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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage{|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE--> <!-- Hepworth -->B0FK5LHKD9|-| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Colour of Memory[[image:1473674239.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473674239/ref=nosim?tagauthor=thebookbag-21]] Christopher Bowden| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth]]===4[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Pleasant Court is a cul-de-sac a few minutes from the beach in Melbourne. Kids play in the street and itsummary=It's the sort of place people aspire been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad tosee a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. Certainly thatLike all Bowden's how the families who live there feel and stories, there's a good sense mystery at the heart of community. Ben and Essie are glad that Essie's mother is living next door as Essie had a mental breakdown three years ago when her first daughter was having difficulty sleeping. Mia's come through that stage, but now thereThe Colour of Money's Poppy, who's been the perfect baby for the first six months of her life, but is just starting to be difficult. Ben, We like this running theme in particular, is pleased that he can rely on Barbara to keep an eye on the situation whilst heauthor's out at work- take a mystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time. [[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth|Full Review]]}}<!-- Walton -->{{Frontpage|-| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Saou Ichikawa and Polly Barton (translator)[[image:Walton_Ask.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038053/ref=nosim?tagtitle=thebookbag-21]] Hunchback| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|4===[[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Entertainment|Entertainment]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction to the Trad Jazz scene of the late 1950's and early 1960's, but he has chosen to write it summary=I was in the form middle of a novel, claiming self-imposed book-buying ban when I made an exception for this one. What first drew me in his prologue that this would give was the book a different approach to the music memoir. His protagonist 'Martin' takes on Malcolm's mantle, and begins with his first discovery of the Salvation Army band with his grandfather. This catapults him into a love of musicbold fuchsia cover, initially taking piano lessons, and later delving into his true love – the trumpet. [[Ask For Blues followed by Malcolm Walton|Full Review]]<br><!-- Bala -->|-| style="widthits striking title: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bala_Boat''Hunchback''.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0385542291/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Boat People by Sharon Bala]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Among the 500 Sri Lankans in This is a rickety boat making its way word I recognised to Vancouver Island are Mahindan be loaded with historical and his six-year-old son Selliancultural baggage, often used to dehumanise or reduce. When the boat arrives the Canadian authorities take all the passengers into custodyCurious, placing I leaned over the women display table and children in a separate facility from turned to the menback inside cover. A gruelling series of hearings will decide on There, I discovered the fate of each individual or familyauthor: whether they will be allowed to stay Saou Ichikawa, a woman diagnosed in Canadachildhood with congenital myopathy, or deported back to Sri Lankaa condition that causes severe muscular weakness and touches every aspect of her life. The government fears that up to half title took on new complexity in light of these asylum-seekers may have links her biography. I had to the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group, so judges are instructed to have a firm handread it. [[The Boat People by Sharon Bala|Full Review]]isbn=0241700787<br>}} <!-- Kidd -->{{Frontpage|-author=Jen Beagin| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Big Swiss[[image:Kidd_Hoarder.jpg|left|linkrating=http://www.amazon.co4.uk/dp/1782118497/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd]]==genre=Humour  [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Cathal Flood is an old, belligerent man, living in a filthy, crowded house that was once a family homeI found the premise of this book totally original and addictive. When Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic is employed Greta possesses the power to look after the ancient Cathal, she assumes she'll just be know the next in a long line population of short-term dogsbodies for the old man. InsteadHudson, Maud finds herself drawn into the mysteries concealed within CathalNew York's once great house – and as Maud begins to clean and sort the rooms she uncovers darkest secrets about the old man that awaken long-hidden memories within Maud herself. With the aid of her highly glamourous yet utterly agoraphobic landlady and a troop of holy ghosts, Maud must uncover the secrets at the heart of the house – their intimate lives, their fetishes and exactly why they were buried… [[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Makumbi -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Makumbu_Kintu.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazonfears.co.uk/gp/product/1786073773How?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1786073773]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi]]=== [[image:4Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sure, there''Kintu'' opens with unbridled authority and mercilessness. In just s a few pages a man has been hunted down by an angry mob in Uganda. He is then brained with a concrete slab; his woman is left in widowhood and has confidentiality agreement, as the hard task of dealing with sex coach who calls himself Om keeps reminding her man's debt. Blood flows easily, and quickly, when your family's steps are haunted by a curse but that spans generations. [[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Vaughan -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Vaughan Scandal.