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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General fictionFiction|summary=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, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873__NOTOC__}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=D. J. Connell1529153298|title=Sherry Cracker Gets NormalThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Whilst itIt's wrong to judge a book by its cover1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, a mere sight of Dhonestly.. J. Connell) She's not what's worrying Miv's second novel family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared'Sherry Cracker Gets Normaldoesn' is enough t sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to make me smilemove the family 'Down South'. The title When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is amusing; a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the colourful design enticing move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the effusive praise for Connelldangers or that her Mum's debut 'Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar' encouragingstopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000733219X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gavin James1035906708|title=Ariadne's ThreadDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Ariadne's Thread'' is the story We tend to think of Elena Avgoulas who decided in May 1941 that she would have to leave ChiosMaria Callas as Greek, the Greek island where but she was bornto Greek parents in Manhattan, until the war New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was overthirteen. German soldiers had occupied the island and whilst they were there Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it would not be home to her, her mother and sister and brothers. The brothers were 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the Greek army. Her mother would run the family bakery and her sister would support their motherStates. Elena When she was a medical student back in Athens and had a nursing qualification; - supposedly so that she decided that could get appropriate training for her voice - she would make use of this in was raised under the war effort. And so began Nazi occupation by a journey that would take mother who mercilessly exploited her to Cyprus, Palestine, Egypt, Italy and Germany in the course made no secret of the warher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005FRG8P4</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Javier MariasAlexander McCall Smith|title=While the Women are SleepingThe Perfect Passion Company
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Holmes embarks on The Perfect Passion Company is a journey towards the Northern Islesdating agency in Edinburgh, we are treated run by Ness and operating as an alternative to a comprehensive background of the ways of witches all over the world; all points are pertinent online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the history business, as Ness is fascinating as well as necessaryplanning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. The introduction to the ways Katie is coming out of witchcraft demonstrates a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the worldwide links that will become highly significant laterchance to come home to Edinburgh. Revill weaves in And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the relevant history and all its complications Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with easesome new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and the novel flows in spite of having there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to accommodate this.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920091</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin GosselinDean Koontz|title=Hunt for the Blower BentleyThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Connecticut innkeeper Faston Hanks Benny is obsessivehaving a terrifically bad day. He's very keen on food but it's cars – loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and particularly old cars – which drive himhis house gets trashed. This time heOh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's involved in possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the search for thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the only one of the fifty Blower Bentleys made which remains unaccounted forvery last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. SM3912 was originally purchased by Lord Brougham and Vaux and ownership can be traced So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to one D H Sessionshis house is a new friend, after which the trail goes colda bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. We know something which Faston doesn't know though – the Bentley came into the hands Spike is going to take care of Stephan SidlowBenny, who was high up in the APR during World War IIand will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, by less than honest means. But then Sidlow was less than honest about which side if he was supporting in the war, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780920180</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ernest ClineKatherine Howe|title=Ready Player OneA True Account
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A short while agoHannah Masury is living in Boston, I stumbled across having been sent to live with a highly enjoyable film called ''Fanboys''family who run an inn, about and being made to work there from a bunch young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of ''Star Wars'' fans trying some pirates in the town, she decides to break into George Lucasgo and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy' mansion to get a sneak preview s death at the hands of the new filmtwo vicious pirates. I didnShe hides away, so that they don't pay much attention find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the name of the writer, until I came across Ernest Clinenotorious Ned Low's author bio pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in ''Ready Player One'' the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and realised it was written by from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the same person. This immediately gave me high hopesocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846059372</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Harris1471180158|title=The Fear IndexMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop Jamie Matson works in yearsan upper-class grocery store, turmoil on for a man who's a control freak with all the bond markets subtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the prospect of economic meltdown and more you read, the possible disintegration of more you'll suspect that he's on the euro zone, Robert Harrisautistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she' new thriller couldns a frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo't s not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be more timelycontrolled