Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Catherine BurnsB0FK5LHKD9|title= The VisitorsColour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating= 54|genre= ThrillersGeneral Fiction|summary=Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John, in a decaying Georgian townhouse on the edge of It's been three years since we last reviewed a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bearsbook by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, Marion does her best so we were very glad to shut out the shocking secret that John keeps in the cellarsee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. UntilLike all Bowden's stories, suddenly, John has there's a mystery at the heart attack and Marion is forced to go down to the cellar herself and face the gruesome truth that her brother has kept hiddenof ''The Colour of Money''. As questions are asked and secrets unravel, maybe John isnWe like this running theme in an author't the only one with s work - take a dark sidemystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1787199851</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= J R WardSaou Ichikawa and Polly Barton (translator)|title= Devil's CutHunchback|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=I feel as though was in the middle of a self-imposed book-buying ban when I came to made an exception for this book under false pretensesone. I requested What first drew me in was the book thinking 's bold fuchsia cover, followed by its striking title: ''Hunchback''. This is a word I was getting a murder mystery recognised to be loaded with historical and instead cultural baggage, often used to dehumanise or reduce. Curious, I was thrown head first into a roaring family sagaleaned over the display table and turned to the back inside cover. IndeedThere, I discovered the author: Saou Ichikawa, said murder mystery though pivotal a woman diagnosed in the history of the familychildhood with congenital myopathy, is more of a quiet subplot condition that causes severe muscular weakness and catalyst from where touches every aspect of her life. The title took on new complexity in light of her biography. I had to begin the storytelling for read it.|isbn=0241700787}}{{Frontpage|author=Jen Beagin|title=Big Swiss|rating=4.5|genre=Humour |summary=I found the premise of this booktotally original and addictive. And so it was I was met with Greta possesses the power to know the Baldwine family population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and the Bradford Bourbon Companyfears. The initial meeting How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, there's a romantic one confidentiality agreement, as the family are presented high up sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her, but that just makes it more exciting. Like we've all probably wished for at some point in their castle life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the hill wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly- or feet from the safety of the wall and buzz far too close to the sun. The sun in this case from their analogy is the sex coach's newest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful Kentuckian Bradford Family Estate replete with tea roses- and irresistible to Greta. Suddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to Om, fruit trees and hazy Southern sunshinefly out of the window. It isnShe't long however s in too deep.|isbn=0571378579}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1784745758|title=Three Days in June|author=Anne Tyler|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The day before Ward transports your daughter's 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 reader from such rolling splendour local school. There was a moment when she hoped that she would be promoted to head but the darkest corners discussion moved into the subject of human psychology wherein fathers 'people skills' and sons may share before she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, depending on who was explaining the situation. When she got home (in the middle of the same lover, brothers are divided by suspicion day: who would have thought that could happen?) her ex-husband was there with a cat. He thinks that he'll be staying and jealousy and women are used as trophies and commoditiesthat Gail will be adopting the cat. And that's before Gail discovers that the groom hasn't been entirely honest about his personal life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349417024</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Phill FeatherstoneSamantha Harvey|title= Paradise GirlOrbital|rating= 34.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Kerryl Shaw lives on a Yorkshire farm – In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', a somewhat idealised one compact yet profound work that survives on unfolds over a few hens and two or three cows and single day in the lives of a few sheep. The kind group of farm that might have been profitable in astronauts aboard the 1950s but by the time Kerryl has arrived should have been strugglingInternational Space Station. A teenage boy not pulling his weight, now Through a narrative lens that mirrors the grandparents are old and the father is dead, would not be met with exasperated indulgence. There are no stock-hands, no farm managers, no applications for subsidies, or worries about the tax return. Maybe the unwelcome wind turbine covers the costs of the rest of it. Alreadyastronauts' orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in setting, it's feeling a little unrealwholly new light. But maybe we can forgive that… |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785898728</amazonuk>1529922933

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sandra AragonaHan Kang|title=Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive DiplomacyThe Vegetarian

|summary=Sarah is married to Giorgio and when we first meet them he's Something Very Senior in This novel, winner of the foreign ministry International Booker Prize in Rome, much to 2016 and penned by an author who received the disappointment of his mother who thought that he'd be there Nobel Prize for her (in Sicily)Literature this year, but not only does he go and marry a foreigner, he has a job which will take him all over the world. Such is the life of the diplomatas close to unputdownable as it gets. Their two daughters have It more than lives up to lead a pretty peripatetic life too, but when the family comes into our lives they're all in Rome - for the time being - and just back from Nigeriaacclaim. To add to the confusion there's BeagleThe story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, vividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, just about as undiplomatic a dog as you'll encounterelusive souls.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1542733405</amazonuk>1803510056

