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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sheena KalayilOnyi Nwabineli|title=The Bureau of Second ChancesAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Recently widowedAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, with a grownthanks to her step-up daughter forging 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 her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her own life abroadback, Londonsuing her step-based optometrist Thomas Imbalil takes early retirement mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and returns to his native Indiasecretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. After a short period enjoying Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the peace new focus of his house overlooking Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the Arabian Seasame 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, he agrees they've been murdered, but to commute have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the city for family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a few months frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to look after Chackoprevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's Optical Store stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to help out an old friendGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only 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. Thomas soon discovers When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the eager young assistant Rani Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is running another 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 on the side, but he agrees as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to turn get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a blind eye bad boyfriend, and leave it so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to his friend an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to deal 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with on his returnsome new characters who quickly begin to charm. However Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, it stirs up thoughts and doubts within Thomas and before long hethere's involved whether he wants always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be or not.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973929</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Simon EdgeDean Koontz|title= The Hopkins ConundrumBad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction Paranormal|summary= Tim Cleverley inherits Benny is having a failing pub in Walesterrifically bad day. He loses his job, which he plans loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to rescue by enlisting an American pulp novelist to concoct an entirely fabricated mystery about Gerard Manley Hopkinshis home, who composed 'and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The Wreck of thing is, Benny is the Deutschland'' nearbyvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. In Victorian England, Gerard Manley Hopkins lives He is a life full of confusion and contradiction, but discovers a calling nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for poetry Benny it turns out that threatens the delivery to overrule his calling house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to Godhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. And Spike is going to take care of Benny, speaking and will certainly take care of GodBenny's enemies, if he, Benny, Five nuns leave persecution to travel to and Harper (a new world – only to find themselves in more trouble that waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they could ever have imagined… are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785630334</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Benjamin LudwigKatherine Howe|title= The Original Ginny MoonA True Account|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= To GinnyHannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a child with autismfamily who run an inn, the word Forever means until the police comeand being made to work there from a young age. Five years ago When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the police forcibly removed her from the home of her abusive birth mothertown, Gloriashe decides to go and watch. Now fourteen, Enthralled and horrified in her fourth Forever Homeequal measure, Ginny remains hell-bent on finding her way back to GloriaHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's apartment. She has no illusions about her mother's addictions or lack death at the hands of parenting skillstwo vicious pirates. She knows hides away, so that it might be dangerous – that it might even they don't find and kill her. Still too, and then to escape them completely she plotsruns away to sea, obsessed with returning to Gloriadressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's to find something she insists she left behind, something she hid under her bedpirate ship as a cabin boy. Her teachers, therapist She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and new Forever Parents from there we are caught up in turn frustrated, infuriated, and perplexed. As Gloria returns to her rip roaring tale of life, on the reader follows Ginny on a journey filled with danger and discovery, in her quest to find a place she can truly call her Forever Homeocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848456611</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Harriet Cummings1471180158|title=We All Begin As StrangersMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=In the summer of 1984Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a Chilterns village was gripped man who's a control freak with fear and suspicion as a mysterious intruder known as ''The Fox'' broke into all the homes subtlety of several residents in the areaa half brick. Despite an increased police presence Jamie's son, regular patrols and vigilante groupsBo, this slippery character still managed to evade detection. A huge police 'has his problems'Foxhunt. He'' followed, s asthmatic and finallythe more you read, forensic evidence led to the eventual capture of more you'll suspect that he's on the perpetratorautistic spectrum. This real Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice -life news story sparked she's a frequent flier in the imagination of a young Harriet Cummings, who went 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 create a fictional version of events, which invites pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the reader wrong. It was going to come to turn detective and try and unmask ''The Fox'' from a range of possible suspectshead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409169049</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val HarrisB0CKD1L5JL|title=Hunting GroundRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=Nyara Camp Petr is one of an orphan. Rescued by the newest camps strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the Masai Mara and itforests of Washington's run by James and Alexia SackvilleOlympic Peninsula. The guests might sleep After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in tentshuman company, but it's still luxury accommodation in anybody's book. Chui Campand armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the other handforest, sticks with broadcasting the traditional way that safaris were runstrange, including bucket showerswild and rarely heard voices he encounters.