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1471164993?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1471164993]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sophie had been married to James for twelve years and two children: to be honest she was just makes it more than a little bit in awe of himexciting. James Whitehouse was an MP and junior minister: perhaps most importantly he was a friend of the prime minister, so when he had to admit that heLike we'd been having an affair he was confident that ve all probably wished for at some contritionpoint in life, a public admission that he'd been wrongGreta can exist passively, that he was not perfectplacidly, would soon have his career back as a fly on trackthe wall. And it seemed as though that was the way it was goingThat is, until a friend of the 'other woman', parliamentary researcher Olivia Lytton, persuaded Greta decides to unglue her to go to the police. There was no dispute that the relationship had been consensual, but after James had finished fly-feet from the affair there was an incident in a lift in House safety of Commons and the police wall and buzz far too close to the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted to rapesun. The prosecuting counsel sun in this analogy is Kate Woodcroft and shethe sex coach's very determined that Whitehouse is going to be brought to book. [[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Dean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dean Dark.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178607253X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=178607253X]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Dark Pines by Will Dean]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Tuva Moodyson works for a local paper in small town Sweden - there to be near an ailing Mothernewest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, but desperate for like the big break that will have her moving on to pastures new. Just outside of her townsun, Gavrikis bright, two bodies lie deep in the forest - brutally murdered blonde and their eyes ripped out. They bring back dark memories for a town that has seen this crime before beautiful - and Tuva is desperate irresistible to find the killerGreta. At firstSuddenly, she's just out to write a good story - but as the crimes continue she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into confidentiality agreement, the forests outside ethics of Gavrikher professional position, her loyalties to Om, filled with stranger characters and dark secrets. Will she find fly out of the killer before they find her? [[Dark Pines by Will Dean|Full Review]] <!-- Banks -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Banks_Wwindow.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.coShe's in too deep.uk/dp/ISBN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|0571378579===[[W by John Banks]]===}} [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]Frontpage On the slopes of Mt Hood in Oregon, an 1000-year old Viking is discovered frozen - three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking exploration. Josh Kinninger is inspired by the Viking discovery - three personal catastrophes having left him angry, unmoored and with his world in turmoil. Beginning a journey westward, he's filled with a desire to wreak vengeance on the individuals he finds morally corrupt. [[W by John Banks|Full Review]] <!-- Fry -->isbn=1784745758|-| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Three Days in June[[image:Fry_Mythos.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0718188721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Anne Tyler| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry]]===4[[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] summary=The Greek Myths are, arguablyday before 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 greatest stories ever toldlocal school. So old and influential they cast There was a shadow over western tales and traditions, yet remain relatable and readable millennia later. Here comedian, actor, television presenter, actor and author Stephen Fry brings his considerable talent moment when she hoped that she would be promoted to these special stories head but the discussion moved into the subject of 'people skills' and recreates them with a witbefore she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, warmth and humanity that brings them into depending on who was explaining the modern age whilst still giving situation. When she got home (in the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deserve. [[Mythos: A Retelling middle of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry|Full Review]] <!-- Curtis -->|-| style="widthday: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Curtis_Water.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0995465754/ref=nosimwho would have thought that could happen?tag=thebookbag) her ex-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis]]=== [[image:RA|TEstar.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Something has happened, something very nasty and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only husband was there with a handful of animals living below the wavescat. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vet, as she remembers recent events, looks after the animals He thinks that he'll be staying and falls into a world of intrigue. It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There that Gail will be mild spoilers throughout this right from adopting the start but I will try to avoid cat. And that's before Gail discovers that the main onesgroom hasn't been entirely honest about his personal life. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]] |}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michelle de KretserSamantha Harvey|title=The Life to ComeOrbital|rating=34.5

