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[[Category:General Fiction|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]==General fiction==__NOTOC__{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Louisa YoungOnyi Nwabineli|title=My Dear I Wanted Allow Me to Tell YouIntroduce Myself
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'' starts in Lagos but soon moves Anuri spent her childhood on display to the ruralworld, oil producing Niger Delta. This allows Christie Watsonthanks to her step-mother Ophelia's young narratorincreasingly popular presence on social media, 12 year old Blessing, to view the traditional ways afresh. Itwhere she posted every step of Anuri's a clever device childhood for sponsorships and young Blessing influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is shocked by the rural conditions after a relatively luxurious life in Lagos with a good school her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and a modern apartment. But when to get her life back, suing her step-mother discovers to take down the content about her father on top of another woman. 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 takes Blessing and is desperately worried about her older brotherlittle sister, who is the asthmatic Ezikielnew focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, back to and perhaps herself and her relationship with her family home.father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849163758</amazonuk>0861546873
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nick Lake1529153298|title=In DarknessThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Simon LelicIt's third book1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what'The Child Whos worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, takes him back but to the format that worked so successfully with his first novel, have 'disappeared'Rupturedoesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv', avoiding the near-future angle he took, less successfully I felt, with his second book. Lelics upset because she's themes are always inspired by real events overheard that have been in her father wants to move the newsfamily 'Down South'. Here When you're from Yorkshire, he tackles the murder of an 11 year old child by DanielDown South is a frightening, foreign place, a 12 year oldbest avoided. The creative inspiration is surely For Miv, the James Bulger case move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and he acknowledges the creative debt she'll do anything to Blake Morrisonprevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum''As If'' on that very subjects stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330522744</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Heather Peace1035906708|title=All To Play ForDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Back We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in August 1985 at the time of the Edinburgh Festival a group of people met Manhattan, New York, in what could have been difficult circumstancesDecember 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. They were arrested for causing a disturbance despite the fact that they werenHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas't really involved to make it more manageable in the fracas and it was all a misunderstandingStates. Little did they know that When she was back in the following decade they would all be involved Athens - one way and another supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - in producing drama for the BBC as it went through one of she was raised under the toughest periods in its history. The tale is told - mainly - Nazi occupation by Rhiannon, but we hear the stories a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of Nicky, Maggie, Jill, Jonathan and Chris. Names will changeher preference for her elder sister, but they'll all wander the circular corridors of power in Langford PlaceJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908248130</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Damian McNichollAlexander McCall Smith|title=Twisted AgendasThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Writing about Ireland The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the Irishonline apps in providing a more personal, especially the dimension of the Troubles tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the IRAbusiness, from as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a third hand American perspective while. Katie is coming out of a recipe for cliché break up with a bad boyfriend, and stereotypeso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Balancing And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and interweaving the story of American journalist Piper Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with that of Irishman Danny's search for independence in London does enable McNicholl in some new characters who quickly begin to charm. part to achieve Katie has no experience in running a wry business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and knowing stancethere's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, making us hope for to lend a clever twist away from the predictably which always seems so close.hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248025</amazonuk>1846976596
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin BarryDean Koontz|title=City of BohaneThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=General FictionParanormal|summary=Bohane Benny is having a thoroughly lawless townterrifically bad day. He loses his job, set in what would appear he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to be some kind of parallel universe. We are told it is set in 2053his home, but and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a town without any technology or modern luxuriesnice person. A really nice person. It's So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a violent place fuelled by alcoholnew friend, drugs and lust with a patois style language that takes bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a little work good person. Spike is going to get into. Novels with this kind take care of premise have to be beyond good if they are to interest the annual literary prize judges; this is one such book Benny, and ''City will certainly take care of BohaneBenny'' is nominated for this years enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's Costa First Novel prize. It is stunningly goodwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224090577</amazonuk>1662500491
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kerry YoungKatherine Howe|title=PaoA True Account|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good story. Set in Jamaica, the time period covers 1938 to almost present day, it is the political backdrop of independence and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while the politics of Jamaica resound throughout the book, it's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang Pao. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' - are skilfully woven into the mix to make this a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881207X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gavin James Bower|title=Made in Britain|rating=25
