, who gets snatched from her at workGreek by birth, fleeing to another place had left the family home and refused to wait for peacereturn, but Mary and wait for him 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 the family apartment in vain, moving up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to Holland love her grandmother and finding new lovethe family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and so on – this wispy journey will show all the impacts frightened - of warher grandfather, from rationing right up retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to exile, death the Junta and survivalexpected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. The memories are coming strongly here His prejudices included Helena's red hair and now, as Emma is waiting for at least one of green eyes - inherited from her two sons to visit, and then she will die…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857056085</amazonuk>father's Scottish ancestors.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Irvine WelshDean Koontz|title= The Blade ArtistAfter Death|rating= 53|genre= Crime General Fiction|summary=SoMichael 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. In the interest of honest disclosure I should tell you Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that I love Irvine Welsh's work something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and I must confess to a particularly gruesome fancy for Begbie, looks around at the notoriously violent, terrifying protector/tormentor shrouded bodies of the Trainspotting ganghis dead friends and former colleagues. Whilst this means you are unlikely to receive an unbiased review As he recovers his senses, it does mean you will get a passionate onehe realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. It is fair to say that I loved ''The Blade ArtistEverything'' and my only critique would be that it was over too quickly. For those of you who may not be familiar with Welsh Michael isn's earlier manifestations have no fear, you can pick up t ''The Blade ArtistMichael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and be transfixed poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by Jim Francisfarming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, artistroofs on homes, fatherand even gallows, husband and elegant thugif needed. For those The fear of you with previous knowledge of Francis Begbie you'll be instantly drawn back into being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the world reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man previously defined by petty vengeance, violence and bloodis tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470055X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda RobertsB0BYF82CXT|title=The Roots of the TreeSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|summary=The strength of a tree comes not from what you can see, not from the trunk, the branches and the leaves, but from what you can't see - the roots. Disturbance to the roots can be devastating. It's similar Bill and Amanda are living in human beings. Annie had lived for 63 yearsa semi-detached house, secure stuck in the love a depressing rut of her parentsboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, Elsie successful and Frank. She'd looked after them very much in her home love – move in next door. Despite their final years different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and it was quite by chance that she came across their wedding certificate when she was sorting out their effectslife appears to improve for both pairs. They had But all is not been married until ''after'' her birthwhat it seems, but her birth certificate showed Frank as her father and that her mother was married to himtheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. Something didn't add up and there was one inescapable conclusion: the man she'd loved as her father all those years ''wasn't'' her father after all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909716863</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeroen Blokhuis and Asja Novak (translator)Shalini Boland|title=The Yellow HouseSilent Bride

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=If you were the needy kind, would you really join in the drumming-out of town of two people accused of murder purely because of their nationality? Would you get a feeling of belonging just because you were there when someone carried Alice and Seth are a dead dog down off a mountain? The main character match made in this novel doesheaven. But he He is everything she has something that will really get him notedbeen searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, well-thoughtfunny; total and utter husband-of, includedmaterial. He has come to She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the south of France to set up an artists' collective, where he can live inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and work alongside his counterparts, who can inspire each other the wedding is planned and best each other to create wonderful artset. In fact a When the much-respected guest anticipated day arrives, Alice is on walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his way nowapproaching bride, so surely he can find kinship? The guestAlice's name world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, after all, Gauguinwho is waiting for her to become his wife. |isbn=1662507089}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The main character is, Girls of course, Vincent van Gogh…Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|amazonuksummary=<amazonuk>1907320563</amazonuk>It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)Amanda Craig|title=Retribution RoadThree Graces

|genre=Historical General Fiction |summary=Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There''Sergeant Bowman wasn't just a hard man, he was s something else: a dangerous man.'' If, indeed, there was someone so utterly compelling about any writer who was ideal for a suicide mission, it was him. Working as a soldier for can catch hold of the East India Company in atmosphere of the ruralday and capture it, remote, outlaw hotbeds crafting an image of Asia the country as it stands in the 1850s, heone particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's tasked practically synonymous with taking a boat the genre of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan Mincontemporary social fiction at this point. It doesn't go well – to start with, he's supposed to run She has such a gift for weaving the rule over ruffians saved from ongoing issues of the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having day into the knowledge lives of the mission he needs firsther characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, only never making