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas NeviaserSally Rooney|title=You Dear, Sweet ManIntermezzo

|summary=Bobby Fastow's journey In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to work on the subway was an oasis of calm in an otherwise exhausting day: nothing was required of himlast detail. He could sit Some last reflections, and relax, gazing at the adverts until then he got says goodbye to his stop wife, the world, and went to his physically-demanding joblife. It's horribly sad. The ad for BurgerBlast caught At work in her shop, his eye: a beautiful woman was sitting on a boardroom tablewife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and ailing mother, encouraging you to read about the business's move away who needs extricating from artery-choking food to a healthier menu, but it wasn't the message which caught Bobby's attentionyet another accident. It was the woman. She seemed to will be looking directly at him and he could have sworn that she winked..a while before Diana realises what Patrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0976018527</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Laura Solomon1739526910|title=Taking WainuiWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=24.5

|summary= This is the first time I have come across Laura Solomon''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's worklife, a New Zealand writer who he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has won writing prizes for both her fiction and poetrylost. Although this book appears to be But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a collection local world of short storiesunlikely friendships, I found its format somewhat confusingmobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>8193409353</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Debbie HowellsJenny Lecoat|title= The Death of HerBeyond Summerland|rating= 34|genre= General Fiction|summary=In a quiet part Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the end of rural Cornwallthe occupation. During the war, villagers are shocked Jean's father was arrested for listening to learn that a local woman has been attacked banned radio and soldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and left her mother waiting for dead in a maize fieldyears for news of him. So severe are her injuries As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, and the war is finally over, their hopes rise that her memory has been affected and she struggles to remember details they will finally learn what became of her lifehim. She tells But will the police that she thinks her name is Evie. Then, she remembers something else; she has truth come as a three-year-old daughter called Angel. Where is Angelrelief, and or will it raise further questions around what else happened to her when her mother during the war? Who was attackedthe informer who told the Nazis about the radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the occupation? The police frantically search for Angel's whereabouts, but on closer examination of Evie's cottage, they find no evidence of a child ever having lived there...|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509834648</amazonuk>1846976537

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, thanks to her step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and influencer deals and, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and she is slowly trying to regain her confidence and to get her life back, suing her step-mother to take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to start her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and receiving money from them for doing so. Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, who is the new focus of Ophelia's online empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with her father at the same time?|isbn=0861546873}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529153298|title=The List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, honestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, though. Women have been disappearing. Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she's overheard that her father wants to move the family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a frightening, foreign place, best avoided. For Miv, the move would mean leaving her best friend, Sharon, and she'll do anything to prevent that. She's not worried about the dangers or that her Mum's stopped talking - to anyone.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035906708|title=Diva|author=Daisy Goodwin|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas' to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of her preference for her elder sister, Jackie.}}{{Frontpage

|title=The House of Unexpected SistersPerfect Passion Company|rating=4.5

|summary=Dear Mma Ramotswe The Perfect Passion Company is backa dating agency in Edinburgh, for run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the eighteenth (!) book online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the seriesbusiness, and what as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a beautiful book it while. Katie iscoming out of a break up with a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. I ran through the whole tumult of emotions whilst reading And so begins this new storyfrom Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with all the usual moments of humoursome new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, annoying and there's always her very helpful (and yet endearingrather handsome) idiosyncrasies of characterneighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, low level mystery solving and endless cups of redbush teait's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the very last person to deserve all this bad luck. There He is a case nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the agency with delivery to his house is a new friend, a lady bad weather friend called Spike, who has been wrongfully fired sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from her jobnefarious forces for being a good person. There's the worryingSpike is going to take care of Benny, background presence and will certainly take care of Mma MakutsiBenny's nemesisenemies, Violet Sepothoif he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who must surely have been involved in this poor ladyfinds herself roped into Benny's job woes. And there is the difficult discovery of an unknown family member for Mma Ramotswe, and an unwelcome return from anotherwild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408708140</amazonuk>1662500491

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maja Lunde and Diane Oatley (translator)Katherine Howe|title=The History of BeesA True Account|rating=4.5

|summary=Bees are Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a handy symbol hanging of some pirates in the planettown, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's environmental degradation, as you'll know if you've read anything by [[:Category:Dave Goulson|Dave Goulson]] – whose endorsement is featured proudly on death at the cover hands of this Utwo vicious pirates.K. release of Norwegian children She hides away, so that they don's writer Maja Lundet find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the notorious Ned Low's first novel for adultspirate ship as a cabin boy. The creatures also provide subtle links between She soon finds herself in the thick of things when there is a mutiny on board, and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the book's three story linesocean waves.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471162745</amazonuk>0861547438

