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[[Category:New Reviews|General Fiction]]__NOTOC__

|authorisbn= T R HendrickB0FK5LHKD9|title= What if They KnewThe Colour of Memory|author=Christopher Bowden|rating= 4|genre= General Fiction|summary= It's 2025. Underneath been three years since we last reviewed a lodge in the Blue Mountain resort in Pennsylvaniabook by favourite regular Christopher Bowden, is so we were very glad to see a secret facilitynew novel arrive here at Bookbag Towers. HereLike all Bowden's stories, Dr Benton and his team are making some critical scientific advances on behalf there's a mystery at the heart of ''The Colour of the Benefactor, their anonymous funderMoney''. Already, the team have succeeded We like this running theme in teleporting small primates from one place to another. But, unbeknownst to the Benefactor, Dr Benton has also coded for another type of teleportation altogether an author's work - travel through take a mystery but give it different flavour and atmosphere each time. And he's ready to test. If successful, Benton has a very specific use for his technology in mind|isbn=1734277211

|author=H G Parry Saou Ichikawa and Polly Barton (translator)|title=The Unlikely Escape of Uriah HeepHunchback

|summary=Brothers Rob and Charley have struggled to see eye to eye for years - Rob a sensible lawyer who exists I was in the "normal" world middle of a self-imposed book- and Charley a man who is blessed with buying ban when I made an ability he can't fully control - exception for this one which allows him to bring literary characters into . What first drew me in was the real worldbook's bold fuchsia cover, followed by its striking title: ''Hunchback''. After years of protecting Charley, Rob wants This is a word I recognised to discharge his duties be loaded with historical and leave Charley cultural baggage, often used to his own devices - but circumstances soon take choices out of both their handsdehumanise or reduce. As literary characters begin to appear everywhereCurious, it soon becomes clear that someone out there shares Charley's powers I leaned over the display table and intends turned to use them for nefarious gainsthe back inside cover. Rob and Charley must team up to stop There, I discovered the madness - author: Saou Ichikawa, a woman diagnosed in childhood with congenital myopathy, a battle to win before they, the characters condition that causes severe muscular weakness and the world reach touches every aspect of her life. The End…title took on new complexity in light of her biography. I had to read it.|isbn=03565137770241700787

|author=Jen Beagin|title=Big Swiss|rating=4.5|genre=Humour |summary=I found the premise of this book totally original and addictive. Greta possesses the power to know the population of Hudson, New York's darkest secrets, their intimate lives, their fetishes and fears. How? Her job is to transcribe their sex therapy sessions. Sure, there's a confidentiality agreement, as the 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 life, Greta can exist passively, placidly, as a fly on the wall. That is, until Greta decides to unglue her fly-feet from the safety of the wall and buzz far too close to the sun. The sun in this analogy is the sex coach's newest patient, who Greta dubs 'Big Swiss', and who, like the sun, is bright, blonde and beautiful - and irresistible to Greta. Suddenly, the confidentiality agreement, the ethics of her professional position, her loyalties to Om, fly out of the window. She's in too deep.|isbn=0571378579}}{{Frontpage|isbn=16437850361784745758|title=The Wondrous ApothecaryThree Days in June|author=Mary E MartinAnne Tyler

|summary=Those who have known Alexander WainwrightThe day 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 landscape artist famous for his Turner prize winning 'local school. There was a moment when she hoped that she would be promoted to head but the discussion moved into the subject of 'The Hay Wagonpeople skills'', and Rinaldobefore she knew what was happening Gail had been sacked or resigned, renowned conceptual artist depending on who was explaining the situation. When she got home (in the middle of the day: who would say have thought that could happen?) her ex-husband was there with a cat. He thinks that theyhe're chalk ll be staying and cheese, if not sworn enemiesthat Gail will be adopting the cat. If youAnd that've watched s before Gail discovers that the relationshipgroom hasn't been entirely honest about his personal life.}}{{Frontpage|author=Samantha Harvey|title=Orbital|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=In 2024, as has our narratorSamantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for ''Orbital'', art dealer Jamie Helmsworth, youa compact yet profound work that unfolds over a single day in the lives of a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Through a narrative lens that mirrors the astronauts'd have said that they were magnetsorbital perspective, drawing and repulsing each other Harvey invites readers to see our planet in equal measurea wholly new light.|isbn=1529922933}}{{Frontpage|author=Han Kang|title=The Vegetarian|rating=4. Wainwright was at 5|genre=General Fiction|summary=This novel, winner of the socially acceptable end of International Booker Prize in 2016 and penned by an author who received the artistic continuumNobel Prize for Literature this year, but is as close to unputdownable as it gets. It more than lives up to the acclaim. The story introduces uncanny characters with Rinaldo 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 grandmaster at putting it was all too obvious that there was but a fine dividing line between conceptual art into words. Her dialogue is gripping and public nuisanceso brilliantly frustrating, as her characters never quite say exactly what they feel. As time has worn onAmong the many relationships woven into this story, he's frequently been brought the central one for readers to unravel is the attention of the policefraternal connection—or lack thereof—between Ivan and Peter Koubek. On this latest occasion we see him charged Ivan, a socially awkward chess prodigy, contrasts sharply with arson and theft of ''The Hay Wagonhis older brother Peter, a successful lawyer living in Dublin. Following their father's passing after a long battle with cancer, the brothers'already strained relationship faces new trials.|isbn=0571365469

