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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage{|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn="15" <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->B0FK5LHKD9<!-- Schimmelpfennig -->|title=The Colour of Memory|-author=Christopher Bowden| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"4|genre=General Fiction[[image:0857057014.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwIt's been three years since we last reviewed a book by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, so we were very glad to see a new novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers.amazonLike all Bowden's stories, there's a mystery at the heart of ''The Colour of Money''.coWe like this running theme in an author's work - take a mystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time.uk/dp/0857057014/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig Saou Ichikawa and Jamie Bulloch Polly Barton (translator)]]|title=Hunchback|rating==4[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] First, forgive me if summary=I don't refer to this book with its full title often. It's pointedly precise, accurate, and rather ungainly – when was in fact the middle of a self-imposed book it describes has only the former two attributes in any quantity-buying ban when I made an exception for this one. What happens first drew me in January is that a wild wolf walks across the frozen river separating Poland and eastern Germany. Which means that, when was the book starts properly's bold fuchsia cover, mid-February, it has had time to get a lot closer to Berlin – within 80 kilometres, to be precise, for that is the road marker where one of our main characters sees itfollowed by its striking title: ''Hunchback''. He This is trying to get back to work in Berlin for the first time in a month, and word I recognised to be loaded with his girlfriendhistorical and cultural baggage, not knowing she has had an infidelity while he was awayoften used to dehumanise or reduce. Also fancying the bright lights and big city are a teenaged pair of love-birdsCurious, I leaned over the boy display table and girl next door turned to each other in an eastern villagethe back inside cover. There, who flee an unhappy lot on I discovered the off-chance of author: Saou Ichikawa, a better one. You just know there is woman diagnosed in childhood with congenital myopathy, a chance condition that these characters – human causes severe muscular weakness and lupine alike – are sucked into one combined narrative, but you won't know quite what that will entail…[[One Clear Ice-Cold January Morning at the Beginning touches every aspect of the Twenty-First Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Jamie Bulloch (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Banks -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Banks_Wher life.jpg|link=http://wwwThe title took on new complexity in light of her biography.amazon.coI had to read it.uk/dp/ISBN/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|0241700787===[[W by John Banks]]===}} [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]FrontpageOn 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]] <!-- Hepworth -->author=Jen Beagin|-| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Big Swiss[[image:1473674239.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1473674239/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth]]==genre=Humour  [[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Pleasant Court is a cul-de-sac a few minutes from I found the beach in Melbournepremise of this book totally original and addictive. Kids play in Greta possesses the street and it's power to know the sort population of place people aspire to. Certainly thatHudson, New York's how the families who live there feel darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and there's a good sense of communityfears. Ben and Essie are glad that Essie's mother How? Her job is living next door as Essie had a mental breakdown three years ago when her first daughter was having difficulty sleepingto transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Mia's come through that stageSure, but now there's Poppya confidentiality agreement, as the sex coach who's been the perfect baby for the first six months of calls himself Om keeps reminding her life, but is that just starting to be difficultmakes it more exciting. Ben, Like we've all probably wished for at some point in particularlife, is pleased that he Greta can rely on Barbara to keep an eye exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the situation whilst he's out at workwall. [[The Family Next Door by Sally Hepworth|Full Review]] <!-- Walton -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Walton_Ask.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788038053/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]]That is, [[:Category:Entertainment|Entertainment]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Malcolm Walton's book is clearly a memoir about his introduction until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the Trad Jazz scene safety of the late 1950's wall and early 1960's, but he has chosen buzz far too close to write it in the form of a novel, claiming sun. The sun in his prologue that this would give the book a different approach to analogy is the music memoir. His protagonist sex coach'Martins newest patient, who Greta dubs ' takes on MalcolmBig Swiss's mantle, and begins with his first discovery of who, like the Salvation Army band with his grandfather. This catapults him into a love of musicsun, initially taking piano lessonsis bright, blonde and later delving into his true love – the trumpet. [[Ask For Blues by Malcolm Walton|Full Review]]<br><!beautiful -- Bala -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Bala_Boat.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 a rickety boat making its way and irresistible to Vancouver Island are Mahindan and his six-year-old son SellianGreta. When the boat arrives the Canadian authorities take all Suddenly, the passengers into custodyconfidentiality agreement, placing the women and children in a separate facility from the men. A gruelling series ethics of hearings will decide on the fate of each individual or family: whether they will be allowed her professional position, her loyalties to stay in CanadaOm, or deported back to Sri Lanka. The government fears that up to half fly out of these asylum-seekers may have links to the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group, so judges are instructed to have a firm handwindow. She's in too deep. [[The Boat People by Sharon Bala|Full Review]]isbn=0571378579<br>}} <!