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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sara GruenOnyi Nwabineli|title=Ape HouseAllow Me to Introduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Isabel Duncan is a scientist working with Bonobo chimpsAnuri 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, basically, teaching them sign languagemonetary gain. John Thigpen Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is a journalist who comes slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to meet take down the apes and write a story content about Isabel's work with themher. He Anuri is moved by the apesbattling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, by their behaviour undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and Isabel's obviously very close relationship with receiving money from themfor doing so. Soon after he leavesMost importantly, howevershe is desperately worried about her little sister, there who is a bomb at the centre by a group new focus of extremists who want to liberate the apesOphelia's online empire. Isabel begins a desperate hunt to try Can she save her sister, and discover where they've gone, perhaps herself and John finds himself also caught up, trying to discover her relationship with her father at the truth of what's happened.same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1444716026</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Barbara has been teaching at St GeorgeIt's for several years, 1979 and in spite of her caustic words on the institution, it Margaret Thatcher is very much the focus of her lonely lifePrime Minister. When newcomer (A woman? I mean, Sheba joins themhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, she forms a strong bond with herthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, and becomes part of Shebathey's life. Sheba is married with two childrenve been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her attraction father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a pupilfrightening, foreign place, Connollybest avoided. For Miv, leads the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to risk everything in a liaison of which Barbara is extremely jealousprevent that. As a result, their apparent friendship travels a sinister path She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>024195455X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A D Miller1035906708|title=Snowdrops|rating=4|genre=General FictionDiva|summary=The front cover, a snowy scene with majestic architecture in the background, is arresting and also suggests a thriller-type read. I was keen to find out why the book was called ''Snowdrops'' and hoped the author would enlighten me. He did - and it's nothing to do with flowers or gardening. It's rather chilling and altogether more interesting.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848874537</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dori Ostermiller|title=Outside the Ordinary WorldDaisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Although not keen on the title (a little clunky) I did feel that this We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was going born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to be a book I'd enjoyAthens when she was thirteen. Ostermiller has some fulsome praise for this debut novel including from Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the author [[:Category:Diane Chamberlain|Diane Chamberlain]]States. And after reading When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the back cover blurb I can sense Nazi occupation by a similarity which is fine by me. (I thoroughly enjoyed all mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of Chamberlain's books)her preference for her elder sister, Jackie. Would I enjoy this book as much?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830468X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Yvvette Edwards|title=A Cupboard Full of Coats|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=''He just knocked, that was all, knocked and the front door and waited, like the fourteen years since I'd killed my mother hadn't happened...'' Jinx is cold and she knows it. She cleans obsessively - a largely pointless task, since there is little mess to clean since her husband and young son, tired of her frigidity, moved out. She cooks beautifully balanced meals that look aesthetic on the plate. But her food offers sustenance, not comfort. In fact, Jinx feels most at home amongst the dead people she works with as a funeral home cosmetologist. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688382</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=44 Scotland Street: Bertie Plays the BluesThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In this seventh outing The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to Scotland Street we're back with all the cast of familiar charactersonline apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Matthew Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Elspeth have had their triplets and must now face look after the trials business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of being new parentsa break up with a bad boyfriend, with three times and so jumps at the trouble! chance to come home to Edinburgh. Angus And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and Domenica are attempting the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to resolve the tricky issue of where they will live once they're marriedcharm. And what of dear Bertie? WellKatie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, heand there's finally reached a point of having had enough of his mother soalways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, with the help of his friendWilliam, he puts himself up for adoption on Ebay!to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846971888</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura KasischkeDean Koontz|title=The RaisingBad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Craig Benny is returning to universityhaving a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, where he is widely viewed as being responsible for the death of loses his fiancee, and his girlfriend Nicolehouse gets trashed. Oh, in and someone has delivered a road accident. Suffering from postreally weird, disturbing coffin-traumatic stress sized object to his home, and memory loss as a result of it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the accidentthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Craig Benny is an obvious candidate to fall victim to the hauntings that start very last person to occur around the campusdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. But So fortunately for Benny it's not just Craig who is seeing inexplicable things happen at turns out that the university.