|authorisbn=Mary H.K. ChoiB0DGDJRHYD|title=Permanent RecordNowhere Man|author=Deborah Stone

|genre=TeensGeneral Fiction|summary=Pablo, In a college drop-outquiet suburban house, Patrick is working at a New York bodegamaking his final plans. He's massively in debtA meticulous man, he's avoiding his mothermakes sure of every preparation, down to the last detail. Some last reflections, and then he finds says goodbye to his joy in creating unusual snacks with random ingredients! Whilst working one eveningwife, the world, heand his life. It's surprised to discover that the girl he horribly sad. At work in her shop, his wife Diana is chatting with as he serves is a super-famous pop star fending off yet another phone call about her ageing andailing mother, as unlikely as it may seem, they start who needs extricating from yet another accident. It will be a relationshipwhile before Diana realises what Patrick has done. With one character who is trying very hard not to be seen or noticed by anyone, and the other who is seen and followed and hounded by everyone all over the world, it}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739526910|title=Where I's an interesting clash as they come togetherve Not Been Lost|author=Glen Sibley|rating=4. This isn5|genre=General Fiction|summary='t just 'One year after a love story though, and actually itsuicide attempt blows apart musician Brian O’Malley's really just Pab's storylife, about the journey he takes arrives in an unfamiliar Devon town to recover. Living with an unexpected housemate at his life via his meet-former manager’s holiday home, he dreams of reconnecting with everything he has lost. But as those tentative plans falter, he becomes swept up with Leanna Smartin a local world of unlikely friendships, mobile discos and surprising romantic possibilities.|isbn=0349003459''

|author=Daniel KrausJenny Lecoat|title=Blood SugarBeyond Summerland

|summary=This 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 difficult readrelief, 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'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... And ) 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 of 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 dark subject matter – dangers or thather Mum'll come later – 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 because of the way she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in which December 1923 and only moved to Athens when she was thirteen. Her original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed itto 's toldCallas' to make it more manageable in the States. This might put 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 lot mother who mercilessly exploited her and made no secret of readers offher 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 be honest it'd be hard take a trip to Canada to blame themget away for a while. Kraus tells 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 distinctive voice unlike any other Ibusiness, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there've read; an erratic dialect with heavy s always her very helpful (and frequent slangrather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|isbn=1846976596}}{{Frontpage|author=Dean Koontz|title=The Bad Weather Friend|rating=4. The immediate effect 5|genre=Paranormal|summary=Benny is disorientating having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and distractinghis 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 takes some time turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has been sent to feel naturalhelp him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. It Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a struggle to acclimatise to Jodywaitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny's voicewild adventure) can 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 get acquainted live with his mannerismsa family who run an inn, but the story wouldn't and being made to work there from a young age. When she hears there is to be a hanging of some pirates in the same without ittown, she decides to go and watch. Enthralled and somehow it workshorrified in equal measure, Hannah finds herself embroiled in a young boy's death at the hands of two vicious pirates. It shouldn She hides away, so that they don'tfind and kill her too, and then to escape them completely she runs away to sea, but it doesdressing 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=17890919340861547438}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1471180158|title=Maybe Tomorrow|author=Penny Parkes|rating=4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Jamie Matson works in an upper-class grocery store, for a man who's a control freak with all the subtlety 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.