them ciphers for all hell to break loose. But get back he doessocial commentary but instead fully realised people, only to find that while his nightmares about what really happened are met grappling with equally dark goings-on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Down152915118X|title=Our Magic HourPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=There had always been Katy''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Audrey Darley and Georgiana. Darley and AdamGeorge are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They've been friends since school and nowre Stocktons, along with Audreyonly Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's partner Nickexacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they remain inseparable as young professionals'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. ThenTilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, one daya street or so away, Katy kills herselfwhich they own. No warningThey won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, no reason just no Katyso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. The four are suddenly three trying to make sense of Nominally, they had a moment choice but that leaves wasn't the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so many questions in a world often that refuses to pause while they figure abbreviate it outto 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1925240835</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ayobami AdebayoEmily Critchley|title= Stay With Me|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary= I have a ''thing'' about blurbs which give away far too much of the stories. Not this time. This time…''There are things even love can't do…if the burden is too much and stays too long even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking, and sometimes does break.'' ''But even when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love…'' That is the most heart-breakingly beautiful truth I've read in a long time – and it sums up this story. This is a story about love not being enough…but still being love. I hope this becomes a classic, not just in its native Nigeria but around the world. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782119469</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Elan Mastai|title= All Our Wrong Todays|rating=3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Welcome to 2016, but not as we know it. This version of 2016 was like a picture-perfect scene from a science-fiction movie: a world free from war and poverty, with hover cars, space-tourism, food replicators, shiny buildings and AI that catered to every whim. This was the resplendent 2016 we were supposed to have, thanks to the invention in 1965 of the Goettreider Engine, which created a sustainable form of energy that transformed the planet. With all of the major problems in the world gone, humans were free to dedicate their time to the pursuit of science and entertainment, culminating in what could be the most exciting development yet: a time machine. But of course, this perfect future would be completely derailed if, say, someone went back in time and messed up Goettreider's experiment. Maybe the result would be a world similar to the one we live in now: the world we were never meant to have.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184076</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Samanta Schweblin and Megan McDowell (translator)|title=Fever DreamOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=Literary FictionCrime|summary=Meet Carla. She's a glamorous older woman, with poise and beauty, and someone who still looks a treat 84 year old Edie has lived in a golden bikini. But insidethe same small town for almost her whole life, but now she's different. The biggest issue she seems is facing a move as her son wants to move to bear relates another house and bring Edie to an event a few years agolive with his family, when as Edie is starting to lose her horse breeder husband had memory. However, Edie is tormented by the drama memory of both a hiredher childhood friend, Lucy, valuable stallionwho went missing over 60 years ago, and their son, being poisoned. Away from the right medical treatment, Carla took David to worry that there was a woman who said secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the only hope was a 'migration' – basically, to farm out part truth of Davidwhat happened all that time ago. After 's spirit and swap it with someone elseseeing's, to dilute Lucy in the toxin. This was a successhigh street, just as David seems to have survived, although Carla is sure it she was the wrong decision – last time she now sees David as at least part monster. But another odd thing about this tale is that it isn't being narrated by Carlasaw her, but by she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her neighbour, another mother called Amanda, who is renting a holiday home nearby. And yet as she remembers the further odd thing past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to whom day life. Will she is narrating this story – ituncover the truth about Lucy's to David…disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786070901</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Heather O'NeillMadelaine Lucas|title= The Lonely Hearts Hotel|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction |summary=Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1914. Pierrot is a piano prodigy, and Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary show the world has ever seen. Seperated as teenagers and sent off to work during the Great Depression, both descend into the city's underworld - dabbling in sex, drugs, and theft. Will Rose and Pierrot ever reunite? And if they do - what lengths will they go to to make their dream come true? One thing's for sure - neither they nor the theatre nor the underworld will ever look the same...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849163359</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Min Jin Lee|title= Pachinko|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= I have often said that much of what I know of the world, its geography, history and politics, I have learned from reading story books. Because I learn this way, I do wonder about people who profess not to read fiction. I wonder how much of the truth of how the world really is passes them by as a result. In the light of 2016 in the UK and the USA, I wonder if this is a concern to be added to all of the others about cuts to arts funding and arts learning and the absolute necessity of having public libraries where children can start to choose Thirst for themselves at the earliest age, which stories to read, uncensored by the views of those who might think they know better. I say all this because Pachinko is yet one more of those books that did not just make me think differently about what I thought I knew, but actually opened up to me a world that I knew nothing about: the world of the ethnic Korean in Japan.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786691353</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Shanthi Sekaran|title=Lucky BoySalt

