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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy GlassOnyi Nwabineli|title=Run, Mummy, RunAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Aisha is a youngAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, beautiful and successful woman who has worked hard thanks to get her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she isposted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. But there Now Anuri is one thing missing in her life: a man. Still living with twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her parents at the age of thirty confidence and inexperienced when it comes to menget her life back, Aisha wonders if she will ever find a husband. But then she spots an ad in suing her step-mother to take down the paper and plucking up all content about her courage and determination. Anuri is battling alcoholism, she decides failing to reply. This could be start her only chance at love PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she doesnis desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia't want to waste its online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007299281</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Blake Morrison1529153298|title=The Last WeekendList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens in the sunny month of June when the invitation It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is givenPrime Minister. (A woman? I mean, via telephone, from Ollie and Daisy to Ian and Emilyhonestly... ) Or Em as sheShe's called throughout - therenot what's a lovely explanation of why Ian insists on shortening his wifeworrying Miv's namefamily, though. And even with this generous and seemingly innocent phone callWomen have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, all hell seems but to break loose as Ian decides have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to de-cipher move the callfamily 'Down South'. Did they mean this? When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. Did they really For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that? . And lots of undercurrents and negative feelings start She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to bubble upanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954234X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Hogg1035906708|title=The Hummingbird and the BearDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sam Taylor seems We tend to have a charmed life – a City job that brings him wealth and prestigethink of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, a wonderful fiancée in December 1923 and a lovely London homeonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. But all this can Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 't compensate Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for a childhood that contained great sorrow; he is haunted her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a sense mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of being somehow incomplete. When a chance encounter at a wedding brings a new woman into this lifeher preference for her elder sister, he begins to hope that he has found everything he really needsJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184901647X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa JewellAlexander McCall Smith|title=The Making of UsPerfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=LydiaThe Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, Robyn run by Ness and Dean are three completely different people with only one thing in common. According operating as an alternative to an online donor registry, they were all fathered by the same sperm donor. Some have known of their heritage for online apps in providing a whilemore personal, others are just finding out, but none of them knew the other two existedtailored service. Until now. At Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the same timebusiness, their donor father's life as Ness is slipping planning to take a trip to Canada to get awayfor a while. His last wish Katie is to know coming out of the impact his 'noble' act may have hada break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the legacy it is leaving on the worldchance to come home to Edinburgh. And in so begins this information age it's not that hard new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to trace your rootscharm. Katie has no experience in running a business, unlessor in match-making, that isbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, youand there're searching for people who don't want s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be found.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846055741</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenn AshworthDean Koontz|title=Cold LightThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Literary FictionParanormal|summary=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 really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it''Cold Light'' s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the story of three teenage girls who become involved in very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a predatory adult worldnice person. A really nice person. As So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the story opens we're looking back on what happened delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a decade later good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and we know that one will certainly take care of the girlsBenny's enemies, if he, ChloëBenny, died in and Harper (a Valentinewaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's Day suicide pactwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4. The town council has finally decided on 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a memorial family who run an inn, and being made to Chloë – it's work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a summerhouse at the side hanging of some pirates in the pond where town, she drowneddecides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, although itHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's difficult to understand quite why anyone would want to sit theredeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. The ground-breaking ceremony is being televised when it becomes obvious She hides away, so that something has gone terribly wrong. But Lolathey don't find and kill her too, our narratorand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, knows that theydressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low've found s pirate ship as a bodycabin boy. She also knows who it soon finds herself in the thick of things when there isa mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444721445</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kristina