|isbn=B07W4MNBSGB0CKD1L5JL|title=Be Careful Who You MarryRadio Free Olympia|author=Lizzy MumfreyJeffrey Dunn

|summary=It was coming Petr is an orphan. Rescued by the strange, reclusive Bear, he is brought up to Halloween far from bustling cities and busy human society, in 1987 and a group the forests of sixth-form schoolgirls wondered what they would be doing when they were fifty. When you're only seventeen that seems positively ancient, but Liz was convinced that ''your entire life depends on who you marry'Washington's Olympic Peninsula. The only eligible boys were the Young Farmers After Bear dies and the idea of living a brief sojourn in a farmhouse human company, and having armed with only a couple of children called Will and Olly appealed to Charlottepirate radio transmitter, or perhaps William and Oliver if you were Elizabeth who was determined to marry Petr goes on a journey through the rather superior Patrick Shepley-Botham. The place to start their search was obviously forest, broadcasting the Young Farmers' Halloween disco that weekend. There was just one problem - there were too many Elizabeths in the classstrange, wild and rarely heard voices he encounters.

{|classLavender 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 -"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- Will Carver -->|-| style="width: 10people were afraid to hug her in case it's contagious. It's not easy being a black girl whose skin is 84%; verticalwhite. She had a crush on seventeen-align: top; textyear-alignold Reggie Anderson but never thought he would notice her. Then he did: center;"|[[imageLavender was very good at math and Reggie asked if she would tutor him. She readily agreed:1912374838.jpg|link=httptutoring 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/dp/1912374838/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}

{{Frontpage|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 – 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 Silent 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 world 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|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=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 her, she was flattered rather than wary. It was quite a while before he made any sort of physical approach to her and by that time she was obsessed by him. 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| stylerating="vertical4.5|genre=General Fiction|summary= Few styles of contemporary fiction interest me like the state-of-the-alignnation novel. There's something so utterly compelling about any writer who can catch hold of the atmosphere of the day and capture it, crafting an image of the country as it stands in one particular moment. To say that Amanda Craig is skilled at doing this would be embarrassingly inadequate: top; textshe's practically synonymous with the genre of contemporary social fiction at this point. She has such a gift for weaving the ongoing issues of the day into the lives of her characters in a way that feels natural and lived-alignin, 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 story of three women: left;"Sasha, Darley and Georgiana. Darley and George are sisters and Sasha is married to their brother Cord. They're Stocktons, only Sasha isn't a Stockton by birth so she isn't readily accepted into the tribe. The problem's exacerbated when the clan matriarch, Tilda, asks Cord and Sasha if they'd like to move into the Pineapple Street property. Tilda and Chip have renovated and downsized to another property, a street or so away, which they own. They won't need any of the furniture from Pineapple Street, so Sasha and Cord can move straight in. Nominally, they had a choice but that wasn't the reality. Darley and Georgiana start to call Sasha 'the gold digger'. She's living in ''their'' family home. They use it so often that they abbreviate it to 'the GD'.}}{{Frontpage|author=Emily Critchley|title=One Puzzling Afternoon|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=[[Nothing Important Happened Today 84 year old Edie has lived in the same small town for almost her whole life, but now she is facing a move as her son wants to move to another house and bring Edie to live with his family, as Edie is starting to lose her memory. However, Edie is tormented by the memory of her childhood friend, Lucy, who went missing over 60 years ago, and the worry that there was a secret she was keeping for Lucy that somehow might be the thing that reveals the truth of what happened all that time ago. After 'seeing' Lucy in the high street, just as she was the last time she saw her, she starts to find pockets of memories coming back to her. And yet as she remembers the past, she is forgetting more and more in her day to day life. Will Carver]]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 light and weightless feeling, but I had always longed for gravity''

[[image:4starTold from a retrospective view, a young woman unravels the year-long relationship that once defined her. Overlaid with later wisdom, the narrator relives the affair with a man twenty years her senior from its inception – the summer after finishing university – to its sorrowful end the summer after. Set against the backdrop of an isolated Australian coastal town ''Thirst for Salt'' details the 24-year-old narrator's deepening relationship with her older lover, depicting its all-consuming nature, how it changed her perspective on both romantic and familial relationships and how it altered her irrevocably.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{0861546490}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008506337|title=The Garnett Girls|author=Georgina Moore|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:=5|genre=General Fiction|General Fiction]]summary=The love affair between Margo Garnett and poet Richard O'Leary was all-consuming, apparently on both sides. Margo was just sixteen when they fell in love. Richard was twenty-one 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 Oxford and having a glittering career. In the event, they eloped and Richard took her away from the Isle of Wight. Margo did go to Oxford and went on to become a well-respected journalist. The couple had three children: Rachel, Imogen and Sasha. Life was lived in London 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 mind: ''she would never be able to leave him in charge''.

