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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan HamiltonOnyi Nwabineli|title=Two UnknownAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The story is based 'between Anuri spent her childhood on display to the wars'world, the 1920s thanks to be exact. Weher step-mother Ophelia're introduced to the main characters: a small family unit s increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of mother, father Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and two children. On the surface this normal, middle-class set-up all appears fine - but underneathbasically, things are far from finemonetary gain. The fatherNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, Ian is actually the suing her step-father mother to take down the twinscontent about her. And through various detailed Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and sometimes unusually lengthy parent-child conversations secretly abusing people online and chats the reader receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is filled in with the background storynew focus of Ophelia's online empire. A bit staccato in placesCan she save her sister, I have to admit.and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907230130</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Freeman1529153298|title=The Bone HouseList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel opens with one of the central charactersIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Markhonestly... ) And straight away we see that he has an eye for the girls - young girlsShe's not what's worrying Miv's family, it would seemthough. Women have been disappearing. HeWell, they's a married manve been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so tongues start to wagfrightening. The book's front cover depicts a house going up in flames and on the very first page thereMiv's another mention of fire, Billy Joelupset because she's hit song overheard that her father wants to move the family 'We DidnDown South't Start The Fire. When you' re from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. SoFor Miv, fire seems as if itthe move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she's going ll do anything to play an important part in this bookprevent that. And it does. BigShe's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking -timeto anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755348788</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Hunt1035906708|title=Mr ChartwellDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=For a couple We tend to think of years now Esther Hammerhans has lived alone and money is a little tight. She works in the House of Commons library Maria Callas as Greek, but it doesn't pay particularly well. Letting the spare room she was born to a lodger seemed like a good ideaGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, but she's somewhat surprised in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she sees Mr Chartwell's silhouettewas thirteen. It's the size of a mattress and Mr Chartwell is a dog. A large black dog. At home in Kent, Winston Churchill wakes up. HeHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's reaching the end of his time in parliament and in some ways heCallas's not surprised to sense that there's a visitor make it more manageable in the roomStates. It's someone he hasn't seen 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 a while, but the presence mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of the hugeher preference for her elder sister, mute hulk who watched him with a tortured expression was only to be expected. Winston's black dog was backJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490690</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice de Alexander McCall Smith|title=Welcome to LifeThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the 80s. Freya The Perfect Passion Company is 14 a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an only childalternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. She lives with Ness has asked her parents in Cambridge. So faryounger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, so normal. Except..as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Freya's home life Katie is slightly coming out of a-typical. She's on first name terms break up with the parental figures (no affectionate ''Mum'' or ''Daddy'' here) a bad boyfriend, and is under so jumps at the distinct impression that they spend their days imagining life without herchance to come home to Edinburgh. Her best friend is a middle aged housewife on whose son she has a rather too obvious crush. Her mother communicates with her through lists And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and shows her affection in the oddest waysIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Her father Katie has just moved his no experience in running a business associate , or inmatch-making, but heNess has full confidence in her abilities, and there's not just sleeping in the spare room.always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843549840</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alex DrydenDean Koontz|title=The Blind SpyBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=The author writes under Benny is having a pseudonym and terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he has worked in intelligenceloses his fiancee, so he should know what he's talking - and writing abouthis house gets trashed. He concentrates on the battle for supremacy (Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and weit've been here before) as Russia and s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the USA clashvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. The story itself He is an intricate onea nice person. Full of agents/counter-agents, spies/double spies and the like and appearances by members of the CIA and MI6 amongst othersA really nice person. If you like spy thrillersSo fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, then this novel will suit you down who has been sent to the groundhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Lots Spike is going to take care of furtive Benny, and secretive missions all over the place to keep the reader guessing will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and interestedHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755373332</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrea NewmanKatherine Howe|title=A Bouquet of Barbed WireTrue Account|rating=24.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=For those of you Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who've never heard of itrun an inn, A Bouquet of Barbed Wire was most famous as and being made to work there from a landmark 70's TV series based on this 1969 novel by Andrea Newmanyoung age. I'd never read the book before - in fact I'm not even sure I knew When she hears there ''was'' is to be a book - or seen the TV series but I was aware hanging of some pirates in the controversy it created town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the time hands ofrelease two vicious pirates. She hides away, so lapped up that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the chance to read notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the rereleasethick of things when there is a mutiny on board, accompanying the remake and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the TV series which has just startedocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687721</amazonuk>0861547438
