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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jenn AshworthJenny Lecoat|title=FellBeyond Summerland|rating=54

|summary=Now Jean lives on Jersey with her parents have died, Annette returns to sell her old childhood home but there's work to do on mother where they are celebrating the end of the decrepit building firstoccupation. As she wanders around and tries to make some order of During the overgrown shambleswar, sheJean's watched by the ghost of father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother, Netty; a spirit with regretswaiting for years for news of him. Netty reminisces about Annette's childhood As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the turning point war is finally over, their lives reached when hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the mysterious healer Timothy Richardson came to stay. It was truth come as a time that promised so much but one for which Netty now needs to make amendsrelief, even if she is beyond or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the grave.occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473630606</amazonuk>1846976537

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jill CimentOnyi Nwabineli|title= Act of GodAllow 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''Act s increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of God'Anuri' s childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is a story about two ageing twins who find a worrying mushroom growing in their cupboardher twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, a landlady searching for suing her step-mother to take down the spotlight content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and a Russian immigrant whose greatest fear secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is insignificance. What the insurance company describes as an act new focus of God brings their already overlappedOphelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, Brooklyn lives in to sharper focus. What do you do when disaster threatens? Is it survival of and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the fittest or should we love thy neighboursame time? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782272119</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fredrik Backman1529153298|title=Britt-Marie Was HereThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|summary= Brett-Marie has never met a kitchen she It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't want to cleansound quite so frightening. In fact, permanently armed with bicarbonate of soda and window cleaner, Miv's upset because she's always ready overheard that her father wants to clean anythingmove the family 'Down South'. Her husband Kent When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is an entrepreneura frightening, you knowforeign place, with excellent taste and expensive clothesbest avoided. Yet here she isFor Miv, in Borgthe move would mean leaving her best friend, a rundown small townSharon, in search of and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her first job for 40 years. Life takes some odd turns sometimesMum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473617200</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rodrigo Hasbun and Sophie Hughes (translator)1035906708|title=AffectionsDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|summary=If you thought your teenaged years were a struggle We tend to work out the world, and yourself, consider that think of Heidi Ertl. Or either of her sisters – this book serves Maria Callas as a sort of tribute Greek, but she was born to these three real-life womenGreek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and the lives that came out of their very disjointed youth, forced only moved to be rarefied from the norm by their family uprootingAthens when she was thirteen. Father Hans Her original surname was one of Leni RiefenstahlKalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas's key cameramen, and a Nazi military photographer, before taking to make it more manageable in the whole family into post-war exile in BoliviaStates. Their mother would have followed him to the ends of the earth – as When she was back in part would their daughters, Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the older two of which start the book Nazi occupation by joining him on an expedition to discover a lost Incan city. Heidi finds young, instant love on the trek – but sees the dark side mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of such emotions, too. Older her preference for her elder sister Monika, who might well be manic depressive, finds something else, while the baby of the family stays at home with a maudlin mother. So much here could be the hook on which to hang a full novel, but if anything it's the reaction of them all to this unusual formative journey that inspires this bookJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782272135</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jemma WayneAlexander McCall Smith|title= Chains of SandThe Perfect Passion Company|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Chains of Sand The Perfect Passion Company is a great read about familydating agency in Edinburgh, faith, survivalrun by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and love. It follows look after the story of two young men: Udi business, as Ness is planning to take a veteran of the Israeli army who longs trip to Canada to get away for a new future in London, and Daniel, while. Katie is coming out of a London banker unsatisfied break up with his life a bad boyfriend, and yearning for something moreso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. The And so begins this new story focuses on their desires from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to change their lives by moving an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to different worlds and how this impacts their relationships with friends 44 Scotland Street and family. As the story unfoldsIsabel Dalhousie novels, the two protagonists' histories are slowly uncovered and they both have to overcome the difficulties in their but with some new lives in order characters who quickly begin to achieve their dreamscharm. Meanwhile Katie has no experience in running a business, the fate of staror in match-crossed love between a Jewish girl making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and an Arabic man in Jerusalem a decade earlier intertwines with Danielthere's lifealways her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, complicating all that he thinks has become clear.William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785079727</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Marie-Sabine RogerDean Koontz|title= Soft in the HeadThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary= This novel will make you smileBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. It's Oh, and someone has delivered a feelreally weird, disturbing coffin-good storysized object to his home, unusual in its premise and original. it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! Germaine The thing is a 45 year old man who , Benny is illiteratethe very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He has is a group of drinking friends who frequently make him nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the butt of their jokesdelivery to his house is a new friend, a mother bad weather friend called Spike, who calls has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a 'half-wit', amongst other things, and a girlfriend whom he appears afraid of committing togood person. Germain spends many afternoons in the parkSpike is going to take care of Benny, counting pigeons and writing his name among the dead will certainly take care of the war memorial. It is here that Benny's enemies, if he meets Margueritte, Benny, and Harper (a tiny 85 year old woman waitress slash Private Investigator who tells him she also counts the pigeonsfinds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782271589</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gregory MaguireKatherine Howe|title= After AliceA True Account|rating= 4.5|genre= FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When Alice fell down she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the rabbit holetown, she found Wonderland as rife with inconsistent rule decides to go and abrasive egos as the world she left behindwatch. But how did Victorian Oxford react to Alice Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's departure? When Alicedeath at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don's friend Adat find and kill her too, mentioned briefly in ''Alice in Wonderland'' sets out and then to escape them completely she runs away to visit Alicesea, she arrives dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a minute too latecabin boy. Tumbling down She soon finds herself in the rabbit hole herselfthick of things when there is a mutiny on board, she embarks on an odyssey to find Alice and bring from there we are caught up in her safely home from this surreal world below rip roaring tale of life on the worldocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472230469</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Isabel Allende1471180158|title= The Japanese LoverMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= The Japanese Lover is Jamie Matson works in an unassuming novel. The beginning leads the reader to anticipate an enjoyable light readupper-class grocery store, for a good holiday book perhaps – man who's a very well plotted story control freak with an interesting cast all the subtlety of characters and settingsa half brick. Irena Jamie's son, Bo, a Moldovan girl with elfin looks 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, 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 passion for fantasy novels, starts working in bohemian care home Lark House frequent flier in San Francisco. She meets the stately local A&E and somewhat aloof Alma Belasco, whose story starts sometimes Bo's not fit enough to unravel, beginning with her being brought over from Poland (just as Jews became increasingly vulnerable go to school. Missed shifts or the Nazis) need to be away on time to her wealthy aunt pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and uncle put in Cliff House, San Francisco, as the wrong. It was going to come to a little girl. Allende almost makes us think that this opening tone, entertaining but fairly shallow, will continue for the rest of the novelhead.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471152197</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Midge RaymondB0CKD1L5JL|title= My Last ContinentRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Only at Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the end of the worldstrange, reclusive Bear, among the glaciers he is brought up far from bustling cities and icebergs of Antarcticabusy human society, do Deb and Keller feel at home. For a few blissful weeks each year they study in the habits forests of penguins, finding solace in their work Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in each other. Yet Antarcticahuman company, like their romanceand armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, is imperilled by the world to the north. A new season has begun, and the two play tour guide to the passengers Petr goes on a journey through the expedition ship that ferries them to their research destination. But when Keller fails to appear, Deb has to consider new feelings of loveforest, loss, and a voyage deep into both broadcasting the Antarcticstrange, wild and the human heartrarely heard voices he encounters. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1501124706</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Leah FlemingSarah Marsh|title=The Last PearlA Sign of Her Own|rating=3.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the use of sign 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. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|isbn=1035401614}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0BC3YTCMR|title=Good Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating=4.5

