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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= J R WardB0FK5LHKD9|title= Devil's CutThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=I feel as though I came It's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to this book under false pretences. I requested the book thinking I was getting see a murder mystery and instead I was thrown head first into a roaring family saganew novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. IndeedLike all Bowden's stories, said murder there's a mystery though pivotal in at the history heart of the family, is more ''The Colour of a quiet subplot and catalyst from where to begin the storytelling for the bookMoney''. And so it was I was met with the Baldwine family and the Bradford Bourbon Company. The initial meeting is a romantic one as the family are presented high up We like this running theme in their castle on the hill an author's work - or in this case from their beautiful Kentuckian Bradford Family Estate replete with tea roses, fruit trees take a mystery but give it different flavour and hazy Southern sunshineatmosphere each time. It isn't long however before Ward transports the reader from such rolling splendour to the darkest corners of human psychology wherein fathers and sons may share the same lover, brothers are divided by suspicion and jealousy and women are used as trophies and commodities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349417024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Phill FeatherstoneSaou Ichikawa and Polly Barton (translator)|title= Paradise GirlHunchback|rating= 34|genre= General Fiction|summary= Kerryl Shaw lives on I was in the middle of a Yorkshire farm – a somewhat idealised self-imposed book-buying ban when I made an exception for this one that survives on a few hens and two or three cows and a few sheep. The kind of farm that might have been profitable What first drew me in was the 1950s but book's bold fuchsia cover, followed by the time Kerryl has arrived should have been strugglingits striking title: ''Hunchback''. This is a word I recognised to be loaded with historical and cultural baggage, often used to dehumanise or reduce. A teenage boy not pulling his weightCurious, now that I leaned over the grandparents are old display table and turned to the father is dead, would not be met with exasperated indulgenceback inside cover. There are no stock-hands, no farm managersI discovered the author: Saou Ichikawa, no applications for subsidiesa woman diagnosed in childhood with congenital myopathy, or worries about the tax returna condition that causes severe muscular weakness and touches every aspect of her life. Maybe the unwelcome wind turbine covers the costs The title took on new complexity in light of the rest of ither biography. Already, in setting, I had to read it's feeling a little unreal. But maybe we can forgive that… |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785898728</amazonuk>0241700787

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sandra AragonaJen Beagin|title=Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive DiplomacyBig Swiss

|summary=Sarah is married to Giorgio and when we first meet them heThe day before your daughter's Something Very Senior in wedding will always be busy but Gail Baines got far more than she asked for. First, it was her job as assistant head at the foreign ministry in Rome, much local school. There was a moment when she hoped that she would be promoted to head but the disappointment discussion moved into the subject of his mother who thought that he'd be there for her (in Sicily), but not only does he go people skills' and marry a foreignerbefore she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, he has a job which will take him all over depending on who was explaining the worldsituation. Such is When she got home (in the life middle of the diplomatday: who would have thought that could happen?) her ex-husband was there with a cat. Their two daughters have to lead a pretty peripatetic life too, but when the family comes into our lives theyHe thinks that he're all in Rome - for ll be staying and that Gail will be adopting the time being - and just back from Nigeriacat. To add to And that's before Gail discovers that the confusion theregroom hasn's Beagle, just t been entirely honest about as undiplomatic a dog as you'll encounterhis personal life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1542733405</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas NeviaserSamantha Harvey|title=You Dear, Sweet ManOrbital

|summary=Bobby FastowIn 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital''s journey to , a compact yet profound work on that unfolds over a single day in the subway was an oasis lives of calm in an otherwise exhausting day: nothing was required a group of him. He could sit and relax, gazing at astronauts aboard the adverts until he got to his stop and went to his physically-demanding jobInternational Space Station. The ad for BurgerBlast caught his eye: Through a beautiful woman was sitting on a boardroom table, encouraging you to read about narrative lens that mirrors the businessastronauts's move away from artery-choking food orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a healthier menu, but it wasn't the message which caught Bobby's attention. It was the woman. She seemed to be looking directly at him and he could have sworn that she winked..wholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0976018527</amazonuk>1529922933

