Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|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- Remove -->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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pamela Hart1529153298|title=The Soldier's WifeList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45

|summary=It''s 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...none of it was real) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, until the last moment when his handthough. Women have been disappearing. Well, the tips of his fingersthey've been murdered, left the tips of hers and he was gone.but to have 'disappeared' doesn''Turned into just another soldiert sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she' Ruby and Jimmy are newly-weds full of big dreams and plans for the future, but all of s overheard that will have her father wants to wait. It is 1915 and move the world is in the grip Great War, sweeping Jimmy away to fight battles in far-off Gallipolifamily 'Down South'. Ruby feels like she When you's in limbo; no longer an innocent child but not quite re from Yorkshire, Down South is a fully-fledged married lady. Not wanting to return homefrightening, she decides to stay in Sydneyforeign place, to keep herself occupied as she waits out the warbest avoided. For Miv, longing for the return of move would mean leaving her beloved husbandbest friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She rents a room from a local landlady and finds a job as a bookkeeper at a Timber Merchant. Although she initially takes 's not worried about the job to keep herself occupied and earn a little money, she soon falls into a comfortable routine and starts to enjoy dangers or that her newMum's stopped talking -found independence and responsibilityto anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349410186</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alice Thompson1035906708|title=The Book CollectorDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=Meet Violet. Swept off her feet by a disarming encounter with a landed gentleman and bookshop owner at a coffee shopWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she immediately falls was born to Greek parents in love with himManhattan, and is quickly marriedNew York, in December 1923 and almost as quickly with childonly moved to Athens when she was thirteen. When Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the boy is born, however, fairly understandable doubts creep inStates. Is When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her husband hiding anything behind his assuredness – especially when voice - she wakes in the middle of was raised under the night alone? What ghost is left Nazi occupation by the fact he lost his first wife a mother who mercilessly exploited her and baby in childbirth? What should she understand from made no secret of her own opinions about preference for her new lifeelder sister, her new life's life, and the idea of a nanny looking after it? Just what is going on in her new country pile?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784630438</amazonuk>Jackie.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sophie DuffyAlexander McCall Smith|title=Bright StarsThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5

|summary= I fell into this novel from The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the first short chapter, set online apps in 1983providing a more personal, at Lancaster University – perhaps because I grew up in the 1980'stailored service. The central character Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and first person narrator, Cameron Sparklook after the business, comes across as vulnerable, shy and unassumingNess is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at first, likeablethe chance to come home to Edinburgh. As the novel progressedAnd so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, howeverbringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, I did find him less plausible thanks to 44 Scotland Street and a bit wet and annoyingthe Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. He falls Katie has no experience in mad love with Bex right at the beginning of the book, who is running a much more interesting characterbusiness, being a feistyor in match-making, feministbut Ness has full confidence in her abilities, fox-hunting activist and saboteur. Cameron is clearly besotted there's always her very helpful (and therefore biased in his affection for Bexrather handsome) neighbour, William, and you can sense that this is going to get him into deep trouble from the start.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079840</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jack WilsonDean Koontz|title=In FidelityThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=34.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it'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 nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5

