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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Esi EdugyanOnyi Nwabineli|title=Half-Blood BluesAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sid Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and his friend Chip are revisiting their youth, more than 50 years agobasically, monetary gain. They were jazz musicians, living and working Now Anuri is in Berlin her twenties and Paris, until they had she is slowly trying to escape Nazi occupied Paris in 1940 regain her confidence and to return get her life back, suing her step-mother to Baltimoretake down the content about her. Now it Anuri is 1992battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and all the others they worked with are long since deadreceiving money from them for doing so. They have just been involved in a documentary about their experiences Most importantly, and are she is desperately worried about to return to Germany (soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall) for a jazz festival in memory of the great Hiero Falk. Hieronymus Falk was a young black German musician with an exceptional musical talenther little sister, who is the star new focus of their band, the Hot-Time SwingersOphelia's online empire. He was picked up by 'the Boots' as Sid refers to the Germans, in Paris in 1940 Can she save her sister, and disappeared into a concentration camp, then they heard he was released but died in 1948.perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846687756</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ira Levin1529153298|title=Rosemary's BabyThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A young couple find the beginnings of a dream life together in a new apartment in a New York building that a friend says is a hotbed of death and misfortunewoman? I mean, honestly... ) But it seems perfectShe's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. His job prospects as an actor Women have never been betterdisappearing. Well, and they're quickly accepted into the elderly community of their neighboursve been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. WhatMiv's more, upset because she - Rosemary - gets pregnant's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. Nothing can go wrongWhen you're from Yorkshire, can it? Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. None of this happiness For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and hope can come at a dreadful cost she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - can it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015880</amazonuk>to anyone.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Luke Williams1035906708|title=The Echo ChamberDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1946, in the last days We tend to think of the British EmpireMaria Callas as Greek, Evie Steppman had exceptional hearing. She remembers what it but she was like born to Greek parents in the wombManhattan, the pumping of her mother's blood, the different tones of her father's voice telling her storiesNew York, in December 1923 and the clatter of outside noise, yet only moved to be recognized as the falling of rain or the whining of the windAthens when she was thirteen. As she grew up she learnt Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to listen 'Callas' to the sounds around her, for even make it more manageable in silence there is still the echo of one's own heartbeatStates. Now, many years later, her hearing is going, and with it her memories. Confined to an attic space When she was back in Scotland Athens - supposedly so that she needs to write could get appropriate training for her story down before it is too late. To do this voice - she turns to objects – was raised under the Nazi occupation by a pocket watch, maps, photos mother who mercilessly exploited her and diaries, to help re-form made no secret of her preference for her pastelder sister, to take us on a journey – not through sights, but through soundsJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241143004</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ben BrooksAlexander McCall Smith|title=Grow UpThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4|genre=Teens|summary=Jasper is seventeen. He spends his time pretending to revise for his AS levels, fantasising about sex with Georgia Treely, hanging out with self-harming best friend Tenaya watching cheesy TV shows, and taking ketamine and mephedrone with his friends. When he's at a loose end, he goes to sex chatrooms in a quest to see how far he can get without going private (paying). He's also convinced that his step-father, Keith, is a homicidal maniac whose next victim is likely to be Jasper's mother...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857861875</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Richmond|title=Sisyphusa|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The back cover blurb tells us that Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the mentally ill (for whatever reason or reasons) are still stigmatised by various sectors of societyonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. I would agree. I then flip Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the book over business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to the front cover which has the words 'the mental health publisher' and straight get away some for a while. Katie is coming out of us may already be making a judgement (perhaps unfairly too) before they even open break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the bookchance to come home to Edinburgh. Perhaps And so begins this up-front honesty by the publisher negates somewhat the terrific title new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and terrific graphics of the coverIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Just my own personal opinion here. The publishing company is being supported by the Arts CouncilKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, England.to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849915261</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ira LevinDean Koontz|title=The Stepford WivesBad Weather Friend
