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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jill SantopoloJenny Lecoat|title= The Light We LostBeyond Summerland|rating= 3.54|genre= General Fiction|summary=11th September 2001. Lucy and Gabe meet in New York Jean lives on a day that will change their lives – and Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the world – forever. As the city burns behind them, they kiss for end of the very first timeoccupation. Over During the next thirteen years they are torn apart, then brought back togetherwar, time and time again. ItJean's father was arrested for listening to a journey of dreamsbanned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of desireshim. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, of jealousyand the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of forgiveness – and above all, lovehim. As Lucy is faced with But will the truth come as a devastating choicerelief, she wonders whether their love is a matter of destiny or chance.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 occupation?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008224560</amazonuk>1846976537

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Allie RogersOnyi Nwabineli|title= Little GoldAllow Me to Introduce Myself|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= The heat is oppressive and storms are brewing in Brighton in Anuri spent her childhood on display to the summer of 1982. Little Goldworld, a boyish girl thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on the brink social media, where she posted every step of adolescenceAnuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is struggling with the reality of in her broken family twenties and a home descending into chaos. Her only refuge she is the tree at the end of slowly trying to regain her garden. Into confidence and to get her fractured life steps elderly neighbourback, Peggy Baxtersuing her step-mother to take down the content about her. The connection between the two Anuri is instant, but just when it seems that Little Gold has found solacebattling alcoholism, outsiders appear who seek failing to take advantage of start her frail family in the worst way possiblePhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. In an era when so much Most importantly, she is hard to speak alouddesperately worried about her little sister, can Little Gold share enough who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her life to avert disaster? And can Peggy Baxtersister, a woman running out of time and perhaps herself and her relationship with her own secrets to bear, recognise father at the danger before it's too latesame time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1787199959</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Meg Howrey1529153298|title= The WanderersList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating= 35|genre= General Fiction |summary= Set in the near futureIt'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, NASA prepares but to send three astronauts in have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to space to put move the first humans on Marsfamily 'Down South'. Helen Kane When you're from Yorkshire, Yoshi TanakaDown South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, and Sergei Kuznetsov are the trio selected for the missionmove would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, but they must first prove themselves by spending seventeen months in a simulation and she'll do anything to prevent that mirrors conditions on Mars. Each of She's not worried about the astronauts has their own reason for taking part in the mission and their relationships with their families will be put dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to the ultimate test as they begin this journey of discovery and escapismanyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471146650</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Lisa McInerney1035906708|title= Blood MiraclesDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Like all twenty-year-oldsWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, Ryan Cusack is trying in December 1923 and only moved to get his head around who he isAthens when she was thirteen. This is not a good time for his boss Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to exploit his dual heritage by opening a new black market route from Italy 'Callas' to Irelandmake it more manageable in the States. It is certainly not a good time When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for his adored girlfriend to decide he's irreparably corrupted. And he really wishes he hadn't accidentally caught her voice - she was raised under the eye Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of an ornery grandmother who fancies herself his saviourher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444798898</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Cat ClarkeAlexander McCall Smith|title= GirlhoodThe Perfect Passion Company|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Girlhood'' focuses on The Perfect Passion Company is a group of friends; Harperdating agency in Edinburgh, Rowanrun by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, Lily tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and Amalook after the business, who are fast approaching the end as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of term a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at an elite boarding school in the middle of nowherechance to come home to Edinburgh. The arrival of Kirsty causes a seismic shift in And so begins this previously supportive friendship group and Harper soon finds herself caught between her old friends new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the mysterious Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new girl characters who seems quickly begin to have so much charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in common with her. But is Kirsty who she claims abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to be?lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784292737</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Suellen DaintyDean Koontz|title= The HousekeeperBad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary= Annie Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has broken the cardinal rule of never mixing business with pleasuredelivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and so when the latter ends, sheit's left without possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the formerthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, and in need of Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a new jobnice person. A really nice person. She never thought about being So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a housekeepernew friend, but her OCD tendencies mixed with years of working in hospitality mean she's quite capablea bad weather friend called Spike, especially when an opportunity arises with her girl crush, Emma Helmsley, one half of who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a well-known celeb couple on the London circuitgood person. Nothing Spike is ever as it seems, thoughgoing to take care of Benny, and Annie soon finds that behind those tall walls there is a family no less dysfunctional than anyone elsewill certainly take care of Benny'senemies, despite their fameif he, fortuneBenny, and front page headlinesHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1476771405</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen PhillipsKatherine Howe|title=The Beautiful BureaucratA True Account