|summary=Dick Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and Christine Blodgett were only 22 when they got married being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in 1955the town, she decides to go and watch. As the novel opens Enthralled and horrified in 1974equal measure, itHannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's clear their relationship is now precariousdeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. A brief allegorical prologue She hides away, echoing Heraclitusso that they don't find and kill her too, warns that and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a crisis will change the course of boy and joining the marriage irrevocably: notorious Ned Low'one day there was s pirate ship as a storm…and the stream never returned to cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the [channel] it had known before.' The title thick of Chapter 1, 'A Premonition of Danger', reinforces that sense of foreboding. Driving things when there is a mutiny on darkboard, icy roads, Dick and Christine fret about from there we are caught up in her health: a dental procedure revealed a serious problem with her gums for which she will soon need a biopsyrip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784623830</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jolien Janzing1471180158|title=Charlotte Bronte's Secret LoveMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=34.5|genre=Historical General Fiction|summary=This is the second novel by Jolien JanzingJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a Dutch author man who lives in Belgium's a control freak with all the subtlety of a half brick. Originally published in Dutch as Jamie's son, Bo, 'The Masterhas his problems'. He' in 2013s asthmatic and the more you read, it is already being made into the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a film. The flawlessly translated story zeroes frequent flier in on two momentous years in Charlotte Brontëthe local A&E and sometimes Bo's life, 1842–3, 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 she was a pupil Jamie can be controlled and then a teacher at put in the Pensionnat Heger in Brusselswrong. I read this in tandem with Claire Harman's new biography of Charlotte Brontë; it It was particularly fascinating going to come to see that the two books open with the same climactic episode: lovesick Charlotte making a confession at a Catholic church, even though she was an Anglican parson's daughterhead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380597</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jojo MoyesB0CKD1L5JL|title=After YouRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=After writing Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the massively popular ''Me Before You''strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, all in the forests of Jojo MoyesWashington' readers were clamouring for mores Olympic Peninsula. Having been on the edge of our armchairs during the storyAfter Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, we all wanted to know what happened to Lou next. Would she be okay? Would she live her life and armed with passion? Where would she go next? So the arrival of this story is only a special treatpirate radio transmitter, as it continues Petr goes on a journey through the tale of Louforest, although perhaps not in broadcasting the way we had imagined…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718179617</amazonuk>strange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Mike BullenSarah Marsh|title= TrustA Sign of Her Own|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= Greg and Amanda are happy. Unmarried, but together thirteen years and with two young daughters, they are very much in love. Dan and Sarah aren't so fortunate. Their marriage is going through the motions, and they're staying together for the sake of their troubled teenage son. Following a business conference away from home, one bad decision sends a happy couple into turmoil, and turns an unhappy couple into love's young dream3. As secrets and betrayals threaten to send both relationships out of control, there's only one thing that can keep everything from falling apart: Trust|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751559253</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Menna Van Praag|title=The Dress Shop Of Dreams|rating=5

|summary= Cambridge is After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a city world of winding streets and cobbled alleyways and silence, everything about her life changes. Living in such a street you will find A Stich In Timetime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a tiny dress shop filled school where she is taught to bursting with dresses that will take your breath awaylip read, but physically restrained from signing. Etta Sparks spends her days crafting gowns from jewel-coloured velvets From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and beaded silks that are unlike any dresses you have seen before; once you try one of Etta's creations using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on - and with a few stitches from her expert other inventions and rather magical needle - these incredibleideas, amazing garments have the power to reach within your soul and extract your deepest desire and hidden-away dreamsEllen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0749018720</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth RendellB0BC3YTCMR|title=Dark CornersGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|summary=Carl Martin ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was in the fortunate position three weeks short of having just had his first novel published her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and inheriting his late fathersuffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's house in Maida Valenot easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. His father She had accumulated a collection of homeopathic remedies which really should have been thrown out, crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but Carl had other things on his mind and never got round to itthought he would notice her. There Then he did: Lavender was his girlfriend Nicola, work to start on his second novel very good at math and he wanted Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to let the top floor of his house. Authors are not that well off, you see and he needed some ready money coming inraped her. In addition shock, she even allowed him to being give her a bit remiss about the contents of the medicine cabinet he should have been a bit more careful about who he took on as a tenantlift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091959241</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Franck and Anthea Bell (translator)1472263936|title=WestThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=3.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Put yourself It was in the shoes of a young 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother to two children, who declares her intention Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to leave the Communist East Germany for West Berlinreturn, but Mary and thus loses Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her scientist jobgrandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. What Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would you expect on be the other side – shops full first of attainable products, pleasant neighbourhoods, nice neighbours, an active and busy new life, where things might feel alien but at least you speak the same language? Well, for Nelly Senff, this is hardly the caseseveral annual visits. Once past She grew to love her grandmother and the depressing Eastern exit procedures she is confronted with more desultory interrogations from those family'welcoming' her to the Wests maid, Dina, beyond which she but was wary - and frightened - of her children (their father, whom she never marriedgrandfather, is long assumed dead by the authorities, if nobody else) are practically left in a shared accommodation in a transit campretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. The shops are full He was proud of what is still unobtainable, his close connections to the children hate their new school – Junta and people still look down on expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them as being foreign, even if they have only moved across a city.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554321</amazonuk> His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Beverley HansfordDean Koontz|title=The Golden AnkletAfter 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.5|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4