|summary=Solimar wants more from her life than her Mexican home can offer ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and now sheweightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''s 18 Told from a retrospective view, she can go find ita young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Her target is to get Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the USA, a target so blinding that she doesnbackdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''t realise what reaching out Thirst for it will cost. Meanwhile Kavya is living Salt'' details the American dream. She24-year-old narrator's rich in friendshipdeepening relationship with her older lover, familydepicting its all-consuming nature, a loving husband how it changed her perspective on both romantic and life prospects familial relationships and yet Kavya has a baby-shaped hole in how it altered her worldirrevocably. The problem is that there's only one baby for both of them… Lucky boy!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0735212279</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Tyler0008506337|title=Vinegar GirlThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45

|summary=Kate Battista is 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 an odd and not entirely satisfactory situationlove. At the age of Richard was twenty nine she finds herself working -one and described by Margo's mother as a teaching assistant 'an older man'and. Her parents worried that Richard'' running the home for s influence would take her scientist father (who is eccentric, away from what they felt she could achieve - going to say Oxford and having a glittering career. In the least) event, they eloped and Richard took her younger sister Bunny, who might be fifteen but is actually three going on thirtyaway from the Isle of Wight. Dr Battista has other problems - Margo did go to Oxford and when he has went on to become a problem he offloads them onto Kate (he's concerned that she hasn't yet done his taxes)well-respected journalist. This time thoughThe couple had three children: Rachel, it's seriousImogen and Sasha. PyotrLife was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, his brilliant young lab assistant, is in the USA family home on a visa and itthe Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's about to expire. If that happens Dr Battista is convinced that hemind: ''ll not she would never be able to complete his work and all that heleave him in charge''s done will be for nothing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099589877</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dawn O'Porter1914585402|title= The CowsDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Reading the blurb for this novel, the first novel for adults I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by author Dawn ODavid F Ross|There'Porter, I got very excited. It talks about the cow being s Only One Danny Garvey]] a piece of meat, born to breed, one couple of the herd, years back and compares this to women, saying remember being absolutely floored by how they don't have to fall into a stereotypepowerful and affecting it was. I expected It was a slightly subversive novel about feminism. What I found was an easy to gripping, emotionally wounding read, enjoyable romp through three modern women's livesand rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008126038</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanna TrollopeLucy Ashe|title=City of FriendsClara and Olivia|rating=4.5

|summary=It would be unkind and certainly unfair to say that it was Stacey GrantThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's mother who was the cause of Stacey losing her job: she might well have been Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the trigger outside but it was her managernot, we learn, Jeff Doddson the inside. And not on stage, who used her request to work flexibly as an excuse to make her redundanteither. There was Because there's a lot of that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, that ''supportje ne sais quoi'' for Stacey - , that don't come from the staff were as stunned as she wasclassroom. A stage presence, but in terms of the people she could rely ona charm, there were just a few. Her mother was out of the equation : it was her dementia which started the problem and her husband Steve was wrapped up in the fact that he'd just been promoted to board level in his job. There 'joie de vivre'were'' the girls: the four of them had met at University and Stacey, Melissa. The difference between a hard-worker, Beth and Gaby had been firm friends ever since. And there was Bruno the doga star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509823476</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Su BristowHeather Fawcett|title= SealskinEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating= 4|genre= Fantasy General Fiction|summary= Donald Emily Wilde is a young fishermanan expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, eking out a lonely living on the west coast very first encyclopaedia of Scotland. One night he witnesses something miraculous ..faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and makes a terrible mistakespeaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. His action changes lives - So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not only his ownsure what she has done, but those of his family nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the entire tightly knit community in which they liveright track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. Can But why is he ever atone for the wrong here? What does he has done, and can love grow when its foundation want? And what exactly is violencegoing on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910633607</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cath Weeks1398515388|title= BlindThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= American exFirst 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 -pat Twyla is ready to be six months after the perfect mothertsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. She never dreamed her first child would be anything other than perfect himself, He wasn't a dog person but when hethe convenience store owner's born blind she is forced comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to re-evaluate her view of open his car door and Tamon the