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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] <!-- Remove -->__NOTOC__<!-- Vaughan -->{{Frontpage[[image:Vaughan Scandal.jpg|leftauthor=Onyi Nwabineli|linktitle=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1471164993?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1471164993]]Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating===[[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan]]===4.5 [[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sophie had been married summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to James for twelve years and two children: to be honest she was more than a little bit in awe of him. James Whitehouse was an MP and junior minister: perhaps most importantly he was a friend of the prime ministerworld, so when he had thanks to admit that heher step-mother Ophelia'd been having an affair he was confident that some contrition, a public admission that he'd been wrong, that he was not perfect, would soon have his career back s increasingly popular presence on track. And it seemed as though that was the way it was goingsocial media, until a friend where she posted every step of the 'other womanAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, parliamentary researcher Olivia Lyttonbasically, persuaded her to go to the policemonetary gain. There was no dispute that the relationship had been consensual, but after James had finished the affair there was an incident Now Anuri is in a lift in House of Commons and the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted to rape. The prosecuting counsel is Kate Woodcroft her twenties and she's very determined that Whitehouse is going slowly trying to be brought regain her confidence and to book. [[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Dean -->[[image:Dean Dark.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178607253X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=178607253X]] ===[[Dark Pines by Will Dean]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Tuva Moodyson works for a local paper in small town Sweden get her life back, suing her step- there mother to be near an ailing Mother, but desperate for take down the big break that will have content about her moving on . Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to pastures new. Just outside of start her townPhD, Gavrik, two bodies lie deep in the forest - brutally murdered undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and their eyes ripped out. They bring back dark memories receiving money from them for a town that has seen this crime before - and Tuva is desperate to find the killerdoing so. At first Most importantly, sheis desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's just out to write a good story - but as the crimes continue online empire. Can she finds save her sister, and perhaps herself drawn deeper and deeper into the forests outside of Gavrik, filled her relationship with stranger characters and dark secrets. Will she find her father at the killer before they find hersame time? [[Dark Pines by Will Dean|Full Review]]<br>isbn=0861546873}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michelle de Kretser1529153298|title=The Life to ComeList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=35

|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She'The Life to Comes not what's worrying Miv' tells the story of several s family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'interestingdisappeared'doesn' characters who are all linked by one person: Pippat sound quite so frightening. The novel is split into five chapters with each one focusing on a different person, from Cassie and Miv's upset because she's overheard that her bizarre relationship with Ash father wants to George who has finished his thesis and is in move the process of writing his first novelfamily 'Down South'. Pippa When you're from Yorkshire, who Down South is also a writerfrightening, appears in each of these chaptersforeign place, in some cases just as a background characterbest avoided. However For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, what I found most fascinating about this novel was and she'll do anything to prevent that de Kretser tells the story of Pippa. She's life through all these various appearances and leaves not worried about the reader with a real sense of who she is as a person and having watched dangers or that her development as a characterMum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760296708</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 29/12 -->Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Servants of the UndergroundDiva|author=David SsembajjoDaisy Goodwin|rating=34.5

|summary=Having experienced a terrible famine We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in his own countryManhattan, Kalamchi leaves New York, in December 1923 and only moved to travel and learnAthens when she was thirteen. He returns with a burning desire to feed his people - Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but not only her father changed it to feed their stomachs but 'Callas' to feed their minds, toomake it more manageable in the States. Kalamchi wants to raise his people's consciousness When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that they can fight against she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the dictator Bamutu - chillingly known as ''president Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for life and after death''her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848765800</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|author=Rob MurphyAlexander McCall Smith|title=Rotten to the CoreThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers General Fiction|summary=It's 2009The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and Russia look like being awarded operating as an alternative to all the football World Cup hosting rights for the oh-so-distant 2018 tournament - that isonline apps in providing a more personal, until England stick their oar intailored service. They have solved their hooligan problem, Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and improved their transport systemlook after the business, and so at last are valid final holders. Watching this as Ness is France, who have planning to take a trip to Canada to reciprocate with the Russians who helped them get France '98, and they have away for a planwhile. At this stage the UEFA European