|summary=Jane Carroll The village is becoming more isolated and more successful as a young journalist on a womanpoor. It's magazinesurrounded by a Witching Forest. YetAnd 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, roofs on homes, although her future looks secureand even gallows, Jane would like to discover more about her pastif needed. As The fear of being buried alive is an orphan she was raised existential superstition in a children's home with no information regarding the identity of her parents apart from what was on her birth certificate. Therefore armed with this certificate village and that is the help of her new boyfriend Bobreason Volushka, a drunken, not to mention genealogist dabbling neighbour Geraldself-indulgent, the search begins. However nothing lazy lout of a man is as straightforward, or indeed as safe, as she thought it would betolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784624675</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jane L GibsonB0BYF82CXT|title=A Different ReflectionSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|summary=Eternal optimist Kat has always believed in fairytales ''Bill and happy endings but can't help but wonder where her own life went wrong. Stuck Amanda are living in a deadsemi-end relationship with dull workaholic Johndetached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona – glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what itseems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.'s hardly the happy-ever-after that she'd always hoped for. Things }}{{Frontpage|author=Shalini Boland|title=The Silent Bride|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Alice and Seth are about to change, however, when Kat discovers a mysterious house that match made in heaven. He is everything she has been cursed by an enchantmentsearching for; a handsome Regency beau , accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is trapped within all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the mirrors inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and only a declaration of true love can break the spell wedding is planned and release him.set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice 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 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, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784622508</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sandy Hogarth1787636003|title=The Glass GirlGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=3.5

|summary=Sandy HogarthIt was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn's debut novel opens in 1975 with fifteent exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Ruth Bishop attending a party with Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her older sister, Alexisshe was flattered rather than wary. 'They called me VL, Virgin Lips, because I'd never kissed It was quite a boy. Sex wasn't mentioned at home.' That all changes when Alexis tells Ruth while before he made any sort of physical approach to go outside – someone is waiting for herand by that time she was obsessed by him. It's one of Alexis's friends Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, a notorious bad boy, and he assaults Ruth right there, up against looking after his interests on the house. Could Alexis really have intended for this to happen? Ruth soon learns she is pregnant island and arranges to move to Australia and live with her friend Lucy's aunt in Melbourne until particular in the birth. She gives her beloved daughter Clare up for adoption, but never stops thinking about her. No one but Lucy knows there ever was a babybar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785071548</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John BoyneAmanda Craig|title=The Boy at the Top of the MountainThree Graces

|summary=Welcome to Tremarnock; an idyllic Cornish fishing village with pastelFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-painted cottages and colourful fishing boats bobbing in the harbour-nation novel. This picture-postcard setting is home to single-mum Liz There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and her disabled daughtercapture it, Rosiecrafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. Liz works hard to make ends meet and relies on To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the kindness genre of neighbours contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for childcare. Thankfully, weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the community are happy to rally round and provide friendship, support, lives of her characters in a listening ear way that feels natural and a cup of tea for hardlived-working Liz. Soon she will need to rely on in, never making them more ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than ever, as her life takes an unexpected turn that threatens to destroy her happinessthemselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781857881</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Leigh Bardugo152915118X|title= Six of Crows|rating= 5|genre= Fantasy|summary=In The Barrel, anything is possible for the right price, and no one knows this better than criminal mastermind, Kaz Brekker. When Kaz is offered a chance at a perilous mission that could turn his poverty-stricken life upside down, he is determined to see the task fulfilled - but he won't be able to do it alone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1627792120</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewPineapple Street|author=Dan Rhodes|title=When the Professor Got Stuck in the SnowJenny Jackson

|summary= Two people are on a train on their way to, ''Pineapple Street'' is the story of all thingsthree women: Sasha, a WI meeting where the ladies of All Bottoms will be lectured on the non-existence of GodDarley and Georgiana. One of the two people Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is Professor Richard Dawkinsmarried to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, rampant atheist, hectoring scientist chappie, and all-round devotee of ''Deal or No Dealonly Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The other is Smeeproblem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, his mono-named assistantTilda, amanuensis or 'male secretaryasks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Smee will come to the fore when the weather sets in Tilda and Chip have renovated and the train journey has downsized to be abandoned some way short of its ultimate destinationanother property, a street or so away, Upper Bottomwhich they own. Instead They won't need any of the pair fetch up at the isolated yet friendly community of Market Hortonfurniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and the only option for accommodation is taken – yes, the died-Cord can move straight in-the-wool non-believer has to be housed by a retired vicar and his wife. This clash of titanic opinionsNominally, peppered with social faux pas aplenty will provide for they had a particularly English kind of farcical comedy, choice but one with that wasn't the legs reality. Darley and Georgiana start to go as far as any other Good Books have reached call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the past…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709018</amazonuk>GD'.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tania ChandlerEmily Critchley|title=Please Don't Leave Me HereOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=fictionCrime|summary= If you like unreliable narrators then this is 84 year old Edie has lived in the book same small town for youalmost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. In Brigitte However, Edie is tormented by the protagonist memory of Please Don't Leave Me Hereher childhood friend, Lucy, Tania Chandler has created an unforgettable troubled character whose fractured mental state leads to erratic thought processeswho went missing over 60 years ago, vivid and none too pleasant dreams and an inabilitythe 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. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, or unwillingnessjust as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to recover her memory find pockets of memories coming back to her former life. None of which is helped by her drink problem and, And yet as she remembers the story progressespast, an addiction she is forgetting more and more in her day to prescription medicationday life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1925228258</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Emylia HallMadelaine 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'' Told from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|isbn=0861546490}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008506337|title=The Sea Between UsGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=To her parentsThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, the move to Cornwall apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an escape older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a better way of lifeglittering career. For city-girl Robyn, it was wet In the event, remote they eloped and miserable and she was counting down Richard took her away from the days Isle of Wight. Margo did go to University Oxford and her return went on to civilizationbecome a well-respected journalist. Desperate for something to do to entertain herself The couple had three children: Rachel, Robyn takes a wetsuit Imogen and surfboard Sasha. Life was lived in London and makes her way to a secluded cove. An inexperienced surferholidays were spent at Sandcove, she soon gets into difficulty, but is rescued from the sea by a young local man called Jagofamily home on the Isle of Wight. From that moment on, Even then the two lives are intertwined by an invisible bond; a bond that will doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be tested and stretched during the years that followable to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472211979</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Barnett1914585402|title=The Largest Baby in Ireland After The FamineDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 4.5