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The settings of the intertwined tales of RussellHannah Masury is living in Boston, the working class swot trapped by his conditions, Charliehaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, the heroic 'lad' who gets caught in the drugs scene and Hayley the naïve wannabee with being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a single parent father are hanging of some pirates in the school rooms town, she decides to go and backstreets, flats, pubs watch. Enthralled and clubs of Every Townhorrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the vision hands of twenty-first century deprivation two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that Bower conjures. Or rather fails they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to conjuresea, for dressing as a boy and joining the device of making the 16 year olds tell the story from their own first person narrative deprives notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the reader thick of things when there is a genuine sense mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the physical reality in which this story unfoldsocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704372290</amazonuk>0861547438
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Wilkinson1471180158|title=Bloodmining|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Although Wilkinson has placed her story in the near future, for the most part, you wouldn't necessarily be aware of that fact. Personally, I was delighted as I'm not a fan of futuristic fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907335145</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMaybe Tomorrow|author=Kerry Jamieson|title=The Forgotten LiesPenny Parkes
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In the midJamie Matson works in an upper-thirtiesclass grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the golden age subtlety of Hollywood, three aspiring starlets shared a studio house on Lantana Drive as they waited to hear if they were going to have a career in the movies – or nothalf brick. Charlotte (soon to be Carlie for acting purposes)Jamie's son, VerbenaBo, known to her friends (and 'has his problems'only. He'' her friends) as Bee s asthmatic and Ivy were desperate for the role of a lifetimemore you read, which would put their name in lights. There was an added appeal. Whoever won would star opposite Liam Malone – good looking, charismatic and the more you'll suspect that he'very'' married with six childrens on the autistic spectrum. It wasnSometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she't just s a case of being able frequent flier in the local A&E and sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to actschool. Their lives would Missed shifts or the need to be under intense scrutiny.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141026049</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Conny Braam|title=The Cocaine Salesman|rating=4.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=Picture a world of hellish exclusion, nightmarish noise away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and images, and horrid violenceput in the wrong. Picture one person trying It was going to come to live through the sleepless nights, the isolation among his peers, the permanent sense of dreadful threat. Picture him needing drugs. His best friend might even be called Charlie. But don't picture an inner city slum, 2012, but a man on the front in World War Onehead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907822054</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rachel ConnorB0CKD1L5JL|title=SisterwivesRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=When I first read the title (I hadn't yet read the back cover blurb) I glibly thought that it was about two sisters and their marriagesPetr is an orphan. Wrong. This debut novel Rescued by Connor the strange, reclusive Bear, he is about two very different women (one is no more than a girl really) who just happen to 'marrybrought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the forests of Washington' the same mans Olympic Peninsula. I use After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the word marry very loosely indeed. Their communityforest, their rulesbroadcasting the strange, their descriptions etc can be rather quirky. Marriages are normally called 'sealings'wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0946745587</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil ForsythSarah Marsh|title=Why Me? The Very Important Emails A Sign of Bob Servant|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Catchy title and catchy front cover graphics. What's not to like? It takes a lot to make me laugh generally, but as I had an initial flick through this book, things looked promising. And I was also thinking that it's a pleasant change to see another location (other than perhaps the predictable Glasgow and Edinburgh) get an airing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780270097</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=D. J. Connell|title=Sherry Cracker Gets Normal|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Whilst it's wrong to judge a book by its cover, a mere sight of D. J. Connell's second novel 'Sherry Cracker Gets Normal' is enough to make me smile. The title is amusing; the colourful design enticing and the effusive praise for Connell's debut 'Julian Corkle is a Filthy Liar' encouraging.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>000733219X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gavin James|title=Ariadne's ThreadHer Own
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Ariadne's Thread'' is the story After a bout of Elena Avgoulas who decided in May 1941 that she would have to leave Chiosscarlet fever as a child, the Greek island where she was born, until the war was overEllen Lark loses her hearing. German soldiers had occupied the island and whilst they were there it would not be home to herSuddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her mother and sister and brotherslife changes. The brothers were Living in a time when the Greek army. Her mother would run the family bakery and her sister would support their mother. Elena use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a medical student in Athens and had a nursing qualification; school where she decided that is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she would make use of this ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the war effortdeaf and using a system called Visible Speech. And so began a journey that would take her to CyprusAt the same time, PalestineBell is working on other inventions and ideas, Egypt, Italy and Germany Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in the course a complicated tangle of the warespionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B005FRG8P4</amazonuk>1035401614