-- Kidd -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1784745758| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Three Days in June[[image:Kidd_Hoarder.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1782118497/refauthor=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Anne Tyler| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd]]===4[[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Cathal Flood is an oldsummary=The day before your daughter's wedding will always be busy but Gail Baines got far more than she asked for. First, belligerent man, living in a filthy, crowded house that it was her job as assistant head at the local school. There was once a family home. When Maud Drennan – underpaid carer and unintentional psychic is employed to look after the ancient Cathal, moment when she assumes hoped that she'll just would be promoted to head but the next in a long line of short-term dogsbodies for the old man. Instead, Maud finds herself drawn discussion moved into the mysteries concealed within Cathalsubject of 'people skills's once great house – and as Maud begins to clean and sort the rooms before she uncovers secrets about knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, depending on who was explaining the old man that awaken long-hidden memories within Maud herselfsituation. With When she got home (in the aid of her highly glamourous yet utterly agoraphobic landlady and a troop of holy ghosts, Maud must uncover the secrets at the heart middle of the house – and exactly why they were buried… [[The Hoarder by Jess Kidd|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Makumbi -->|-| style="widthday: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Makumbu_Kintu.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1786073773who would have thought that could happen?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag) her ex-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1786073773]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''Kintu'' opens husband was there with unbridled authority and mercilessness. In just a few pages a man has been hunted down by an angry mob in Ugandacat. He is then brained with a concrete slab; his woman is left in widowhood thinks that he'll be staying and has that Gail will be adopting the hard task of dealing with her man's debtcat. Blood flows easily, and quickly, when your family And that's steps are haunted by a curse before Gail discovers that spans generationsthe groom hasn't been entirely honest about his personal life. [[Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi|Full Review]]<br>}} <!-- Vaughan -->{{Frontpage|-author=Samantha Harvey| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Orbital[[image:Vaughan Scandal.jpg|left|linkrating=https://www4.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1471164993?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1471164993]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan]]===General Fiction[[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Sophie had been married to James In 2024, Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for twelve years and two children: to be honest she was more than ''Orbital'', a compact yet profound work that unfolds over a little bit single day in awe the lives of him. James Whitehouse was an MP and junior minister: perhaps most importantly he was a friend group of astronauts aboard the prime minister, so when he had to admit that he'd been having an affair he was confident that some contrition, International Space Station. Through a public admission that he'd been wrong, narrative lens that he was not perfect, would soon have his career back on track. And it seemed as though that was mirrors the way it was going, until a friend of the 'other womanastronauts'orbital perspective, parliamentary researcher Olivia Lytton, persuaded her Harvey invites readers to go to the police. There was no dispute that the relationship had been consensual, but after James had finished the affair there was an incident see our planet in a lift in House of Commons and the police and the Crown Prosecution Service were both of the opinion that this amounted to rapewholly new light. The prosecuting counsel is Kate Woodcroft and she's very determined that Whitehouse is going to be brought to book. [[Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan|Full Review]]isbn=1529922933<br>}} <!-- Dean -->{{Frontpage|-author=Han Kang| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|The Vegetarian[[image:Dean Dark.jpg|left|linkrating=https://www.amazon.co4.uk/gp/product/178607253X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=178607253X]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|General Fiction===[[Dark Pines by Will Dean]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=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 MotherThis novel, but desperate for winner of the big break that will have her moving on to pastures new. Just outside of her town, Gavrik, two bodies lie deep International Booker Prize in 2016 and penned by an author who received the forest - brutally murdered and their eyes ripped out. They bring back dark memories Nobel Prize for a town that has seen Literature this crime before - and Tuva year, is desperate as close to unputdownable as it gets. It more than lives up to find the killeracclaim. At firstThe story introduces uncanny characters with fragile, she's just out to write a good story - but as the crimes continue she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into the forests outside of Gavrikvividly tangible bodies yet unknowable, filled with stranger characters and dark secretselusive souls. Will she find the killer before they find her? [[Dark Pines by Will Dean|Full Review]] <!-- Fry -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Fry_Mythos.