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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pascal Garnier Jenny Lecoat|title=Beyond Summerland|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of the occupation. During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and her mother waiting for years for news of him. As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and Melanie Florence (translator)the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as a relief, 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 occupation?|isbn=1846976537}}{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Low HeightsAllow Me to Introduce Myself

|genre=General Fiction |summary=Edouard is an exemplary example of a crotchety old man – changing his mindAnuri spent her childhood on display to the world, and blaming anything and everything – even that decision – on other people. Hethanks to her step-mother Ophelia's physically fineincreasingly popular presence on social media, apart from one hand disabled by a stroke, but mentally, what with forgetting his past, assuming too many days are Sundays when theywhere she posted every step of Anuri're not s childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and buying too many inappropriate things, he needs a nurse – Theresebasically, who has formed an unlikely and almost unwanted couple with himmonetary gain. For EdouardNow Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the memory of his wife who died ten years ago content about her. Anuri is still a little too strongbattling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. But this unusual 'family' Most importantly, she is desperately worried about to be upset by an unexpected arrivalher little sister, who will stir is the emotions new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and life of their remote house no end…her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910477427</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dina Nayeri1529153298|title= RefugeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Sinking boats in stormy seasIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, national borders boosted with barbed wire, and overcrowded shelters – the mediahonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's portrayal of seeking asylum focuses on the process in its darkestfamily, most dangerous formthough. Women have been disappearing. What happens after tumultuous journeys and temporary shelter is not news; and life after decades in the new country is rarely headline material either Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. But in Dina Nayeri Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'RefugeDown South'. When you're from Yorkshire, it Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the life after move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that takes centre stage. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0735219389</amazonuk> She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hawa L Crickmore1035906708|title=Across the OceanDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=A young cage fighterWe tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, Martin GrandsonNew York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a siblingthirteen. Only recently heHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas'd been a fit young man, to make it more manageable in the prime of life, but now he States. When she was suffering from a rare type of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for life and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive her voice - she was raised under the transplant within the next fourteen days. Unfortunately Martin's parents had died in Nazi occupation by a car crash mother who mercilessly exploited her and there were made no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfriendsecret of her preference for her elder sister, Celia, was not a matchJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Elif ShafakAlexander McCall Smith|title= Three Daughters of EveThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Set The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Istanbul Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in 2016providing a more personal, ''Three Daughters of Eve'' centres on Peritailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a Turkish woman who finds herself thinking back trip to her years at Oxford University Canada to distract herself from get away for a boring dinner partywhile. Her reminiscing Katie is triggered when she finds an old polaroid coming out of herselfa break up with a bad boyfriend, her friends Mona and Shirinso jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the rebellious Professor Azur. Much of her thoughts revolve around the scandal that prevented her from graduating from her dream universityIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. More of Katie has no experience in running a commentary on religion than a storybusiness, the novel asks many questions about faith or in match- making, but Ness has full confidence in particularher abilities, Islam - and whether its customs there's always her very helpful (and traditions can be adapted rather handsome) neighbour, William, to suit modern life.lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241978882</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andre AlexisDean Koontz|title= The Hidden KeysBad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary= Tancred Palmieri Benny is having a talented thief thrown into the path of Willow Azarian an eccentricterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, unpredictable heroin addictand his house gets trashed. She is also part of the Azarian dynasty Oh, bequeathed almost and someone has delivered a million dollars upon her fatherreally weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's death. Each of possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the Azarian children were also gifted a deeply personal memento