McMorris1471180158|title=Letters From HomeMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Liz Stephens accompanies Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a couple control freak with all the subtlety of friends to a GI social occasionhalf brick. SheJamie's content and already son, Bo, 'spoken forhas his problems' so she wouldn. He't normally be here where essentially most people are foot-loose s asthmatic and fancy-freethe more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. But Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's promised her good friend Betty to come along. As a frequent flier in the evening progresses with lots of singing local A&E and dancing, things become both interesting and just a little dangerous. But for whom? Who are we talking about here? Liz bumps into one of the many GIs present. His namesometimes Bo's Morgannot fit enough to go to school. An instant spark is there - Missed shifts or so someone believes. But they both end the evening need to be away on a less-than-satisfactory notetime to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. Liz returns It was going to her life with her soon-come to-be-fiance and Morgan goes off to wara head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562418</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve HelyB0CKD1L5JL|title=How I Became a Famous NovelistRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With Petr is an uncompromising title like orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington'How I Became s Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a Famous Novelist'brief sojourn in human company, this clearly isn't intended to be and armed with only a subtle book. So I can hardly complain when pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a cynical look at journey through the writing industry swings raw punches in every direction. It just isn't my sort of humourforest, but equallybroadcasting the strange, if you rave about 'The Office' you will likely enjoy this book far more than I have donewild and rarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015724</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul BressSarah Marsh|title=The Dysfunctional FamilyA Sign of Her Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Societies are constantly changing and sociology students are presented with theories to help them to comprehend what's happeningAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Here we have Suddenly plunged into a different approach: world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a family has been paid time when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a small amount of money school where she is taught to write diaries which they would keep secret lip read, but physically restrained from other members of signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the family deaf and which would be available for publicationusing a system called Visible Speech. This book At the same time, Bell is the result and we follow Phil and Sue Brown working on other inventions and their two sonsideas, Jack and Theo though Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a traumatic period which lasts complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=1035401614}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR|title=Good Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''This story is not for just over two monthseveryone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. The entries in the diaries are made daily She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and we read what has happened suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to each member of the hug her in case it'dysfunctional familys contagious. It's 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 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 his house and he raped her. In shock, she even allowed him to give her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0048ELN32</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Quindlen1472263936|title=Every Last OneThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Mary Beth Latham is contemplating It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her averagemother, Greek by birth, ordinary life where every day is more of less had left the same. Would things be better if life were more excitingfamily home and refused to return, varied, newsworthy? Is but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a legitimate thing pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to hope for? They say the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to be careful what you wish forlove her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and Mary Beth never comes right out frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and says this is what she wants, expected his family to uphold his values but there are hints saw no reason to this effectaccommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099537966</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John LawtonDean Koontz|title=A Lily 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 Fieldshrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens in the early 1930s in Vienna where we meet one of the main characters; ten year old Meret. She's gifted musically village is isolated and in particular in playing the cello. Even at this tender age, people are talking about her starry future on the world stagepoor. She is the apple of her father's eye and soon sheIt's being given extra musical tuition surrounded by a kind but much older manWitching Forest. He's old enough to be her grandfather but nevertheless they strike up a rather unusual friendship with music being And the common denominatorvillagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. But some The black wood of their conversations are serious the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and quite grown-up for a young girleven gallows, not yet into pubertyif needed. The tutor, Viktor Rosen fear of being buried alive is Jewish an existential superstition in the village and has already suffered at that is the hands of the Germans. Meret progresses at such reason Volushka, a pace that before you know itdrunken, self-indulgent, she's performing in public. Her life appears to be wonderful and full lazy lout of future promisea man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1611856019</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kim NewmanB0BYF82CXT|title=Anno Dracula|rating=3.5|genre=Horror|summary=The story begins in London. It is 1888 and Queen Victoria is on the throne. She has recently remarried, taking as her husband the infamous vampire Count Dracula. Dracula's influence is all around London as more and more of its citizens turn willingly to vampirism, whilst others resist its temptations. A distinct sense of social and political unrest is in the air as factions speak out against the race of vampires, somehow spurred on by the serial killer at large. Known at first as the Silver Knife, but later as Jack the Ripper, this killer targets young vampire women in Whitechapel, prostitutes who have recently turned to vampirism, known as newSemi-borns. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857680838</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDetached|author=Alexander Baron|title=There's No HomeDeborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the year 1943 'Bill and Sicily has been invaded (along with other parts Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of Europe). The menfolk have gone (will they return?) boredom and disappointment, when Terry and the womenFiona – glamorous, children successful and old people left behind are a sorry sightvery much in love – move in next door. ImpoverishedDespite their different outlooks on life, ragged the couples befriend each other and with barely enough food life appears to eatimprove for both pairs. A British company of soldiers rolls into town ... and everything changes. The men are foot-soreBut all is not what it seems, exhausted and dirty. They their increasingly interconnected relationships are also glassy-eyed with the horrors of war. And as if that were not enough, the Sicilian sun beats down on them mercilesslyfated for tragedy. But there's some good news - they're here to rest and recuperate for a while.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956308600</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Raj KumarShalini Boland|title=SharafThe Silent Bride|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With its subtitle "Forbidden love Alice and Seth are a match made in the kingdom of faith heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and honour", I expected something entirely different from ''Sharaf'' to what it deliveredutter husband-material. For the second time She is all he could possibly want in as many weeks I had misjudged a book wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted byAlice and the wedding is planned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, if not its cover exactlyAlice is walked down the aisle by her father, certainly by its setting beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and its blurbwhen 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1905802331</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Watson1787636003|title=ElevenThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book's title has been well thought out. Xavier Ireland, It was the main character has summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the number ''Eleven'' if you take his initials as Roman numbers (XI) and there are eleven individuals who are involved in this chain reaction of eventsisland. When I read the blurb on the back cover, what caught my eye above all else was the line 'whether the choices we donRachel wasn't make affect us just as powerfully as those we do.' And of courseexactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when we thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take no action about something an interest in our livesher, it's she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a form while before he made any sort of action physical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in effectthe bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184983136X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mavis CheekAmanda Craig|title=The Lovers of Pound HillThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Archaeologist Molly Bonner had something about her. She definitely wasn't dressed for the country when she arrived in Lufferton Boney and she'd captured Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the heart state-of one young man before she'd even walked down -the street-nation novel. She captured another when she offered money to work on There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the Gnome atmosphere of Pound Hillthe day and capture it, but Miles Whittington was ruled by his wallet and he was keen to make money out crafting an image of the Gnomecountry as it stands in one particular moment. The Gnome, you see, was what might euphemistically To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be called embarrassingly inadequate: she'well endowed' and Miles had visions of charging visitors to make use s practically synonymous with the genre of the, er, fertility ritescontemporary social fiction at this point. One thing was certain – none of She has such a gift for weaving the villagers ongoing issues of Lufferton Boney would be the same by day into the time lives of her characters in a way that Molly Bonner (not only an archaeologist feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but also the archaeologist's granddaughter) had finished her workinstead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091931665</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Warner152915118X|title=The Stars in the Bright SkyPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=In 1999''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Alan Warner introduced us Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a wonderful set of characters in Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The Sopranosproblem' s exacerbated when a school choir from a backwater town in Scotland went on a trip the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the big cityPineapple Street property. Much debauchery ensued Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. They won'The Stars t need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in the Bright Sky. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn' once again reunites most of t the original gang reality. Darley and there is no need Georgiana start to have read call Sasha 'the first book to pick up on the diverse charactersgold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. Now though, They use it so often that theyabbreviate it to 've grown up (or at least got older!) and are gathered at Gatwick Airport to set off on a girlsthe GD' holiday.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009946182X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Geraint AndersonEmily Critchley|title=Just BusinessOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=The inside cover blurb tells us that the author himself 84 year old Edie has worked lived in the square mile in Londonsame 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, so presumably he'll have first-hand experience in and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the world truth of financewhat happened all that time ago. The book is bang up-to-dateAfter 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as it mentions she was the first whiff last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the sub-prime disaster which seemed past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to start day life. Will she uncover the whole collapse of the (up till then) safe truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and often extremely well-paid banking sector.