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Owner Ralph Somerton is convinced that's what the guests ''should'' want and he won't listen to any Suddenly plunged into a world of his wife Tessa's suggestions for updating the tired venuesilence, everything about her life changes. It's beginning to be reflected Living in a time when the profits Chui makes, but instead use of upping his own game Somerton would rather see Nyara sign language was seen as unfair competition and it's something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a small step school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from that reasoning to looking at ways signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a 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 ensuring Nyara's failureespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955599717</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dominic SmithB0BC3YTCMR|title= The Last Painting of Sara de VosGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical General Fiction|summary= If you find the techniques used by Rembrandt and Vermeer fascinating, ''The Last Painting of Sara de VosThis story is not for everyone.'' provides a masterclass in how to work up a canvas in stages. Framing the novel as the story of a seventeenth century Dutch painting, Dominic Smith vividly sketches out the main contours of his characters and the  Lavender Daniels was three time periods they inhabit before we are even one fifth weeks short of the way throughher fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. Sara is one of the few women artists of the period and her painting is of children skating on She was a very bright student, a frozen canalbit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her now dead daughter its central figurein case it's contagious. The painting has been in Marty de Groot It's family since before Isaac Newton was born and he is the patent lawyer from whom it not easy being a black girl whose skin is stolen in 1950s Manhattan84% white. Ellie Shipley forged She had a copy of the painting in crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her postgraduate student years . Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and in 2000 finds herself Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at the centre of a gathering storm which threatens church: this was just an extension. She went to destroy his house and he raped her reputation as one of Sydney's foremost fine art academics. Satisfying though those first descriptions are In shock, we then understand these are merely the author's equivalent of the delicate chalk lines used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age she even allowed him to mark out the composition which will followgive her a lift home. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>192526680X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stewart O'Nan1472263936|title= Last Night at the LobsterThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary=The Red Lobster seafood restaurant chain is closing some of its poorly-performing branches just before ChristmasIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. Amid the Christmas lights She was alone: her mother, office parties and forced jollity Manny DeLeonGreek by birth, had left the manager of one of these failing outletsfamily home and refused to return, has to keep but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it all together for one last daywould be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Short Her trip to the family apartment in up-handed, with most market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the staff whofamily've bothered to turn up facing unemployments maid, Dina, he tries to make the best but was wary - and frightened - of a bad jobher grandfather, all retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the while knowing this will be the last day he'll spend with the waitress he shouldn't still be in love with, particularly not now heJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's about to be a dad. Oh, red hair and theregreen eyes - inherited from her father's a blizzard on the wayScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760293865</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Delia EphronDean Koontz|title=SiracusaAfter 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 shrouded bodies of his 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= Michael The village is isolated and Lizzie are a writer–journalist couple from New York City; Finn and Taylor live with their ten-year-old daughter, Snow, in Portland, Maine, where Finn (an old flame of Lizziepoor. It's) owns surrounded by a restaurantWitching Forest. After meeting up And the villagers subsist largely by chance 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 a trip to London last yearhomes, they decide to go away together for a proper holiday in Italyand even gallows, to the Sicilian island if needed. The fear of Siracusa via Rome. In alternating chapters, being buried alive is an existential superstition in the narrative moves fluidly between the perspectives of village and that is the four adultsreason Volushka, all of whom are reflecting – with the help of hindsight and therapy – on what ended up being a disastrous trip. Although we don't learn until very late on in the book exactly what went wrongdrunken, self-indulgent, there's lazy lout of a sense that it might be something to do with Snowman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786071541</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Caro FraserB0BYF82CXT|title= The Summer House PartySemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= In the gloriously hot summer of 1936''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a group depressing rut of people meet at a country house party. Within three yearsboredom and disappointment, England will be at warwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, but for now, time stands stillsuccessful and very much in love – move in next door. Dan Ranscombe is clever and good-lookingDespite their different outlooks on life, but he resents the wealth couples befriend each other and easy savoir-faire of fellow guest, Paul Latimerlife appears to improve for both pairs. Surely a shrewd