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary='It can't be Benny is having a coincidence that Stepford women are all the way they are' says Bobbie, Joanna Eberhart's only friend in Stepfordterrifically bad day. Joanna has recently come to live in the idyllic suburban town of Stepford with her husband He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and two childrenhis house gets trashed. She is an independent woman with her own part-time career as a photographer, is intelligentOh, liberated and someone has delivered a keen interest in feminism. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015899</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Summer Wood|title=Wrecker|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I found the book title intriguing really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and wondered if Iit'd got caught up in some demolition yard story by mistake. s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! WoodThe thing is, at some stage in Benny is the book does give her readers the explanationvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. It's He is a boy's name apparently and the detailed explanation is rather charming - and aptnice person. A really nice person. But So fortunately for Benny it's also just turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a tad over-the-top (in terms of credibility I'm thinking) and by the time I'd finished the book I was heartily sick of this name which had short-term appeal bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for mebeing a good person. I was muttering Spike is going to myself saying silly things like - why cantake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny't s enemies, if he be called Billy, for example. But IBenny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny'm not writing the books wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408809311</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Jose FarmerKatherine Howe|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless PeerA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book has reached Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the dizzy heights 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 hands of an ''International Bestseller'' with plaudits all over its coverstwo vicious pirates. And itShe hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a debut novel, albeit by an author who has worked in journalismcabin boy. SoShe soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, am I going to be another notch and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the book-reading bedpost, so to speak?ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849160317</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Steele1471180158|title=The WatchersMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At over 500 pages IJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who'm sincerely hoping that this book is going to appeal. The back cover blurb is promising, informing the reader that s a control freak with all the author is a well-travelled cameraman/editor subtlety of many years standing. The story opens with a young Marc Rochat starting a new life in Switzerlandhalf brick. Everything is strange and new to him. He becomes a night-watchman at the local cathedral and carries out Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his duties diligentlyproblems'. He doesn't mind s asthmatic and the fact more you read, the more you'll suspect that ithe's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a rather solitary job as he more than makes up for frequent flier in the silence (when the bells are local A&E and sometimes Bo's not ringing that is) by chatting away fit enough to go to all of the various bells as if they were humanschool. Marc's conversations with his 'ladies' Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are utterly charmingoccasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the wrong. I could listen It was going to them all daycome to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593067517</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John HartB0CKD1L5JL|title=Iron HouseRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Hart Petr is already a best-selling author so he has a lot to live up to with his latest bookan orphan. At over 400 pages it's a bigRescued by the strange, meaty read. The story opens with Michaelreclusive Bear, now an adult. In his primehe is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, with in the woman he loves and about to become a father: life is looking very rosy indeed. He thinks that heforests of Washington's left his shady past behind him foreverOlympic Peninsula. He's wrong. Hart gives his readers After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a little background info pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on Michaela journey through the forest, broadcasting the central characterstrange, just enough to whet our appetites. It worked for me wild and I was eager to keep turning the pages. At the start of the book there's a definite sense of something catastrophic about to happen and that it involves Michael in some wayrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848541791</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tim ThorntonSarah Marsh|title=Death A Sign of an Unsigned BandHer Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Russell knows that his band is going nowhereAfter a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, and everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the prospect use of a life consisting sign language was seen as something only of savages do, Ellen is sent to a grim day job and some depressing creative exercises school where she is getting him downtaught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. But when Josh turns From here, she ends up with in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a potential way out, it's not quite system called Visible Speech. At the way Russellsame time, or any of the Bell is working on other band membersinventions and ideas, would have envisagedand Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099531879</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Haley TannerB0BC3YTCMR|title=Vaclav and Lena|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Vaclav and Lena are both children of Russian immigrants, growing up in Brooklyn. Vaclav dreams of becoming a fantastic magician, with his friend Lena as his assistant, and as children they practise their routine together, making lists of the things they'll need, the costumes they will wear and the tricks they will perform. Vaclav is confident and happy, but Lena is quiet, withdrawn and struggles with speaking English. Yet Vaclav believes, always, that they are destined to be together. Even when Lena disappears one day and is gone from his life for many years still he hopes that, somehow, he will find her again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434020443</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGood Girls Die|author=Jon Blake|title=69ers: A Novel About the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival of MusicAyura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the summer of 1969, as Thunderclap Newman proclaimed in their one and only musical claim to fame, there was something in the air. The alternative generation were talking about the recent Woodstock Festival in America, and eagerly looking forward to what promised to be a similar gathering, albeit on a smaller scale, at the Isle of Wight at the end of August, where Bob Dylan was headlining.