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Williams1471180158|title=11:59|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The back cover blurb informs the reader that this novel was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. And the front jacket is stylish and a bit Hitchcock-esque. All the signs looked promising for a decent read. But did it deliver?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956373356</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=William Nicholson|title=All the Hopeful LoversPenny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I had previously read NicholsonJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'The Society Of Othershas his problems'' and thoroughly enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this book. Nicholson writes a modern-day story which is relevant He's asthmatic and bang up to date. We first meet Laura and Belinda. Two middle-agedthe more you read, middle-class wives and mothers. Feeling sort of okay with their lives generally but all too aware also, that the marital more you'sparkll suspect that he' in their marriages is now a low peep - if there at alls on the autistic spectrum. Belinda in particular, knows Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she is bumbling along 's a frequent flier in life. Shethe local A&E and sometimes Bo's not sure what fit enough to go to do school. Missed shifts or the need to make things more interesting be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the sex departmentwrong. A fling would probably help - but would it be the answer?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916388X</amazonuk>It was going to come to a head.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth DugdallB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Woman Before MeRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We're introduced to one of Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the female central charactersstrange, Rose. There's been a serious house fire reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and a baby has been involved. Rose is implicated. But is she innocent or guilty? Unfortunately for Rosebusy human society, she's been in the wrong place at the wrong time - and sheforests of Washington's put behind barsOlympic Peninsula. Five years is After Bear dies and a long time for a young woman with the rest of her life to lead. Even more sobrief sojourn in human company, if you're telling anyone and everyone that you arearmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, in factPetr goes on a journey through the forest, innocent of broadcasting the crimestrange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters. But is anyone listening?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907461159</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BuchanSarah Marsh|title=The Island A Sign of Sheep (John Hannay)Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Richard Hannay is feeling oldAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. He looks at himself and his contemporaries and sees Suddenly plunged into a spread world of complacency. Luckily - or perhaps very unluckily - an old pledge will come to haunt himsilence, everything about her life changes. His earlier career Living in Africa saw Hannay and his friends swear a time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to protect a man from others - and now a second generation of animosity school where she is ripe for Hannay taught to step lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and be using a protective detectivesystem called Visible Speech. Add in a supposed treasure hoardAt the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and who knows where his last journey might end Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up?in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184697156X</amazonuk>1035401614
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jed RubenfeldB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Death InstinctGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's three years since we were all blown away by [[The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld|The Interpretation of Murder]] but Jed Rubenfeld 'This story is back with the sequel, which takes place ten years later. And what a decade that has been, with the appalling tragedy of the First World War and the influenza outbreak which followed. There's a hope that things are getting better as New York moves into the twenties and Stratham Younger and Captain James Littlemore meet up not for the first time in ten yearseveryone. They're in Wall Street on September the sixteenth – just as a quarter of a ton of explosives is detonated in the worst terrorist attack in the country's hundred and fifty year history.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755343999</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marcelo Figueras1472263936|title=KamchatkaThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=35