|summary=Meet Josephine. Married Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to Joseph Joneslive with a family who run an inn, she has kept her maiden name and being made to keep at least some character to her identitywork there from a young age. As opposed When she hears there is to her new boss, who has no gender, no facebe a hanging of some pirates in the town, she decides to go and horrid halitosiswatch. The job Josephine is forced to choose is a simple oneEnthralled and horrified in equal measure, of taking Hannah finds herself embroiled in a fileyoung boy's paper contents, clicking up death at the subject on a huge database, entering a date newly printed on the sheet, and repeatinghands of two vicious pirates. Told to obey strict secrecy rulesShe hides away, she starts to so that they don't find unusual signs of malignance all over – a man in a grey sweatshirt following and kill hertoo, post redirected when nobody knows where Josephine and Joseph are even living from one month then to escape them completely she runs away to the nextsea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a husband missing from cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the marital bed more thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and more often… Is from there a way for we are caught up in her find a spark rip roaring tale of happiness in life on the humdrum, windowless cell she works, and the horrid housing that is all the couple can afford?ocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782273328</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Roisin Meaney1471180158|title= The ReunionMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= This is Jamie Matson works in an emotional story about upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the lives subtlety of two Irish sistersa half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, beginning with their invitation to attend a twenty year reunion back at their Convent High School'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. They are both unsure whether Sometimes Jamie needs to go, their adult lives having veered take time off at short notice - she's a frequent flier in totally different the local A&E and dramatic directions since leaving sometimes Bo's not fit enough to go to school. We find out that Missed shifts or the sisters have each suffered terrible life events, changing them for ever need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in the children they werewrong. The story reveals how they begin It was going to re-build their lives, supporting one another and becoming much closer in the processcome to a head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144479972X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Claire NorthB0CKD1L5JL|title= The End of the DayRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction|summary= At the end of Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the daystrange, Death visits everyone. Right before thatreclusive Bear, Charlie does. You might meet him in a hospitalhe is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in a warzone, or at the scene forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. After Bear dies and a traffic accident.Then againbrief sojourn in human company, you might meet him at the North Pole - he gets everywhere. From jungles to deserts to tundraand armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, you may come across Charlie. Would you shake him by Petr goes on a journey through the handforest, take broadcasting the gift he offersstrange, or would you pay no attention to the words wild and rarely heard voices he says? Sometimes he is sent as a courtesy, sometimes as a warning. He never knows whichencounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0316316741</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Marie NDiaye and Jordan Stump (translator)Sarah Marsh|title= LadivineA Sign of Her Own|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Ladivine centres on the life After a bout of Clarissescarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a woman tormented by guilt and shame over her abandonment world of her mothersilence, and Clarisse's daughter Ladivine, a woman haunted by everything about her mother's choiceslife changes. As tragedy unfolds Living in a time when the mysteries use of Clarisse's life and her determination sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to escape a past school where she cannot reconcile with her ambition irreparably alter the lives of her daughter and husbandis taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. The sadness at the heart of this book is that Clarisse From here, driven by shame about her background chooses to create she ends up in another life school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and identity and through this deception creates an insurmountable barrier between herself and the rest of the worldusing a system called Visible Speech. When given At the opportunity to let down her defences same time, Bell is working on other inventions and be honest about who she truly isideas, Clarisse falls prey to a violent, damaged man and Ellen finds herself drawn into an intoxicating web unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of violence, drunk on truth and freedom to exist without pretenceespionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848666047</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= E G RodfordB0BC3YTCMR|title= The Surgeon's Case: George Kocharyan Mystery 2|rating= 4|genre= Crime |summary=In the second instalment of this series, Private Investigator George Kocharyan has been hired by a well-known local man to track down some missing valuables. Bill Galbraith, a world-famous surgeon at Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital who hosts a popular medical television programme, has had his briefcase stolen by his live-in domestic servant, Aurora. According to Galbraith, this briefcase contains confidential notes concerning an important patient of his at the hospital. George agrees to look into the theft, assuming it will be a relatively easy and straightforward case – little does he know, he's about to enter a world of deceit and dysfunction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178565005X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewGood Girls Die|author=Diney Costeloe|title=The New NeighboursAyura Ayira|rating=4.5