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0718188721/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry]]==isbn=1803510056}}[[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General FictionFrontpage|General Fiction]] The Greek Myths are, arguably, the greatest stories ever told. So old and influential they cast 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 to these special stories and recreates them with a wit, warmth and humanity that brings them into the modern age whilst still giving the honour and respect that such ancient and influential stories deserve. [[Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece by Stephen Fry|Full Review]] <!-- Curtis -->=Sally Rooney|-| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Intermezzo[[image:Curtis_Water.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/0995465754/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|General Fiction ===[[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Dystopian Fiction|Dystopian Fiction]], [[:Category:Science Fiction|Science Fiction]] Something Sally Rooney has happened, something very nasty studied the chessboard of life and on a submarine a pregnant elephant is one something of only a handful of animals living below the wavesgrandmaster at putting it into words. We follow Nerissa Crane, a vetHer dialogue is gripping and so brilliantly frustrating, as she remembers recent events, looks after her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. Among the animals and falls many relationships woven into a world of intrigue. It is difficult to properly review this book without giving too much away. There will be mild spoilers throughout this right from story, the start but I will try central one for readers to avoid unravel is the main onesfraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. [[Water & Glass by Abi Curtis|Full Review]] <!-- Hill -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hill_Strange.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/147322117X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Strange Weather by Joe Hill]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Horror|Horror]]Ivan, [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Strange Weather is a collection of four short novels all linked bysocially awkward chess prodigy, unsurprisinglycontrasts sharply with his older brother Peter, strange and cataclysmic weathera successful lawyer living in Dublin. Each novel is distinct and showcases HillFollowing their father's restrained yet vivid style which takes everyday events and makes them bitingly, acerbically macabre or blindingly beautifulpassing after a long battle with cancer, often switching from one sentence to the next. As Hill himself says brothers''the beauty of the world and the horror of the world were twined together'', never is this truer than in Strange Weather where moments of abject horror are coupled with raw beautyalready strained relationship faces new trials. [[Strange Weather by Joe Hill|Full Review]]isbn=0571365469 |}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michelle de KretserB0DGDJRHYD|title=The Life to ComeNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone|rating=34

|summary=''The Life In a quiet suburban house, Patrick is making his final plans. A meticulous man, he makes sure of every preparation, down to Come'' tells the story of several ''interesting'' characters who are all linked by one person: Pippalast detail. The novel is split into five chapters with each one focusing on a different personSome last reflections, from Cassie and her bizarre relationship with Ash then he says goodbye to George who has finished his thesis wife, the world, and is in the process of writing his first novellife. PippaIt's horribly sad. At work in her shop, who his wife Diana is also a writer, appears in each of these chapters, in some cases just as a background character. However, what I found most fascinating fending off yet another phone call about this novel was that de Kretser tells the story of Pippa's life through all these various appearances her ageing and leaves the reader with a real sense of ailing mother, who she is as needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a person and having watched her development as a characterwhile before Diana realises what Patrick has done.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1760296708</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 29/12 -->Frontpage|isbn=1739526910|title=Servants of the UndergroundWhere I've Not Been Lost|author=David SsembajjoGlen Sibley|rating=34.5

|summary=Having experienced ''One year after a terrible famine suicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's life, he arrives in his own country, Kalamchi leaves an unfamiliar Devon town to travel and learnrecover. He returns Living with a burning desire to feed an unexpected housemate at his people - but not only to feed their stomachs but to feed their mindsformer manager’s holiday home, toohe dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. Kalamchi wants to raise his people's consciousness so that they can fight against the dictator Bamutu - chillingly known But as ''president for life those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up in a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and after deathsurprising romantic possibilities.''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848765800</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 28/12 -->Frontpage|author=Rob MurphyJenny Lecoat|title=Rotten to the CoreBeyond Summerland

|genre=Thrillers General Fiction|summary=It's 2009, and Russia look like being awarded Jean lives on Jersey with her mother where they are celebrating the football World Cup hosting rights for end of the oh-so-distant 2018 tournament - that is, until England stick their oar inoccupation. They have solved their hooligan problem During the war, Jean's father was arrested for listening to a banned radio and improved their transport systemsoldiers took him away one night, leaving Jean and so at last are valid final holdersher mother waiting for years for news of him. Watching this is France As the British finally free the Channel islands from the Nazis, who have to reciprocate with and the Russians who helped them get France '98war is finally over, and their hopes rise that they have a planwill finally learn what became of him. At this stage But will the UEFA European championship of 2016 has not been awardedtruth come as a relief, and while France remain favourites to get or will it raise further questions around what else happened during the war? Who was the informer who told the Nazis about the job, again some upstart idea has poked its head above radio? And what other secrets have been kept throughout the parapet - a joint offering from Wales and Scotlandoccupation?