morithing that has trashed his house! The thing is, which Willow Benny is convinced make up an intricate treasure huntthe very last person to deserve all this bad luck. She enlists He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the help of Tancred delivery to steal each itemhis house is a new friend, solve the mystery and prove she a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is not blindly following clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a baseless fantasygood person. Tancred must use all his skills Spike is going to infiltrate the homes take care of each Benny, and will certainly take care of WillowBenny's siblingsenemies, if he, Benny, uncover the clues hidden in each item and fight off the rival interests of competing criminals and the policeHarper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781258422</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Alison Jean LesterKatherine Howe|title= Yuki Means HappinessA True Account|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= High-tech and high-riseHannah Masury is living in Boston, kimonoshaving been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and big-eyed visuals – through being made to work there from a dynamic juxtaposition young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the ultra modern town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and the traditionalhorrified in equal measure, Japan has succeeded Hannah finds herself embroiled in branding itself both as an intriguing travel destination that does not cease to surprise, but a young boy's death at the same time defies being ever wholly full understood by outsidershands of two vicious pirates. All of this has come She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to be encapsulated sea, dressing as a boy and reinforced in Sofia Coppolajoining the notorious Ned Low's cult classic ''Lost pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in Translation'': the iconic still thick of Scarlett Johansson standing at the scramble crossing things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in Shibuya has come to represent Japan in pop culture as much as her rip roaring tale of life on the more traditional cherry blossom imageryocean waves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848549628</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= S V Berlin1471180158|title= The FavouriteMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Siblings Edward and Isobel Vernon haven't spoken Jamie Matson works in years and live on opposite sides of the Atlantic. When their mother Mary dies unexpectedlyan upper-class grocery store, they are thrown together to sort through for a man who's a control freak with all the family homesubtlety of a half brick. With Edward Jamie's diffident but devoted girlfriendson, JulieBo, making an awkward threesome'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and the more you read, each stumbles through the practicalities of funeral preparation and house clearing, trying more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to make sense of their emotions and their feelings toward one another. Isobel makes take time off at short notice - she's a disturbing discovery and her fateful decision has consequences for all of them, challenging their beliefs about frequent flier in the past, hopes for the future local A&E and understanding of Marysometimes Bo's role not fit enough to go to school. Missed shifts or the need to be away on time to pick Bo up from school are occasions when Jamie can be controlled and put in keeping them at once apart and togetherthe wrong. It was going to come to a head. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993563384</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Claiborne JohnsonB0CKD1L5JL|title=Be Frank with MeRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=In June 2009 Isaac Vargas sends his assistantPetr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, twenty-four-year-old Alice Whitleyreclusive Bear, to Bel Airhe is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, California to help Mimi Gillespie produce her long-awaited second novelin the forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Under After Bear dies and a brief sojourn in human company, and armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the name Mforest, broadcasting the strange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.M}}{{Frontpage|author=Sarah Marsh|title=A Sign of Her Own|rating=3. Banning5|genre=General Fiction|summary=After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Mimi issued Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a wildly successful novel back world of silence, everything about her life changes. Living in a time when the 1970suse of sign language was seen as something only savages do, ''Pitched''Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, which quickly became she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a modern classic system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on every American adolescentother 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|genre=General Fiction|summary='s list of assigned reading 'This story is not for schooleveryone. She's the sort ' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of figure Harper Lee her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was for decades: a onevery bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo -hit literary wonder and an infamous reclusepeople were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. But there It's one key difference here: Mimi has not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a ninecrush on seventeen-year-old sonReggie 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 he raped her. In shock, Frankshe even allowed him to give her a lift home.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782399208</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kay Langdale1472263936|title=The Way Back to UsFigurine|author=Victoria Hislop