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Javier MariasB0BC3YTCMR|title=While the Women are SleepingGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=As Holmes embarks on a journey towards the Northern Isles, we are treated to a comprehensive background of the ways of witches all over the world; all points are pertinent and the history ''This story is fascinating as well as necessarynot for everyone. The introduction to the ways of witchcraft demonstrates the worldwide links that will become highly significant later. Revill weaves in the relevant history and all its complications with ease, and the novel flows in spite of having to accommodate this.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780920091</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ernest Cline1472263936|title=Ready Player OneThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=A short while agoIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, I stumbled across a highly enjoyable film called ''Fanboys''Greek by birth, about a bunch of ''Star Wars'' fans trying had left the family home and refused to break into George Lucasreturn, but Mary and Hamish (Helena' mansion to get s parents) felt that it would be a sneak preview of the new filmpity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. I didn't pay much attention Her trip to the name family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the writer, until I came across Ernest Clinefamily's author bio in ''Ready Player One'' maid, Dina, but was wary - and realised it frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was written by proud of his close connections to the same personJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. This immediately gave me high hopesHis prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846059372</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert HarrisDean Koontz|title=The Fear IndexAfter Death|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With the FTSE recording its biggest quarterly drop 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 yearsplastic, he has a sense that something very, turmoil on the bond markets very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the prospect shrouded bodies of economic meltdown his dead friends and the possible disintegration of the euro zoneformer colleagues. As he recovers his senses, Robert Harrishe realises that there is something different about him; he can '' new thriller couldnfeel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't be more timely''Michael'' anymore.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091936969</amazonuk>1662500467}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tom BaleB0BVDC2VWH|title=Blood FallsThe Grave Listeners|author=William Frank
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read The village is isolated and reviewed Balepoor. It's [[Terror's Reach surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by Tom Bale|Terror's Reach]]farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and enjoyed itits blossom provides herbal medicines. What would I think The black wood of his latest? Joe is doing his level best to live an unremarkable (almost invisible) life in Bristol. He uses his brawn to pay his modest bills for rentthe forest provides heat and warmth, food etc. But you could sayroofs on homes, once a copperand even gallows, always a copper so his brain if needed. The fear of being buried alive is not idle, it's in constant use. Whirring away an existential superstition in the background village and it's just as well. Joe soon senses imminent danger when that is the reason Volushka, a couple drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of blokes stroll by, stop and ask his gaffer a couple of questions. Joe needs to be somewhere else - and fastman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809325X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John O'ConnellB0BYF82CXT|title=The Baskerville Legacy: A NovelSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=1900, ''Bill and Amanda are living in a man on semi-detached house, stuck in a ship coming back from the Boer War to edit the Daily Express meets one depressing rut of his heroes boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in the form of Arthur Conan Doylenext door. With similar experiences and interests yet Despite their different enough to bounce off outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other they take up the idea of collaborating on a plotand life appears to improve for both pairs. When they do fix on time to do so, But all is not what it leads to literary prospectsseems, which lead to a week's research together on Dartmoor, which leads to and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.''The Hound of the Baskervilles''. But perhaps in a way that only one of them intended.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595465</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Syd MooreShalini Boland|title=The Drowning PoolSilent Bride|rating=43
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=The book opens with Alice and Seth are a group of young women out on the townmatch made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, letting their hair down funny; total and having funutter husband-material. Moore describes She is all of them he could possibly want in a fresh wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and modern voice which I really likedso the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. It came across as a breath of fresh air. The storyWhen the much-anticipated day arrives, Sarah's story Alice is told walked down the aisle by Sarah herself. But ither father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's told from world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the perspective of looking back after it's all happened so there's lots of why-didn't-I-see-that-coming language. Hindsightaltar is, in a wordwho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847562663</amazonuk>1662507089
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Guillaume Musso1787636003|title=The Girl on PaperGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is a modern book for modern timesIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. I loved the reader-friendly layout with bigRachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, bold type letting the reader know exactly where we werenaive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in terms her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of storyline physical approach to her and locationby that time she was obsessed by him. But Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the story itself does jump about a lot island and I suspect Musso wants to give a sense of urgency, a sense of frenetic energy at timesin particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908313056</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Victoria HislopAmanda Craig|title=The ThreadThree Graces|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I read and enjoyed HislopFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's 'The Island' something so I was looking forward to reading this book. The Prologue is May 2007 utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and readers are treated to a vivid coastal description capture it, crafting an image of the area which country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is to play such a big part in skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the novelgenre of contemporary social fiction at this point. Lines She has such as 'With a gift for weaving the lifting haze, Mount Olympus gradually emerged far away across ongoing issues of the Thermaic Gulf and day into the restful blues lives of sea her characters in a way that feels natural and sky shrugged off their pale shroudlived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755377737</amazonuk>140871468X