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Initially I It was very excited and interested when The Bookbag was given this novel in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to reviewGreece. Set at a time in which I lived in Buenos Aires She was alone: her mother, I was looking forward to a fictionalised account of these traumatic years - made all the more appealingGreek by birth, as had left the narrator purported family home and refused to be the eldest of the familyreturn, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's two sons - 10 year old 'Haroldo' as he comes to parents) felt that it would be known, having by necessity left his former identity behinda pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. In this respect, I was Her trip to be sadly disappointed. The majority of the novel comprises recollections from an adult Haroldo family apartment in up- not quite what market Kolonaki would be the Amazon blurb, nor first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the précis on the coverfamily's maid, leads the reader to believe! In fairnessDina, the author can't be blamed for this - but I felt mislead by the dust jacket was wary - which may have coloured my enjoyment, and which lead, in partfrightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the relatively low star rating which I gave the bookJunta 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>1843548267</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=PJ VanstonDean Koontz|title=CrumpAfter Death
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's Kevin Crump's first day as 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 lecturer at Thames Metropolitan University bio- an ex-polytechnichazard accident. It's the happiest day of his life Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, and he can't wait to see all has a sense that it holdssomething very, very bad has happened to him – and make a difference to all his students. And then it hits only him: – as he sits up and looks around at the relentless pettiness shrouded bodies of authority figureshis dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, the students who he realises that there is something different about him; he can''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't string two sentences together, the lowering of standards in search of higher test scores, so more money from foreign students, and political correctness gone (as I believe the saying goes) mad''Michael'' anymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848762852</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex ChanceB0BVDC2VWH|title=Savage BloodThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The bookvillage is isolated and poor. It's cover is surrounded by a very good clue as to Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its content: weapons dripping in blood bread-like fruit provides nutrition and decapitated headsits blossom provides herbal medicines. The novel starts with Professor Edward Quinn on a rather unusual journey. It seems to end abruptly and in plenty black wood of spilled blood, gore the forest provides heat and horrendous scenes of carnage. Meanwhilewarmth, in Atlantaroofs on homes, USAand even gallows, Dr Cortez has been cheating on his wifeif needed. His one-night stand proves satisfactory and interesting in all sorts The fear of ways. Suddenly, he's involved being buried alive is an existential superstition in an extremely worrying medical situation. It needs to be sorted - the village and quickly. Cortez that is the reason Volushka, a youngdrunken, modern professional but he's human also, so not without his hangself-ups. The conversations between himself and his even more successful wifeindulgent, are bang on. They hit the right note. Many will identify with the couple. At times you can almost hear the friction between them. And the lazy lout of a man-to-man conversations between Charlie Cortez and his buddy Dan are terrific. Trying hard to be big shots in a social situation when really they are out of their depth. A great introduction to this part of the story, I thoughtis tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434019364</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth BuchanB0BYF82CXT|title=Separate BedsSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=Women's General Fiction|summary=Annie ''Bill and Tom Nicholson looked like the sort Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of people you would envy. Both had rewarding jobsboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, Tom successful and very much in the World Service and Annie love – move in hospital managementnext door. They had a lovely home Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and three grown-up childrenlife appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not as what it seems. For five years they have had separate existences after a family row when Tom caused his elder daughter to walk out of the house , and never returntheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. There hasn't been a catalyst which would have caused them to separate but Tom moved into his daughter's vacated room and he and Annie have lived together - but apart. It could have gone on indefinitely but then Tom came home one day and dropped the bombshell which could well finish them off.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141019891</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Geoff DyerShalini Boland|title=Jeff in Venice, Death in VaranasiThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Meet JeffAlice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He's 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 journalist living in Londonwife; beautiful, successful, with a fine line in delaying his work effort confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and a keen eye for detailset. He can see how When the world much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is made better walked down the aisle by a smile from a random shopkeeper - yet seems too grumpy 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 try it himself. Instead he suspects face his habit of walking roundapproaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, mouthing or speaking out who is waiting for her to become his own inner thoughts is making him seem a scary old manwife.|isbn=1662507089}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. He can partly address thisRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, by dying his hairshe was flattered rather than wary. And It was quite a while before he can stop walking round London when he gets commissions made any sort of physical approach to report back from the modern arts Biennale in Veniceher and by that time she was obsessed by him. Soon, howeverAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the only work of art he's at bar where all worried about goes by the name of Lauragirls either worked or partied...