|summary=A household revolves around its weakest member It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and because it's revolving thereHamish (Helena's always a danger parents) felt that some people - such as it would be a spouse pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up- will market Kolonaki would be spun to the outside, whilst other children, loosely attached first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the main carer will be at a distancefamily's maid, never completely closeDina, but never escaping eitherwas wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. In the centre are He was proud of his close connections to the carer Junta and the person who needs that care, bonded together in such a way that it's actually difficult expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to offer help or even friendshipaccommodate them. So it is with Anna His prejudices included Helena's red hair and Teddy, who suffers green eyes - inherited from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA as ither father's generally known. He's five now, confined to a wheelchair or his Whizzybug and not putting on much weight as chewing and swallowing are difficultScottish ancestors.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473618363</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Hendrik Groen and Hester Velmans (translator)Dean Koontz|title= The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ years OldAfter Death|rating= 4.53|genre= General Fiction|summary= As the old adage goesMichael Mace, Head of Security, to walk at a mile in someone else's shoes top secret biological research facility, is to gain some understanding of what it among 55 people who die when a virus is to be that personreleased in a bio-hazard accident. Admittedly Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, Hendrik Groen isn't much up for long walks any morecovered in plastic, but he does acquire has a swish mobility scooter sense that something very, very bad has happened to zoom him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around inat the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; one could say that we get to zoom a mile in Groenhe 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 shoessurrounded by a Witching Forest. And the villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of the forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, if needed. The fear of being buried alive is an existential superstition in the village and ohthat is the reason Volushka, a drunken, what fun shoes he wears!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405924004</amazonuk>self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah FranklinB0BYF82CXT|title= ShelterSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 54|genre= Historical General Fiction|summary=Connie Granger has escaped her bombed''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-out city homedetached house, finding refuge 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 Womencouples 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.''s Timber Corps}}{{Frontpage|author=Shalini Boland|title=The Silent Bride|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. For her He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, this remote community must now serve funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a secret purpose.<br>Seppewife; beautiful, an Italian prisoner of warsuccessful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is haunted eagerly accepted by his memoriesAlice and the wedding is planned and set. In When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the forest campaisle by her father, he finds a strange kind of freedom.Their meeting signals new beginnings. But beaming with pride and excitement as they are drawn togethershe 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 world outside their forest haven man at the altar is being torn apart. Old certainties are crumbling, and both must now make a life-defining choice.<br>What price will they pay who is waiting for freedom? What will they fight her to protect?become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785762990</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer McVeigh1787636003|title=Leopard at the DoorThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=18 year old It was the summer when Rachel Fullsmith returns home to Kenya after being away at school in England Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and finds a lot can change in 6 yearsarrived on the island. Of course she realises her motherRachel wasn's death would alter things t exactly innocent but she's not prepared for her father's livewas, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in 'companion' Sara nor Sara's son Harold sleeping in Rachel's old roomher, she was flattered rather than wary. Michael the Kikuyu servant boy It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and by that time she grew up with is still there though and now a man with his own ideaswas obsessed by him. Meanwhile Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the unrest between island and in particular in the British rulers and bar where all the local Mau Mau fighters is increasing and about to blowgirls either worked or partied.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241247616</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Lucy DanielsAmanda Craig|title= Summer at Hope MeadowsThree Graces|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=''Animal Ark'' was a popular series Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of children-the-nation novel. There's books written between 1994 something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and 2008. The stories focus on a young girl called Mandy Hopecapture it, crafting an image of the daughter of two vets who run a practice, Animal Ark, country as it stands in the Yorkshire town of Welfordone particular moment. Along To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's practically synonymous with her best friend James, the children seek to help out creatures in needgenre of contemporary social fiction at this point. The series consisted of 94 books in total and was written by She has such a collection gift for weaving the ongoing issues of authors writing under the pseudonym Lucy Daniels. ''Summer at Hope Meadows'' is day into the first lives of her characters in a new series way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for adult readerssocial commentary but instead fully realised people, continuing grown-up Mandy's story now that she is a fully qualified vetgrappling with issues far larger than themselves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473653878</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sophie Divry and Alison Anderson (translator)152915118X|title=Madame Bovary of the SuburbsPineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=24.5