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755381726</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''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Annalena McAfee0008506337|title=The Spoiler|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary=Several things about this novel intrigued me. It is about two female journalists of very different generations. Also, it is set in the recent past – 1997. While newspaper production had been computerised, it was just before internet access at home and work became affordable and accessible to far more people and so became mass media, and newspapers were almost entirely a print medium – newspaper websites were just around the corner. Annalena McAfee has an insider's knowledge of the newspaper world as she was a journalist for many years, and her career included founding the Guardian's review section in its current form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846554357</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGarnett Girls|author=Megan Abbott|title=The End of EverythingGeorgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=After reading the various comments The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on the back cover, I both sides. Margo was looking forward to reading this book as I just sixteen when they fell in love a story with a psychological element. Young Alex is driven to the home of his latest client; a Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man called Klofft'. The reader soon finds out Her parents worried that Klofft has plenty of baggage, as well as plenty of money. HeRichard's elderly influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and very ill and mobility is also an issue for himhaving a glittering career. SoIn the event, while he may have set out to impress others with his large home they eloped and beautiful things, sadly he seems no longer to be able to enjoy lifeRichard took her away from the Isle of Wight. His illness confines him Margo did go to Oxford and went on to just become a couple of roomswell-respected journalist. It's apparent that Alex is rather taken with his wifeThe couple had three children: Rachel, Cilly Klofft, who is still rather beautiful - for her ageImogen and Sasha. The reader assumes she's Life was lived in her late sixties or early seventiesLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. But what is it they say Even then the doubts about age being only a number for some of us? And age plays a big part, a very big part, Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in this novelcharge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904738672</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Justine Kilkerr1914585402|title=Advice for StraysDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you have ever fancied a grown up version of I reviewed David F Ross's book [[The Tiger Who Came to Tea There's Only One Danny Garvey by Judith KerrDavid F Ross|The Tiger who came to TeaThere's Only One Danny Garvey]], the cover a couple of this Vintage edition should hook you into reading Justine Kilkerr's first novel. Here sits a sad years back and patient-looking lion, and the female figure beside him, hidden remember being absolutely floored by an umbrella, has that same vulnerable look of mother how powerful and child in Judith Kerr's classic children's picture bookaffecting it was. At first this seems like It was a ridiculous connectiongripping, but thinking about emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it later my main takeaway was that I'm struck with the analogy, might not to mention the similarity in authors' nameshave lavished enough praise on it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099535262</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Heather GudenkaufLucy Ashe|title=These Things HiddenClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Golden girl Allison Glenn was living The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the perfect teenage life until she was imprisoned for a monstrous crimeoutside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Now sheBecause there's twenty-one and has been released from prison to live in a halfway houselot that builds a dancer. Allison is keen Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to put detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the past behind herclassroom. A stage presence, a charm, but when she returns to her home town of Linden Falls she soon discovers that no one has forgotten her crimea ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-worker, least of all her parents and her little sister, Brynna star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>077830437X</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Meg WolitzerHeather Fawcett|title=The UncouplingEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dory Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and Robby Lang had one of those marriages that everyone envies. They're not just loversshe has travelled extensively, they're best friends too and they never seem researched meticulously, to tire write her life's work, the very first encyclopaedia of each otherfaeries. They're both popular teachers Whilst she is brilliant at Eleanor Roosevelt High School ('Elro' research and speaking to those who know it well) where their daughter faeries, she is a studentnot so good with people. It's sometimes difficult to have your parent teaching at your schoolSo 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, but everything seems nor how to rub along reasonably well redeem herself and Dory was delighted when daughter Willa got a part in put her final investigations for her book back on the school playright track. It's ''Lysistrata'' Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and whilst the drama teacher has to tone it down a little it still the play about the women insufferable rival who refuse arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to have sex Emily's frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with their men until they call a halt to the war they're fighting.