worlddog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349410631</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rick BassChristopher Bowden|title= For a Little WhileMr Magenta|rating= 4|genre= Short StoriesGeneral Fiction|summary=Christopher Bowden''For a Little While'' s latest novel is a collection patient untangling of twenty-five short stories from Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted with Bassa seemingly ordinary woman' work this new collection was a wonderful introduction to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situationss life, mysterious characters and magical experiencescarried out by her nephew after she has died. The characters in each tale are beautifully crafted aunt who always provided a safe harbour and the stories are dreamy, loose narratives covering everything from love a little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to death him an obligation to choices made and chances takenfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jem LesterJennifer Mason|title= Shtum.Partitions of Unity|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction|summary= Jonah Jewell is ten years old; he likes Marmite sandwichesHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, being outside dominatrix and sticking exactly to his routine. He cannot speak but he communicates his wants unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and needs clearlyunravelled a series of disappearances. The adults in his life do nothing but speak but they do not communicate nearly as effectively as Jonah. While functioning from the outsideIn ''Partitions of Unity'', this is the story of she sets her mind to solving a family falling and tearing each other apartmurder.. Ben Jewell needs to fight for his son and by doing so needs to learn how to fight for himself. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409162982</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Alice HoffmanWill Carver|title= FaithfulThe Daves Next Door|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= Growing up Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on Long Islanda London tube line. As their fates overlap, Shelby Richmond the story is an ordinary girl until one night an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate. Her best friend's future is destroyed told in an accidentbackwards order, while Shelby walks away with leading up to the burden of guiltfateful moment. What happens when |isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, a life is turned inside out? When love is something so distant it may as well be mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a star in 400-meter hurdler who just missed the sky? Moving from 2004 Olympics, a life in her parents basement to women's track coach with a life in New York Cityyen for bullwhips, Shelby remains damaged by a billionaire with a state-of-the loss of her best friend-art S&M dungeon, stumbling through a man serving a life blindly and fighting desperately to become connected to anything at all. Butsentence in Alabama, as she growsan enigmatic signature, she discovers emotionK(s, survival and happinessx), bundled up with dogson a cheap oil painting, food, books and men shean erotic art dealer in Georgia...''s probably best avoiding… Deep in New York City she find  This is just a circle sample of the cast of lost characters and found soulssettings in Preposterous. As you can see, and the angel who's been watching over her since that fateful night all those years ago…some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471157717</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tim PearsB0B2N7MVYM|title= The HorsemanCalculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary= The Horseman feels like a novel written much earlier than 2016. This is in large part because it is set in 1911 in rural Somerset but also because Pears writes in a style which is reminiscent It's the 10th of authors in the twentieth century, if not the nineteenthDecember 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Readers who are hoping for action, pace and suspense will be sorely disappointed Just to put what happens in The Horsemancontext, in which not a lot happens at all; the story could easily be condensed into a couple of pages. However, if you have a rainy weekend Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in a cosy cottage somewhere, Pears provides the perfect companion, giving readers an antidote to frenetic, twenty first century urban life. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1632866935</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Miguel Bonnefoy and Emily Boyce (translator)|title=Octaviopeople's Journey|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction |summary=Meet Octaviominds. He's a large lunk, a gentle giant, living alone in a lowly Venezuelan town – a town which once, fleetingly, The world has barely had fame, fashion and success through a minor miracle, but has none any longerchance to breathe out. OctavioBut for Joe Marr, it seems, has some unusual habits – here he is, marching off to 's not the chemistmissile crisis that's with a table across his back, for it was all the doctor had at the time to write a prescription onfront of his mind. He's been convicted of murder. Now we never learn exactly what With the cause current state of medical knowledge, it's hard to think otherwise than that the prescription was, prosecution would never have been brought but we soon find out what the cause of the table is – Octavio cannot read, and Joe Marr has learned nothing beyond cutting into spent his palm to allow the wound to let him escape the need to writefirst few days in HMP Queen's Bench, a relatively new prison. Until, that is, a woman seems to suggest a way for him to learn to read and write, and He's just getting used to love – but that experience also proves to Octavio that there is a whole host of other things he can put his mind toroommate, both for goodMervyn, and for bad…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477311</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Charlie Laidlaw|title= The Things We Learn When We're Dead|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary= On the way learning to a dinner party, Lorna Love steps into the path be wary of an oncoming car. Waking up in what appears to be a hospital, but a hospital in which wine is served for supper, everyone avoids her questions, and her nurse looks suspiciously like Sean Connery, it soon transpires that Lorna is in Heaven, or, at least, on HVN. Because HVN is a lost, dysfunctional spaceship, and God the aging hippy captainMcArthur brothers. At first Lorna can remember nothing, but as her memories return – some good, some bad, she realises that she has a decision to make, and that maybe, she needs to find a way home…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786150352</amazonuk>