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jem Vanston1471180158|title=A Cat Called Dog 2 - The One with the KittensMaybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5

|summary=GeorgeJamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, Dog for a man who's a control freak with all the cat and Eric the stray were indulging themselves with subtlety of a philosophical discussion when they heard some strange mewinghalf brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. Three kittens had found their way into He's asthmatic and the garden and told more you read, the resident cats more you'll suspect that their mother had told them he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to run away when a twotake time off at short notice -legs cat catcher came for them all. Mother couldnshe't run as she had s a sore paw, but Daisy, Maisie frequent flier in the local A&E and Boo had run and run and run. Theysometimes Bo'd no idea what happened s not fit enough to her - or how go to get back home againschool. George is getting 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 years and wouldn't like the wrong. It was going to upset his two legs, The Lady, by being away from home for too long, so he appoints Dog as leader of an expedition come to reunite the kittens and their Mothera head.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786293390</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susi OsborneB0CKD1L5JL|title=Angelica StoneRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|summary=I'd say that Angelica Stone was known as Angel to her friendsPetr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, but shein the forests of Washington's not big on friendsOlympic Peninsula. She has the sort of background you dread hearing about: sexually abused as After Bear dies and a childbrief sojourn in human company, grabbed by the care system and didn't so much fall armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, Petr goes on a journey through the cracks as escaped its clutches and then had to learn how to cope. She's been told that she's taintedforest, broadcasting the strange, that she ruins every relationship without intending to and that she's best staying away from 'decent' people. One of her jobs is working in a supermarket wild and it's there that she meets Lola Moriarty and ''she's'' a completely different kettle of fishrarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1911320947</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Virginia MacgregorSarah Marsh|title= Before I Was YoursA Sign of Her Own|rating= 3.5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Rosie can see clearly After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Ellen Lark loses her future family in hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her mindlife changes. And Living in a time when that doesn't happenthe use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she adapts. So maybe she won't carry the baby inside heris taught to lip read, but that lovely blonde girl at the adoption event could be their new daughterphysically restrained from signing. Yes From here, she looks like she belongs to them alreadyends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. It's meant to be. Except it's not. Rosie At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and Sam don't get to have a genetic child of their ownideas, and they don't get to adopt the perfect blonde girl. They end Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up with the exact opposite: in a boy from Kenya with a peculiar back story and an ardent wish not to be adopted. As optimistic as Rosie and Sam try to be, this isn't quite what they pictured or hoped forcomplicated tangle of espionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0751565229</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gabrielle ZevinB0BC3YTCMR|title= Young Jane YoungGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Aviva Grossman, an ambitious Congressional intern in Florida, makes the life-changing mistake ''This story is not for everyone.'' Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of having an affair with her boss - who is belovedfifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, admired, successfula bit too nerdy if truth be told, and very married suffered from vitiligo - and blogging about people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. When the affair comes to light, the Congressman doesn It't take the fall, but Aviva does, and her life s not easy being a black girl whose skin is over before it hardly begins84% white. She becomes had a latecrush on seventeen-night talk show punchline; she is slutyear-shamed, labelled as fat old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and ugly, and considered a blight on politics in generalReggie asked if she would tutor him.How does one go on after She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this? In Aviva's case, she sees no way out but to change her name and move to a remote town in Mainewas just an extension. She starts over as a wedding planner, tries went to be smarter about her life, his house and to raise he raped her daughter to be strong and confident.But when, at the urging of others In shock, she decides even allowed him to run for public office herself, that long-ago mistake trails give her via the Internet like a scarlet A. These days, Google guarantees that the past is never, ever, truly past, that everything you've done will live on for everyone to know about for all eternitylift home. And it's only a matter of time until Aviva/Jane's daughter, Ruby, finds out who her mother was, and is, and must decide whether she can still respect her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408709805</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Henrietta Rose-Innes1472263936|title= Green LionThe Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating= 45|genre= General Fiction|summary= The opening of ''Green Lion'' is an apparently simple premise; a young South African manIt was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, ConGreek by birth, is tasked with picking up had left the belongings of an old friendfamily home and refused to return, Mark, who is lying in but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a coma pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in hospitalup-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. Mark worked at a small zoo with a rare black-maned lioness, who mauled him She grew to love her grandmother and caused the coma. Howeverfamily's maid, as the story unfoldsDina, Rosebut was wary - and frightened -Innes reveals an unflinching embrace of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the messiness of human Junta and animal life, expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and their troubled interactionsgreen eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910709255</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alexander McCall SmithDean Koontz|title=A Time After Death|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Michael Mace, Head of Love 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 Tartanlooks around at the shrouded bodies of his dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he can ''feel'' everything. ''Everything''. Michael isn't ''Michael'' anymore.|isbn=1662500467}} {{Frontpage|isbn=B0BVDC2VWH|title=The Grave Listeners|author=William Frank|rating=54

