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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove --><!-- Bala -->{{Frontpage*[[image:Bala_Boat.jpg|leftauthor=Onyi Nwabineli|linktitle=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0385542291/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating===[[The Boat People by Sharon Bala]]===4.5[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Among summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the 500 Sri Lankans in a rickety boat making its way world, thanks to Vancouver Island are Mahindan and his sixher step-year-old son Sellian. When the boat arrives the Canadian authorities take all the passengers into custodymother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, placing the women where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and children in a separate facility from the men, basically, monetary gain. A gruelling series of hearings will decide on the fate of each individual or family: whether they will be allowed to stay Now Anuri is in Canada, or deported back her twenties and she is slowly trying to Sri Lanka. The government fears that up regain her confidence and to half of these asylumget her life back, suing her step-seekers may have links mother to take down the Tamil Tigerscontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, a terrorist groupfailing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so judges are instructed to have a firm hand. [[The Boat People by Sharon Bala Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|Full Review]]isbn=0861546873<br>}}{{Frontpage<!-- Kidd -->*[[image:Kidd_Hoarder.jpg|left|linkisbn=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1782118497?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1782118497]] 1529153298|title===[[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd]]=List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5 [[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Cathal Flood summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is an oldPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, belligerent manhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, living in a filthythough. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, crowded house but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that was once a her father wants to move the family home'Down South'. When Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic you're from Yorkshire, Down South is employed to look after a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the ancient Cathalmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, she assumes and she'll just be the next in a long line of short-term dogsbodies for the old mando anything to prevent that. Instead, Maud finds herself drawn into the mysteries concealed within Cathal She's once great house – and as Maud begins to clean and sort the rooms she uncovers secrets not worried about the old man dangers or that awaken longher Mum's stopped talking -hidden memories within Maud herselfto anyone. With the aid of her highly glamourous yet utterly agoraphobic landlady and a troop of holy ghosts, Maud must uncover the secrets at the heart of the house – and exactly why they were buried… [[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd|Full Review]]<br>}}{{Frontpage<!-- Makumbi -->|isbn=1035906708*[[image:Makumbu_Kintu.jpg|lefttitle=Diva|linkauthor=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1786073773?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1786073773]]Daisy Goodwin|rating===[[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg5|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek 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'Kintu'' opens with unbridled authority and mercilessnessto make it more manageable in the States. In just a few pages a man has been hunted down When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by an angry mob in Uganda. He is then brained with a concrete slab; his woman is left in widowhood mother who mercilessly exploited her and has the hard task made no secret of dealing with her man's debt. Blood flows easilypreference for her elder sister, and quickly, when your family's steps are haunted by a curse that spans generationsJackie. [[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi|Full Review]]<br>}}{{Frontpage<!-- Vaughan -->|author=Alexander McCall Smith*[[image:Vaughan Scandal.jpg|lefttitle=The Perfect Passion Company|linkrating=https://www4.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1471164993?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1471164993]]5===[[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sophie had been married to James for twelve years summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and two children: operating as an alternative to be honest she was all the online apps in providing a more than a little bit in awe of himpersonal, tailored service. James Whitehouse was an MP Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and junior minister: perhaps most importantly he was look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a friend while. Katie is coming out of the prime ministera break up with a bad boyfriend, and so when he had jumps at the chance to come home to admit that he'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 on trackEdinburgh. And it seemed as though that was the way it was goingso begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, until a friend of thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the 'other woman'Isabel Dalhousie novels, parliamentary researcher Olivia Lytton, persuaded her but with some new characters who quickly begin to go to the policecharm. There was Katie has no dispute that the relationship had been consensualexperience in running a business, or in match-making, but after James had finished the affair there was an incident Ness has full confidence in a lift in House of Commons her abilities, and the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted to rape. The prosecuting counsel is Kate Woodcroft and shethere's always her very determined that Whitehouse is going helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be brought to book. [[Anatomy of lend a Scandal by Sarah Vaughanhand…|Full Review]]isbn=1846976596<br>}}{{Frontpage<!-- |author=Dean -->Koontz*[[image:Dean Dark.jpg|lefttitle=The Bad Weather Friend|linkrating=https://www.amazon.co4.uk/gp/product/178607253X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=178607253X]]5|genre===[[Dark Pines by Will Dean]]===Paranormal[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Tuva Moodyson works for Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a local paper in small town Sweden really weird, disturbing coffin- there sized object to be near an ailing Motherhis home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, but desperate Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the big break that will have her moving on delivery to pastures his house is a new. Just outside of her townfriend, Gavrika bad weather friend called Spike, two bodies lie deep in the forest - brutally murdered and their eyes ripped out. They bring back dark memories who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a town that has seen this crime before - and Tuva good person. Spike is desperate going to find the killer. At firsttake care of Benny, sheand will certainly take care of Benny's just out to write enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a good story - but as the crimes continue she waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself drawn deeper and deeper roped into the forests outside of Gavrik, filled with stranger characters and dark secretsBenny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are. Will she find the killer before they find her? [[Dark Pines by Will Dean|Full Review]]<br>isbn=1662500491}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michelle de KretserKatherine Howe|title=The Life to ComeA True Account|rating=34.5