|summary=Dartmouth Circle has always been the epitome ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of British middle class proprietyher fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. Manicured lawnsShe was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, welland suffered from vitiligo -kept house facades… All is where people were afraid to hug her in case it should be and life is ordered, with the disrupting influence of the town's university students out of sight contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and 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 his house and out of mindhe raped her. ImagineIn shock, then, the horror when the good citizens of the Circle hear that one of their houses… THEIR houses… has been bought as student accommodationshe even allowed him to give her a lift home. Will it be the harbinger of doom they expect?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784972665</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith1472263936|title=A Distant View of EverythingThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=Ah, Isabel Dalhousie! The more I read about Isabel, the more I like It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made herfirst trip to Greece. I could seeShe was alone: her mother, in this book in particularGreek by birth, how annoying she could potentially be as a friend, since she is forever gazing off into had left the distance, heading into her inner imaginings rather than staying focussed on the conversationfamily home and refused to return, but Mary and yet I think she Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be an interesting, and thought-provoking, sort of friend to havea pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. In this, Her trip to the eleventh novel family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the series, Isabel finds herself once more embroiled in someone else's businessfirst of several annual visits. Shegrew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her husband Jamiegrandfather, are starting retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to be resigned the Junta and expected his family to the fact that she just can't help uphold his values but get involved! saw no reason to accommodate them. Mysteries abound, both in this business His prejudices included Helena's red hair and in green eyes - inherited from her own family life, as we watch her day to day doings up in Edinburghfather's Scottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408709392</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Margaret ForsterDean Koontz|title= How to Measure a CowAfter Death

|genre= General Fiction|summary= Seeking to escape her pastMichael Mace, Head of Security, Tara has left Londonat a top secret biological research facility, resettling way up north is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in Cumbria where noa bio-one knows herhazard accident. She quickly settles into an anonymous Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, unexciting lifecovered in plastic, observed only by Nancyhe has a sense that something very, her elderly neighbour who begins very bad has happened to develop an odd obsession with herhim – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. Meanwhile As he recovers his senses, her three childhood friends are baffled he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by her disappearancefarming 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, and resolve to get back even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in touch with herthe village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784702307</amazonuk>

 {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BYF82CXT|title=Semi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached 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 it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.''}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Steven AnthonyShalini Boland|title=Isaac Montgomery for the Love of BethThe Silent Bride

|summary=There Alice and Seth are words to describe the Isaac Montgomery we meet at the beginning of the story. Unfortunately they're not words you usually use a match made in polite companyheaven. He'd worked is everything she has been searching for many years ; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in stockbroking and had made a substantial fortunewife; beautiful, successful, but his life was devoid of much in confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the way of personal relationshipswedding is planned and set. When he required a woman as an escortthe much-anticipated day arrives, he paid. He assumed that if he was having a good timeAlice is walked down the aisle by her father, then beaming with pride and excitement as she were too - if he even bothered surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to think about it. He had a friend whom he didn't see all that often celebrate this joyful day and it was when he thought about Phil that a little ''jealousy'' crept into IsaacSeth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's heart. You seeworld implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, Phil was engaged who is waiting for her to Penelope and they were obviously happy. Isaac began to wonder what love was - and how you went about finding someone to share your life withbecome his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>152466815X</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kate Beaufoy1787636003|title= The Gingerbread HouseGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary=It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn''The Gingerbread House'' is not a cottage from a fairytale where a wicked old witch lives t exactly innocent but it is in a wonderful rural settingshe was, perfect for getting away from it all. Or it would beperhaps, if it weren't for the lady who lives there whonaive, while far from a witchso when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, can be she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a bit while before he made any sort of a b*tch. It's not entirely physical approach to her faultand by that time she was obsessed by him. Eleanor has dementia and her fading mind makes her confused Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, angry looking after his interests on the island and quite hard work to care for. With her current carer off to attend her daughter's wedding, Eleanor's daughter in law Tess steps up to assume this role particular in the interim, bringing her precocious daughter Katia with herbar where all the girls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785300865</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pam JenoffAmanda Craig|title=The Orphan's TaleThree Graces