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Laura SolomonHan Kang|title=Taking WainuiThe Vegetarian|rating=24.5

|summary= This is novel, winner of the first time I have come across Laura Solomon's work, a New Zealand writer International Booker Prize in 2016 and penned by an author who has won writing prizes received the Nobel Prize for both her fiction and poetryLiterature this year, is as close to unputdownable as it gets. Although this book appears It more than lives up to be a collection of short storiesthe acclaim. The story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, vividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, I found its format somewhat confusingelusive souls.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>8193409353</amazonuk>1803510056

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Debbie HowellsSally Rooney|title= The Death of HerIntermezzo|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=In a quiet part Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of rural Cornwall, villagers are shocked to learn that a local woman has been attacked life and left for dead in is something of a maize fieldgrandmaster at putting it into words. So severe are her injuriesHer dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, that as her memory has been affected and she struggles to remember details of her lifecharacters never quite say exactly what they feel. She tells Among the police that she thinks her name many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to unravel is Eviethe fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. ThenIvan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, she remembers something else; she has a three-year-old daughter called Angelsuccessful lawyer living in Dublin. Where is Angel, and what happened to her when her mother was attacked? The police frantically search for AngelFollowing their father's whereaboutspassing after a long battle with cancer, but on closer examination of Eviethe brothers's cottage, they find no evidence of a child ever having lived there..already strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509834648</amazonuk>0571365469

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0DGDJRHYD|title=Nowhere Man|author=Alexander McCall SmithDeborah Stone|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he says goodbye to his wife, the world, and his life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739526910|title=The House of Unexpected SistersWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4.5

|summary=Dear Mma Ramotswe is back''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, for the eighteenth (!) book he arrives in the series, and what a beautiful book it isan unfamiliar Devon town to recover. I ran through the whole tumult of emotions whilst reading this story, Living with all the usual moments of humouran unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, annoying (and yet endearing) idiosyncrasies he dreams of character, low level mystery solving and endless cups of redbush tea. There is a case for the agency reconnecting with a lady who everything he has been wrongfully fired from her joblost. There's the worryingBut as those tentative plans falter, background presence of Mma Makutsi's nemesis, Violet Sepotho, who must surely have been involved he becomes swept up in this poor lady's job woes. And there is the difficult discovery a local world of an unknown family member for Mma Ramotsweunlikely friendships, mobile discos and an unwelcome return from anothersurprising romantic possibilities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408708140</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maja Lunde and Diane Oatley (translator)Jenny Lecoat|title=The History of BeesBeyond Summerland

|summary=Bees Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are a handy symbol celebrating the end of the planetoccupation. During the war, Jean's environmental degradationfather 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 the war is finally over, their hopes rise that they will finally learn what became of him. But will the truth come as you'll know if you've read anything by [[:Category:Dave Goulsona 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=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|Dave Goulson]] – whose endorsement is featured proudly summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the cover of this U.K. release of Norwegian childrenworld, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's writer Maja Lundeincreasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's first novel childhood for adultssponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. The creatures also provide subtle links between Now 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 bookcontent about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's three story linesonline empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471162745</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jem Vanston1529153298|title=A Cat Called Dog 2 - The One with the KittensList of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=45

|summary=GeorgeIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, Dog the cat and Eric the stray were indulging themselves with a philosophical discussion when they heard some strange mewinghonestly... ) Three kittens had found their way into the garden and told She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. the resident cats that their mother had told them to run away when a two-legs cat catcher came for them allWomen have been disappearing. Mother couldnWell, they't run as she had a sore pawve been murdered, but Daisy, Maisie and Boo had run and run and runto have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. TheyMiv'd no idea what happened to s upset because she's overheard that her - or how father wants to get back home againmove the family 'Down South'. George When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is getting on in years and wouldn't like to upset his two legsa frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, The Ladythe move would mean leaving her best friend, by being away from home for too longSharon, so he appoints Dog as leader of an expedition and she'll do anything to reunite prevent that. She's not worried about the kittens and their Motherdangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786293390</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susi Osborne1035906708|title=Angelica StoneDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5