|summary=''I always think, without the grit there would be no pearl. Sorrows have a way of strengthening the heart, never forget that, childThis story is not for everyone.''

Greta Costello lives in in poverty with Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her mother and siblings and must work as a skivvy to put bread on the tablefifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She manages was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo - people were afraid to find some joy in hug her work though, especially in her case it'Sabbaths contagious. It' job working for s not easy being a kindly black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old widowed JewReggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. The two become friends Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and he offers to take her on as his apprentice, stringing pearlsReggie asked if she would tutor him. Could She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this highly-skilled job be her key was just an extension. She went to a better life? At the same time, many miles away in Scotland, Jem Baillie his house and his father can't contain their delight when they discover a magnificenthe raped her. In shock, flawless freshwater pearl at the end of she even allowed him to give her a long day of fishing. They call the pearl 'Queenie' and from that pivotal moment, the fates of Greta, Jem and Queenie will be inextricably linkedlift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471140970</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Matthew Stephen1472263936|title= Baturi|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= It's Nigeria and it's the 80s. Matthew is a VSO, on a placement at a college teaching electronics. Or trying to at any rate. When language skills are limited and resources are scarce, you have to make the most of what you've got, even if that means teaching the odd class on American culture rather than rewiring. If I tell you that the ''Prime Directive'' applies a lot when you're a VSO, you'll appreciate the difficulties Matthew has when his students want to stray further into the modern world and learn about how things work in Britain, concepts of inventions such as ATMs that are decades off reaching Nigeria (Those days may still be some way off. I actually had a hand written bank card a few years ago while a VSO in a country not too far away). |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OISR3AK</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewThe Figurine|author=Carys Bray|title=The Museum of YouVictoria Hislop