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908105658</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Wesley Stace|title=Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer|rating=3''This story is not for everyone.5|genre=Crime|summary="Nothing in recent fiction prepared me for the power and the polish of this subtle tale of English music in the making, a chiller wrapped in an enigma [New Statesman]" ''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Makkai1472263936|title=The BorrowerFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the front cover blurb family home and refused to return, but Mary and didnHamish (Helena't quite get s parents) felt that it 'She borrowed would be a child. He stole pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding herGreek heritage.' I don't mind 'not getting it' Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the slightest as it just makes me want first of several annual visits. She grew to read love her grandmother and the book even morefamily's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. So I He was keen proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to get stuck into this debut noveluphold 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>0434021008</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Isabel AshdownDean Koontz|title=Hurry Up And WaitAfter Death|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ashdown won the Observer Best Debut Novels Michael Mace, Head of the Year with her book [[Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown|Glasshopper]]Security, at a top secret biological research facility, an excerpt of which is given 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 back shrouded bodies of this bookhis dead friends and former colleagues. I decided to read it first and I must say As he recovers his senses, he realises that I immediately warmed to Ashownthere is something different about him; he can ''feel''s style of writingeverything. She seems to have a knack for down-to-earth language especially with teenagers and young people''Everything''. So, I was really looking forward to this book but I was also conscious of the fact that it had a lot to live up toMichael isn't ''Michael'' anymore. Will she be able to deliver?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956251552</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabrielle DonnellyB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Little Women LettersGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read the back cover blurb with delight The village is isolated and couldnpoor. It't help but applaud Donnelly for her ingenuitys surrounded by a Witching Forest. I loved And the book ''Little Women'' when I read it many years ago villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and television adaptations keep it fresh for new generationsits blossom provides herbal medicines. SoThe black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, before I'd and even turned to chapter onegallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, I was loving this booklazy lout of a man is tolerated. But will it live up to my lofty expectations?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156587</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Caitlin Davies|title=The Ghost of Lily Painter|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=When Annie Sweet buys a home with her family, she feels inexplicably bonded to it from first sight. As life brings unwelcome changes for her, she decides to uncover the history of her house to provide a distraction and to understand her feelings about her home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937035</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|authorisbn=Diane ChamberlainB0BYF82CXT|title=The Midwife's Confession|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I feel that I've barely finished a Chamberlain review when up pops another of her books - such seems to be proliferation. The story opens with the buildSemi-up to the death of middle-aged midwife, Noelle. Her friends, all a little younger than herself and with families of their own, are busy getting on with their daily lives. But someone - suddenly - remembers they haven't heard from Noelle for some days. It's unusual as this group of chatty friends are forever phoning, texting or popping round to each other's houses.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0778304663</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDetached|author=Bella Pollen|title=The Summer of the BearDeborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Letty Fleming''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, recently widowedstuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, is driving her three children hundreds of miles north to a new when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and hopefully happy very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life on a remote Scottish island. We get a peek at the personalities of , the children straight away: Alba is opinionated couples befriend each other and strong-willed, life appears to improve for exampleboth pairs. Still young she's managed to acquire a list as long as her arm of her 'hates' in the world - fishBut all is not what it seems, English teachers and doors which their increasingly interconnected relationships are ajar all feature and I didn't care as I couldn't help liking her. At least she knows her own mindfated for tragedy. What will she be like when she's grown up, for heaven's sake?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330519069</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Celine IbeShalini Boland|title=Shadow of a ThiefThe Silent Bride
|rating=3
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Obinna's childhood had been gloriously happy, living Alice and Seth are a match made in the Nigerian village with Mamaheaven. But when he was fifteen years old Mama told him that He is everything she was not his motherhas been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, but his grandmother and that his mother funny; total and father were deadutter husband-material. Stunned She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and almost disbelieving he went to bed only to be woken so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by a loud noise in Alice and the nightwedding is planned and set. It came from Mama's room but when Obinna went to When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she was dead on surveys the floor. The boy could have lived with neighbours who would have been only too glad congregation – their friends assembled to have him, but he set off as soon as he could celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his only living relativeapproaching 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 Uncle Raffiawife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907629149</amazonuk>1662507089