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=William Giraldi152915118X|title=Busy MonstersPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Charles Homar loves his Gillian''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. HeDarley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They's proved it to us, if not to herre Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by going after her possessive, jealous state trooper of an ex with birth so she isn't readily accepted into the intent to kill - if only ended up rescuing a cat insteadtribe. But lo and behold, sheThe problem's declared sheexacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they's off d like to discover move into the real love of her life - the giant squidPineapple Street property. Failing Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to stop thisanother property, Charlie spends too long with a Nessie obsessivestreet or so away, then goes on a hunt which they own. They won't need any of his own - for Bigfoot, all the whilefurniture from Pineapple Street, chapter by chapterso Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, sending his narrative of they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the same gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to a magazine as essays for one of those autobiographical, frivolous columns'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393079627</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Nicholas SparksEmily Critchley|title=The Best of MeOne Puzzling Afternoon
|rating=4
|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Since watching 84 year old Edie has lived in the film of 'The Notebook' years ago I've always fancied reading some Nicholas Sparks books same small town for almost her whole life, but never quite got around now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to it until I saw thislive with his family, his newest offeringas Edie is starting to lose her memory. Here we have However, Edie is tormented by the tale memory of two her childhood sweethearts whose love friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was always threatened by a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the fact thing that they were from opposite sides reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the tracks - he from the roughhigh street, poor family that is forever on just as she was the wrong side of the lawlast time she saw her, and she from one starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the betterpast, respected families she is forgetting more and more in the town. After her day to day life forces them apart they go on to live very different lives, but it seems that neither one has ever forgotten that early passion. Drawn back together for Will she uncover the funeral of an old friend they are both forced to look at the choices theytruth about Lucy've made in their lives s disappearance before her move, and where they go to from here.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847443206</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=S G Browne0008506337|title=FatedThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore
|rating=5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Clever The love affair between Margo Garnett and very funnypoet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, this is the sort of book where you immediately feel apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in safe handslove. S Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'.G Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. Browne has gone to town (New York) In the event, satirising just about every aspect they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of modern lifeWight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and my reading Sasha. Life was continually interrupted by bells clanging loudly lived in recognition London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in my headcharge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749954728</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Titania Hardie1914585402|title=The House of the WindDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I loved the intriguing title reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a couple of the book years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was hoping that Hardie explains . It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it. She does: not only my main takeaway was that but the wind element (no pun intended) is mentioned throughout at regular intervals. A nice touch, I thought and might not over-played either. The short Prologue describes a young girl have lavished enough praise on the eve of her 'terrible fateit.' 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>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jane SandersonLucy Ashe|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 Clara 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>}}{{newreview |author=Jennifer Haigh|title=FaithOlivia
|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 fiction, I was itching to get readingThe year is 1933. The story is told from the perspective of Sheila, sister to Mike and half-sister to Arthur (heplace? Sadler's normally called Art)Wells. Art is the priest Ballerinas Clara and who is at Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the centre of outside but not, we learn, on the storminside. We go back in time and discover And not on stage, either. Because there's a rather pious woman who has had lot that builds a hard start to married lifedancer. She's now left Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to bring up her young sondetail – and some things, Artthat ''je ne sais quoi'', on her ownthat don't come from the classroom. But things pick up pretty quickly from here and as an attractive woman itA stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''s not long before she meets someone else. Two more children are born The difference between a hard-worker, and they all settle down into a normal, American family unitstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007225091</amazonuk>0861544080
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jaimy GordonHeather Fawcett|title=Lord Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of MisruleFaeries
|rating=4
|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=West VirginiaEmily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, 1970. We're at a rundown race trackand she has travelled extensively, of the dusty kind rundown horses and their rundown owner/trainers fetch up living inresearched meticulously, with the occasional race to interrupt write her life's work, the boredomvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. Into things comes a young upstart hoping Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to surprise all faeries, she is not so good with his four unknown quantities and make a packet before fleeingpeople. His girlfriend So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is here too not sure what she has done, nor how to help out, redeem herself and naively eager put her final investigations for success her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and knowledgeinsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, but old hands like Medicine Ed have seen it all beforecharm and delight, much to Emily's frustration. Also in the background are some small-time gangsters who are not too keen at for once not knowing who But why is doing he here? What does he want? And what and how races are exactly is going to be run and won.on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857386697</amazonuk>0356519120