|summary=Herr NeuroffFew styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's circus has a secret: as well as a much needed wartime source something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of entertainmentthe day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it's also refuge to Jews escaping uncertain concentration camp fatesstands in one particular moment. One such person, Astrid, a trapeze and high wire artist, lives a precarious life in which her possible discovery To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be more dangerous than her nightly act. She's an expert who has perfected her art over time and therefore resents Neuroff demanding embarrassingly inadequate: she teach Noa, a non-circus family new comer, quickly. There's a reason behind practically synonymous with the circus owner's demand thoughgenre of contemporary social fiction at this point. Noa arrives at She has such a gift for weaving the circus endangered by an act ongoing issues of kindness: a Jewish baby she stole from a Nazi train before leaving the Netherlands. It was day into the lives of her characters in a spur of the moment decision way that will bind her to Astrid feels natural and their futurelived-in, no matter how long… or short… a time that may benever making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848455364</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Otto de Kat and Laura Watkinson (translator)152915118X|title=The Longest NightPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=34.5|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Emma has a philosophy – ''let Pineapple Street'' is the dead reststory of three women: Sasha, Darley and love the livingGeorgiana. 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 problem with that, as a 96-year-old's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, is that there are too few living leftTilda, asks Cord and so while Sasha if they'd like to move into the love remains she will go through her memoriesPineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, taking a woozystreet or so away, diaphanous path through all the major events of her lifewhich they own. Starting in wartime Berlin with one husband, who gets snatched They won't need any of the furniture from her at work, fleeing to another place to wait for peacePineapple Street, so Sasha and wait for him Cord can move straight in vain. Nominally, moving to Holland and finding new love, and so on – this wispy journey will show all they had a choice but that wasn't the impacts of war, from rationing right up to exile, death and survivalreality. The memories are coming strongly here Darley and now, as Emma is waiting for at least one of her two sons 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 visit, and then she will die…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857056085</amazonuk>'the GD'.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Irvine WelshEmily Critchley|title= The Blade ArtistOne Puzzling Afternoon|rating= 54|genre= Crime |summary=So. In 84 year old Edie has lived in the interest of honest disclosure I should tell you that I love Irvine Welsh's work same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and I must confess bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to a particularly gruesome fancy for Begbielose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the notoriously violentmemory of her childhood friend, terrifying protector/tormentor of Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the Trainspotting gang. Whilst this means you are unlikely to receive an unbiased review, it does mean you will get worry that there was a passionate one. It is fair to say secret she was keeping for Lucy that I loved ''The Blade Artist'' and my only critique would somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that it was over too quicklytime ago. For those of you who may not be familiar with Welsh After 's earlier manifestations have no fear, you can pick up seeing''The Blade Artist'' and be transfixed by Jim FrancisLucy in the high street, artistjust as she was the last time she saw her, fathershe starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, husband she is forgetting more and elegant thugmore in her day to day life. For those of you with previous knowledge of Francis Begbie you Will she uncover the truth about Lucy'll be instantly drawn back into the world of a man previously defined by petty vengeances disappearance before her move, violence and blood.before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178470055X</amazonuk>1804181250

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}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amanda Roberts0008506337|title=The Roots of the TreeGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating=45

|summary=The strength of a tree comes not from what you can see, not from the trunk, the branches love affair between Margo Garnett and the leaves, but from what you canpoet Richard O't see Leary was all- the rootsconsuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Disturbance to the roots can be devastatingRichard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. ItHer parents worried that Richard's similar in human beingsinfluence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to Oxford and having a glittering career. Annie had lived for 63 yearsIn the event, secure in they eloped and Richard took her away from the love Isle of her parents, Elsie and FrankWight. She'd looked after them in her home in their final years Margo did go to Oxford and it was quite by chance that she came across their wedding certificate when she was sorting out their effectswent on to become a well-respected journalist. They The couple had not been married until ''after'' her birththree children: Rachel, but her birth certificate showed Frank as her father Imogen and that her mother Sasha. Life was married to himlived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Something didn't add up and there was one inescapable conclusion: Even then the man shedoubts about Richard'd loved as her father all those years s drinking were never far from Margo's mind: 'wasn'tshe would never be able to leave him in charge'' her father after all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909716863</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeroen Blokhuis and Asja Novak (translator)1914585402|title=The Yellow House|rating=3|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=If you were the needy kind, would you really join in the drumming-out of town of two people accused of murder purely because of their nationality? Would you get a feeling of belonging just because you were there when someone carried a dead dog down off a mountain? The main character in this novel does. But he has something that will really get him noted, well-thought-of, included. He has come to the south of France to set up an artists' collective, where he can live and work alongside his counterparts, who can inspire each other and best each other to create wonderful art. In fact a much-respected guest is on his way now, so surely he can find kinship? The guest's name is, after all, Gauguin. The main character Dashboard Elvis is, of course, Vincent van Gogh…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320563</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewDead|author=Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|title=Retribution RoadDavid F Ross