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857891545</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Simon Ings|title=Dead Water|rating=3|genre=Crime|summary=The standard advice delivery to artists his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has always been "don't gild the lily"sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. For those writers who appear not Spike is going to understand how this relates to their art formtake care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, let me offer up and Harper (a basic translation: donwaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny't complicate a brilliant plot! Dead Water suffers from such gildings wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848878885</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia DonaldsonKatherine Howe|title=The GloomsterA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We've all Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work therefrom a young age. Finding fault with everything around usWhen she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and perhaps picking on one particular irritant that gets us so rattled, tetchy watch. Enthralled and narked all we can do is invoke "Hell and damnation!" down on all creation - includinghorrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of course, ourselvestwo vicious pirates. After allShe hides away, our lot is so bad it wonthat they don't make anything much worsefind 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 cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1471180158|title=Isabel Dalhousie: The Charming Quirks of OthersMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I do wonderJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, sometimes, how it is possible that Mr Alexander McCall Smith can possibly manage to write so many novels? Wouldnfor a man who't it be fascinating to meet him, and see if s a control freak with all the stories just ooze out subtlety of him non-stop, and if he walks around with pen and paper at all times jotting things down as they occur to hima half brick... In this book he Jamie's bringing us backson, once againBo, to Isabel Dalhousie's worldhas his problems'. If you donHe't know who Isabel is then s asthmatic and the more you should really forget all about this book for read, the moment and go right back to more you'll suspect that he's on the beginning autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0349118698?tag=thebookbagtake time off at short notice -21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0349118698&adid=12XVW0J2SJ9MJA2J2YPBshe's a frequent flier in the local A& The Sunday Philosophy Club] so you can get all the characters in order E and know whatsometimes Bo's going onnot fit enough to go to school. If you're already Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up to date, however, from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and have read up put in the wrong. It was going to [[The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith|The Lost Art of Gratitude]] then you're good come to go!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349123128</amazonuk>a head.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brett BattlesB0CKD1L5JL|title=The SilencedRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the fourth instalment of the Jonathan Quinn seriesstrange, reclusive Bear, Quinn and his team are hired to clean he is brought up after an operation far from bustling cities and find a mysterious woman has followed them there. Before they can stop herbusy human society, she disappearsin the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. On the next job she turns up again After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, this time and armed with friendsonly a pirate radio transmitter, and things start to go drastically wrong. Quinn must find this woman and stop herPetr goes on a journey through the forest, but in broadcasting the meantime somebody has become very interested in finding out Jonathan Quinn's real identity strange, wild and is getting closer to his familyrarely heard voices he encounters. Quinn has to make a choice; do his job or save his family?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092881</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thierry JonquetSarah Marsh|title=Tarantula: The Skin I Live InA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In After a large French country housebout of scarlet fever as a child, an expert in facial reconstruction surgery keeps a beautiful woman locked up in Ellen Lark loses her bedroomhearing. He placates Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her with opium, but barks orders through hugely powerful speakers and an intercomlife changes. She tantalises him with her sexuality, which he tries to ignore, except for when he seems to abuse it Living in a sort time when the use of S/M way when he does let her into societysign language was seen as something only savages do, as he forces her Ellen is sent to prostitute herself. Elsewhere, a youngschool where she is taught to lip read, inept bank robber holes himself up in a sunny house, waiting for the heat to diebut physically restrained from signing. And finallyFrom here, a young man is held chained she ends up in a cellar at another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the hands of an unknown possessor.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687942</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ira Levin|title=The Boys From Brazil|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=A small group of powerful Nazis gather for deaf and using a convivial post-prandial meeting, and collect identities and orders from their leader, who is sending them to different corners of the world in order that many innocent people may be killedsystem called Visible Speech. But this isn't when you might expect - it's At the mid-1970s. It isn't where you might expectsame time, for these Nazis are remnants of Hitler's regime that fled to south America for safety. And the deaths are being ordered for reasons you will never foretell. In that regardBell is working on other inventions and ideas, then, you are as well-informed as chief Nazi hunter Yakov Lieberman, who hears tantalising hints and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of the plot, but cannot fathom it - nor indeed find proof it has indeed startedespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015902</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe DunthorneB0BC3YTCMR|title=Wild AbandonGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When your first novel has been successful, it adds pressure onto the second. ''This story is the situation facing Joe Dunthorne, as his debut [[Submarine by Joe Dunthorne|Submarine]] won several awards, was adapted into a film and came highly praised by The Bookbagnot for everyone. This means ''Wild Abandon'' has to be rather good to keep his reputation intact. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>024114406X</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Esi Edugyan1472263936|title=Half-Blood BluesThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Sid and his friend Chip are revisiting their youth, more than 50 years agoIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. They were jazz musicians She was alone: her mother, living and working in Berlin and ParisGreek by birth, until they had to escape Nazi occupied Paris in 1940 left the family home and refused to return to Baltimore. Now it is 1992, but Mary and all the others they worked with are long since deadHamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. They have just been involved in a documentary about their experiences, and are about to return Her trip to Germany (soon after the fall of family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the Berlin Wall) for a jazz festival in memory first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the great Hiero Falk. Hieronymus Falk family's maid, Dina, but was a young black German musician with an exceptional musical talent, the star wary - and frightened - of their bandher grandfather, the Hot-Time Swingersretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was picked up by 'the Boots' as Sid refers proud of his close connections to the Germans, in Paris in 1940, Junta and disappeared into a concentration camp, then they heard he was released expected his family to uphold his values but died in 1948saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ira LevinDean Koontz|title=Rosemary's BabyAfter Death|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A young couple find the beginnings Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a dream life together top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a new apartment bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a New York building sense that a friend says is a hotbed something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of death his dead friends and misfortuneformer colleagues. But it seems perfectAs he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. His job prospects as an actor have never been better, and they're quickly accepted into the elderly community of their neighbours'Everything''. WhatMichael isn't ''Michael''s more, she - Rosemary - gets pregnantanymore. Nothing can go wrong, can it? None of this happiness and hope can come at a dreadful cost - can it?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015880</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Luke WilliamsB0BVDC2VWH|title=The Echo ChamberGrave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1946, in the last days of the British Empire, Evie Steppman had exceptional hearingThe village is isolated and poor. She remembers what it was like in the womb, the pumping of her motherIt's blood, surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the different tones villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of her father's voice telling her storiesthe forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and the clatter of outside noiseeven gallows, yet to be recognized as the falling of rain or the whining of the windif needed. As she grew up she learnt to listen to the sounds around her, for even in silence there is still the echo The fear of one's own heartbeat. Now, many years later, her hearing being buried alive is going, and with it her memories. Confined to an attic space existential superstition in Scotland she needs to write her story down before it the village and that is too late. To do this she turns to objects – the reason Volushka, a pocket watch, maps, photos and diariesdrunken, to help reself-form her pastindulgent, to take us on lazy lout of a journey – not through sights, but through soundsman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241143004</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ben BrooksB0BYF82CXT|title=Grow UpSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The back cover blurb tells us that the mentally ill (for whatever reason or reasons) are still stigmatised by various sectors of society. I would agree. I then flip the book over to the front cover which has the words 'the mental health publisher' Bill and straight away some Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of us may already be making a judgement (perhaps unfairly too) before they even open the bookboredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Perhaps this up-front honesty by the publisher negates somewhat Despite their different outlooks on life, the terrific title couples befriend each other and terrific graphics of the coverlife appears to improve for both pairs. Just my own personal opinion here. The publishing company But all is being supported by the Arts Councilnot what it seems, Englandand their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849915261</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ira LevinShalini Boland|title=The Stepford WivesSilent Bride|rating=4.53
|genre=General Fiction
|summary='It can't be Alice and Seth are a coincidence that Stepford women are all the way they are' says Bobbie, Joanna Eberhart's only friend match made in Stepfordheaven. Joanna He is everything she has recently come to live been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the idyllic suburban town of Stepford with her husband wedding is planned and two childrenset. She When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is an independent woman walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with her own part-time career pride and excitement as a photographershe surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is intelligent, liberated and has a keen interest in feminismwho is waiting for her to become his wife. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849015899</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1787636003|authortitle=The Girls of Summer Wood|titleauthor=WreckerKatie Bishop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I found It was the book title intriguing summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and wondered if I'd got caught up in some demolition yard story by mistakearrived on the island. WoodRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, at some stage so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in the book does give her readers the explanation, she was flattered rather than wary. It's was quite a boy's name apparently and the detailed explanation is rather charming - and apt. But it's also just a tad over-the-top (in terms while before he made any sort of credibility I'm thinking) physical approach to her and by the that time I'd finished the book I she was heartily sick of this name which had short-term appeal for meobsessed by him. I was muttering to myself saying silly things like - why can't he be called BillyAlistair worked for Henry Taylor, for example. But I'm not writing looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the bookgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809311</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip Jose FarmerAmanda Craig|title=The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Peerless PeerThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This book has reached Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the dizzy heights state-of an ''International Bestseller'' with plaudits all over its covers-the-nation novel. And itThere's a debut novelsomething so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, albeit by crafting an author who has worked image of the country as it stands in journalismone particular moment. So, am I going to To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be another notch on embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the booklives of her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-reading bedpostin, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, so to speak?grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849160317</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jon Steele152915118X|title=The WatchersPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=At over 500 pages I'm sincerely hoping that this book 'Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is going married to appealtheir brother Cord. The back cover blurb is promisingThey're Stocktons, informing the reader that only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the author is a well-travelled cameraman/editor of many years standingtribe. The story opens with a young Marc Rochat starting a new life in Switzerlandproblem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Everything is strange Tilda and Chip have renovated and new downsized to himanother property, a street or so away, which they own. He becomes a night-watchman at They won't need any of the local cathedral furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and carries out his duties diligentlyCord can move straight in. He doesnNominally, they had a choice but that wasn't mind the fact that itreality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 's a rather solitary job as he more than makes up for the silence (when the bells are not ringing that is) by chatting away to all of the various bells as if they were humangold digger'. Marc She's conversations with his living in ''their'ladies' are utterly charmingfamily home. I could listen They use it so often that they abbreviate it to them all day'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593067517</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John HartEmily Critchley|title=Iron HouseOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Hart 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is already facing a best-selling author so he has a lot move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live up to with his latest bookfamily, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. At over 400 pages it's a bigHowever, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, meaty read. The story opens with MichaelLucy, now an adult. In his primewho went missing over 60 years ago, with and the woman he loves and about to become worry that there was a father: life is looking very rosy indeedsecret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. He thinks that heAfter 's left his shady past behind him forever. Heseeing's wrong. Hart gives his readers a little background info on MichaelLucy in the high street, just as she was the central characterlast time she saw her, just enough she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to whet our appetitesher. It worked for me And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and I was eager more in her day to keep turning the pagesday life. At Will she uncover the start of the book theretruth about Lucy's a definite sense of something catastrophic about to happen disappearance before her move, and that it involves Michael in some way.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848541791</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=Haley Tanner0008506337|title=Vaclav and LenaThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the summer of 1969The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, as Thunderclap Newman proclaimed apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in their love. Richard was twenty-one and only musical claim 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 fame, there was something in the airOxford and having a glittering career. The alternative generation were talking about In the recent Woodstock Festival in Americaevent, they eloped and eagerly looking forward Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to what promised Oxford and went on to be become a similar gatheringwell-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, albeit Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on a smaller scale, at the Isle of Wight at . Even then the end of August, where Bob Dylan was headliningdoubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908105658</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Makkai1914585402|title=The BorrowerDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read the front cover blurb and didnreviewed David F Ross's book [[There't quite get it s Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There'She borrowed s Only One Danny Garvey]] a childcouple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. He stole her.' It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I don't mind 'might not getting it' in the slightest as have lavished enough praise on it just makes me want to read the book even more. So I was keen to get stuck into this debut novel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434021008</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Isabel AshdownLucy Ashe|title=Hurry Up And WaitClara and Olivia|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Ashdown won The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the Observer Best Debut Novels of outside but not, we learn, on the Year with her book [[Glasshopper by Isabel Ashdown|Glasshopper]]inside. And not on stage, an excerpt of which is given at the back of this bookeither. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer. I decided Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to read it first detail – and I must say some things, that I immediately warmed to Ashown's style of writing'je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. She seems to have The difference between a knack for downhard-to-earth language especially with teenagers worker, and young people. 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 tostar. Will she be able to deliver?