girl like Meg Slater would see through that, wouldn't she? And But all is not what about Diana, Paul's beautiful sisterit seems, Charles Asher, the Jewish outsider, Madeleine, restless and dissatisfied with her role as children's nanny? And artist Henry Haddon, their host, no longer young, but secure in his power as a practised seducerincreasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. As these guests gather, none has any inkling the choices they make will have fateful consequences, lasting through the war and beyond. Or that the first unforeseen event will be a shocking death… |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786691485</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna PitoniakShalini Boland|title=The FuturesSilent Bride|rating=43|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=When we first meet Evan Peck, he Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has just started at Yale Collegebeen searching for; handsome, where he plays ice hockey. Like lots of the other playersaccomplished, he is actually Canadianclever, from smallfunny; total and utter husband-town British Columbiamaterial. One night after She is all he could possibly want in a party Evan meets Julia Edwards at their dorm wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and they go out for pizzaset. She technically has a boyfriend from When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her Boston boarding school daysfather, but they soon break up beaming with pride and before long Julia excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and Evan have become inseparablewhen Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, as they will remain who is waiting for the rest of their college yearsher to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718184564</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lizzy Mumfrey1787636003|title=Fall OutThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=Charlton's It was the sort of village where people aspire to live, despite its apparent ordinariness. There's the usual mix of commuters (it's not ''too'' far from London) summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and those who make their lives in arrived on the villageisland. Richard Hughes is a commuterRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, but his wife Jessica works at the local academynaive, where both their children so when thirty- Alfie and Hannah four- are pupils. Pete Cole is a newlyyear-promoted police superintendent and clearly still fond of his voluptuous wifeold Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, Susieshe was flattered rather than wary. Actually, some It was quite a while before he made any sort of that voluptuousness might be better described as fat - Pete suspects that he might need longer arms physical approach to hug her before longand by that time she was obsessed by him. Less popular is Gary Webber. He's Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the sort of man who causes people to heave a sigh of relief when he joins someone else for a drink at bar where all the golf clubgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911079840</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Clare FisherAmanda Craig|title= All the Good ThingsThree Graces|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Nature, nurture, chance and circumstance; all combine to produce Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the story atmosphere of Bethany Mitchellthe day and capture it, a young adult who writes from her prison cellcrafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. We know only To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she has committed a 'bad thing', a bad thing that she sees as s practically synonymous with the end genre of her story. Armed with a simple task, Erika, a psychologist, sets out to challenge contemporary social fiction at thispoint. She asks Beth simply to compile has such a list gift for weaving the ongoing issues of all the good things day into the lives of her characters in her lifea way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>024127575X</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Robert Harris152915118X|title= ConclavePineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= It ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is hard married to believe that Harris has managed to bring such pace their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth 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 often lengthy Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and complex process of downsized to another property, a conclavestreet or so away, but he has wrung out every piece which they own. They won't need any of mystery the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the result had me reading through long into reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the nightgold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. I simply could not put this downThey use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784751839</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Suzanne LealEmily Critchley|title= The Teacher's SecretOne Puzzling Afternoon|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionCrime|summary= Terry 84 year old Edie has been teaching at lived in the 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 suburban Australian junior school for yearsfamily, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. Everyone knows him However, heck half Edie is tormented by the kids in his class have parents memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who were former pupils 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 hiswhat happened all that time ago. He After 's an institution. You know seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the sortlast time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And he does not take kindly to a new young upstart showing up yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and trying more in her day to meddleday life. He Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's not nasty about itdisappearance before her move, but it rubs him up the wrong way.and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079077</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Diney CosteloeMadelaine Lucas|title= The Married GirlsThirst for Salt|rating= 4.5|genre= Historical Literary Fiction|summary=Wynsdown''Love, 1949. In the small Somerset village of WynsdownI'd read, Charlotte Shepherd is happily married was supposed to farmer Billy. She arrived be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity'' Told from Germany on the Kindertransport as a child during retrospective view, a young woman unravels the war and now feels settled in year-long relationship that once defined her adopted home. MeanwhileOverlaid with later wisdom, the squire's fighter pilot son, Felix, has returned to