|genre=Historical General Fiction |summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There'Sergeant Bowman wasns Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There't just s Only One Danny Garvey]] a hard man, he couple of years back and remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was something else: a dangerous man.'' If, indeed, there was someone who was ideal for a suicide mission, it It was him. Working as a soldier for the East India Company in the rural, remotegripping, outlaw hotbeds of Asia in the 1850semotionally wounding read, he's tasked with taking a boat of unknown prospects up the Irrawaddy to try and combat local warlord Pagan Min. It doesn't go well – to start with, he's supposed to run the rule over ruffians saved from the gallows, but can't command them until he's forced his way to having the knowledge rereading my review of the mission he needs first, only for all hell to break loose. But get back he does, only to find it my main takeaway was that while his nightmares about what really happened are met with equally dark goings-I might not have lavished enough praise on, the official record suggests the mission never actually existed…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857053744</amazonuk>it.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jennifer DownLucy Ashe|title=Our Magic HourClara and Olivia

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=There had always been Katy, Audrey and AdamThe year is 1933. TheyThe place? Sadler've been friends since school s Wells. Ballerinas Clara and nowOlivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, along with Audreywe learn, on the inside. And not on stage, either. Because there's partner Nick, they remain inseparable as young professionalsa lot that builds a dancer. ThenSome things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, one dayattention to detail – and some things, Katy kills herselfthat ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the classroom. No warningA stage presence, no reason just no Katya charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The four are suddenly three trying to make sense of difference between a moment that leaves so many questions in hard-worker, and a world that refuses to pause while they figure it outstar.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1925240835</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ayobami AdebayoHeather Fawcett|title= Stay With MeEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction|summary= I have a Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and researched meticulously, to write her life''thing'' about blurbs which give away far too much s work, the very first encyclopaedia of the storiesfaeries. Not this timeWhilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with people. This time…''There are things even love can't do…if So when she finds herself far, far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the burden village matriarch, she is too much and stays too long even love bendsnot sure what she has done, cracks, comes close nor how to breaking, redeem herself and sometimes does breakput her final investigations for her book back on the right track.'' ''But even when it's in a thousand pieces around your feetEnter Wendell Bambleby, her dashingly handsome and insufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and delight, that doesn't mean itmuch to Emily's no longer love…'' frustration. That But why is the most heart-breakingly beautiful truth I've read in a long time – and it sums up this story. he here? What does he want? This And what exactly is a story about love not being enough…but still being love. I hope this becomes a classic, not just in its native Nigeria but going on with the faerie folk around the world. Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782119469</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Elan Mastai1398515388|title= All Our Wrong TodaysThe Boy and the Dog|author=Seishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|rating=34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Welcome to 2016First of all, but not as we know it. This version of 2016 was like a picture-perfect scene from a science-fiction movie: a world free from war and povertythe earthquake, with hover carsdeep in the ocean floor, space-tourismwhich created the tsunami and this, food replicatorsin turn, shiny buildings caused the nuclear meltdown. The result was complete and AI that catered to every whimutter devastation. This was the resplendent 2016 we The deaths were supposed to haveuncountable, thanks to and the invention in 1965 loss of the Goettreider Engine, which created a sustainable form of energy livelihoods was widespread. The fact that transformed the planet. With all of the major problems in the world gone, humans many pets were free to dedicate separated from their time to owners came far down the pursuit list of science and entertainment, culminating in what could be priorities but - six months after the most exciting development yet: tsunami - Kazumasa Nakagaki discovered a time machinedog outside a convenience store. But of course, this perfect future would be completely derailed if, say, someone went back in time and messed up Goettreider He wasn't a dog person but the convenience store owner's experiment. Maybe the result comment that he would be a world similar call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the one we live dog jumped in now: the world we were never meant to have.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718184076</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Samanta Schweblin and Megan McDowell (translator)Christopher Bowden|title=Fever DreamMr Magenta