|summary=She was all colour I 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 years back and sway, remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and as far away as imaginable from the local womenaffecting it was. Pale, pale skin and strong dark auburn hair falling free to large wide hips. She wore It was a purple shawl. That night Felixgripping, a bacheloremotionally wounding read, aged 43, living in the house he and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was born in, dreamt of purple. Purple in the shape of a woman.And just like that, things change. I love this passagemight not have lavished enough praise on it. It shows how strong the human pull is. Even when men and women are surrounded by great events - war, political upheaval, famine, depression - individual human desires can change the picture in an instant.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186151526X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander CordellLucy Ashe|title=The Hosts of RebeccaClara and Olivia|rating=4.5

|summary=At the end of [[Rape of the Fair Country by Alexander Cordell|Rape of the Fair Country]] Iestyn Mortymer had been sentenced to deportation for seven years because of the part he played in the Chartist rebellion The year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the Newport Rising of 1839. His motheroutside but not, wifewe learn, Marieon the inside. And not on stage, younger brothereither. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, Jethroattention to detail – and some things, sisterthat ''je ne sais quoi'', Morfydd and that don't come from the two children of the family returned to the landclassroom. A stage presence, a charm, living on a farm owned by Marie's grandfather'joie de vivre''. The life was difference between a hard and not just for the Mortymers-worker, with poverty breathing over their shoulders and it was made worse by the tollgates installed by landowners, effectively adding a levy to any produce which the farmers attempted to movestar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B0100NC1GM</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithHeather Fawcett|title=The Woman Who Walked in SunshineEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating=54

|summary=Back Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to Botswana I gowrite her life's work, having saved this newest outing in the No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series for a delightful weekend readvery first encyclopaedia of faeries. I never tire of these characters, Whilst she is brilliant at research and I always look forward speaking to seeing what faeries, she is happening in their livesnot so good with people. This time around So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the story village matriarch, she is about holidaysnot sure what she has done, amongst other thingsnor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. Enter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and the tricky plans delight, much to persuade Mma Ramostwe to take a holidayEmily's frustration. But what why is Mma Makutsi up tohe here? Does she have plans to take over the agency entirely whilst Mma Ramotswe is awayWhat does he want? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408706660</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Aldous Huxley|title= After Many A Summer|rating= 4|genre= Dystopian Fiction|summary= Like many of us, I suspect, I knew nothing of Huxley other than the "required reading" of ''Brave New World''. Naturally, And what exactly is going on that basis alone, he was pigeon-holed in my head under with the heading ''Sci-fi - must check out further''.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784870358</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jill Ciment1398515388|title=Heroic MeasuresThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=Ruth and Alex Cohen have to move from their beloved New York apartment. They love First of all, itwas the earthquake, but it's five floors up deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and there's no elevatorthis, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. Reluctantly they're having an open day for prospective purchasers - The result was complete and hoping that they'll be able to buy something not ''too'' far out which has that elusive elevatorutter devastation. It's not just themThe deaths were uncountable, eitherand the loss of livelihoods was widespread. There's Dorothy. Dorothy ('Dottie' to those who know her well) is The fact that many pets were separated from their Daschund. She's getting on in years, owners came far down the list of priorities but then so are Ruth and Alex. Then - six months after the day before the open house tsunami - two things happenKazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. An unmarked petrol truck is blocking He wasn't a dog person but the cityconvenience store owner's main tunnel comment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and there's no sign of Tamon the driver. You don't even need to have ''long'' memories to worry about terrorists dog jumped in Manhattan. Then Dottie yelps in pain and she can't stand up.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782271945</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sebastian FaulksChristopher Bowden|title= Where my Heart Used to BeatMr Magenta|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction |summary= In the early 1980’s, on Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a small island off the South patient untangling of France, a Doctor named Robert Hendricks confronts his seemingly ordinary woman's life – memories of wars, work, loves, and lossescarried out by her nephew after she has died. As his history is explored The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and questioned by his host, Hendricks recalls days in Scottish universities, Italian trenches, mental asylums and windswept beaches. Links a little bit of indulgence to the past are uncovered, and the raw wounds they expose take Hendricks on a search for sanity young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and raises the question – is life comprised of events themselves, or the way in which it seems to him an individual chooses obligation to remember them?find it all out. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091936837</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithJennifer Mason|title=The Revolving Door Partitions of LifeUnity|rating=54