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184767271X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diane ChamberlainAmanda Craig|title=Secrets She Left BehindThree Graces|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the third -nation novel I. There've read by Diane Chamberlain s something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and I felt capture it, crafting an image of the country as if I was visiting an old friendit stands in one particular moment. I enjoyed To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the other two books and genre of contemporary social fiction at this one looked promisingpoint. Although many She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters spill over from [[Before the Storm by Diane Chamberlain|Before The Storm']] this current book is in a stand aloneway 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>077830387X</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Priya Basil152915118X|title=The Obscure Logic of the HeartPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lina ''Pineapple Street'' is from a devout Muslim family the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and lives with her aunt while she studies law at university; where she meets AnilGeorgiana. Anil Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Kenyan boy from 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 Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a non-practicing Sikh family who dreams street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of becoming the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a ground-breaking architect. The two fall in love choice but as that wasn't the lies they have reality. Darley and Georgiana start to tell call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their respective families become more and more elaborate '' family home. They use it so often that they are forced abbreviate it to make some difficult decisions'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385611455</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana EvansEmily Critchley|title=The WonderOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Lucas and Denise have been brought up by their grandmother on a canal boat 84 year old Edie has lived in west London, after the death of their parents. Now they are in their 20ssame small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and their grandmother Toreth bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is gonestarting to lose her memory. Denise 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 practical and responsible young womansecret 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, getting on with her job just as a florist, but she was the last time she saw her younger brother Lucas is a dreamer, still trying she starts to establish what he wants find pockets of memories coming back to do with his lifeher. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and increasingly distracted by trying more in her day to find out more day life. Will she uncover the truth about his identityLucy's disappearance before her move, about who his parents were, especially his father.and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099479052</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Madelaine Lucas
|title=Thirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''
}}
{{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, 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''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bernie McGill1914585402|title=The Butterfly CabinetDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This novel has been based on fact. McGill moves back and forth with various charactersI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There' stories. A child has died in the family home and the mother, Harriet has been tried in s Only One Danny Garvey]] a court couple of law years back and found guiltyremember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. The fact that she is It was a practical, no-nonsense woman who does not wear her heart on her sleeve does not go down well with the majority of the jury. She has also committed another crimegripping, almost equally as graveemotionally wounding read, she has sullied the family name of her husband. He is a prominent and respected member rereading my review of the local communityit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it. Nothing will be the same again for either of them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755370686</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean KwokLucy Ashe|title=Girl in TranslationClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Kimberly Chang The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and her mother emigrate to Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the USA from Hong Kong they believe thatoutside but not, we learn, true to on the American Dreaminside. And not on stage, their lives are about to get bettereither. However, although KimberlyBecause there's aunt paid their air fares and arranged their green cards she is intent on getting her money back. She arranges their accommodation in a run-down part of Brooklyn in lot that builds a building where they are the only tenantsdancer. Their apartment has broken windowsSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, no heating attention to detail – and is rife with cockroaches and rats. The aunt arranges work for Kimsome things, that ''je ne sais quoi's mum in her husband's Chinatown factory, paying her a pittance for piece work and then taking most of her salary away for repayments on their flights and their accommodationthat don't come from the classroom. Huddled around their oven for warmthA stage presence, wearing layers of clothing made from material they found in the trasha charm, their lives seem incredibly bleaka ''joie de vivre''. But Kimberly has brains, and determinationThe difference between a hard-worker, and she is adamant that she will find a way to take care of her motherstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905490623</amazonuk>0861544080
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helon HabilaHeather Fawcett|title=Oil on WaterEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with two local journalists Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on a rather dangerous trip. Zaqfaerie lore, old-timer and cynic but still she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the skills very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to seek out a faeries, she is not so good story and apprentice Rufuswith people. A British oil engineer's wife 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 gone missingdone, believed kidnapped nor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the two journalists are following her trailright track. Zaq comes across as an interesting character; Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all-seeingcharm and delight, all-knowing albeit likes a drink or two. Hemuch to Emily's happy to impart years of knowledge to Rufus and tells him that ' frustration... the story But