|genre=Literary General Fiction|summary=Meet Carla. SheChristopher Bowden's latest novel is a patient untangling of a glamorous older seemingly ordinary woman's life, with poise and beauty, and someone who still looks a treat in a golden bikini. But inside, carried out by her nephew after she's differenthas died. The biggest issue she seems to bear relates to an event aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a few years ago, when her horse breeder husband had the drama little bit of both a hired, valuable stallion, and their son, being poisoned. Away from the right medical treatment, Carla took David indulgence to a woman who said the only hope was young nephew had had a 'migration' – basically, to farm out part of David's spirit much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and swap it with someone else's, seems to dilute the toxin. This was a success, as David seems him an obligation to have survived, although Carla is sure find it was the wrong decision – she now sees David as at least part monsterall out. But another odd thing about this tale is that it isn't being narrated by Carla, but by her neighbour, another mother called Amanda, who is renting a holiday home nearby. And the further odd thing is to whom she is narrating this story – it's to David…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786070901</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Heather O'NeillJennifer Mason|title= The Lonely Hearts HotelPartitions of Unity|rating= 54|genre= General Fiction |summary=Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1914. Pierrot is a piano prodigyHere at Bookbag Towers, we first met Elizabeth Cromwell, dominatrix and Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routinesunintentional detective in [[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], the children fall in love with each other when she investigated and dream up unravelled a plan for the most extraordinary show the world has ever seenseries of disappearances. Seperated as teenagers and sent off to work during the Great Depression, both descend into the cityIn ''Partitions of Unity''s underworld - dabbling in sex, drugs, and theft. Will Rose and Pierrot ever reunite? And if they do - what lengths will they go she sets her mind to to make their dream come true? One thing's for sure - neither they nor the theatre nor the underworld will ever look the samesolving a murder...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849163359</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Min Jin LeeWill Carver|title= PachinkoThe Daves Next Door|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= I have often said that much of what I know of the world, its geography, history and politics, I have learned from reading story books. Because I learn this way, I do wonder about people who profess not Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to read fiction. I wonder how much of the truth of how the world really is passes them by as detonate his vest on a resultLondon tube line. In the light of 2016 in the UK and the USAAs their fates overlap, I wonder if this is a concern to be added to all of the others about cuts to arts funding and arts learning and the absolute necessity of having public libraries where children can start to choose for themselves at the earliest age, which stories to read, uncensored by the views of those who might think they know better. I say all this because Pachinko story is yet one more of those books that did not just make me think differently about what I thought I knewtold in backwards order, but actually opened leading up to me a world that I knew nothing about: the world of the ethnic Korean in Japanfateful moment.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786691353</amazonuk>1914585186}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Shanthi SekaranJennifer Mason|title=Lucky Boy|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Solimar wants more from her life than her Mexican home can offer and now she's 18, she can go find it. Her target is to get to the USA, a target so blinding that she doesn't realise what reaching out for it will cost. Meanwhile Kavya is living the American dream. She's rich in friendship, family, a loving husband and life prospects and yet Kavya has a baby-shaped hole in her world. The problem is that there's only one baby for both of them… Lucky boy!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0735212279</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Anne Tyler|title=Vinegar GirlPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery

|summary=Kate Battista is in an odd and not entirely satisfactory situation. At the age of twenty nine she finds herself working as a teaching assistant ''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and'' running -pop mobile diner in the home for her scientist father (Northern California redwoods, a 400-meter hurdler who is eccentric, to say just missed the least) and her younger sister Bunny2004 Olympics, who might be fifteen but is actually three going on thirty. Dr Battista has other problems - and when he has a problem he offloads them onto Kate (hewomen's concerned that she hasn't yet done his taxes). This time thoughtrack 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, it'K(s serious. Pyotr, his brilliant young lab assistantx), is in the USA on a visa and itcheap oil painting, an erotic art dealer in Georgia...''s about to expire. If that happens Dr Battista  This is convinced that he'll not be able to complete his work just a sample of the cast of characters and all that he's done settings in Preposterous. As you can see, some keeping up will be for nothingrequired! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099589877</amazonuk>B09STS96HS