|isbn=1846976537}}{{Frontpage|author=Onyi Nwabineli|title=Allow Me to Introduce Myself|rating=4. Yes5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Anuri spent her childhood on display to the world, these two tiny countries, separated by 200 miles and without a brilliant connection from one thanks to the otherher step-mother Ophelia's increasingly popular presence on social media, where she posted every step of Anuri's childhood for sponsorships and without some vital posh hotels here influencer deals and there, basically, monetary gain. Now Anuri is in her twenties and with no serious claim she is slowly trying to soccer fame when it comes regain her confidence and to winning thingsget her life back, are unlikely hosts. But what if France could persuade the world it was a good idea suing her step- and let Russian espionage prove it not mother to be sotake down the content about her. Anuri is battling alcoholism, with all the while the French around failing to pick up the pieces? All of the UK would be damaged, meaning England '18 would be dead in the waterstart her PhD, undergoing therapy and secretly abusing people online and Russia would win outreceiving money from them for doing so. And Most importantly, she is desperately worried about her little sister, whois the new focus of Ophelia's to say the Britsonline empire. Can she save her sister, and perhaps herself and her relationship with their devolution habits, and their first coalition government in a long her father at the same time, could not get through without damaging themselves?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1546282998</amazonuk>0861546873

{{newreview <!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 - remove 28/12 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=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The Perfect Passion Company is a dating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and operating as an alternative to all the online apps in providing a more personal, tailored service. Ness has 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 a bad boyfriend, and so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and the Isabel Dalhousie novels, but with some 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, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, 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, and it'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. He is a nice person. A really nice person. So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going 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 figure out who exactly they are.|isbn=1662500491}}{{Frontpage|author=Paul StidolphKatherine 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 town, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and horrified in 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 notorious Ned Low's pirate ship as a cabin boy. 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 ocean waves.|isbn=0861547438}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Forests 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 control freak with all the Saharasubtlety of a half brick. Jamie's son, Bo, 'has his problems'. He's asthmatic and 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 frequent 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 was going to come to a head.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CKD1L5JL|title=Radio Free Olympia|author=Jeffrey Dunn

|genre=Thrillers General Fiction|summary=''Everyone I speak to thinks you are going to come to some sort of sticky endPetr is an orphan.'' Those are not Rescued by the most promising words a man can hear strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up far from his new partnerbustling cities and busy human society, but she doesnin the forests of Washington't lie in this instances Olympic Peninsula. He is Jeffrey Harvey, After Bear dies and a young Cambridge professorbrief sojourn in human company, who has been dabbling and armed with some extra-curricular work, creating GM trees that can keep vast quantities of water purified. Get an iceberg or three worth of H2O near Africa, where clean water is still only a scarce resourcepirate radio transmitter, and the trees can do their bit and the water will advance the place and make Jeffrey Petr goes on a well-respected global entrepreneur. If, that is, he can get round all the problems in his life - fractions in the start-up involved in journey through the projectforest, a finance officer embezzling broadcasting the funds for gambling - ohstrange, wild and a man ready to accuse Jeffrey of murder and theft of research data on a case reaching back several years. It seems the lovely girlfriend was right to see no shortage of possible sticky ends..rarely heard voices he encounters.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1546282351</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Ellen WilesSarah Marsh|title=The Invisible CrowdA Sign of Her Own|rating= 43.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=This novel follows the plight After a bout of Eritrean Yonas Kelati scarlet fever as he tries to make a child, Ellen Lark loses her hearing. Suddenly plunged into a world of silence, everything about her life for himself changes. Living in England. He and a good friendtime when the use of sign language was seen as something only savages do, Gebre, escape from prison only Ellen is sent to be thrown into captivity again: trafficked in a shellfish factory school where they have to earn their ‘payment’ she is taught to lip read, but physically restrained from signing. From here, she ends up in another school studying under Alexander Graham Bell who has been teaching the malicious Aziz for entering deaf and using a system called Visible Speech. At the UK illegally. When Yonas escapessame time, Bell is working on other inventions and ideas, the story really startsand Ellen finds herself unwittingly caught up in a complicated tangle of espionage.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0008228817</amazonuk>1035401614