|summary= It is summerwas in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, school is outGreek by birth, had left the days are longfamily home and refused to return, the bumblebees are big but Mary and blousy and the allotment where Clover helps Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her dad with the vegetables needs weeding and wateringGreek heritage. She likes Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the allotment; it helps her thinkfirst of several annual visits. This summer, Clover is going She grew to unravel love her grandmother and the mystery family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her mothergrandfather, Becky Brookfield and work out what makes her father so sadretired general Stamatis Papagiannis. All He was proud of his close connections to the timeJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. ItHis prejudices included Helena's hard to be a kid with a dead mother, but Clover thinks itred hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's even harder to be dad with a dead wifeScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091959608</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Simon Van BooyDean Koontz|title= Father's DayAfter Death|rating= 53|genre= General Fiction|summary=When devastating news shatters the life Michael Mace, Head of six year old HarveySecurity, she finds herself 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 the care of a veteran social workermakeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, Wandahe has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and alone in looks around at the world save for one relative she has never met - a disabled ex-conshrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, haunted by a violent past he realises that there is something different about him; he can''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't escape''Michael'' anymore. Moving between past |isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and present, Fatherpoor. It's Day weaves together surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the story villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of Harvey's childhood the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on Long Islandhomes, and her life as even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a young woman in Parisman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749694</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela LambertB0BYF82CXT|title=Kiss and KinSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|summary=It's six months since the death of Harriet Capel's husband George. Looking back she's concluded that she was fond ofBill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, but probably not ''stuck in love''a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, with him. They had two sons when Terry and it's the elder of theseFiona – glamorous, Roderick who's married to Jennifersuccessful and very much in love – move in next door. They have three childrenDespite their different outlooks on life, but there's been a rather silly feud between the Capels couples befriend each other and Jennifer's family, the Gaunts, which dates back life appears to the couple's weddingimprove for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, when Clarissa Gaunt, Jennifer's mother said something unpleasant in the church which dropped into one of those silences which always occur when you say something which you really shouldn'tand their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. Honours (or should it be ''dishonours''?) were even when George Capel later said something crass and vulgar about the bride's mother and was overheard.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861514301</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Liz FenwickShalini Boland|title= Under a Cornish SkyThe Silent Bride|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Under a Cornish Sky'' is the story of two very different women who Alice and Seth are forced to work together to complete a common goalmatch made in heaven. Their personalities couldn't be more different He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, so expect fireworks along the way! Shy Demi is as timid as a mouse funny; total and although she utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a skilled architectwife; beautiful, she is never able to succeed in her career because others take credit for her work. In relationshipssuccessful, she confident… and so the inevitable proposal is easily manipulated into doing things she doesn't always feel comfortable with; a fact that eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is not lost on her sleazy current boyfriend, Mattplanned and set. Lady-of- When themuch-Manor Victoriaanticipated day arrives, on Alice is walked down the other hand, simply oozes self confidence. Although she is in aisle by her sixtiesfather, beaming with pride and excitement as she has surveys the body of a much younger woman 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 trouble getting men to do exactly what she wants. Despite a long list of younger lovers providing a pleasurable distraction, her one true love is idea who the family home of Boscawen, a glorious estate set in man at the picturesque Cornish countrysidealtar is, not far from the seawho is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409148289</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alison Umminger1787636003|title= My Favourite Manson GirlThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary= Fifteen year old Anna has had an excruciating year, topped off with new stepparents It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and a new school. So she ''borrows'' her family's credit card, Caroline went backpacking around Greece and runs away to LA to crash with her sisterarrived on the island. But Hollywood isn Rachel wasn't the escape exactly innocent but she needswas, and it soon dawns on perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her: , she's trapped in was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a town full while before he made any sort of lost souls physical approach to her and wannabes, with no friends, no cash and no return ticketby that time she was obsessed by him. When her sister's obsessive ex offers her a job researching the murderous Manson girls Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his next indie film, she accepts – albeit reluctantly. This is not quite interests on the summer Anna had island and in particular in mind; but the more she learns about bar where all the girls and her fate, the more she comes to understand her family – and herselfeither worked or partied. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472150848</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Louise CandlishAmanda Craig|title=Three Graces|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|isbn= 140871468X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=152915118X|title=Pineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The Swimming Poolproblem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. 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 GD'.}}{{Frontpage|author=Emily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=''The Swimming Pool'' 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is the story of facing a woman - Natalie - whose eyes are dazzled by a glamorous couple who move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live nearbywith his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. Natalie and husband Ed have a 13-year-old daughter However, Molly, and are Edie is tormented by the kind memory of parents you'd steer clear of at the school gates for fear of offending their politically correct sensibilities. Molly has a phobia of water. Rather than keep her away from rivers childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and pools, they subject her to the worry that there was a childhood secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of therapywhat happened all that time ago. They keep up with changes to Molly After 's phone code so they can check up on her messages. They donseeing't believe Lucy in private education and they eat nutritionally supplemented pizzas. Louise Candlish pokes delicious fun at this couplethe high street, particularly at dull-just as-ditchwater Ed whose moral rectitude stifles poor Natalieshe was the last time she saw her, desperate she starts to break out find pockets of memories coming back to her mould. Enter Lara Channing. Lara And yet as she remembers the past, she is a champion synchronised swimmer forgetting more and former starletmore in her day to day life. Her beauty Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, wealth and warmth have a magnetic attraction before her memories are gone forever?|isbn=1804181250}}{{Frontpage|author=Madelaine Lucas|title=Thirst for Natalie who proves powerless to resist LaraSalt|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= ''s charmsLove, although she is less sure of LaraI's enigmatic husbandd read, was supposed to be a light and weightless feeling, Miles. The novel charts Nataliebut I had always longed for gravity''s journey as she is enticed away  Told from Ed and into Lara's web, and there is an increasing sense of unease as events unfold. Add to this heady mix a few additional ingredientsretrospective view, a heatwaveyoung woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, an outdoor pool and the narrator relives the affair with a gaggle 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 teenagersan 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 you have a recipe for disasterhow it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405927321</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kit de Waal0008506337|title=My Name is LeonThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=Everything that is precious to Leon gets taken awayThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. His Action Man toys, his home, his mum, and his brotherMargo was just sixteen when they fell in love. The world seems utterly unfair, and so he sneaks 20p here, Richard was twenty-one and 50p there, out of peopledescribed by Margo's purses, whilst building up a rucksack full of all the things hemother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to need when he finds his baby brotherOxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and reunites his familyRichard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Through all his planning he still manages Margo did go to Oxford and went on to find enjoyment in small things, like become a Curly Wurlywell-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, or riding his bikeImogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, or planting seeds with his new friends the family home on the allotments, but how will he cope when he finally faces Isle of Wight. Even then the truth of his new life without his familydoubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241207088</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rufi Thorpe1914585402|title= Dear Fang, With LoveDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= After seventeen year-old VeraI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's mental breakdown, her father Lucas takes her on Only One Danny Garvey]] a trip to the tiny Lithuanian town couple of Vilnius to recover years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and reconnect with their family historyaffecting it was. It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472152158</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Simon BillLucy Ashe|title= Artist in ResidenceClara and Olivia|rating= 4.5