why is not always the final goal.' he here? What's really important, what the readers does he want to know and ? And what sells newspapers exactly is ' ... going on with the meaning of the story.'faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241144868</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Elliot1398515388|title=Stolen ChildThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The title First of all, it was the book leaves us earthquake, deep in no doubt as to what it's all aboutthe ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. It does exactly what it says on the tinThe result was complete and utter devastation. But those twoThe deaths were uncountable, small words are wrapped up in plenty and the loss of emotions for the characters involvedlivelihoods was widespread. In some ways, it's worse than 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 deathconvenience store. With death, thereHe wasn's closure t a dog person but with a baby being stolen therethe convenience store owner's living hell. And, as you comment that he would expect, some characters cope with all of this better than otherscall Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847561462</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=A L KennedyChristopher Bowden|title=What BecomesMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesGeneral Fiction|summary=YouChristopher Bowden're three stories into this collection and two people have cut their hands open preparing food - s latest novel is a man with love drooping away from his marriage, making soup, and another, patient untangling of a greengrocerseemingly ordinary woman's life, preparing stock and thinking about his own relationshipcarried out by her nephew after she has died. But there is no pattern to that. Four stories in The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and there have been two bursts of non-sequitur comedy. Why your fruit might be ruined by stray fingers, and the thoughts a little bit of indulgence to a woman in young nephew had had a flotation tank, remembering Doctor Who, locked parental doors - and the urban myths of gerbils. But there's still no pattern - and much more interesting life than that's the point of these combined stories. Life nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an obligation to find it all of its emotions does not live to ruleout.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009949406X</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithJennifer Mason|title=The Importance Partitions of Being Seven (44 Scotland Street)Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Evereyone's favouriteHere at Bookbag Towers, Bertiewe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, is still struggling with his over-protective, over-zealous mother Irene. Poor Bertie. He still has yoga class, saxophone lessons, Italian lessonsdominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and he longs to go away to Scout camp, but really doesn't want his mum to come along as unravelled a helperseries of disappearances. AndIn ''Partitions of Unity'', as the title suggests, he is looking forward she sets her mind to being seven. His little brother, Ulysses, is getting bigger and has developed an interesting reaction to their mother, whilst Irene herself goes missing in solving a rather mysterious mannermurder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971454</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shannon BurkeWill Carver|title=Black FliesThe Daves Next Door|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ollie Cross has failed Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to get into medical schooldetonate his vest on a London tube line. While he thinks about what he plans to doAs their fates overlap, he takes a job as a paramedic on the tough streets of Harlem, New York Citystory is told in backwards order, and finds his whole perspective on life and death beginning leading up to shiftthe fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535491</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances KayJennifer Mason|title=MickaPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Micka ''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and Laurie are two ten year old boys. They're -pop mobile diner in the same class at school and are friendsNorthern California redwoods, of a sort. They both have vivid imaginations400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, and Lauriea women's plans involve finding track coach with a magical bone and using it yen for murder. Micka lives bullwhips, a billionaire with his mum (who can't read and is often drunk) and his two older brothers who get into fightsa state-of-the-art S&M dungeon, are involved a man serving a life sentence in crimeAlabama, an enigmatic signature, and who abuse Micka physically and sexually. Laurie lives with his parentsK(s, until they suddenly break upx), and he is left with his mum who seems to be having on a breakdowncheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia.. The book is told from the point of view of the two boys, and so as we see how their own lives are falling apart, sympathising with them, we also read with horror their own descent into violence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513826</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A J CroninB0B2N7MVYM|title=Dr Finlay's CasebookThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Most people will have heard It's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr FinlayJoseph Marr. Just to put what happens in context, although they may the Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people's minds. The world has barely had a chance to breathe out. But for Joe Marr, it's not be entirely sure why - A J Croninthe missile crisis that's stories at the front of a fictional doctor in pre-War Scotland have his mind. He's been televised over convicted of murder. With the yearscurrent state of medical knowledge, most recently in it's hard to think otherwise than that the nineties when David Rintoul starred as Dr Finlay. Although fictional, A J Cronin, who died prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in 1981HMP Queen's Bench, was himself a doctor and has apparently based some of Finlayrelatively new prison. He's experiences on just getting used to his own. This omnibus is made up of two books by Croninroommate, Dr Finlay of TannochbraeMervyn, published in 1978 and Adventures learning to be wary of a Black Bag, published in 1943, both collections of short storiesthe McArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841588547</amazonuk>
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