|summary=''The Life Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to Come'' tells the story of several ''interesting'' characters live with a family who are all linked by one person: Pipparun an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. The novel When she hears there is split into five chapters with each one focusing on to be a different personhanging of some pirates in the town, from Cassie she decides to go and her bizarre relationship with Ash to George who has finished his thesis watch. Enthralled and is horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the process hands of writing his first noveltwo vicious pirates. Pippa She hides away, who is also a writerso that they don't find and kill her too, appears in each of these chaptersand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, in some cases just dressing as a background character. However, what I found most fascinating about this novel was that de Kretser tells boy and joining the story of Pippanotorious Ned Low's life through all these various appearances and leaves pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the reader with a real sense thick of who she things when there is as a person mutiny on board, and having watched from there we are caught up in her development as a characterrip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1760296708</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreview <!-- remove 29/12 -->Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Servants of the UndergroundMaybe Tomorrow|author=David SsembajjoPenny Parkes|rating=34.5

|summary=Having experienced a terrible famine Jamie Matson works in his own countryan upper-class grocery store, Kalamchi leaves to travel and learn. He returns for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a burning desire to feed half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his people - but not only to feed their stomachs but to feed their minds, tooproblems'. Kalamchi wants to raise his people He's consciousness so asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that they can fight against he's on the dictator Bamutu autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - chillingly known as she's a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo'president for life 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 after death''put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848765800</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Rob MurphyB0CKD1L5JL|title=Rotten to the CoreRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|genre=Thrillers General Fiction|summary=It's 2009, and Russia look like being awarded the football World Cup hosting rights for the oh-so-distant 2018 tournament - that Petr is, until England stick their oar inan orphan. They have solved their hooligan problemRescued by the strange, and improved their transport systemreclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and so at last are valid final holders. Watching this is Francebusy human society, who have to reciprocate with in the Russians who helped them get France forests of Washington'98, and they have a plans Olympic Peninsula. At this stage the UEFA European championship of 2016 has not been awarded, After Bear dies and while France remain favourites to get the job, again some upstart idea has poked its head above the parapet - a joint offering from Wales and Scotland. Yes, these two tiny countriesbrief sojourn in human company, separated by 200 miles and without armed with only a brilliant connection from one to the otherpirate radio transmitter, and without some vital posh hotels here and there, and with no serious claim to soccer fame when it comes to winning things, are unlikely hosts. But what if France could persuade the world it was Petr goes on a good idea - and let Russian espionage prove it not to be so, with all journey through the while the French around to pick up the pieces? All of the UK would be damagedforest, meaning England '18 would be dead in broadcasting the waterstrange, wild and Russia would win outrarely heard voices he encounters. And who's to say the Brits, with their devolution habits, and their first coalition government in a long time, could not get through without damaging themselves?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1546282998</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|author=Paul StidolphSarah Marsh|title=Forests in the SaharaA Sign of Her Own|rating=43.5|genre=Thrillers General Fiction|summary=''Everyone I speak to thinks you are going to come to some sort After a bout of sticky end.'' Those are not the most promising words scarlet fever as a man can hear from his new partnerchild, but she doesn't lie in this instanceEllen Lark loses her hearing. He is Jeffrey Harvey, Suddenly plunged into a young Cambridge professorworld of silence, who has been dabbling with some extra-curricular work, creating GM trees that can keep vast quantities of water purifiedeverything about her life changes. Get an iceberg or three worth Living in a time when the use of H2O near Africasign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where clean water she is still a scarce resourcetaught to lip read, and the trees can do their bit and the water will advance the place and make Jeffrey a well-respected global entrepreneurbut physically restrained from signing. If From here, that is, he can get round all the problems in his life - fractions in the start-she ends up involved in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the project, deaf and using a finance officer embezzling system called Visible Speech. At the funds for gambling - ohsame time, Bell is working on other inventions and a man ready to accuse Jeffrey of murder ideas, and theft of research data on Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a case reaching back several years. It seems the lovely girlfriend was right to see no shortage complicated tangle of possible sticky ends..espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1546282351</amazonuk>1035401614