|summary=''The Life to Come'' tells In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the story of several Booker Prize for ''interestingOrbital'' characters who are all linked by one person: Pippa. The novel is split into five chapters with each one focusing on , a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a different person, from Cassie and her bizarre relationship with Ash to George who has finished his thesis and is single day in the process lives of writing his first novel. Pippa, who is also a writer, appears in each group of these chapters, in some cases just as astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a background character. However, what I found most fascinating about this novel was narrative lens that de Kretser tells mirrors the story of Pippaastronauts's life through all these various appearances and leaves the reader with a real sense of who she is as a person and having watched her development as orbital perspective, Harvey invites readers to see our planet in a characterwholly new light.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1760296708</amazonuk>1529922933

{{newreview <!-- remove 29/12 -->Frontpage|titleauthor=Servants of the UndergroundHan Kang|authortitle=David SsembajjoThe Vegetarian|rating=34.5

|summary=Having experienced a terrible famine This novel, winner of the International Booker Prize in his own country2016 and penned by an author who received the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, Kalamchi leaves is as close to travel and learnunputdownable as it gets. It more than lives up to the acclaim. He returns The story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, vividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, elusive souls.|isbn=1803510056}}{{Frontpage|author=Sally Rooney|title=Intermezzo|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction |summary=Sally Rooney has studied the chessboard of life and is something of a burning desire grandmaster at putting it into words. Her dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the many relationships woven into this story, the central one for readers to feed unravel is the fraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with his people - but not only to feed their stomachs but to feed their mindsolder brother Peter, tooa successful lawyer living in Dublin. Kalamchi wants to raise his peopleFollowing their father's consciousness so that they can fight against passing after a long battle with cancer, the dictator Bamutu - chillingly known as ''president for life and after death'brothers'already strained relationship faces new trials.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848765800</amazonuk>0571365469

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Rob MurphyB0DGDJRHYD|title=Rotten to the CoreNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|genre=Thrillers General Fiction|summary=It's 2009In a quiet suburban house, and Russia look like being awarded the football World Cup hosting rights for the oh-so-distant 2018 tournament - that Patrick is, until England stick their oar in. They have solved their hooligan problem, and improved their transport system, and so at last are valid making his final holdersplans. Watching this is FranceA meticulous man, who have to reciprocate with the Russians who helped them get France '98, and they have a plan. At this stage the UEFA European championship he makes sure of 2016 has not been awardedevery preparation, and while France remain favourites down to get the job, again some upstart idea has poked its head above the parapet - a joint offering from Wales and Scotlandlast detail. Yes, these two tiny countriesSome last reflections, separated by 200 miles and without a brilliant connection from one then he says goodbye to his wife, the otherworld, and without some vital posh hotels here and therehis life. It's horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is fending off yet another phone call about her ageing and with no serious claim to soccer fame when it comes to winning thingsailing mother, are unlikely hostswho needs extricating from yet another accident. But what if France could persuade the world it was It will be a good idea - and let Russian espionage prove it not to be so, with all the while the French around to pick up the pieces? All of the UK would be damaged, meaning England before Diana realises what Patrick has done.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739526910|title=Where I'18 would be dead in the water, and Russia would win outve Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4. And who5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''One year after a suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, he arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to say the Britsrecover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with their devolution habitseverything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, and their first coalition government he becomes swept up in a long timelocal world of unlikely friendships, could not get through without damaging themselves?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1546282998</amazonuk>mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.''

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|author=Paul StidolphJenny Lecoat|title=Forests in the SaharaBeyond Summerland