|summary=I'd say that Angelica Stone was known We tend to think of Maria Callas as Angel to her friendsGreek, but she's not big on friends. She has the sort of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as a childwas born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, grabbed by the care system in December 1923 and didn't so much fall through the cracks as escaped its clutches and then had only moved to learn how to copeAthens when she was thirteen. SheHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 's been told that sheCallas's tainted, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that she's best staying away from 'decent' peoplemake it more manageable in the States. One of her jobs is working When she was back in a supermarket and it's there Athens - supposedly so that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''could get appropriate training for her voice - she's'' was raised under the Nazi occupation by a completely different kettle mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of fishher preference for her elder sister, Jackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Virginia MacgregorAlexander McCall Smith|title= Before I Was YoursThe Perfect Passion Company|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Rosie can see clearly her future family The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in her mind. And when that doesn't happenproviding a more personal, she adaptstailored service. So maybe Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she won't carry could come and look after the baby inside herbusiness, but that lovely blonde girl at the adoption event could be their new daughter. Yes, she looks like she belongs as Ness is planning to take a trip to them already. It's meant Canada to be. Except it's not. Rosie and Sam don't get to have away for a genetic child while. Katie is coming out of their owna break up with a bad boyfriend, and they don't get so jumps at the chance to come home to adopt the perfect blonde girlEdinburgh. They end up with the exact opposite: a boy And so begins this new story from Kenya with a peculiar back story and Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an ardent wish not Edinburgh we already love, thanks to be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie 44 Scotland Street and Sam try the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to becharm. Katie has no experience in running a business, this isnor in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there't quite what they pictured or hoped for. s always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751565229</amazonuk>1846976596

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gabrielle ZevinDean Koontz|title= Young Jane YoungThe Bad Weather Friend|rating= 4.5|genre= General FictionParanormal|summary=Aviva Grossman, an ambitious Congressional intern in Florida, makes the life-changing mistake of Benny is having an affair with her boss - who is beloveda terrifically bad day. He loses his job, admiredhe loses his fiancee, successfuland his house gets trashed. Oh, and very married someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin- sized object to his home, and blogging about it. When the affair comes to light, the Congressman doesn't take s possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the fall, but Aviva doesthing that has trashed his house! The thing is, and her life Benny is over before it hardly beginsthe very last person to deserve all this bad luck. She becomes a late-night talk show punchline; she He is slut-shamed, labelled as fat and ugly, and considered a blight on politics in generalnice person. A really nice person.How does one go on after this? In Aviva's case, she sees no way So fortunately for Benny it turns out but to change her name and move that the delivery to his house is a remote town in Maine. She starts over as new friend, a wedding plannerbad weather friend called Spike, tries who has been sent to be smarter about her life, and to raise her daughter to be strong and confident.But when, at the urging of others, she decides to run help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for public office herself, that long-ago mistake trails her via the Internet like being a scarlet Agood person. These days, Google guarantees that the past Spike is nevergoing to take care of Benny, ever, truly past, that everything you've done and will live on for everyone to know about for all eternity. And it's only a matter certainly take care of time until Aviva/JaneBenny's daughterenemies, if he, RubyBenny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can figure out who her mother was, and is, and must decide whether she can still respect herexactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408709805</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Henrietta Rose-InnesKatherine Howe|title= Green LionA True Account|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= The opening of ''Green Lion'' Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an apparently simple premise; inn, and being made to work there from a young South African manage. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the town, Conshe decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, is tasked with picking up Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the belongings hands of an old friendtwo vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, Markand then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, who dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is lying in a coma mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in hospitalher rip roaring tale of life on the ocean waves. Mark worked at |isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a small zoo control freak with all the subtlety of a rare black-maned lionesshalf brick. Jamie's son, Bo, who mauled him 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and caused the coma. Howevermore you read, as the story unfolds, Rosemore you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice -Innes reveals an unflinching embrace of she's a frequent flier in the messiness of human local A&E and animal life, sometimes Bo's 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 their troubled interactionsput in the wrong. It was going to come to a head. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709255</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall SmithB0CKD1L5JL|title=A Time of Love and TartanRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating=54