|summary= The nameless protagonist of artist Simon Billyear is 1933. The place? Sadler's first novel is almost instantly dislikeableWells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. HeBecause there's a slob with an alcohol problem whose endeavours in the art world appear lackadaisical and who seems to have behaved questionably to his ex-girlfriend Susanlot that builds a dancer. In his antiheroSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, Bill gives himself an uphill struggle attention to keep detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the reader turning pages, let alone engage their sympathyclassroom. And yetA stage presence, Artist in Residence is a funnycharm, thoughta ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a hard-provokingworker, informative read which is all the more enjoyable for the mental and emotional demands it places on the readera star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908745576</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Paul CornellHeather Fawcett|title= Who Killed Sherlock Holmes?|rating= 4.5|genre= Fantasy |summary=The Great Detecitve's ghost has walked LondonEmily Wilde's streets for an age, given shape by people's memories. Now someone's put a ceremonial dagger throug his chest. But what's the motive? And who - or what - could kill a ghost? When policing London's supernatural underworld, eliminating the impossible is not an option. DI James Quill and his detectives have learnt this the hard way. Gifted with the Sight, they'll pursue a criminial genius - who'll lure them into a Sherlockian maze Encyclopaedia of clues and evidence. The team also have thier own demons to fight. They've been to Hell and back (literally) but now the unit is falling apart...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447273265</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Veronica Henry|title=How to Find Love in a Book ShopFaeries