|genre=Thrillers 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 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=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'Everyone I speak 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 thinks you are going get her life back, suing her step-mother to come take down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, failing to some sort 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 sticky endOphelia'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' Those are 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 most promising words family 'Down South'. When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is a man can hear from his new partnerfrightening, 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 doesnwas 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't lie to make it more manageable in the States. When she was back in this instanceAthens - 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|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=The Perfect Passion Company|rating=4. He 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is Jeffrey Harveya dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a young Cambridge professormore personal, who tailored service. Ness has been dabbling asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the business, as Ness is planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with some extra-curricular worka bad boyfriend, creating GM trees that can keep vast quantities of water purifiedand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. Get And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an iceberg Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or three worth of H2O near Africain match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, where clean water to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is still having a scarce resourceterrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and the trees can do their bit someone has delivered a really weird, disturbing coffin-sized object to his home, and it's possible that whoever or whatever was inside is the water will advance thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, Benny is the place and make Jeffrey very last person to deserve all this bad luck. He is a well-respected global entrepreneurnice person. A really nice person. If So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, that who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike isgoing to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he , Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's wild adventure) can get round all figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Katherine Howe|title=A True Account|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hannah Masury is living in Boston, having been sent to live with a family who run an inn, and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the problems town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in his life - fractions equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. She hides away, so that they don't find and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, dressing as a boy and joining the start-up involved notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. She soon finds herself in the projectthick of things when there is a mutiny on board, a finance officer embezzling and from there we are caught up in her rip roaring tale of life on the funds for gambling ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper- ohclass grocery store, and for a man ready to accuse Jeffrey who's a control freak with all the subtlety of murder a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and theft of research data the more you read, the more you'll suspect that he's on the autistic spectrum. Sometimes Jamie needs to take time off at short notice - she's a case reaching back several yearsfrequent flier in the local A&E and 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 put in the wrong. It seems the lovely girlfriend was right going to see no shortage of possible sticky ends.come to a head..|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1546282351</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ellen WilesB0CKD1L5JL|title=The Invisible CrowdRadio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary=This novel follows Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the plight of Eritrean Yonas Kelati as strange, reclusive Bear, he tries to make a life for himself is brought up far from bustling cities and busy human society, in Englandthe forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. He After Bear dies and a good friendbrief sojourn in human company, Gebreand armed with only a pirate radio transmitter, escape from prison only to be thrown into captivity again: trafficked in Petr goes on a shellfish factory where they have to earn their ‘payment’ to journey through the malicious Aziz for entering forest, broadcasting the UK illegally. When Yonas escapesstrange, the story really startswild and rarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008228817</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Tony PeakeSarah Marsh|title= North FacingA Sign of Her Own|rating= 43.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=At school in Pretoria in 1962After a bout of scarlet fever as a child, Paul Harvey struggles to fit in - desperate to join the popular group no matter what it may takeEllen Lark loses her hearing. His focus on surviving the perils Suddenly plunged into a world of school so intensesilence, everything about her life changes. that he fails to see the turbulence Living in both South Africa and the larger world - with a time when the arrest use of Nelson Mandela and the Cuban Missile Crisis affecting the actions of the adults around himsign language was seen as something only savages do, Ellen is sent to a school where she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. A new and charismatic teacher decides to educate the boys in the unstable situation From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the world outside - deaf and using a growing awareness of both that system called Visible Speech. At the same time, Bell is working on other inventions and his sexuality pushes Paul Harvey into decisions that he later comes to regret - ideas, and their weight pushes him to return to South Africa Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in the present day - a man in his sixties keen to make sense complicated tangle of a troubled and utterly fascinating pastespionage. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0995590028</amazonuk>1035401614

<!Lavender Daniels was three weeks short of her fifteenth birthday when The Incident happened. She was a very bright student, a bit too nerdy if truth be told, and suffered from vitiligo -people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen- Curtis year-->*[[imageold Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did:Curtis_WaterLavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him.jpg|left|link=https She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church://wwwthis was just an extension.amazon She went to his house and he raped her.co In shock, she even allowed him to give her a lift home.uk/gp/product/0995465754?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0995465754]]}}

{{Frontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine|author=[[Water & Glass Victoria Hislop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by Abi Curtis]]birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's 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 family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=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 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=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=The village is isolated and poor. It's surrounded 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 that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self-indulgent, lazy lout of a man is tolerated. }}

[[image:5star.jpg{{Frontpage|isbn=B0BYF82CXT|title=Semi-Detached|linkauthor=Category:{{{Deborah Stone|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction=4|genre=General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Something has happened, something very nasty summary=''Bill and on Amanda are living in a submarine a pregnant elephant is one of only semi-detached house, stuck in a handful depressing rut of animals living below the waves. We follow Nerissa Craneboredom and disappointment, a vetwhen Terry and Fiona – glamorous, as she remembers recent eventssuccessful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, looks after the animals couples befriend each other and falls into a world of intriguelife appears to improve for both pairs. It But all is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much awaynot what it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from the start but I will try to avoid the main ones. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]]''<br>}}{{Frontpage<!-- Hill -->|author=Shalini Boland*[[image:Hill_Strange.jpg|lefttitle=The Silent Bride|linkrating=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147322117X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147322117X]]3|genre===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]===General Fiction[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]clever, [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Strange Weather funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a collection of four short novels all linked bywife; beautiful, unsurprisinglysuccessful, strange confident… and cataclysmic weather. Each novel so the inevitable proposal is distinct eagerly accepted by Alice and showcases Hill's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events the wedding is planned and makes them bitinglyset. When the much-anticipated day arrives, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautifulAlice is walked down the aisle by her father, often switching from one sentence beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to the next. As Hill himself says face his approaching bride, Alice''the beauty of the s world and implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the horror of man at the world were twined together''altar is, never who is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beautywaiting for her to become his wife. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]]<br>isbn=1662507089}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Fiona Mitchell1787636003|title=The Maid's RoomGirls of Summer|author=Katie Bishop