narrator relives the village affair with a fiancée in tow. Daphne is beautiful, charming... and harbouring secrets. After meeting during man twenty years her senior from its inception – the war, Felix knows some of Daphne's past, but she has worked hard summer after finishing university – to conceal that which could unravel her carefully built lifeits sorrowful end the summer after. For Charlotte, too, a dangerous past is coming back in Set against the shape backdrop of fellow refugee, bad boy Harry Black. Forever bound by their childhoods, Charlotte will always care an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for him, but HarrySalt''s return disrupts details the village quiet and it24-year-old narrator's not long before gossip spreads. The war may have endeddeepening relationship with her older lover, but for these girlsdepicting its all-consuming nature, trouble is only just beginning..how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784976121</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= J S Rais-Daal0008506337|title= Purple FlameThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction |summary=Life hasnThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O't been easy for teenager Zach FordLeary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. He Margo was just lost his entire family to a freak car accident, sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and hedescribed by Margo's barely keeping himself togethermother as 'an older man'. Each day is more gruelling than Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. In the lastevent, but for Zach, it goes much deeper than the pressure of exams they eloped and Richard took her away from the threats Isle of bullies Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and teachers at schoolwent on to become a well-respected journalist. Zach has a secret power that many seek The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and a few would kill forSasha. He is possessed by a demon Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, but the demon has a purpose: revenge family home on the people responsible for Zach's painIsle of Wight. As it turns out, Even then the car accident that killed his family wasndoubts about Richard't so accidental. Every tragic thing thats drinking were never far from Margo's happened to Zach recently has been carefully orchestrated with one mistake — Zach was supposed to die in the accident, too. Since he didnmind: 't, he has become a target, but the demon inside won't let she would never be able to leave him go quietly. Zach will fight, even if his behaviour leaves him alone and struggling. Hein charge'll get his vengeance, but it soon becomes apparent this supernatural battle goes back a lot longer than Zach's lifetime. Something ancient now festers, and a final battle brews amidst Heaven and Hell Then Richard left them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524678872</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Justin Huggler1914585402|title=The Return HomeDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= The uniqueness of I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a boyhood spent growing up in Jersey is conveyed in some memorable imagery in this novel, intersecting the German wartime occupation couple of the island, the Afghan resistance to the Russians in the 1980s and present day conflict in Syria. Ben, now working internationally for a human rights advocacy organisation, flits years back and forth between reflections on his boyhood remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and his adult selfaffecting it was. He is both attempting to solve the mystery of what became of his uncle JackIt was a gripping, who had a brief but lasting impact on him as a childemotionally wounding read, and trying to decide how to save his disintegrating marriage. For the first few chapters rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I enjoyed these time shifts back and forth, advancing with Ben in understanding the meaning of events which as an eight year old he could only partly grasp. Ben also develops a deepening appreciation of the choices he has made in life, such as his choice of career, by examining the influences might not have lavished enough praise on his childhood selfit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722028</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anita ShreveLucy Ashe|title=The Stars are FireClara and Olivia

|summary=Meet GraceThe year is 1933. SheThe place? Sadler's not exactly trapped in a loveless marriageWells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, but something like ittwins no less. She has no real way away from Identical on the kitchen sinkoutside but not, we learn, and two very young children to care for while her husband is a civil engineeron the inside. Her mother-in-law hates herAnd not on stage, but she has either. Because there's a great relationship with lot that builds a girlfriend neighbour dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – except said friend Rosie has a wondrous love lifeand some things, while Gracethat ''je ne sais quoi's experience with sex is getting worse and worse. Things deteriorate when Grace's husband, Genethat don't come from the classroom. A stage presence, loses his mothera charm, and retreats from intimacy even furthera ''joie de vivre''. The small community around Grace – difference between a hard-worker, and an endless rain shower – are closing in around hera star. But what would happen to her and those she cares for if a real disaster were to occur?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408702983</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jill SantopoloHeather Fawcett|title= The Light We LostEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating= 3.54|genre= General Fiction|summary=11th September 2001. Lucy Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and Gabe meet in New York on a day that will change their lives – she has travelled extensively, and the world – forever. As the city burns behind themresearched meticulously, to write her life's work, they kiss for the very first timeencyclopaedia of faeries. Over Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the next thirteen years they are torn apartvillage matriarch, then brought back togethershe is not sure what she has done, time nor how to redeem herself and time againput her final investigations for her book back on the right track. It's a journey of dreams Enter Wendell Bambleby, of desiresher dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, of jealousy, of forgiveness – all charm and above alldelight, lovemuch to Emily's frustration. As Lucy But why is faced he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with a devastating choice, she wonders whether their love is a matter of destiny or chance.the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008224560</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Allie