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Tony PeakeB0BC3YTCMR|title= North FacingGood Girls Die|author=Ayura Ayira|rating= 4.5|genre= General Fiction|summary=At school ''This story is not for everyone.'' 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 Pretoria in 1962case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84% white. She had a crush on seventeen-year-old Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: Lavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed: tutoring was something she gladly did at church: this was just an extension. She went to his house and he raped her. In shock, Paul Harvey struggles she even allowed him to fit give her a lift home.}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1472263936|title=The Figurine|author=Victoria Hislop|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=It was in - desperate 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to join Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the popular group no matter what family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it may takewould be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. His focus on surviving the perils of school so intense, that he fails Her trip to see the turbulence family apartment in both South Africa and the larger world up- with market Kolonaki would be the arrest first of Nelson Mandela several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the Cuban Missile Crisis affecting the actions 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 adults around himJunta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. A new His prejudices included Helena's red hair and charismatic teacher decides to educate the boys 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 the unstable situation a makeshift mortuary, covered in the world outside - and plastic, he has a growing awareness of both 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 sexuality pushes Paul Harvey into decisions dead friends and former colleagues. As he recovers his senses, he realises that there is something different about him; he later comes to regret 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 their weight pushes him to return to South Africa 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 present day village and that is the reason Volushka, a drunken, self- indulgent, lazy lout of a man in his sixties keen to make sense of a troubled and utterly fascinating pastis tolerated. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0995590028</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B0BYF82CXT|title=Semi-Detached|author=Deborah Stone|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=''Bill and Amanda are living in a semi-detached house, stuck in a depressing rut of boredom and disappointment, when Terry and Fiona Mitchell– glamorous, successful and very much in love – move in next door. Despite their different outlooks on life, the couples befriend each other and life appears to improve for both pairs. But all is not what it seems, and their increasingly interconnected relationships are fated for tragedy.''}}{{Frontpage|author=Shalini Boland|title=The MaidSilent Bride|rating=3|genre=General Fiction|summary= Alice and Seth are a match made in heaven. He is everything she has been searching for; handsome, accomplished, clever, funny; total and utter husband-material. She is all he could possibly want in a wife; beautiful, successful, confident… and so the inevitable proposal is eagerly accepted by Alice and the wedding is planned and set. When the much-anticipated day arrives, Alice is walked down the aisle by her father, beaming with pride and excitement as she surveys the congregation – their friends assembled to celebrate this joyful day and when Seth turns to face his approaching bride, Alice's Roomworld implodes because she has absolutely no idea who the man at the altar is, who is waiting for her to become his wife.|isbn=1662507089}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787636003|title=The Girls 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 novel, but have always thought you might like to tryLeary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one day then this might be the book and described by Margo's mother as 'an older man'. Her parents worried that Richard's influence would take her away from what they felt she could achieve - going to start withOxford and having a glittering career. Rather than face In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the daunting task Isle of leaping into one of his now very longWight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-running seriesrespected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, this is a standalone novelImogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London and holidays were spent at Sandcove, and it gives a good flavour the family home on the Isle of AMSWight. Even then the doubts about Richard's drinking were never far from Margo's style, the way he can write mind: ''she would never be able to evoke leave him in charge''. Then Richard left them.}} {{Frontpage|isbn=1914585402|title=Dashboard Elvis is Dead|author=David F Ross|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross|There's Only One Danny Garvey]] a feeling couple of time years back and place, remember being absolutely floored by how powerful and the warm optimism underlying his words that is so very reassuring and comforting to readaffecting it was. It calls itself 'was a wartime romance'gripping, which it isemotionally wounding read, and yet rereading my review of it my main takeaway was that I might not have lavished enough praise on it .}}{{Frontpage|author=Lucy Ashe|title=Clara and Olivia|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=The year is much more than that besides1933. The place? Sadler's Wells. Ballerinas Clara and Olivia are sisters, twins no less. Focussing mainly Identical on Val, a young woman working as a Land Girlthe outside but not, we see her falling in love with an American pilotlearn, Mike Rogerson the inside. Thanks to a sheepdog And not on Valstage, either. Because there's farm (the Peter Woodhouse from the title) their lives become entwined with a lot that of builds a German soldierdancer. Some things that can be taught or learnt – discipline, attention to detail – and some things, that ''je ne sais quoi'', that don't come from the book shows us classroom. A stage presence, a charm, a ''joie de vivre''. The difference between a variety of friendships as they grow hard-worker, and develop over the yearsa star.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846974097</amazonuk>0861544080