championship Katie is coming out of 2016 has not been awardeda break up with a bad boyfriend, and while France remain favourites so jumps at the chance to come home to get the job, again some upstart idea has poked its head above the parapet - a joint offering Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Wales and Scotland. YesAlexander McCall Smith, these two tiny countriesbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, separated by 200 miles thanks to 44 Scotland Street and without a brilliant connection from one to the otherIsabel Dalhousie novels, and without but with some vital posh hotels here and there, and with no serious claim new characters who quickly begin to soccer fame when it comes to winning things, are unlikely hostscharm. But what if France could persuade the world it was Katie has no experience in running a good idea business, or in match- and let Russian espionage prove it not to be somaking, with all the while the French around to pick up the pieces? All of the UK would be damaged, meaning England '18 would be dead but Ness has full confidence in the waterher abilities, and Russia would win out. And whothere's to say the Britsalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, with their devolution habitsWilliam, and their first coalition government in to lend a long time, could not get through without damaging themselves?hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1546282998</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|author=Paul StidolphDean Koontz|title=Forests in the SaharaThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Thrillers Paranormal|summary=''Everyone I speak to thinks you are going to come to some sort of sticky endBenny is having a terrifically bad day.'' Those are not the most promising words a man can hear from He loses his job, he loses his new partnerfiancee, but she doesn't lie in this instanceand his house gets trashed. He is Jeffrey Harvey Oh, and someone has delivered a young Cambridge professorreally weird, who has been dabbling with some extradisturbing coffin-curricular worksized object to his home, creating GM trees and it's possible that can keep vast quantities of water purified. Get an iceberg whoever or three worth of H2O near Africawhatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, where clean water Benny is still a scarce resource, and the trees can do their bit and the water will advance the place and make Jeffrey very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a well-respected global entrepreneurnice person. A really nice person. If, So fortunately for Benny it turns out that is, he can get round all the problems in delivery to his life - fractions in the start-up involved in the projecthouse is a new friend, a finance officer embezzling the funds bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for gambling - oh, and being a man ready good person. Spike is going to accuse Jeffrey take care of murder Benny, and theft will certainly take care of research data on Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a case reaching back several years. It seems the lovely girlfriend was right to see no shortage of possible sticky ends..waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1546282351</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= John BanksKatherine Howe|title= WA True Account|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary=On the slopes of Mt Hood Hannah Masury is living in OregonBoston, having been sent to live with a family who run an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking explorationinn, and being made to work there from a young age. Josh Kinninger When she hears there is inspired by to be a hanging of some pirates in the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angrytown, unmoored she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and with his world horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in turmoila young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. Beginning She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a journey westward, heboy and joining the notorious Ned Low's filled with pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a desire to wreak vengeance mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the individuals he finds morally corruptocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0983333416</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ellen Wiles1471180158|title=The Invisible CrowdMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=This novel follows Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the plight subtlety of Eritrean Yonas Kelati as he tries to make a life for himself in Englandhalf brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He 's asthmatic and a good friendthe more you read, Gebre, escape from prison only the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to be thrown into captivity again: trafficked take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in a shellfish factory where they have the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to earn their ‘payment’ go to school. Missed shifts or the malicious Aziz for entering need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the UK illegallywrong. When Yonas escapes, the story really starts It was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008228817</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tony PeakeB0CKD1L5JL|title= North FacingRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=At school in Pretoria in 1962, Paul Harvey struggles to fit in - desperate to join the popular group no matter what it may takePetr is an orphan. His focus on surviving Rescued by the perils of school so intensestrange, reclusive Bear, that he fails to see the turbulence is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in both South Africa and the larger world - with the arrest forests of Nelson Mandela and the Cuban Missile Crisis affecting the actions of the adults around himWashington's Olympic Peninsula. A new After Bear dies and charismatic teacher decides to educate the boys a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the unstable situation in forest, broadcasting the world outside - and a growing awareness of both that strange, wild and his sexuality pushes Paul Harvey into decisions that rarely heard voices he later comes to regret - and their weight pushes him to return to South Africa in the present day - a man in his sixties keen to make sense of a troubled and utterly fascinating pastencounters. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0995590028</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Abi CurtisSarah Marsh|title= Water & GlassA Sign of Her Own|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= Something has happenedAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, something very nasty and on Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a submarine world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a pregnant elephant is one time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a handful of animals living below the wavesschool where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. We follow Nerissa Crane From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a vetsystem called Visible Speech. At the same time, as she remembers recent eventsBell is working on other inventions and ideas, looks after the animals and falls into Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a world complicated tangle of intrigueespionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0995465754</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Joe HillB0BC3YTCMR|title= Strange WeatherGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating= 4.5|genre= Horror General Fiction|summary= Strange Weather ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a collection of four short novels all linked byvery bright student, unsurprisinglya bit too nerdy if truth be told, strange and cataclysmic weathersuffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill It's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to the nexthis house and he raped her. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'' In shock, never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beautyshe even allowed him to give her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>147322117X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fiona Mitchell1472263936|title=The Maid's RoomFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=In some apartments It was in Singapore you'll find a bomb shelter - airless and without a window1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. It will probably house She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the washing machine family home and the other domestic paraphernalia thatrefused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's got nowhere else to goparents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. There'll Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be a mattress on the floor first of this stifling room, with the heat increased by the tumble dryerseveral annual visits. This is She grew to love her grandmother and the maidfamily's roommaid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. It's possibly better than sleeping under He was proud of his close connections to the dining room table, Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but not by muchsaw no reason to accommodate them. Back in 2009 there were 201,000 female domestic workers in Singapore, many not earning any money for a year until they've repaid 'trainingHis prejudices included Helena' s red hair and other fees to the agency, many living in 'the maidgreen eyes - inherited from her father's room'Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473659566</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=Scoop 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 Yearshrouded 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=Tom ClaverWilliam Frank

|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=Martin The village is an ambitious journalist working on isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the Financial Reviewvillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. Martin is good at his job - accurateThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, dedicatedroofs on homes, hardworking and with a good nose for a scoopeven gallows, if needed. But Martin The fear of being buried alive is also uninterested an existential superstition in the culture village and that comes with reporting. He has a wife and two daughters at home and he doesn't want to waste time and money in is the pubreason Volushka, talking macho nonsense with the other hacks. He is a far cry from his colleague Tom de Lacydrunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a charismatic, silver-spooned charmer with piercing blue eyes. Tom doesn't just grab the limelight though - he also grabs the promotion to industrial correspondent. And that man is the job Martin not only wanted, but neededtolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1788036220</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0BYF82CXT|title=Semi-Detached|author=Alexander McCall SmithDeborah Stone|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a 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 life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.''}}{{Frontpage|author=Shalini Boland|title=The Good Pilot Peter WoodhouseSilent Bride|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; 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 inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is 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 approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|isbn=1662507089}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=If youIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn've never read an Alexander McCall Smith novelt exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, but have always thought you might like so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to trytake an interest in her, one day then this might be the book she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to start withher and by that time she was obsessed by him. Rather than face Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the daunting task girls either worked or partied.