<!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 suffered 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. She had a crush on seventeen- Banks year-->*[[imageold Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did:Banks_WLavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him.jpg|left|link=https She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church://wwwthis was just an extension.amazon She went to his house and he raped her.co In shock, she even allowed him to give her a lift home.uk/gp/product/0983333416?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0983333416]]}}

===[[W by John Banks]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]FrontpageOn the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon, an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. Josh Kinninger is inspired by the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, he's filled with a desire to wreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]]<br> {{newreviewisbn=1472263936|authortitle= Ellen WilesThe Figurine|titleauthor=The Invisible CrowdVictoria Hislop|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary=This novel follows the plight of Eritrean Yonas Kelati as he tries It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to make a life for himself in EnglandGreece. He and a good friend She was alone: her mother, GebreGreek by birth, escape from prison only had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be thrown into captivity again: trafficked in a shellfish factory where they have to earn their ‘payment’ pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the malicious Aziz for entering family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the UK illegallyfirst of several annual visits. When Yonas escapes She grew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the story really startsJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008228817</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Tony PeakeDean Koontz|title= North FacingAfter Death|rating= 4.53|genre= General Fiction|summary=At school Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in Pretoria a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in 1962a makeshift mortuary, Paul Harvey struggles to fit covered in - desperate plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to join him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the popular group no matter what it may takeshrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. His focus on surviving the perils of school so intense As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he fails to see the turbulence in both South Africa can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the larger world villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - with the arrest of Nelson Mandela its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and the Cuban Missile Crisis affecting the actions its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the adults around himforest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. A new and charismatic teacher decides to educate the boys in the unstable situation The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the world outside - and a growing awareness of both that village and his sexuality pushes Paul Harvey into decisions that he later comes to regret - and their weight pushes him to return to South Africa in is the present day reason Volushka, a drunken, self- indulgent, lazy lout of a man in his sixties keen to make sense of a troubled and utterly fascinating pastis tolerated. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0995590028</amazonuk>

<!-- Curtis -->*[[image:Curtis_Water.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0995465754?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0995465754]] ===[[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]]Frontpage Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only a handful of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals and falls into a world of intrigue. It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Hill -->isbn=B0BYF82CXT*[[image:Hill_Strange.jpg|left|linktitle=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147322117X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbagSemi-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147322117X]] ===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked by, unsurprisingly, strange and cataclysmic weather. Each novel is distinct and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautiful, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says ''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beauty. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]]<br> {{newreviewDetached|author=Fiona Mitchell|title=The Maid's RoomDeborah Stone|rating=54

|summary=In some apartments ''Bill and Amanda are living in Singapore you'll find a bomb shelter semi- airless and without a window. It will probably detached house the washing machine and the other domestic paraphernalia that's got nowhere else to go. There'll be , stuck in a mattress on the floor depressing rut of this stifling roomboredom and disappointment, with the heat increased by the tumble dryer. This is the maid's room. It's possibly better than sleeping under the dining room tablewhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, but not by successful and very much. Back in 2009 there were 201,000 female domestic workers love – move in Singaporenext door. Despite their different outlooks on life, many not earning any money for a year until they've repaid 'training' the couples befriend each other and other fees life appears to the agencyimprove for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, many living in and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.'the maid's room'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473659566</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Scoop of the YearShalini Boland|authortitle=Tom ClaverThe Silent Bride|rating=43|genre=ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=Martin is an ambitious journalist working on the Financial ReviewAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven. Martin He is good at his job - accurateeverything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, dedicatedclever, hardworking funny; total and with a good nose for a scooputter husband-material. But Martin She is also uninterested all he could possibly want in the culture that comes with reporting. He has a wife ; beautiful, successful, confident… and two daughters at home so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and he doesn't want to waste time the wedding is planned and money in set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the pubaisle by her father, talking macho nonsense beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the other hacks. He is a far cry from congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his colleague Tom de Lacyapproaching bride, a charismatic, silver-spooned charmer with piercing blue eyes. Tom doesnAlice't just grab s world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the limelight though - he also grabs man at the promotion to industrial correspondent. And that altar is the job Martin not only wanted, but neededwho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788036220</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1787636003|title=The Good Pilot Peter WoodhouseGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=If you've never read an Alexander McCall Smith novel, but have always thought you might like to try, one day then this might be It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the book to start withisland. Rather than face the daunting task of leaping into one of his now very long-running seriesRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, this is a standalone novelperhaps, and it gives a good flavour of AMS's stylenaive, the way he can write so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to evoke a feeling of time and placetake an interest in her, and the warm optimism underlying his words that is so very reassuring and comforting to readshe was flattered rather than wary. It calls itself 'was quite a wartime romance', which it is, while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and yet it is much more than by that besidestime she was obsessed by him. Focussing mainly on ValAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, a young woman working as a Land Girl, we see her falling in love with an American pilot, Mike Rogers. Thanks to a sheepdog looking after his interests on Val's farm (the Peter Woodhouse from the title) their lives become entwined with that of a German soldier, island and in particular in the book shows us a variety of friendships as they grow and develop over bar where all the yearsgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846974097</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Krysten RitterAmanda Craig|title= BonfireThree Graces|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence Few styles of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of meaningless one-night stands.But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack-nation novel. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the townThere's most high-profile company something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and economic heartcapture it, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens' biggest scandal from more than a decade ago involving crafting an image of the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends--just before Kaycee disappeared for good.Abby knows the key to solving any case lies country as it stands in the weak spots, the unanswered questionsone particular moment. But as To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret--She has such a ritual called ''The Game,'' it will threaten gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the reputations, and lives, of the community and risk exposing her characters in a darkness way that may consume herfeels 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>1524759848</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alice Hoffman152915118X|title= The Rules of MagicPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= I've read several of Alice Hoffman's novels, although strangely, not the one shePineapple Street's most famous for 'is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They'Practical Magicre Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn', which went on to be made t readily accepted into a filmthe tribe. ''The Rules of Magicproblem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they' is d like to move into the long-awaited prequel Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to that bookanother property, a street or so away, and tells the story of three siblings which they own. They won't need any of the Owens family; Frannyfurniture from Pineapple Street, Jet so Sasha and VincentCord can move straight in. The two sistersNominally, Franny they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. Darley and Jet, go on Georgiana start to become call Sasha 'the two aunts gold digger'. She's living in the ''Practical Magictheir''family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD' story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471157679</amazonuk>