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1398515388|title=Unusual Uses for Olive Oil: A Von Igelfeld NovelThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Following on from ''The 2½ Pillars First of Wisdom'' which all, it was a compilation of three shorter volumesthe earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this book sees Professor Dr Von Igelfeld still dealing with his academic colleagues but also with the prospect of a love interest, a recently widowed ladyin turn, Frau Benzcaused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, who has inherited and the large Schloss in Regensburgloss of livelihoods was widespread. Is love in The fact that many pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the air? tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. Or will He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his arch rival, Unterholzer interfere once again?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316027545</amazonuk>car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyChristopher Bowden|title=The Generation GameMr Magenta
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Do you remember ''The Generation Game'' TV show, with old Brucie and then Larry Grayson managing the mayhem? Where were you when Charles and Di got married? What about when Diana died? ThereChristopher Bowden's plenty latest novel is a patient untangling of reminiscing to be done in this book as Sophie Duffy takes us from the 1960a seemingly ordinary woman's to 2006 through the life , carried out by her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a little bit of her character, Philippa, in indulgence to a young nephew had had a book much more interesting life than that fleets from funny, heartwarming moments nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to him an obligation to real sadnessfind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908248017</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Larry PontiusJennifer Mason|title=Future KingPartitions of Unity|rating=34
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=It's the near future Here at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and King Charles III has ascended the throne of the United Kingdom with Camilla as his Queen Consort. The country is unintentional detective in a mess with rampant inflation, unemployment[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and unravelled a crumbling infrastructure and riots: the people have taken to calling this time series of disappearances. In ''The TroublesPartitions of Unity'', she sets her mind to solving a murder. Such situations breed power-hungry politicians and Prime Minister Alistair Saxon has plans to become the dictator of the country. When the King refuses to give his assent to the Emergency Powers Act, Saxon and his fellow-conspirators kidnap the Royal family to prevent Charles speaking against the EPA.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1463766297</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kirsten TranterWill Carver|title=The LegacyDaves Next Door
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=This is quite Five strangers come together in one moment as a chunky book so Tranter has given herself plenty of space and time suicide bomber prepares to build up detonate his vest on a nice level of suspense here as well as putting some flesh on the bones of her central charactersLondon tube line. The book opens - towards the end of As their fates overlap, the story. So we have firm, but platonic friends, Julia and Ralph both very concerned about their mutual friend, Ingrid. She supposedly died on 9/11 - but with no remains, no burial, their grief hasn't an outlet. They need (to quote that much used word) closure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857380621</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joe Simpson|title=The Sound of Gravity|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Patrick is climbing told in the Alps with his girlfriend. They are taking an unusual and difficult ascentbackwards order, and it is winter. A storm blows leading up. Whilst they are camping overnight, Patrick's girlfriend loses her footing. He manages to catch her hand, and then she slips through his fingers and falls into a chasm. The novel details the days and hours in the run-up to this tragedy, and the aftermath, both immediate and long termfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224072641</amazonuk>1914585186}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kevin WilsonJennifer Mason|title=The Family FangPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Annie Fang ''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought they'd ever be again. But it has come to this - her film actress career is on the rocks with pop mobile diner in the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writersNorthern California redwoods, and he a 400- wellmeter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, hea women's here because of track coach with a jumbo spud gun. Neither want life back at homeyen for bullwhips, as throughout their childhood they were used by their parents a billionaire with a state- without much planning, without any consideration of feelings, or consent - in a whole career of performance the-art piecesS&M dungeon, designed to enact a point of man serving a life or just cause havocsentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447202384</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nina BellB0B2N7MVYM|title=The Empty NestersCalculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=35
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=With their children all off It's the 10th of December 1962 when we first meet Dr Joseph Marr. Just to university (most from put what happens in context, the same school year, plus an erroneous one who took Cuban missile crisis is still very fresh in people's minds. The world has barely had a handy-chance to breathe out. But for-the-sake-of-the-story gap year)Joe Marr, it's all change for not the missile crisis that's at the parents in this book – for Clover and George, and Laura and Tim, and Alicefront of his mind. Though some He's been convicted of murder. With the fathers are presentcurrent state of medical knowledge, as youit'd expect this is a tale told mainly from the eyes of s hard to think otherwise than that the mothers. Clover and Laura prosecution would never have been friends forever, while Clover and Alicebrought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen's relationship is more recentBench, a relatively new prison. As for Laura and Alice, well they really don He't get ons just getting used to his roommate, making life a little tricky at times for CloverMervyn, stuck somewhere in and learning to be wary of the middleMcArthur brothers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751543667</amazonuk>
}}