Rogers1398515388|title= Little GoldThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= The heat is oppressive and storms are brewing in Brighton First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the summer of 1982. Little Goldocean floor, a boyish girl on which created the brink of adolescencetsunami and this, in turn, is struggling with caused the reality of her broken family nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and a home descending into chaosutter devastation. Her only refuge is the tree at The deaths were uncountable, and the end loss of her garden. Into her fractured life steps elderly neighbour, Peggy Baxterlivelihoods was widespread. The connection between fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the two is instant, list of priorities but just when it seems that Little Gold has found solace, outsiders appear who seek to take advantage of her frail family in - six months after the worst way possibletsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. In an era when so much is hard to speak aloud, can Little Gold share enough of her life to avert disaster? And can Peggy Baxter, He wasn't a woman running out of time and with her own secrets to bear, recognise dog person but the danger before itconvenience store owner's too late?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787199959</amazonuk>comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Meg HowreyChristopher Bowden|title= The WanderersMr Magenta|rating= 34|genre= General Fiction |summary= Set in the near futureChristopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, NASA prepares to send three astronauts in to space to put the first humans on Marscarried out by her nephew after she has died. Helen Kane, Yoshi Tanaka, The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and Sergei Kuznetsov are the trio selected for the mission, but they must first prove themselves by spending seventeen months in a simulation little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that mirrors conditions on Mars. Each of the astronauts has their own reason for taking part in the mission nephew Stephen had ever realised and their relationships with their families will be put it seems to him an obligation to the ultimate test as they begin this journey of discovery and escapismfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471146650</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Lisa McInerneyJennifer Mason|title= Blood MiraclesPartitions of Unity|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Like all twenty-year-oldsHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, Ryan Cusack is trying to get his head around who he is. This is not a good time for his boss to exploit his dual heritage dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by opening Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a new black market route from Italy to Irelandseries of disappearances. It is certainly not a good time for his adored girlfriend to decide heIn 's irreparably corrupted. And he really wishes he hadn't accidentally caught the eye Partitions of an ornery grandmother who fancies herself his saviourUnity'', she sets her mind to solving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444798898</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Cat ClarkeWill Carver|title= GirlhoodThe Daves Next Door|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Girlhood'' focuses Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a group of friends; HarperLondon tube line. As their fates overlap, the story is told in backwards order, Rowanleading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, Lily a mom-and Ama-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who are fast approaching just missed the end 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of term at -the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an elite boarding school enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...'' This is just a sample of the middle cast of nowherecharacters and settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The arrival basic premise of Kirsty causes a seismic shift in this previously supportive friendship group and Harper soon finds herself caught between her old friends and the mysterious new girl who seems to have so much in common with hermystery story goes like this... But is Kirsty who she claims to be?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784292737</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Suellen DaintyB0B2N7MVYM|title= The Housekeeper|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Annie has broken the cardinal rule of never mixing business with pleasure, and so when the latter ends, she's left without the former, and in need of a new job. She never thought about being a housekeeper, but her OCD tendencies mixed with years Calculations of working in hospitality mean she's quite capable, especially when an opportunity arises with her girl crush, Emma Helmsley, one half of a well-known celeb couple on the London circuit. Nothing is ever as it seems, though, and Annie soon finds that behind those tall walls there is a family no less dysfunctional than anyone else's, despite their fame, fortune, and front page headlines.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1476771405</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewRational Men|author=Helen Phillips|title=The Beautiful BureaucratDaniel Godfrey|rating=4.5

|summary=Meet JosephineIt's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Married Just to Joseph Jonesput what happens in context, she has kept her maiden name to keep at least some character to her identitythe Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people's minds. As opposed The world has barely had a chance to her new boss, who has no gender, no face, and horrid halitosisbreathe out. The job Josephine is forced to choose is a simple oneBut for Joe Marr, of taking a fileit's paper contents, clicking up not the subject on a huge database, entering a date newly printed on missile crisis that's at the sheet, and repeatingfront of his mind. He's been convicted of murder. Told to obey strict secrecy rules, she starts to find unusual signs With the current state of malignance all over – a man in a grey sweatshirt following hermedical knowledge, post redirected when nobody knows where Josephine and Joseph are even living from one month it's hard to think otherwise than that the nextprosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's Bench, and a husband missing from the marital bed more and more often… relatively new prison. Is there a way for her find a spark of happiness in the humdrumHe's just getting used to his roommate, windowless cell she worksMervyn, and learning to be wary of the horrid housing that is all the couple can afford?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273328</amazonuk>McArthur brothers.