|summary=I am always happy to sit back down with old friendsHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, to catch up on what has been happening on Scotland Street. As dominatrix and unintentional detective in the last episode [[Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Alexander McCall SmithJennifer Mason|Preposterous]] there is plenty , when she investigated and unravelled a series of Bertie throughout the whole storydisappearances. Bertie is my favourite character by far, so this was very pleasing to me! Our other favourites are there too, howeverIn ''Partitions of Unity'', so there's something she sets her mind to please everyone, from Bruce being, well, Bruce, and dear Angus reciting solving a poem at the endmurder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973287</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rachel ElliottWill Carver|title= Whispers Through A MegaphoneThe Daves Next Door|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Miriam doesn’t speak. Well, that’s not strictly true. She does speak, but nothing above Five strangers come together in one moment as a whisper which makes it hard suicide bomber prepares to have detonate his vest on a conversation with herLondon tube line. Particularly as she hasn’t left her house As their fates overlap, the story is told in three years. But today is backwards order, leading up to the dayfateful moment. She’s going to open that door and walk outside. She really is. Ralph has finally twigged (|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and -pop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with a yen for bullwhips, a billionaire with no small amount a state-of surprise-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x) that his wife Sadie doesn’t actually love him, on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia. And now he’s not sure if she ever really did. Having spent so much time regurgitating his every moment onto Social Media, Ralph hasn’t really had a chance to think about it. But now he has, it '' This is so shockingly awful that he has decided to run away. And just a sample of all the places he could run away tocast of characters and settings in Preposterous. As you can see, he has chosen the same woods that Miriam has picked to some keeping up will be the first place she will visit out-required! The basic premise of-doorsthis mystery story goes like this. And Sadie? Well, she’s had enough of reading Tweets and living vicariously through the posts of others. Sadie is going to have an adventure of her own. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0992918227</amazonuk>B09STS96HS

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gregoire DelacourtB0B2N7MVYM|title=The First Thing You SeeCalculations of Rational Men|author=Daniel Godfrey|rating=3.5

|summary=Arthur Dreyfuss 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's minds. The world has barely had a fairly run of the mill young manchance to breathe out. He likes big breastsBut for Joe Marr, cars, Juplier beer and big breastsit's not the missile crisis that's at the front of his mind. He’s also rather keen on big breastsHe's been convicted of murder. A good-looking boyWith the current state of medical knowledge, even if he does say so himself it's hard to think otherwise than that the prosecution would never have been brought but Joe Marr has spent his first few days in HMP Queen'…like Ryan Goslings Bench, only better looking'a relatively new prison. He's just getting used to his roommate, Mervyn, and learning to be wary of the McArthur brothers.}}

we will take him at his word, although one would had thought a better looking Ryan Gosling would have had his fill of Zepplin chested females so as to dilute his desire for them. In any event, I suspect his longings stem from the fact that a young mechanic living a quiet and uneventful life in a tiny village in rural France is unlikely to have a multitude of such femmes crossing his path in search of their daily baguette. That said, when Arthur one day opens his front door Move on to find a rather distressed but undeniably luscious Scarlett Johansson on his doorstep, he does not question his luck. He invites her in. As you do. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297871021</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Graphic Novels Reviews]]