and put in the wrong. It was going to come to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom BaleB0CKD1L5JL|title=Blood FallsRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and reviewed Bale's [[Terror's Reach by Tom Bale|Terror's Reach]]and enjoyed it. What would I think of his latest? Joe Petr is doing his level best to live an unremarkable (almost invisible) life in Bristolorphan. He uses his brawn to pay his modest bills for rentRescued by the strange, food etc. But you could sayreclusive Bear, once a copper, always a copper so his brain he is not idlebrought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, it's in constant use. Whirring away in the background and itforests of Washington's just as wellOlympic Peninsula. Joe soon senses imminent danger when After Bear dies and a couple of blokes stroll bybrief sojourn in human company, stop and ask his gaffer armed with only a couple of questions. Joe needs to be somewhere else - pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the forest, broadcasting the strange, wild and fastrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809325X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John O'ConnellSarah Marsh|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelSign of Her Own|rating=43.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1900After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, and a man on Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a ship coming back from the Boer War to edit the Daily Express meets one world of his heroes silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the form use of Arthur Conan Doylesign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. With similar experiences and interests yet different enough to bounce off each other they take From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the idea of collaborating on deaf and using a plotsystem called Visible Speech. When they do fix on At the same time to do so, it leads to literary prospects, which lead to a week's research together Bell is working on Dartmoorother inventions and ideas, which leads to ''The Hound of the Baskervilles''. But perhaps and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a way that only one complicated tangle of them intendedespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Syd MooreB0BC3YTCMR|title=The Drowning PoolGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with a group of young women out on the town, letting their hair down and having fun. Moore describes all of them in a fresh and modern voice which I really liked. It came across as a breath of fresh air. The story, Sarah's 'This story is told by Sarah herselfnot for everyone. But it's told from the perspective of looking back after it's all happened so there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-that-coming language. Hindsight, in a word.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847562663</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine
|author=Victoria Hislop
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and enjoyed Hislop's 'The Island' so I It was looking forward in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to reading this bookGreece. The Prologue is May 2007 She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and readers are treated refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a vivid coastal description of pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the area which is to play such a big part family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the novelfirst of several annual visits. Lines such as She grew to love her grandmother and the family'With the lifting hazes maid, Dina, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across the Thermaic Gulf but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the restful blues of sea Junta and sky shrugged off their pale shroudexpected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>s red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.
}}
{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=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 shrouded 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}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William GiraldiB0BVDC2VWH|title=Busy MonstersThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his GillianThe village is isolated and poor. HeIt's proved it to ussurrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, if not to herroofs on homes, by going after her possessiveand even gallows, jealous state trooper if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an ex with existential superstition in the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat instead. But lo village and behold, she's declared she's off to discover that is the real love of her life - the giant squid. Failing to stop thisreason Volushka, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessivedrunken, then goes on a hunt of his own self- for Bigfoot, all the while, chapter by chapterindulgent, sending his narrative lazy lout of the same to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columnsman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas SparksB0BYF82CXT|title=The Best of MeSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Since watching the film of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books but never quite got around to it until I saw this, his newest offering. Here we have the tale of two childhood sweethearts whose love was always threatened by the fact that they were from opposite sides of the tracks Bill and Amanda are living in a semi- he from the roughdetached house, poor family that is forever on the wrong side stuck in a depressing rut of the lawboredom and disappointment, when Terry and she from one of the betterFiona – glamorous, respected families successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the town. After couples befriend each other and life forces them apart they go on appears to live very different lives, but improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. Drawn back together for the funeral of an old friend they are both forced to look at the choices they've made in their lives and where they go to from here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847443206</amazonuk>'