|summary=Here we are, back on Scotland Street, eager to see what everyone (especially Bertie…) has been up to! This The village is now the twelfth book in the Scotland Street series which is remarkableisolated and poor. That a serial novel has such momentum, and that the characters within have become so very familiar to AMSIt's loyal readers, is surrounded by a testament to his skills as a writerWitching Forest. This time around our nerves are on edge as Pat ventures back towards a relationship with And the dreadful Bruce! Surely she'll see sensevillagers 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..won't she?! Matthew, The fear of all people, being buried alive is an existential superstition in trouble with the policevillage and that is the reason Volushka, Irene is busy planning a PhDdrunken, and Bertie? Could there be self-indulgent, lazy lout of a happy ending for Bertie in the air?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973821</amazonuk>man is tolerated.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Jess RichardsB0BYF82CXT|title= City of CirclesSemi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating= 4|genre= FantasyGeneral Fiction|summary= Danu is ''Bill and Amanda are living in a tightrope walker who is mourning her parentssemi-detached house, after stuck in a disease has ravaged 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 circus where she grew upcouples 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. Her mother has entrusted her with ''}}{{Frontpage|author=Shalini Boland|title=The Silent Bride|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Alice and Seth are a locket that hides a secretmatch made in heaven. Over the years He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, Danu pushes away her grief and develops elaborate funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful high-wire acts with Morrie, a charismatic hunchback who wants to marry herconfident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. When the circus returns to Danu's birthplace, Matryoshkamuch-anticipated day arrives, Danu Alice is enchanted walked down the aisle by the temples, spice mistsher father, beaming with pride and pleasure seekers within the intoxicating outer circle district. Here, excitement as she finally gains surveys the courage congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to open her motherface his approaching bride, Alice's locketworld implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, and discovers the name who is waiting for her to become his wife.|isbn=1662507089}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The Girls of a stranger who lives behind Summer|author=Katie Bishop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was the locked gate of summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the Inner Circleisland. Fated Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to remain take an interest in Matryoshkaher, Danu attempts she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to resolve this mysteryher and by that time she was obsessed by him. Will she Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and Morrie ever be reunited, or will something far more unexpected be waiting for her in particular in the mysterious heart of bar where all the city?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473656680</amazonuk>girls either worked or partied.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pascal Garnier and Melanie Florence (translator)Amanda Craig|title=Low HeightsThree Graces

|genre=General Fiction |summary=Edouard is an exemplary example Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of a crotchety old man – changing his mind, and blaming anything and everything – even that decision – on other people-the-nation novel. HeThere's physically finesomething so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, apart from crafting an image of the country as it stands in one hand disabled by a stroke, but mentally, what with forgetting his past, assuming too many days are Sundays when theyparticular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she're not and buying too many inappropriate things, he needs a nurse – Therese, who has formed an unlikely and almost unwanted couple s practically synonymous with himthe genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. For Edouard, She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the memory lives of his wife who died ten years ago is still her characters in a little too strongway that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves. But this unusual 'family' is about to be upset by an unexpected arrival, who will stir the emotions and life of their remote house no end…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910477427</amazonuk>140871468X

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dina Nayeri152915118X|title= Refuge|rating= 5|genre= General Fiction|summary= Sinking boats in stormy seas, national borders boosted with barbed wire, and overcrowded shelters – the media's portrayal of seeking asylum focuses on the process in its darkest, most dangerous form. What happens after tumultuous journeys and temporary shelter is not news; and life after decades in the new country is rarely headline material either. But in Dina Nayeri's ''Refuge'', it is the life after that takes centre stage. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0735219389</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewPineapple Street|author=Hawa L Crickmore|title=Across the OceanJenny Jackson|rating=4.5