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dawn French1787636003|title=A Tiny Bit MarvellousThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Over It was the years I have become something of a Dawn French fansummer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. She has consistently entertained and quite frankly made my sides split with laughter as Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an actorinterest in her, comedian, and most recently as she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a writer with while before he made any sort of physical approach to her wonderful autobiography [[Dear Fatty and by Dawn French|Dear Fatty]]that time she was obsessed by him. So when I saw her first novel ‘A Tiny Bit Marvellous’ waiting Alistair worked for me Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on The Bookbag shelves I thought here’s another treat from this remarkable entertainerthe island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046341</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Storm at the DoorAmanda Craig|authortitle=Stefan Merrill BlockThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The author, Stefan Merrill Block, is writing Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about members any writer who can catch hold of his own family in ''The Storm at the Door''. The story opens at atmosphere of the endday and capture it, if you get my driftcrafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. We see To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the elderly grandmother Katherine in a bit genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a spot, wondering whether to open and then read a bunch gift for weaving the ongoing issues of papers. These papers (these red-hot papers) are the words and thoughts day into the lives of her husband Frederick from his time characters in a mental institution. If she opens way that feels natural and lived-in, never making themciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, then it will be opening a veritable can of wormsgrappling with issues far larger than themselves. Does she or doesn't she?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571269591</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=152915118X|title=A Conspiracy Of FriendsPineapple Street|author=Alexander McCall SmithJenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=So''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, here we Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are again back with our friends sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in Corduroy Mansions in this. Nominally, their third bookthey had a choice but that wasn't the reality. I found Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in 'A Conspiracy Of Friends'their' ' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.}}{{Frontpage|author=Emily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a little slow move as her son wants to start move to another house and bring Edie to live withhis family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and I worried the worry that perhaps I had tired there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the characterslast time she saw her, but a few chapters later she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the pace picked up past, she is forgetting more and once again I was thoroughly entertained by more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the quirky characterstruth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, interesting thoughts and ideas.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971829</amazonuk>1804181250
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=In The Sea There Are CrocodilesMadelaine Lucas|authortitle=Fabio GedaThirst for Salt
|rating=5
|genre=General Literary Fiction|summary=''In The Sea There Are CrocoilesLove, I'' is based on d read, was supposed to be a true story about a young boy left by his mother to fend light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for himself. As if that wasn't difficult enough, hegravity's stranded in Pakistan while the rest of his family are in war-ravaged Afghanistan. It's a collaboration between Afghan Enaiatollah and his Italian translator, Fabio - this book is already a big hit with Italian readers (it says so on the back cover blurb). Enaiatollah eventually claimed political asylum in Italy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857560085</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0008506337|title=The Poison TreeGarnett Girls|author=Erin KellyGeorgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Karen is ending her university years 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 has described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her future mapped out. But then away from what they felt she meets Biba, who opens doors could achieve - going to Oxford and having a world she's never seen beforeglittering career. In the event, they eloped and to Richard took her away from the type Isle of intense friendship that she's never experienced eitherWight. As Karen embarks Margo did go to Oxford and went on this friendshipto become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, she collects all kinds Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of new experiences along the wayWight. At Even then the start of that summer, doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she could would never have predicted just how indelible the mark left by the friendship would turn out be able to beleave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444701053</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elliott Hall1914585402|title=The Children's CrusadeDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We back-track several years to get the low-down and history on Felix. ItI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's interesting, very interesting. HeOnly One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's like some sort Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of American 007 but not all of his plans have been successful. Some have years back-fired and he has the scars to prove remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting itwas. In fact although in his prime yearsIt was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, Felix could be healthier and is forced to take regular medication. And throughout the story Hall tells us why rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that is. Chapter Two, which sees Felix in Nevada opens with the no-nonsense line ''I came to Las Vegas to kill a man.'' But who? And why? We get the answers all in Hall's good timemight not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848540752</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=J Robert LennonLucy Ashe|title=CastleClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the late winter of 2006 Erich Loesch returns to Gerrysburg, NY (Pop 2310 and falling) and buys six hundred or so acres of undeveloped land on the edge of the county. Loesch grew up in Gerrysburg, but he's been away a long timeThe year is 1933. The place hasn? Sadler't changed much except through long, slow declines Wells. There Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are vacant lots where he remembers homessisters, businesses, amenitiestwins no less. There are one or two people who remember himIdentical on the outside but not, or remember his family. They remember what happened to the familywe learn, or heard about what happened to him afterwards.