}}{{Frontpage|author=Amanda Craig|title=Three Graces|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of leaping into one contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of his now very long-running series, this is a standalone the-nation novel, and it gives a good flavour of AMS. There's style, something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the way he can write to evoke a feeling atmosphere of time the day and placecapture it, and crafting an image of the warm optimism underlying his words country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is so very reassuring and comforting to read. It calls itself skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she'a wartime romance', which it is, and yet it is much more than that besides. Focussing mainly on Val, a young woman working as a Land Girl, we see her falling in love s practically synonymous with an American pilot, Mike Rogersthe genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. Thanks to She has such a sheepdog on Val's farm (gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the Peter Woodhouse from day into the title) their lives become entwined with that of her characters in a German soldierway that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, and the book shows us a variety of friendships as they grow and develop over the yearsgrappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846974097</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Krysten Ritter152915118X|title= BonfirePineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartmentthree women: Sasha, Darley and her pick of meaningless one-night standsGeorgiana.But when a new case takes her back home Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to Barrens, Indianatheir brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the life Abby painstakingly created begins to cracktribe. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town The problem's most high-profile company exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and economic heart, Abby begins Sasha if they'd like to find strange connections move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to Barrensanother property, a street or so away, which they own. They won' biggest scandal t need any of the furniture from more than a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell Pineapple Street, so Sasha and her closest friends--just before Kaycee disappeared for goodCord can move straight in.Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the unanswered questionsreality. But as she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface Darley and she begins Georgiana start to doubt her own observationscall Sasha 'the gold digger'. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret--a ritual called She's living in ''The Game,their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it will threaten to 'the reputations, and lives, of the community and risk exposing a darkness that may consume herGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524759848</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Alice HoffmanEmily Critchley|title= The Rules One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of Magicmemories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|isbn=1804181250}}{{Frontpage|author=Madelaine Lucas|title=Thirst for Salt|rating= 5|genre= General Literary Fiction |summary= ''Love, I've d read several of Alice Hoffman, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''s novels Told from a retrospective view, although strangelya young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, not the one shenarrator 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 backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''s most famous Thirst for Salt''Practical Magicdetails the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008506337|title=The Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, which went apparently on to be made into a filmboth sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'The Rules of Magican older man'. Her parents worried that Richard' is the longs influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve -awaited prequel going to that bookOxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and tells Richard took her away from the story Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three siblings of the Owens family; Frannychildren: Rachel, Jet Imogen and VincentSasha. The two sisters, Franny Life was lived in London and Jetholidays were spent at Sandcove, go the family home on to become the two aunts in Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo'Practical Magics mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge'' story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471157679</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stephen Fry1914585402|title= Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient GreeceDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 4.5|genre= ReferenceGeneral Fiction|summary= The Greek Myths are, arguably, the greatest stories ever told. So old and influential they cast I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a shadow over western tales couple of years back and traditions, yet remain relatable remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and readable millennia lateraffecting it was. Here comedian, actorIt was a gripping, television presenteremotionally wounding read, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent to these special stories and recreates them with a wit, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving the honour and respect rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that such ancient and influential stories deserveI might not have lavished enough praise on it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718188721</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lorenzo Marone and Shaun Whiteside (Translator)Lucy Ashe|title=The Temptation to Be HappyClara and Olivia

|summary=Cesare The year is 771933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, widowedtwins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, generally ignored by the offspring he likes and bothered too much by on the one he doesn'tinside. StillAnd not on stage, he finds ways to fill his dayseither. If heBecause there's not taking advantage of his friend-with-benefits arrangement with aging lady of the night Rossanaa lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, or keeping an eye on his grandsonthat ''je ne sais quoi'', hethat don's making mischief in league with elderly neighbours like Signora Vitaliano (local mad cat woman) and Marino (t come from the non-IT-literate computer guy)classroom. Their minds are diverted from their usual pursuits when A stage presence, a charm, a young couple move into the apartment block providing Cesare with ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a concern hard-worker, and the conviction that he has to do something, whatever the fall out or personal dangera star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786072882</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lars Mytting Heather Fawcett|title=Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and Paul Russell Grant (Translator)researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. 