|summary=''It starts with becoming a homeownerPineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, then settling inDarley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, then reproducing.only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. WellThe problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, it actually starts a lot before thenTilda, with a set of fractured memories of our heroineasks Cord and Sasha if they's childhood – things she recalls her parents and relatives saying both d like to and about hermove into the Pineapple Street property. It goes through her childhood, Tilda and Chip have renovated and pen letters downsized to another property, a best friend conveying her wishes for her lifestreet or so away, those wishes being revised and affirmed by which they own. They won't need any of the liberty of university yearsfurniture from Pineapple Street, those wishes being met with or denied by married life… so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Someone archly could point out that you should be careful what you wish forNominally, they had a choice but not even our wise, modern woman could not see that wasn't the next step after reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the reproducing – gold digger'. She'standing disappointed s living in front of ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the refrigerator'GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857054686</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tania HershmanEmily Critchley|title=Some of Us Glow More Than OthersOne Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories Crime|summary=I won't be alone 84 year old Edie has lived in stating that reading short story collections can be slightly awkwardthe same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. Going through from A-ZHowever, witnessing Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a bounty secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of ideas and characters what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in short order can be too muchthe high street, but do you have just as she was the right last time she saw her, she starts to pick and choose according find pockets of memories coming back to what appealsher. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and what time you have more in her day to fill? The sequence has carefully been considered, surelyday life. Such would appear to be Will she uncover the case here. The last time I read one of this authortruth about Lucy's collectionsdisappearance before her move, with [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]], the only real difficulty was holding back and rationing them, but here you not only get a whopping forty pieces of writing, they before her memories are also spread into sections.gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910061484</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jane JohnsonMadelaine Lucas|title= Court of LionsThirst for Salt|rating= 5|genre= Historical Literary Fiction |summary= Kate Fordham arrived in the sunlit city of Granada a year ago. In the shadow of the Alhambra''Love, one of the most beautiful places on earthI'd read, she works as was supposed to be a waitress serving tourists in a busy bar. She pretends shelight and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity's happy with her new life – but how could she be? Kate's alone Told from a retrospective view, afraid and hiding under a false name. And fate is about to bring her faceyoung woman unravels the year-to-face with long relationship that once defined her greatest fear. Five centuries agoOverlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a message, in a hand few could read, was inscribed in blood on a stolen scrap of paperman twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. The paper was folded and pressed into one Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the Alhambra24-year-old narrator's walls. There it has laindeepening relationship with her older lover, undisturbed by the tides of history – the Fall of Granadadepicting its all-consuming nature, the expulsion of its last Sultan – until Kate discovers how it. Born of love, in a time of danger changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and desperation, the fragment will be the catalyst that changes Kate's life foreverhow it altered her irrevocably. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1786694336</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julie Cohen0008506337|title=TogetherThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=This is a The love story told backwardsaffair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in the most beautiful manner, so that we know from the very beginning that Emily and Robert love each other enormously, . Richard was twenty-one and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that he is about to break Richard's influence would take her heart in the most dreadful way in order away from what they felt she could achieve - going to protect Oxford and having a secret that they've lived with for decadesglittering career. Seeing their love unfold in reverse is beautifulIn the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. We get Margo did go to know them once they have already gotten Oxford and went on to know each otherbecome a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and it makes for an unusual and interesting structureSasha. The secret they hold is referred to throughoutLife was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, but it isn't revealed until very late in the bookfamily home on the Isle of Wight. IEven then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo'm guessing very few readers will figure it out. Even once you know, you want s mind: ''she would never be able to go back and read the whole story again leave him in the light of the information you now holdcharge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409171744</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Kate Mildenhall1914585402|title= SkylarkingDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction |summary= Kate 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 Harriet are best friends growing up together on an isolated Australian caperemember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. As the daughters of the lighthouse keepers, the two girls share everything, until It was a fishermangripping, McPhailemotionally wounding read, arrives in their small community. When Kate witnesses the desire that flares between him and Harriet, she is torn by her feelings rereading my review of envy and longing. An innocent moment in McPhail's hut then occurs it my main takeaway was that threatens to tear their peaceful community apartI might not have lavished enough praise on it. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785079239</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Zoe DuncanLucy Ashe|title= The Shifting PoolsClara and Olivia|rating= 24.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Perhaps the most overused phrase in fiction publishing The year is 1933. The place? Sadler''life-affirming''s Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on the outside but not, we learn, on the inside. And not on stage, closely followed by ''human condition'either. Because there's a lot that builds a dancer. The Shifting Pools takes this Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to a whole new level. Its blurb boasts detail – and some things, that it is ''charged throughout with the beautiful urgency of lifeje ne sais quoi'', whatever that means. It isndon't. And that's come from the problemclassroom. This isn't A stage presence, a bad bookcharm, but it sets itself up to fail. A cardinal rule of writing is a ''focus on the small stuffjoie de vivre''. If you set out to write The difference between a ''life affirming'' novel that answers all the ''big questions''hard-worker, you'll struggle. And it is this trap that Zoe Duncan falls into. In her quest for profundity she loses her wayand a star. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785630369</amazonuk>0861544080