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1555975593</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rachel Genn|title=The Cure|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We get the background on Eugene early on in the story; a troubled childhood with an alcoholic father who was often inside. And not at homeon stage, either. Instead he was working on Because there's a lot that builds a building site in London and drinking away much of his wagesdancer. His wife Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and children didnsome things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't appear to benefit much - either financially or emotionallycome from the classroom. Eugene still bears plenty of invisible scars from that time and now grown upA stage presence, would like to carve out his own path and thinks a fresh start would be charm, a good idea''joie de vivre''. Although it's not altogether The difference between a fresh start as he chooses to work on the same construction site as his father hard-worker, and even lives in the same lodgings in the East Enda star. Is this his own unique way of exorcising some ghosts?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184901583X</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cathy GlassHeather Fawcett|title=Run, Mummy, RunEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Aisha Emily Wilde is a youngan expert academic scholar on faerie lore, beautiful and successful woman who she has worked hard travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to get where she is. But there is one thing missing in write her life: a man's work, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Still living with her parents Whilst she is brilliant at the age of thirty research and inexperienced when it comes speaking to menfaeries, Aisha wonders if she will ever find a husbandis not so good with people. But then So when she spots an ad in the paper and plucking up all her courage and determinationfinds herself far, she decides to reply. This could be her only chance at love and she doesn't want to waste it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007299281</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Blake Morrison|title=The Last Weekend|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The book opens far North in the sunny month small village of June when Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the invitation village matriarch, she is givennot sure what she has done, via telephone, from Ollie and Daisy nor how to Ian redeem herself and Emily. Or Em as she's called throughout - there's a lovely explanation of why Ian insists put her final investigations for her book back on shortening his wife's namethe right track. And even with this generous Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and seemingly innocent phone callinsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all hell seems charm and delight, much to break loose as Ian decides to de-cipher the callEmily's frustration. Did they mean thisBut why is he here? Did they really mean thatWhat does he want? And lots of undercurrents and negative feelings start to bubble up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954234X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nicholas Hogg|title=The Hummingbird and what exactly is going on with the Bear|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Sam Taylor seems to have a charmed life – a City job that brings him wealth and prestige, a wonderful fiancée and a lovely London home. But all this can't compensate for a childhood that contained great sorrow; he is haunted by a sense of being somehow incomplete. When a chance encounter at a wedding brings a new woman into this life, he begins to hope that he has found everything he really needs.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184901647X</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Jewell1398515388|title=The Making of UsBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Lydia, Robyn and Dean are three completely different people with only one thing in common. According to an online donor registry, they were First of all fathered by the same sperm donor. Some have known of their heritage for a while, others are just finding out, but none of them knew it was the other two existed. Until now. At the same timeearthquake, their donor father's life is slipping away. His last wish is to know of deep in the impact his 'noble' act may have hadocean floor, which created the legacy it is leaving on the world. And in tsunami and this information age it's not that hard to trace your roots, unlessin turn, that iscaused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, you're searching for people who don't want to be found.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846055741</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenn Ashworth|title=Cold Light|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''Cold Light'' is and the story loss of three teenage girls who become involved in a predatory adult worldlivelihoods was widespread. As The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the story opens we're looking back on what happened from a decade later and we know that one list of priorities but - six months after the girls, Chloë, died in tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a Valentine's Day suicide pactconvenience store. The town council has finally decided on a memorial to Chloë – itHe wasn's to be t a summerhouse at the side of dog person but the pond where she drowned, although itconvenience store owner's difficult to understand quite why anyone comment that he would want call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to sit there. The ground-breaking ceremony is being televised when it becomes obvious that something has gone terribly wrong. But