|summary=It Emily Wilde is with a heavy heart that Emilia Nightingale returns home an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life's work, the pretty Cotswold town very first encyclopaedia of Peasebrookfaeries. Her beloved father Julius has just passed away; his legacy Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, a well-loved bookshop that serves as a beating heart to the communityshe is not so good with people. Julius was loved by all: he always had time to listen to his customers and share a recuperative cuppa So when she finds herself far, far North in times the small village of need. HoweverHrafvsnik, having somehow offended the village matriarch, she is not sure what she has done, his finances were another matter entirely nor how to redeem herself and Emilia wonders how she can keep put her final investigations for her book back on the bookshop open with an ever-mounting pile of debtright track. Greedy property developer Ian Mendip would be only ''too'' happy to help out Enter Wendell Bambleby, but can Emilia really give up on her fatherdashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, much to Emily's dreamfrustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>140914688X</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy Koomson1398515388|title=When I Was InvisibleThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)

|summary=Veronika Harper met Veronica Harper aged 8First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, form caused the start both deciding they'd stay firm friendsnuclear meltdown. Nika The result was complete and Roni did everything together including their beloved ballet… until something goes terribly wrongutter devastation. This leads to a series The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of events livelihoods was widespread. The fact that donmany pets were separated from their owners came far down the list of priorities but - six months after the tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a dog outside a convenience store. He wasn't just tear their friendship a dog person but also the lives they convenience store owner's comment that he would otherwise lead. They wish for invisibility call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and choose different ways to accomplish it for Tamon the sake of their survival; physical as well as emotionaldog jumped in.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780893361</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithChristopher Bowden|title=My Italian BulldozerMr Magenta|rating=4.5

|summary=I do love to sit down with Christopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a new book seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by AMS, her nephew after she has died. The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and the excitement was doubled on this occasion since a new standalone story meant lots little bit of brand new characters indulgence to meet, and also the book has a very intriguingly bizarre title! In this story we get to meet Paul, young nephew had had a food writer who, after a rather upsetting break-up with his girlfriend, heads much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it seems to Tuscany him an obligation to finish writing his bookfind it all out. So far, so normal, but of course things soon get a little unusual, beginning with Paul’s arrest on his arrival in Italy and moving swiftly on to the point where instead of a hire car he finds himself with a hired bulldozer…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846973554</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Grady HendrixJennifer Mason|title= My Best Friend's ExorcismPartitions of Unity|rating= 54|genre= HorrorGeneral Fiction|summary=1988Here at Bookbag Towers, Charlestonwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby dominatrix and unintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], when she investigated and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening unravelled a series of skinny-dipping goes disatrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act...differentdisappearances. SheIn 's moody. She's irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever shePartitions of Unity's nearby. Abby's investigation leads , she sets her mind to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by solving a single question: Is their friendship enough to beat the devil?murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1594748624</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frederic Dard and David Bellos (translator)Will Carver|title=Bird in a CageThe Daves Next Door|rating=54|genre=CrimeGeneral Fiction|summary=A man returns to the flat he grew up Five strangers come together in and where his mother died without his knowledge, and finds it too desolate for the time of year it is – Christmas Eve. Bursting for more life, despite being one moment as a solitary character, he goes suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a restaurant, and finds a connection with a mother with her daughterLondon tube line. They dineAs their fates overlap, then go to the cinema, and sit together, and things happen from there – story is told in a gentlebackwards order, no-pressure, no-names-no-packdrill way. If this isn't a reasonable start leading up to a novella, consider the tag it has as a noir classicfateful moment. And consider the fact the strange woman is the spitting image of the man's dead wife…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782271996</amazonuk>1914585186}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer DonnellyMason|title=These Shallow GravesPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery|rating=3.54|genre=Crime (Historical)General Fiction|summary=Jennifer Donnelly wrote one of my all-time favourite books, ''A Gathering Light''struggling poetry zine, so I was very excited to read her latest novel a mom-and see how it compared. Like ''A Gathering Light'-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 a state-of-the-art S&M dungeon, a man serving a life sentence in Alabama, an enigmatic signature, K(s, x), on a cheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...''These Shallow Graves''  This is just a historical novel with a murder mystery at its heart sample of the cast of characters and a feisty heroine who challenges the standards settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be required! The basic premise of the daythis mystery story goes like this... |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471405176</amazonuk>B09STS96HS