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sarah HealyHeather Fawcett|title= The Sisters ChaseEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Mary Emily Wilde is an expert academic scholar on faerie lore, and she has travelled extensively, and Bunny. Thatresearched meticulously, to write her life's how it has always been ever since Bunny was bornwork, the very first encyclopaedia of faeries. Two sisters Whilst she is brilliant at research and speaking to faeries, she is not so good with an unbreakable bondpeople. So when she finds herself far, twisted together so tight that they were two sides far North in the small village of Hrafvsnik, having somehow offended the same coin. Bunny was Mary's whole world; nothing else really mattered; school...friends...boys...wellvillage matriarch, maybe one boyshe is not sure what she has done, but he was something altogether extraordinarynor how to redeem herself and put her final investigations for her book back on the right track. When the unthinkable happened Enter Wendell Bambleby, Mary her dashingly handsome and Bunny found themselves completely alone in the worldinsufferable rival who arrives unexpectedly, all charm and thatdelight, much to Emily's when Mary decided to take an unforgettable road trip, just the two of them, across frustration. But why is he here? What does he want? And what exactly is going on with the United States, in search of a place where they could belong.faerie folk around Hravsnik?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0544960076</amazonuk>0356519120

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1398515388|title=The Boy and the Dog|author=Joy RhoadesSeishu Hase and Alison Watts (translator)|titlerating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=First of all, it was the earthquake, deep in the ocean floor, which created the tsunami and this, in turn, caused the nuclear meltdown. The Woolgrowerresult was complete and utter devastation. The deaths were uncountable, and the loss of livelihoods was widespread. The fact that many 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 a dog person but the convenience store owner's Companioncomment that he would call Public Health prompted Kazumasa to open his car door and Tamon the dog jumped in.}} {{Frontpage|author=Christopher Bowden|title=Mr Magenta

|summary=1945: The war is in its dying days and creating problems far from the different fronts. For instance, in Australia, what can be done with the Italian POWs brought into the country? The solution seems to be their use as cheap labour. In this way Kate DowdChristopher Bowden's father agrees to take two onto his sheep farm in drought-ridden New South Wales. Kate latest novel is initially wary a patient untangling of the two men – Vittorio and Luca – but gradually a seemingly ordinary woman's life, carried out by her nephew after she realises that not all dangers come from outside her communityhas died. Life on The aunt who always provided a safe harbour and a sheep station may be harsh but for Kate little bit of indulgence to a young nephew had had a much more interesting life than that nephew Stephen had ever realised and it's going seems to him an obligation to get a lot worsefind it all out.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784741345</amazonuk>B0B6Z9VJDW

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jonathan LeviJennifer Mason|title= SeptimaniaPartitions of Unity|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= First and foremost a tale of loveHere at Bookbag Towers, Septimania delivers the frustrations and agony of two people who find each other and then lose each otherwe first met Elizabeth Cromwell, all on the same day. But what a momentous day! Life takes Malory dominatrix and Louisa off unintentional detective in totally different directions but strangely their paths cross again and again. Malory[[Preposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery by Jennifer Mason|Preposterous]], searching to uncover his past, moves to Rome when she investigated and discovers great and incredible facts about his ancestryunravelled a series of disappearances. Louisa, a brilliant mathematician, is head hunted for In ''Partitions of Unity'secret' work and is signed up by , she sets her father for mind to solving a life time's contract with the American Governmentmurder. She completely disappears from Malory's life and he has no way of knowing how to find her again. They are both trapped in their separate lives.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071565196X</amazonuk>B09LQR9FRF

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Antoine LaurainWill Carver|title=The Daves Next Door|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary= Five strangers come together in one moment as a suicide bomber prepares to detonate his vest on a London tube line. As their fates overlap, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)the story is told in backwards order, leading up to the fateful moment.|isbn= 1914585186}} {{Frontpage|author=Jennifer Mason|title=The PortraitPreposterous: An Elizabeth Cromwell Mystery

|summary=Meet Pierre''A struggling poetry zine, a mom-and-Francois. He should by rights be an antiques dealerpop mobile diner in the Northern California redwoods, as he made a fortune selling on his first collection (of erasers) while at school, and funded both his university and carnal education400-meter hurdler who just missed the 2004 Olympics, a women's track coach with prostitutes, by trading too. He is, however, a patent and intellectual property lawyeryen for bullwhips, and his wife is forever demanding a reduction in the space his collections take up in their flat. But he still dabbles – although this latest visit to the showrooms will cause billionaire with a lot state-of unexpected incident. In amongst -the grot at a low-key sale he finds an ancient pastelart S&M dungeon, showing himself – a bewiggedman serving a life sentence in Alabama, antique version of himselfan enigmatic signature, even ifK(s, howeverx), nobody else sees the connection between Pierre-Francois and the picture's subject. Stillon a cheap oil painting, as an effeminate uncle told him, erotic art dealer in Georgia...''real objects carry memory  This is just a sample of the cast of their past owners'' – characters and Pierre-Francois is intent on finding the truths behind those memoriessettings in Preposterous. Little does he know just what he As you can see, some keeping up will discover…be required! The basic premise of this mystery story goes like this...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910477435</amazonuk>B09STS96HS