|summary=Here we arePetr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, back on Scotland Streetreclusive Bear, eager to see what everyone (especially Bertie…) has been he is brought up to! This is now the twelfth book far from bustling cities and busy human society, in the Scotland Street series which is remarkableforests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. That After Bear dies and a serial novel has such momentumbrief sojourn in human company, and that the characters within have become so very familiar to AMS's loyal readersarmed with only a pirate radio transmitter, is a testament to his skills as a writer. This time around our nerves are Petr goes on edge as Pat ventures back towards a relationship with journey through the dreadful Bruce! Surely she'll see sense...won't she?! Matthew, of all peopleforest, is in trouble with broadcasting the police, Irene is busy planning a PhDstrange, wild and Bertie? Could there be a happy ending for Bertie in the air?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973821</amazonuk>rarely heard voices he encounters.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jess RichardsSarah Marsh|title= City A Sign of CirclesHer Own|rating= 43.5|genre= FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary= Danu is After a bout of scarlet fever as a tightrope walker who is mourning child, Ellen Lark loses her parents, after a disease has ravaged the circus where she grew uphearing. Her mother has entrusted her with Suddenly plunged into a locket that hides a secret. Over the yearsworld of silence, Danu pushes away everything about her grief and develops elaborate and successful high-wire acts with Morrie, life changes. Living in a charismatic hunchback who wants to marry her. When time when the circus returns use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to Danu's birthplace, Matryoshka, Danu a school where she is enchanted by the templestaught to lip read, spice mists, and pleasure seekers within the intoxicating outer circle districtbut physically restrained from signing. Here From here, she finally gains ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the courage to open her mother's locket, deaf and discovers the name of using a stranger who lives behind system called Visible Speech. At the locked gate of the Inner Circle. Fated to remain in Matryoshkasame time, Danu attempts to resolve this mystery. Will she Bell is working on other inventions and Morrie ever be reunitedideas, or will something far more unexpected be waiting for her and Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in the mysterious heart a complicated tangle of the city?espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473656680</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pascal Garnier and Melanie Florence (translator)B0BC3YTCMR|title=Low HeightsGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira

|genre=General Fiction |summary=Edouard ''This story is an exemplary example not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a crotchety old man – changing his mindvery bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and blaming anything and everything – even that decision – on other suffered from vitiligo - peoplewere afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. HeIt's physically fine, apart from one hand disabled by not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a stroke, crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but mentally, what with forgetting his past, assuming too many days are Sundays when they're not and buying too many inappropriate things, never thought he would notice her. Then he needs a nurse – Therese, who has formed an unlikely did: Lavender was very good at math and almost unwanted couple with Reggie asked if she would tutor him. For Edouard, the memory of She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his wife who died ten years ago is still a little too stronghouse and he raped her. But this unusual 'family' is about In shock, she even allowed him to be upset by an unexpected arrival, who will stir the emotions and life of their remote house no end…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910477427</amazonuk>give her a lift home.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dina Nayeri1472263936|title= RefugeThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Sinking boats It was in stormy seas1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, national borders boosted with barbed wireGreek by birth, had left the family home and overcrowded shelters – the mediarefused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's portrayal of seeking asylum focuses on parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the process family apartment in its darkest, most dangerous formup-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. What happens after tumultuous journeys She grew to love her grandmother and temporary shelter is not news; the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and life after decades in frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the new country is rarely headline material eitherJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. But in Dina Nayeri His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father''Refuge'', it is the life after that takes centre stages Scottish ancestors. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0735219389</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hawa L CrickmoreDean Koontz|title=Across After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Security, at a top secret biological research facility, is among 55 people who die when a virus is released in a bio-hazard accident. Finding himself in a makeshift mortuary, covered in plastic, he has a sense that something very, very bad has happened to him – and only him – as he sits up and looks around at the Oceanshrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank

|summary=A young cage fighter, Martin Grandson, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a siblingThe village is isolated and poor. Only recently heIt'd been s surrounded by a fit young man, in Witching Forest. And the prime villagers subsist largely by farming Uphegia plants - its bread-like fruit provides nutrition and its blossom provides herbal medicines. The black wood of lifethe forest provides heat and warmth, roofs on homes, and even gallows, but now he was suffering from a rare type if needed. The fear of bone cancer: without being buried alive is an existential superstition in the transplant he would be paralysed for life village and might be dead within that is the next twelve weeks if he didn't receive the transplant within the next fourteen days. Unfortunately Martin's parents had died in reason Volushka, a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relatives. His girlfrienddrunken, Celiaself-indulgent, was not lazy lout of a matchman is tolerated.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Elif ShafakB0BYF82CXT|title= Three Daughters of EveSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone

|genre= General Fiction|summary=Set in Istanbul in 2016, ''Three Daughters of Eve'' centres on PeriBill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a Turkish woman who finds herself thinking back to her years at Oxford University to distract herself from a boring dinner party. Her reminiscing is triggered when she finds an old polaroid depressing rut of herselfboredom and disappointment, her friends Mona when Terry and ShirinFiona – glamorous, successful and the rebellious Professor Azur. Much of her thoughts revolve around the scandal that prevented her from graduating from her dream universityvery much in love – move in next door. More of a commentary Despite their different outlooks on religion than a storylife, the novel asks many questions about faith - in particularcouples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, Islam - and whether its customs and traditions can be adapted to suit modern lifetheir increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241978882</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andre AlexisShalini Boland|title= The Hidden KeysSilent Bride|rating= 53|genre= General Fiction|summary= Tancred Palmieri Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is a talented thief thrown into the path of Willow Azarian an eccentriceverything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, unpredictable heroin addictfunny; total and utter husband-material. She is also part of all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the Azarian dynasty, bequeathed almost a million dollars upon her father's deathwedding is planned and set. Each of When the Azarian children were also gifted a deeply personal memento morimuch-anticipated day arrives, which Willow Alice is convinced make up an intricate treasure hunt. She enlists walked down the help of Tancred to steal each itemaisle by her father, solve beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the mystery congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and prove she is not blindly following a baseless fantasy. Tancred must use all when Seth turns to face his skills to infiltrate the homes of each of Willowapproaching bride, Alice's siblings, uncover world implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the clues hidden in each item and fight off man at the rival interests of competing criminals and the policealtar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781258422</amazonuk>1662507089

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alison Jean Lester1787636003|title= Yuki Means HappinessThe Girls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating= 35|genre= General Fiction|summary= High-tech It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and high-risearrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, kimonosnaive, and bigso when thirty-four-year-eyed visuals – through old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a dynamic juxtaposition while before he made any sort of the ultra modern physical approach to her and the traditional, Japan has succeeded in branding itself both as an intriguing travel destination by that does not cease to surprise, but at the same time defies being ever wholly full understood she was obsessed by outsidershim. All of this has come to be encapsulated Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and reinforced in Sofia Coppola's cult classic ''Lost particular in Translation'': the iconic still of Scarlett Johansson standing at bar where all the scramble crossing in Shibuya has come to represent Japan in pop culture as much as the more traditional cherry blossom imagerygirls either worked or partied. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848549628</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= S V BerlinAmanda Craig|title= The FavouriteThree Graces|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Siblings Edward and Isobel Vernon haven't spoken in years and live on opposite sides Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the Atlantic. When their mother Mary dies unexpectedly, they are thrown together to sort through state-of-the family home-nation novel. With EdwardThere's diffident but devoted girlfriend, Julie, making an awkward threesome, each stumbles through something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the practicalities atmosphere of funeral preparation the day and house clearingcapture it, trying to make sense crafting an image of their emotions and their feelings toward the country as it stands in one anotherparticular 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. Isobel makes She has such a disturbing discovery and her fateful decision has consequences gift for all weaving the ongoing issues of them, challenging their beliefs about the past, hopes for day into the future lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and understanding of Mary's role lived-in keeping , never making them at once apart and togetherciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0993563384</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|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 problem'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=Julia Claiborne JohnsonEmily Critchley|title=Be Frank with MeOne Puzzling Afternoon

|summary=In June 2009 Isaac Vargas sends his assistantThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twenty-four-year-old Alice Whitleytwins no less. Identical on the outside but not, to Bel Airwe learn, California to help Mimi Gillespie produce her long-awaited second novel. Under on the name Minside.MAnd not on stage, either. BanningBecause there's a lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, Mimi issued a wildly successful novel back in the 1970sattention to detail – and some things, that ''Pitchedje ne sais quoi'', which quickly became that don't come from the classroom. A stage presence, a modern classic on every American adolescentcharm, a ''joie de vivre's list of assigned reading for school. She's the sort of figure Harper Lee was for decades: a one-hit literary wonder and an infamous recluse. But there's one key The difference here: Mimi has between a nine-yearhard-old sonworker, Frankand a star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1782399208</amazonuk>0861544080