|summary=A young cage fighter''Pineapple Street'' is the story of three women: Sasha, Martin GrandsonDarley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, was diagnosed with only Sasha isn't a rare genetic disorder which required a bone-marrow transplant, preferably from a siblingStockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. Only recently heThe problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd been a fit young man, in like to move into the prime of lifePineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, but now he was suffering from a rare type street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of bone cancer: without the transplant he would be paralysed for life furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and might be dead within the next twelve weeks if he didnCord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't receive the transplant within reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the next fourteen daysgold digger'. Unfortunately Martin She's parents had died living in a car crash and there were no siblings or other close relatives''their'' family home. His girlfriend, Celia, was not a matchThey use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Elif ShafakEmily Critchley|title= Three Daughters of EveOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre= General FictionCrime|summary=Set 84 year old Edie has lived in Istanbul in 2016the same small town for almost her whole life, ''Three Daughters of Eve'' centres on Peribut now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, a Turkish woman who finds herself thinking back as Edie is starting to lose her years at Oxford University to distract herself from a boring dinner partymemory. Her reminiscing However, Edie is triggered when she finds an old polaroid tormented by the memory of herselfher childhood friend, her friends Mona and ShirinLucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the rebellious Professor Azurworry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. Much of her thoughts revolve around After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the scandal that prevented last time she saw her from graduating from , she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her dream university. More of a commentary on religion than a story, And yet as she remembers the novel asks many questions about faith - in particularpast, Islam - she is forgetting more and whether its customs and traditions can be adapted more in her day to suit modern day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241978882</amazonuk>1804181250

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Andre AlexisMadelaine Lucas|title= The Hidden KeysThirst for Salt|rating= 5|genre= General Literary Fiction|summary= Tancred Palmieri is ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a talented thief thrown into the path of Willow Azarian an eccentriclight and weightless feeling, unpredictable heroin addict. She is also part of the Azarian dynastybut I had always longed for gravity'' Told from a retrospective view, bequeathed almost a million dollars upon young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her father's death. Each of Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the Azarian children were also gifted affair with a deeply personal memento mori, which Willow is convinced make up an intricate treasure hunt. She enlists man twenty years her senior from its inception – the help of Tancred summer after finishing university – to steal each item, solve its sorrowful end the mystery and prove she is not blindly following a baseless fantasysummer after. Tancred must use all his skills to infiltrate Set against the homes backdrop of each of Willowan isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's siblingsdeepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, uncover the clues hidden in each item how it changed her perspective on both romantic and fight off the rival interests of competing criminals familial relationships and the policehow it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781258422</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Alison Jean Lester0008506337|title= Yuki Means HappinessThe Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating= 35|genre= General Fiction|summary= High-tech The love affair between Margo Garnett and highpoet Richard O'Leary was all-riseconsuming, kimonos, and bigapparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-eyed visuals – through a dynamic juxtaposition of the ultra modern one and the traditional, Japan has succeeded in branding itself both described by Margo's mother as 'an intriguing travel destination older man'. Her parents worried that does not cease Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to surpriseOxford and having a glittering career. In the event, but at they eloped and Richard took her away from the same time defies being ever wholly full understood by outsidersIsle of Wight. All of this has come Margo did go to Oxford and went on to be encapsulated become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and reinforced Sasha. Life was lived in Sofia CoppolaLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, the family home on the Isle of Wight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's cult classic mind: ''Lost she would never be able to leave him in Translationcharge'': the iconic still of Scarlett Johansson standing at the scramble crossing in Shibuya has come to represent Japan in pop culture as much as the more traditional cherry blossom imagery.  Then Richard left them.}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1914585402|title=Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|amazonuksummary=<amazonuk>1848549628</amazonuk>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 remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and affecting it was. It was a gripping, emotionally wounding read, and rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= S V BerlinLucy Ashe|title= The FavouriteClara and Olivia|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=Siblings Edward and Isobel Vernon havenThe year is 1933. The place? Sadler't spoken in years s Wells. Ballerinas Clara and live Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Identical on opposite sides of the Atlanticoutside but not, we learn, on the inside. When their mother Mary dies unexpectedlyAnd not on stage, they are thrown together to sort through the family homeeither. With EdwardBecause there's diffident but devoted girlfrienda lot that builds a dancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, Julieattention to detail – and some things, making an awkward threesomethat ''je ne sais quoi'', each stumbles through that don't come from the practicalities of funeral preparation and house clearingclassroom. A stage presence, a charm, trying to make sense of their emotions and their feelings toward one anothera ''joie de vivre''. Isobel makes The difference between a disturbing discovery and her fateful decision has consequences for all of themhard-worker, challenging their beliefs about the past, hopes for the future and understanding of Mary's role in keeping them at once apart and togethera star. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0993563384</amazonuk>0861544080