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956251552</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gabrielle DonnellyHeather Fawcett|title=The Little Women LettersEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the back cover blurb very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with delight and couldn't help but applaud Donnelly for her ingenuitypeople. I loved So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the book ''Little Women'' when I read it many years ago village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, nor how to redeem herself and television adaptations keep it fresh put her final investigations for new generationsher book back on the right track. SoEnter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, before Imuch to Emily'd even turned to chapter one, I was loving this books frustration. But will it live up to my lofty expectationswhy is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718156587</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Caitlin Davies1398515388|title=The Ghost of Lily PainterBoy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When Annie Sweet buys a home with her familyFirst of all, she feels inexplicably bonded to it from first sightwas the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. As life brings unwelcome changes for her The deaths were uncountable, she decides to uncover and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the history list of her house priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to provide a distraction open his car door and to understand her feelings about her homeTamon the dog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937035</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diane ChamberlainChristopher Bowden|title=The Midwife's ConfessionMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I feel that IChristopher Bowden've barely finished s latest novel is a Chamberlain review when up pops another patient untangling of a seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her books - such seems to be proliferationnephew after she has died. The story opens with the build-up aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of indulgence to the death of middle-aged midwife, Noelle. Her friends, all a little younger young nephew had had a much more interesting life than herself that nephew Stephen had ever realised 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 it seems to him an obligation to each other's housesfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0778304663</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bella PollenJennifer Mason|title=The Summer Partitions of the BearUnity
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Letty FlemingHere at Bookbag Towers, recently widowedwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, is driving her three children hundreds of miles north to a new dominatrix and hopefully happy life on a remote Scottish island. We get a peek at the personalities of the children straight awayunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: Alba is opinionated and strong-willedAn Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], for example. Still young when she's managed to acquire investigated and unravelled a list as long as her arm series of her disappearances. In 'hates' in the world - fish, English teachers and doors which are ajar all feature and I didnPartitions of Unity't care as I couldn't help liking her. At least , she knows sets her own mindto solving a murder... What will she be like when she's grown up, for heaven's sake?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330519069</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Celine IbeWill Carver|title=Shadow of a ThiefThe Daves Next Door|rating=34
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Obinna's childhood had been gloriously happy, living Five strangers come together in the Nigerian village with Mama. But when he was fifteen years old Mama told him that she was not one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his mother, but his grandmother and that his mother and father were dead. Stunned and almost disbelieving he went to bed only to be woken by vest on a loud noise in the nightLondon tube line. It came from Mama's room but when Obinna went to her she was dead on As their fates overlap, the floor. The boy could have lived with neighbours who would have been only too glad to have himstory is told in backwards order, but he set off as soon as he could leading up to his only living relative, his Uncle Raffiathe fateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907629149</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dawn FrenchJennifer Mason|title=A Tiny Bit Marvellous|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Over the years I have become something of a Dawn French fan. She has consistently entertained and quite frankly made my sides split with laughter as an actor, comedian, and most recently as a writer with her wonderful autobiography [[Dear Fatty by Dawn French|Dear Fatty]]. So when I saw her first novel ‘A Tiny Bit Marvellous’ waiting for me on The Bookbag shelves I thought here’s another treat from this remarkable entertainer. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046341</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=The Storm at the Door|author=Stefan Merrill BlockPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The author''A struggling poetry zine, Stefan Merrill Block, is writing about members of his own family a mom-and-pop mobile diner in ''The Storm at the Door''. The story opens at Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the end2004 Olympics, if you get my drift. We see the elderly grandmother Katherine in a bit of women's track coach with a spotyen for bullwhips, wondering whether to open and then read a bunch billionaire with a state-of papers. These papers (these red-hot papers) are the words and thoughts of her husband Frederick from his time -art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a mental institutioncheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia.. If she opens them, then it will be opening a veritable can of worms. Does she or doesn't she?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571269591</amazonuk>}}'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0B2N7MVYM|title=In The Sea There Are CrocodilesCalculations of Rational Men|author=Fabio GedaDaniel Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the 10th of 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'In s minds. The Sea There Are Crocoilesworld has barely had a chance to breathe out. But for Joe Marr, it's not the missile crisis that' is based on a true story about a young boy left by s at the front of his mother to fend for himselfmind. As if that wasnHe't difficult enoughs been convicted of murder. With the current state of medical knowledge, heit's stranded in Pakistan while hard to think otherwise than that the rest of prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his family are first few days in war-ravaged AfghanistanHMP Queen's Bench, a relatively new prison. It He's a collaboration between Afghan Enaiatollah and just getting used to his Italian translatorroommate, Mervyn, Fabio - this book is already a big hit with Italian readers (it says so on and learning to be wary of the back cover blurb). Enaiatollah eventually claimed political asylum in ItalyMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857560085</amazonuk>
}}
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