|summary=In some apartments It was the summer when Rachel Evans turned eighteen that she and Caroline went backpacking around Greece and arrived on the island. Rachel wasn't exactly innocent but she was, perhaps, naive, so when thirty-four-year-old Alistair Wright started to take an interest in Singapore you'll find her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a bomb shelter - airless while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and without a windowby that time she was obsessed by him. It will probably house Alistair worked for Henry Taylor, looking after his interests on the island and in particular in the bar where all the girls either worked or partied.}}{{Frontpage|author=Amanda Craig|title=Three Graces|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-nation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the washing machine day and capture it, crafting an image of the other domestic paraphernalia country as it stands in one particular moment. To say thatAmanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: she's got nowhere else to gopractically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. There'll be She has such a mattress on gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the floor lives of this stifling roomher characters in a way that feels natural and lived-in, never making them ciphers for social commentary but instead fully realised people, grappling with issues far larger than themselves.|isbn= 140871468X}}{{Frontpage|isbn=152915118X|title=Pineapple Street|author=Jenny Jackson|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=''Pineapple Street'' is the heat increased by the tumble dryerstory of three women: Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. This 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 maid's roomtribe. ItThe problem's possibly better than sleeping under exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the dining room tablePineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, but not by muchwhich they own. Back in 2009 there were 201They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street,000 female domestic workers so Sasha and Cord can move straight in Singapore. Nominally, many not earning any money for they had a year until they've repaid 'trainingchoice but that wasn' t the reality. Darley and other fees Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the agency, many gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the maid's roomGD'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473659566</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Scoop of the YearEmily Critchley|authortitle=Tom ClaverOne Puzzling Afternoon

|genre=ThrillersCrime|summary=Martin 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is an ambitious journalist working on the Financial Reviewfacing 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. Martin However, Edie is good at his job - accuratetormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, dedicatedwho went missing over 60 years ago, hardworking and with the worry that there was a good nose secret she was keeping for a scoop. But Martin is also uninterested in Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the culture truth of what happened all that comes with reportingtime ago. He has a wife and two daughters at home and he doesn After 'seeing't want to waste time and money Lucy in the pubhigh street, talking macho nonsense with just as she was the other hackslast time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. He And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will she uncover the truth about Lucy's disappearance before her move, and before her memories are gone forever?|isbn=1804181250}}{{Frontpage|author=Madelaine Lucas|title=Thirst for Salt|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary= ''Love, I'd read, was supposed to be a far cry light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity'' Told from his colleague Tom de Lacya retrospective view, a charismatic, silveryoung woman unravels the year-spooned charmer long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with piercing blue eyes. Tom doesn't just grab later wisdom, the narrator relives the limelight though - he also grabs affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the promotion summer after finishing university – to industrial correspondentits sorrowful end the summer after. And that is Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the job Martin not only wanted24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, but neededhow it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1788036220</amazonuk>0861546490

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander McCall Smith0008506337|title=The Good Pilot Peter WoodhouseGarnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore

|summary=If youThe love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O've never read an Alexander McCall Smith novelLeary was all-consuming, but have always thought you might like to try, one day then this might be the book to start withapparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Rather than face the daunting task of leaping into Richard was twenty-one of his now very long-running series, this is a standalone novel, and it gives a good flavour of AMSdescribed by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's style, the way he can write influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to evoke Oxford and having a feeling of time and placeglittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the warm optimism underlying his words that is so very reassuring Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and comforting went on to readbecome a well-respected journalist. It calls itself 'a wartime romance', which it isThe couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and yet it is much more than that besidesSasha. Focussing mainly on Val, a young woman working as a Land Girl, we see her falling Life was lived in love with an American pilotLondon and holidays were spent at Sandcove, Mike Rogersthe family home on the Isle of Wight. Thanks to a sheepdog on ValEven then the doubts about Richard's farm (the Peter Woodhouse drinking were never far from the title) their lives become entwined with that of a German soldier, and the book shows us a variety of friendships as they grow and develop over the yearsMargo's mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846974097</amazonuk>Then Richard left them.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Krysten Ritter1914585402|title= BonfireDashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the townI reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to BarrensOnly One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There' biggest scandal from more than s Only One Danny Garvey]] a decade ago involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell couple of years back and her closest friends--just before Kaycee disappeared for good.Abby knows the key to solving any case lies in the weak spots, the unanswered questions. But as she tries desperately to find out what really happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and she begins to doubt her own observationsaffecting it was. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret--It was a ritual called ''The Gamegripping,'' it will threaten the reputationsemotionally wounding read, and lives, rereading my review of the community and risk exposing a darkness it my main takeaway was that may consume herI might not have lavished enough praise on it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524759848</amazonuk>