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0701186216</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha Solomons1398515388|title=The Novel in Boy and the ViolaDog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Elise Landau arrived in England in 1938First of all, it was the earthquake, a refugee from Vienna where she and her family had had a good lifestyle. In England she's destined for Tyneford deep in Dorset where she'll be a parlour maid at the big house. She's not exactly looking forward to itocean floor, but she's escaped Vienna with some of her mother's jewels sewn into which created the seams of her dresses tsunami and her father's latest novelthis, in manuscriptturn, is hidden in caused the body of her violanuclear meltdown. Her sister is leaving for the USA The result was complete and her parents hope to followutter devastation. Surely Elise will be able to join them before too long? The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. She knows The fact that she wonmany 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 like Englanda 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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034099567X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul MagrsChristopher Bowden|title=The Bride That Time ForgotMr Magenta|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Christmas Christopher Bowden's latest novel is approaching in the seaside town a patient untangling of Whitby and Brenda is busy sprucing up her B&B. She hasn't seen her best friend, neighbour and investigating partner Effie for a few weeks, since Effieseemingly ordinary woman's strange gentleman friend Alucard life, carried out by her nephew after she has reappeareddied. Brenda The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and Effie are the guardians a little bit of the gateway indulgence to Hell which just happens a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to be right on their doorstep in Whitby, but since Effie has shut herself away, Brenda has turned him an obligation to her friend Robert, the owner of the local hotel to help her with her investigations into the ever present strange goings on in the town, involving vampires, monsters and a rather strange carfind it all out. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755359453</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Naomi WoodJennifer Mason|title=The Godless BoysPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Britain. 1986. The country became 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 theocracy during the 1950s and since then outbreaks series of secular terrorism have been dealt with by exiledisappearances. The atheists have been sent In ''Partitions of Unity'', she sets her mind to the Island where they can burn churches as they pleasesolving a murder.. Aside from a weekly boat bringing donated supplies, the exiled must shift as best they can on a remote snippet of land in the North Sea. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330530127</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=James Patterson and Neil McMahonWill Carver|title=ToysThe Daves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The novel has Five strangers come together in one moment as a very glamorous opening. We're at President Jacklin's inauguration party and the easy flow of narration gets me seamlessly and effortlessly into the story. There are plenty of comments and observations pertaining suicide bomber prepares to the super-duper hi-tech times of the story, so as early as page 10 Hays and detonate his beautiful wife Lizbeth, who are invitees, are attended to by vest on a well-trained and well-programmed ''iJeeves butler.'' I loved that phrase. It made me smile. The Bakers are an impressive and influential coupleLondon tube line. As part of the 'elite' society they expect a flawless, ordered life for themselves and their family. And Patterson then informs us that mere human beings have been relegated to menial work and most of them live pitiful lives and serves them rightfates overlap, apparently. They're despised but their labour is necessary to oil the wheels of the important daily lives of the elites. But the elites have extremely ambitious plans. Can they pull them off?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846057701</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Louise Welsh|title=Naming the Bones|rating=4.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Murray Watson story is a Doctor of English Literature embarking on a year-long sabbatical to pursue his long-held dream of writing the definitive biography of Archie Lunan andtold in backwards order, as a specifically intended by-product, restore Lunan's poetry leading up to its rightful place in the high canon of Scots creativityfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847672566</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anita ShreveJennifer Mason|title=RescuePreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When we meet Peter Webster he's 'A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a rookie paramedic 400-meter hurdler who takes an emergency call to help just missed the 2004 Olympics, a drunk driver whowomen's been badly injured in track coach with a car crash. It was touch and go as to whether or not Sheila Arsenault made ityen for bullwhips, but she did and afterwards Webster can't get her out a billionaire with a state-of his thoughts. Every instinct tells him that he shouldn't get involved with her – that it'll mean trouble – but perhaps it was -the long-art S&M dungeon, shininga man serving a life sentence in Alabama, dark hair that tipped the balance and Webster is involved an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in an intense love affairGeorgia... He's also involved in Sheila's life – for better or for worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408700735</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philippe Claudel and Euan CameronB0B2N7MVYM|title=Monsieur Linh and His ChildThe Calculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=From a war-ravaged country a bit like a Vietnam or a Cambodia an old man carries It's the fragile frame 10th of his granddaughter aboard December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to put what happens in context, the Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people's minds. The world has barely had a refugeechance to breathe out. But for Joe Marr, it's not the missile crisis that's ship, staring at the receding horizon all front of his mind. He's been convicted of murder. With the weeks current state of medical knowledge, it takes 's hard to arrive at think otherwise than that the prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's Bench, a city a bit like a Seattle or a New Yorkrelatively new prison. He and she are given the basics of a new life together but it's up just getting used to himhis roommate, Monsieur LinhMervyn, and learning to find friendship, which he does, accepting uncomprehendingly be wary of the chatty company of a fellow mourner called BarkMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906694990</amazonuk>
}}
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