Lola, our narrator, knows that they've found a body. She also knows who it isopen his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444721445</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kristina McMorrisChristopher Bowden|title=Letters From HomeMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Liz Stephens accompanies Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a couple patient untangling of friends to a GI social occasion. Sheseemingly ordinary woman's content and already 'spoken for' so life, carried out by her nephew after she wouldn't normally be here where essentially most people are foot-loose and fancy-freehas died. But she's promised her good friend Betty to come along. As the evening progresses with lots of singing and dancing, things become both interesting The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and just a little dangerous. But for whom? Who are we talking about here? Liz bumps into one bit of the many GIs present. His name's Morgan. An instant spark is there - or so someone believes. But they both end the evening on indulgence to a young nephew had had a less-much more interesting life than-satisfactory note. Liz returns that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to her life with her soon-to-be-fiance and Morgan goes off him an obligation to warfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847562418</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steve HelyJennifer Mason|title=How I Became a Famous NovelistPartitions of Unity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With an uncompromising title like 'How I Became a Famous Novelist'Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], this clearly isn't intended to be a subtle book. So I can hardly complain when she investigated and unravelled a cynical look at the writing industry swings raw punches in every directionseries of disappearances. It just isnIn ''t my sort Partitions of humour, but equally, if you rave about Unity'The Office' you will likely enjoy this book far more than I have done, she sets her mind to solving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015724</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul BressWill Carver|title=The Dysfunctional FamilyDaves Next Door|rating=3.54
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Societies are constantly changing and sociology students are presented with theories to help them Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to comprehend what's happening. Here we have a different approach: a family has been paid detonate his vest on a small amount of money to write diaries which they would keep secret from other members of the family and which would be available for publicationLondon tube line. This book is the result and we follow Phil and Sue Brown and As their two sons, Jack and Theo though a traumatic period which lasts for just over two months. The entries in the diaries are made daily and we read what has happened to each member of the 'dysfunctional family'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0048ELN32</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anna Quindlen|title=Every Last One|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Mary Beth Latham is contemplating her averagefates overlap, ordinary life where every day is more of less the same. Would things be better if life were more exciting, varied, newsworthy? Is that a legitimate thing to hope for? They say to be careful what you wish for, and Mary Beth never comes right out and says this story is what she wantstold in backwards order, but there are hints leading up to this effectthe fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099537966</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John LawtonJennifer Mason|title=A Lily of the FieldPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery
|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 'A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and -pop mobile diner in particular in playing the cello. Even at this tender ageNorthern California redwoods, people are talking about her starry future on a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the world stage. She is the apple of her father2004 Olympics, a women's eye and soon she's being given extra musical tuition by track coach with a kind but much older man. He's old enough to be her grandfather but nevertheless they strike up yen for bullwhips, a rather unusual friendship billionaire with music being a state-of-the common denominator. But some of their conversations are serious and quite grown-up for art S&M dungeon, a man serving a young girllife sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, not yet into puberty. The tutorx), Viktor Rosen is Jewish and has already suffered at the hands of the Germans. Meret progresses at such on a pace that before you know itcheap oil painting, she's performing an erotic art dealer in publicGeorgia.. Her life appears to be wonderful and full of future promise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1611856019</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander BaronB0B2N7MVYM|title=There's No Home|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's the year 1943 and Sicily has been invaded (along with other parts of Europe). The menfolk have gone (will they return?) and the women, children and old people left behind are a sorry sight. Impoverished, ragged and with barely enough food to eat. A British company Calculations of soldiers rolls into town ... and everything changes. The men are foot-sore, exhausted and dirty. They are also glassy-eyed with the horrors of war. And as if that were not enough, the Sicilian sun beats down on them mercilessly. But there's some good news - they're here to rest and recuperate for a while.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956308600</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewRational Men|author=Raj Kumar|title=SharafDaniel Godfrey|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With its subtitle "Forbidden love in It's the kingdom 10th of faith and honour"December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to put what happens in context, I expected something entirely different from 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'Sharafs not the missile crisis that's at the front of his mind. He' to what it delivereds been convicted of murder. For With the current state of medical knowledge, it's hard to think otherwise than that the second time prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in as many weeks I had misjudged HMP Queen's Bench, a book byrelatively new prison. He's just getting used to his roommate, if not its cover exactlyMervyn, certainly by its setting and its blurblearning to be wary of the McArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905802331</amazonuk>
}}