<!Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. 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 backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24- Fry 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.*[[image:Fry_Mythos.jpg|leftisbn=0861546490}}{{Frontpage|linkisbn=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0718188721?ie0008506337|title=UTF8&tagThe Garnett Girls|author=thebookbag-21&linkCodeGeorgina Moore|rating=as2&camp5|genre=1634&creativeGeneral Fiction|summary=6738&creativeASIN=0718188721]]The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. 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 event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.

{{Frontpage|isbn=1914585402|title=Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[image:5starThere's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.}}{{Frontpage|author=Lucy Ashe|title=Clara and Olivia|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer.jpgSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, and a star.|linkisbn=Category:{0861544080}}{{Frontpage|author=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 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}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Reference{{Frontpage|isbn=1398515388|title=The Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5|Reference]], [[:Category:genre=General Fiction|General Fiction]]summary=First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.}}

The Greek Myths are{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Bowden|title=Mr Magenta|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, arguably, the greatest stories ever toldcarried out by her nephew after she has died. So old The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and influential they cast a shadow over western tales little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and traditions, yet remain relatable and readable millennia laterit seems to him an obligation to find it all out. |isbn= B0B6Z9VJDW}}{{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Partitions of Unity|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Here comedianat Bookbag Towers, actorwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, television presenterdominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], actor when she investigated and unravelled a series of disappearances. In ''Partitions of Unity'', she sets her mind to solving a murder...|isbn=B09LQR9FRF}}{{Frontpage|author Stephen Fry brings =Will Carver|title=The Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his considerable talent to these special stories and recreates them with vest on a witLondon tube line. As their fates overlap, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving story is told in backwards order, leading up to the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deservefateful moment. [[Mythos|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A Retelling struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of -the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry|Full Review]]<br>-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...''

This is just a sample of the cast of characters and settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|isbn=B09STS96HS}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lorenzo Marone and Shaun Whiteside (Translator)B0B2N7MVYM|title=The Temptation to Be HappyCalculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=4.5

|summary=Cesare is 77, widowedIt's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to put what happens in context, generally ignored by the offspring he likes and bothered too much by the one he doesnCuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people'ts minds. Still, he finds ways The world has barely had a chance to fill his daysbreathe out. If heBut for Joe Marr, it's not taking advantage the missile crisis that's at the front of his friend-with-benefits arrangement with aging lady mind. He's been convicted of murder. With the night Rossanacurrent state of medical knowledge, or keeping an eye on it's hard to think otherwise than that the prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his grandson, hefirst few days in HMP Queen's making mischief in league with elderly neighbours like Signora Vitaliano (local mad cat woman) and Marino (the non-IT-literate computer guy)Bench, a relatively new prison. Their minds are diverted from their usual pursuits when a young couple move into the apartment block providing Cesare with a concern He's just getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and the conviction that he has learning to do something, whatever be wary of the fall out or personal dangerMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786072882</amazonuk>