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Marius BrillShalini Boland|title=How to ForgetThe Silent Bride|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=If you Alice and Seth are a fan of the BBC's 'Hustle' seriesmatch made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, you will absolutely love Marius Brill’s 'How to Forget'. It’s a funnyaccomplished, clever , funny; total and twisted tale of grifters and con tricks with a bit of magic thrown utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in for good measure. Brill gives us a cast of strange characters: there's an ethically dubious brain scientistwife; beautiful, a dodgy Derren Brown-type TV celebrity whose interests are guarded by two violent but somewhat hapless Hasidic Jewish thugssuccessful, an equally violent FBI agent confident… and a female British copper. At so the heart of inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the story though wedding is an apparently naïve British magicianplanned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, PeterAlice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and a supreme grifterwhen Seth turns to face his approaching bride, KateAlice's world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, in whose life Peter finds himself entangledwho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857520717</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=S G Browne1787636003|title=FatedThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Clever It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and very funny, this is arrived on the sort of book where you immediately feel in safe handsisland. S.G. Browne has gone Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to town (New York)take an interest in her, satirising just about every aspect she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of modern life, physical approach to her and my reading by that time she was continually interrupted obsessed by bells clanging loudly him. Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in recognition particular in my headthe bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Titania Hardie|title=The House of the Wind|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=I loved the intriguing title of the book and was hoping that Hardie explains it. She does: not only that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touch, I thought and not over-played either. The short Prologue describes a young girl on the eve of her 'terrible fate.' But fate seems to have changed its mind at the very last minute. And this strange/weird/scary event happens at the Casa al Vento - 'The House of the Wind.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755346297</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jane Sanderson|title=Netherwood|rating=4|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=The cover of Netherwood features a bold promise - 'Perfect for fans of Downton Abbey'. The basic features of a reliable 'upstairs/downstairs' saga are all present; the landed gentry enjoying their estate, the staff servicing it and the locals, all relying on the fortunate family for their own income.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751547638</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Khaled Hosseini|title=The Kite Runner (Graphic Novel)|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=A confession. If there's one book I'm not likely to read, it's that which everyone else is reading. If it turns into a hugely popular film for all the left-wing chattering classes to rave over, then that's just more grist to my mill – I'll always have a chance to catch up on it later on, even if I never take that opportunity. I'm not alone in acting like this – see a friend and colleague's similar admission when reviewing [[White Teeth by Zadie Smith]]. But at least, through the medium of the graphic novel, the book reviewing gods have conspired to let me see just what I'm missing, with this adaptation, by Italian artists, of a hugely successful – and therefore delayable – novel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408815257</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer HaighAmanda Craig|title=FaithThree Graces
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As a ''New York Times Bestseller'' I was expecting great things from this book; coupled with the fact that I really enjoy American Few styles of contemporary fiction, I was itching to get reading. The story is told from interest me like the perspective state-of Sheila, sister to Mike and half-sister to Arthur (hethe-nation novel. There's normally called Art). Art is the priest and something so utterly compelling about any writer who is at can catch hold of the centre atmosphere of the storm. We go back in time day and discover a rather pious woman who has had a hard start to married life. She's now left to bring up her young soncapture it, Art, on her own. But things pick up pretty quickly from here and crafting an image of the country as an attractive woman itstands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's not long before she meets someone else. Two more children are born and they all settle down into a normal, American family unit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jaimy Gordon|title=Lord practically synonymous with the genre of Misrule|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=West Virginia, 1970contemporary social fiction at this point. We're at She has such a rundown race track, gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the dusty kind rundown horses and their rundown owner/trainers fetch up living day into the lives of her characters in, with the occasional race to interrupt the boredom. Into things comes a young upstart hoping to surprise all with his four unknown quantities way that feels natural and make a packet before fleeing. His girlfriend is here too to help outlived-in, and naively eager never making them ciphers for success and knowledgesocial commentary but instead fully realised people, but old hands like Medicine Ed have seen it all before. Also in the background are some small-time gangsters who are not too keen at for once not knowing who is doing what and how races are going to be run and wongrappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857386697</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith152915118X|title=Unusual Uses for Olive Oil: A Von Igelfeld NovelPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Following on from ''The 2½ Pillars Pineapple Street'' is the story of Wisdomthree women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn' which was t a compilation of three shorter volumesStockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, this book sees Professor Dr Von Igelfeld still dealing with his academic colleagues but also with asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the prospect of Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a love intereststreet or so away, a recently widowed ladywhich they own. They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, Frau Benzso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, who has inherited they had a choice but that wasn't the large Schloss in Regensburgreality. Is love Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the air? Or will his arch rival, Unterholzer interfere once again?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316027545</amazonuk>GD'.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyEmily Critchley|title=The Generation GameOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV show84 year old Edie has lived in the same 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 old Brucie 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, and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? worry that 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. Where were you when Charles and Di got married? What about when Diana died? ThereAfter 'seeing's plenty of reminiscing to be done Lucy in this book the high street, just as Sophie Duffy takes us from she was the 1960's last time she saw her, she starts to 2006 through the life find pockets of memories coming back to her character, Philippa. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in a book that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments her day to real sadnessday life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248017</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=Kirsten Tranter0008506337|title=The LegacyGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is quite a chunky book so Tranter has given herself plenty of space 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 time 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 build up Oxford and having a nice level of suspense here as well as putting some flesh on glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the bones Isle of her central charactersWight. The book opens Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well- towards the end of the storyrespected journalist. So we have firmThe couple had three children: Rachel, but platonic friends, Julia Imogen and Ralph both very concerned about their mutual friend, IngridSasha. She supposedly died Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on 9/11 - but with no remains, no burial, their grief hasn't an outletthe Isle of Wight. They need (Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to quote that much used word) closureleave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857380621</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Wilson1914585402|title=The Family FangDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought theyI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There'd ever be again. But it has come to this - her film actress career is on the rocks with the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed s Only One Danny Garvey by tabloid writers, and he - well, heDavid F Ross|There's here because Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of a jumbo spud gun. Neither want life years back at home, as throughout their childhood they were used and remember being absolutely floored by their parents - without much planninghow powerful and affecting it was. It was a gripping, without any consideration of feelingsemotionally wounding read, or consent - in a whole career and rereading my review of performance art pieces, designed to enact a point of life or just cause havocit my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Philip RothLucy Ashe|title=NemesisClara and Olivia
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1944The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, Newarktwins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, New Jerseyon the inside. SummerAnd not on stage, either. HotBecause there's a lot that builds a dancer. Bucky CantorSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, a young Jewish man, is gym teacher attention to detail – and playground attendant-cum-sports instructor for the districtsome things, helping all those interested become fit young menthat ''je ne sais quoi'', able to do what his eyesight prevents him that don't come from doing - serving in the forcesclassroom. Things would be fine if his girlfriend were closer at handA stage presence, if it were coolera charm, and if there were no polio epidemic happeninga ''joie de vivre''. But there is, and nobody knows what is causing it. Is it flies? Is it The difference between a gang of taunting Italian kids spreading it from neighbourhood to neighbourhood? Is it blacks, germs on money hard- is it in fact Cantor himselfworker, draining all the youthful vigour from his charges under and a blistering sun?star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099542269</amazonuk>0861544080
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nina BellHeather Fawcett|title=The Empty NestersEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=34
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With their children all off to university (most from the same school year, plus Emily Wilde is an erroneous one who took a handy-for-the-sake-of-the-story gap year), it's all change for the parents in this book – for Clover and Georgeexpert academic scholar on faerie lore, and Laura and Timshe has travelled extensively, and Alice. Though some of the fathers are presentresearched meticulously, as youto write her life'd expect this is a tale told mainly from s work, the eyes very first encyclopaedia of the mothersfaeries. Clover Whilst she is brilliant at research and Laura have been friends foreverspeaking to faeries, while Clover and Alice's relationship she is more recentnot so good with people. As for Laura and Alice, well they really don't get on So when she finds herself far, making life a little tricky at times for Clover, stuck somewhere far North in the middle.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543667</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Susan Hill|title=The Shadows in small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the Street|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=This village matriarch, she is the fifth novel in Susan Hill's series about the detective Simon Serrailler. Although you could probably follow the story without knowing the previous books I think it does help not sure what she has done, nor how to have some background redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on who all the characters areright track. I really love the way Hill weaves Enter Wendell Bambleby, her story around some wonderful character studiesdashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. Simon But why is actually hardly in this novel, and the focus instead he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the 'extras', with a lot of details being put into characters who will only be faerie folk around for this particular novel but who live and breathe through it wonderfully well. Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099499282</amazonuk>0356519120