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 village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|isbn=0356519120}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1398515388|title=The Sixteen Trees of Boy and the SommeDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=While his grandfather lived First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the past nuclear meltdown. The result was an area of certainty for Edvardcomplete and utter devastation. At aged 4 he'd been taken to live with his grandparentsThe deaths were uncountable, having survived and the accident that killed his parentsloss of livelihoods was widespread. Now his grandfather has died revelations are coming to light showing Edvard his family history is different The fact that many pets were separated from what he'd believed… his mother's birthplace, his mother's name, their owners came far down the whereabouts list of late Greatpriorities but -Uncle Einar… and that's without looking more deeply into six months after the fatal accident itselftsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. Edvard is determined to solve He wasn't a dog person but the puzzle, a determination convenience store owner's comment that will take him away from he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his native Norway to an area of France synonymous with devastation car door and a remote Scottish island loaded with secretsTamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857056069</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louis de BernieresChristopher Bowden|title=Blue DogMr Magenta

|summary=MickChristopher Bowden's mother had latest novel is a patient untangling of a mental breakdown after his fatherseemingly ordinary woman's death life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and Mick was sent a little bit of indulgence to live in in the outback with Granpa. On the face of it you'd think a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it was going seems to be a lonely life for him an eleven-year-old city boy, with no school obligation to attend, in fact no other children anywhere near. Granpa's busy too: life on a cattle station is brutal for anyone, with all the heat and the dust. But they've find it all got to make the best of the situationout.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784704172</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sarah WinmanJennifer Mason|title=Tin ManPartitions of Unity|rating=54

|summary=Ellis is Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a tin man – someone who practices the under-esteemed art series of panel beatingdisappearances. He can remove a dintIn ''Partitions of Unity'', dent or blemish by expertly applying force so that you can't even feel where the mark was. If he has she sets her mind to choose what would define his life, though, it wouldn’t be his jobsolving a murder. It would be Michael and Annie. Michael, the lad he grew up with and Annie who completed their triangle, changing 'everything and nothing'. Now only Ellis remains…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755390954</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Durian Sukegawa and Alison Watts (translator)Will Carver|title= Sweet Bean PasteThe Daves Next Door|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Sweet Bean Paste'' centres Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on Sentaro, an ex-con who dreams of being a writerLondon tube line. As their fates overlap, but instead spends his days making dorayakithe story is told in backwards order, a type of Japanese pancakeleading up to the fateful moment. He reluctantly employs Tokue|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, an elderly lady with disfigured handsa mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, after tasting her divine bean paste a 400- meter hurdler who just missed the perfect filling 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for said dorayaki. Predictablybullwhips, a friendship soon blossoms between billionaire with a state-of-the pair-art S&M dungeon, despite her age and appearance. In many ways, this could sound cliché - a protagonist learns man serving a valuable lesson about not judging someone by their appearance after finding life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a friend in someone they never expected to likecheap oil painting, not exactly an unheard-erotic art dealer in Georgia...'' This is just a sample of the cast of conceptcharacters and settings in Preposterous. YetAs you can see, Sukegawa still manages to enthral his audiencesome keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786071959</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreview <!-- remove 11 Oct -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Terence J FryB0B2N7MVYM|title=The Creative Writer for the Creative NewspaperCalculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=1.5

|summary=The man we shall come to know as The Creative Writer was looking out of It's the window 10th of his office December 1962 when he spotted a beautiful woman struggling we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to stay upright put what happens in context, the tornado which was rattling the windows ferociouslyCuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people's minds. The world has barely had a chance to breathe out. Then he realised that But for Joe Marr, it wasn't just s not the dreadful weather which was affecting her: missile crisis that's at the woman was doubled up in pain and he could see bloodfront of his mind. He's been convicted of murder. AmazinglyWith the current state of medical knowledge, no one was stopping it's hard to help her, worried, he think otherwise than that the prosecution would find out later thatnever have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's Bench, they might be sued if something went wronga relatively new prison. The Creative Writer had no such worries - he dashed out into the tornado He's just getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and brought her back into learning to be wary of the house, shouting at his grandmother that she should call an ambulanceMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524682136</amazonuk>