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Lewis1398515388|title=Into DustThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The front cover graphics leave First of all, it was the reader earthquake, deep in no doubt that the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this is a thriller , in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the blurb on loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the back cover mentions list of priorities but - six months after the troubles in Afghanistan, deadly bombs, sniffer dogs, so tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't a dog person but the theme here is bang up convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to-date open his car door and many would possibly say, relevantTamon the dog jumped in. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092598</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Evelio RoseroChristopher Bowden|title=Good Offices|rating=3.5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Here is a church in Bogota nobody seems to want to leave. In part one it is a large group of the elderly, given a weekly, tasteless meal from the charitable funds, but bitterly refusing to quit the place, making our main character Tancredo fear for his passivity. In part two it is the congregation, as a rare need for a stand-in priest seems to be a blessing. And in part three it is that priest himself, stuck among the household of Tancredo, the girl who loves him, and chorus of three weird old women.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050672</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Arnaldur Indridason|title=Operation NapoleonMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In 1945 Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a German bomber crashed on patient untangling of a glacier in Icelandseemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she has died. This might not have been quite so extraordinary were it not for the fact that there were both German The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and American officers on board. Two a little bit of the passengers are killed in the crash, one sets off for help indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and four people remain, trapped in the plane, eventually freezing it seems to death. Just before the end of last century the glacier gave up the plane and the US army began him an operation obligation to remove the wreckage as secretly as possible, but two young Icelanders are caught up in what is going on. One contacts his sister but before he can complete the call they are grabbed by the soldiers, brutally attacked and their bodies and snowmobiles dumped in a crevassefind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099535637</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Linda GillardJennifer Mason|title=Untying the KnotPartitions of Unity|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I've often wondered why it's not axiomatic that a man should stand Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by his woman – although perhaps it couldn't be set to music quite so easily – but Fay had failed to stand by her man. To make it worseJennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she was an army wife and they just don't desert – investigated and Magnus was unravelled a heroseries of disappearances. HeIn ''Partitions of Unity''d been in bomb disposal and despite being blown up had briefed his number two about the bomb before he was taken off , she sets her mind to hospitalsolving a murder. He was good-looking, charismatic – and divorced. Fay knew that marrying Magnus had been a mistake – but she also admitted that the biggest mistake of all was divorcing him.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B005JTAMQO</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ulrika JonssonWill Carver|title=The Importance of Being MyrtleDaves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=There is no denying that the Brontë family lived an interesting life. While some authors' lives are shrouded Five strangers come together in mystery, with their characters far better known than they themselves are, that's not really the case with the Brontës. Various biographers have, over the years, provided one moment as a clear picture of 19th century Yorkshire life thanks suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a wealth of original letters and diaries preserved from the timeLondon tube line. This makes Kohler's choice of topic slightly odd. Rather than an attempt to imagine the unknown lives of As their fates overlap, the sisters, it story is a cobbling together of facts and assumptions that have been told in backwards order, leading up to the public arena for some time. For anyone who knows anything about the Brontës, it really is nothing new, and that's a shamefateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849010862</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil RickmanJennifer Mason|title=The Secrets of PainPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's a freezing winter's night and A struggling poetry zine, a couple of the locals are driving home when they come across a strange mom-and disturbing incident. They don't know what to make of it but as -pop mobile diner in the SAS have Northern California redwoods, a training presence in 400-meter hurdler who just missed the area Gomer and Danny put it down to exercises and breath 2004 Olympics, a sigh of relief. Itwomen's anything track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with a state-of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a quiet life round these parts and thanks to Rickman'sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s excellent writing, we soon see that these menx), Gomer especiallyon a cheap oil painting, are characters an erotic art dealer in themselvesGeorgia. Plenty of personality. Once seen, difficult to forget. And I didn't want to forget them. They also speak in the local dialect which comes across very well indeed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848872739</amazonuk>}}'
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy B HughesB0B2N7MVYM|title=The Expendable ManCalculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Dorothy B Hughes (1904-93) took a journalism degree in Kansas City, Missouri and started her distinguished career with a prize-winning book It's the 10th of poemsDecember 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Her first hard-boiled thriller appeared Just to put what happens in 1940 and it was followed by more than a dozen context, the Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in the next decadepeople's minds. Three were made into noir films and in 1944 Hughes went The world has barely had a chance to Hollywood to assist Hitchcock on his filmbreathe out. But for Joe Marr, it's not the missile crisis that'Spellbound''. Here she met Ingrid Bergman and consequently Humphrey Bogart came to buy s at the film rights to one front of her novelshis mind.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1903155584</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chuck Palahniuk|title=Damned|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary='Are you there, Satan? It He's me, Madison'been convicted of murder. I'm a spunky With the current state of medical knowledge, lively tweenage girl, except I'm a dead one, and I'm in Hell, to my surprise. While I'm here I'll find out just where it is all those cold-calling telegraphers ring you from just while you're settling down s hard to your evening meal, and where think otherwise than that the worldprosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's wasted sperm and discarded toenail clippings fetch upBench, a relatively new prison. I'll have very hairy encounters with demons of Satan He's and mankind's makingjust getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and with some superlative plotting and flashbacks I'll find a clearer approach learning to why I was put here in be wary of the first placeMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091158</amazonuk>
}}