Nothing Important Happened Today is a dark, twisted, difficult readThen Richard left them. Stories about cults often are, but this is different; it's written with a sense of style that is quite unlike anything I've read before. I can't remember ever having read a novel with such an odd, distinctive narrative voice. While a slim and relatively small book, the slow-moving nature of the plot makes it feel far larger than its 276 pages. [[Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver|Full Review]]}}

<!-- Claire North -->{{Frontpage|-isbn=1914585402| styletitle="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Dashboard Elvis is Dead[[image:williamabbey.jpg|linkauthor=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0316316849/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] David F Ross| stylerating="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|4.5===[[The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], summary=I reviewed David F Ross's book [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]], [[:Category:Fantasy|Fantasy]]  When William Abbey fails to prevent the lynching of a young boy in 1880There's South Africa, he finds himself cursed Only One Danny Garvey by the grieving mother. A naïve English Doctor, he slowly learns the weight of the curse upon him, as the shadow of the dead boy begins to follow him across the world. Never stopping, always growing – it crosses oceans and mountains in pursuit of William. As he finds himself unable to resist speaking the truths that he hears in others, he also learns that the dark shadow is deadly – and seeks to kill the one he loves the most… [[The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire NorthDavid F Ross|Full ReviewThere's Only One Danny Garvey]] <!-- Oates -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785656775.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785656775/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Triumph a couple of the Spider Monkey years back and remember being absolutely floored by Joyce Carol Oates]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Crime|Crime]], [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Bobby is an angry, damaged man - damage that came from being abandoned as a baby in a bus station locker, how powerful and then being thrown from one foster home or detention centre to another, never far from violence or abuse. Eager to succeed as a musician, he arrives in Hollywood to find his dream - but affecting it soon becomes clear that his paranoid delusions and seething rage will enable a capacity for acts of extreme violencewas. Unpublished for 40 years, this edition of ''The Triumph of the Spider Monkey'' comes combined with It was a connected novella – ''Lovegripping, Careless Love''. [[The Triumph of the Spider Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates|Full Review]] <!-- Ellory -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1542007232.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1542007232/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]] Berlinemotionally wounding read, 1989. Miriam is in the middle of a city freshly united, with the Wall newly broken down and people able to cross at liberty for the first time in decades. She is in the middle rereading my review of such euphoria, but cannot feel it, for she has not left her father's apartment in weeks, nursing him as he lies dying. One standard bed-bath, however, is very different, when he gasps the name ''Frieda'' my main takeaway was that she does I might not recognise – and she sees for the first time ever a tattoo for his camp inmate identity under his watch. One bombshell outside, then, and two inside. And inside her father, Henryk, what is going have lavished enough praise on, as he has a first person narrative alternating with her story? What will we find happened, as he remembers back to the real Frieda, a young woman that shook him to the core when he was her literature professor? That's right, more bombshells… [[The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory|Full Review]] <!-- McGee -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0241365953it.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0241365953/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}{{Frontpage| styleauthor="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[American Royals by Katharine McGee]]===Lucy Ashe[[image:4star.jpg|linktitle=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Two Clara and a half centuries ago, America won the Revolutionary War and General George Washington was offered the crown. Today, the House of Washington still sit on the thrown with Princess Beatrice next in line. Beatrice's whole life has been building up to her ruling the United States and the time for her reign is imminent. [[American Royals by Katharine McGee|Full Review]] <!-- Mulligan -->Olivia|-| stylerating=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:17847427164.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784742716/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] 5| stylegenre=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan]]=== [[image:2.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]] I came to this book thinking I knew just what to expect, even though it is [[:Category:Andy Mulligan|the author's]] debut in the adult novel market (hence the more mature name – he used to be an Andy). I thought it simple to sum up, the tale of a middle-aged man who knows too much about train travel having his life turned around in the most pleasant way. I hadn't opened it when I'd shelved it alongside [[:Category:Chris Cleave|Chris Cleave]], and [[:Category:David Nicholls|David Nicholls]]. I expected some whimsy, some warmth and some affirmative loveliness. More fool me. [[Train Man by Andrew Mulligan|Full Review]] <!-- Coleman -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1785032461.jpg|linksummary=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1785032461/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Paranormal|Paranormal]] Trudy Heaton is going home, to a house where her roots burrow back through the centuries and to a mother she hasn't spoken to for sixteen years. Home, her refuge, Ponden Hall, where she can heal herself and try to come to terms with the traumatic loss of her husband. She needs to build bridges with her mother and convince her grieving son that his father year is dead1933. Where better than the house full of light and shadow, that nurtured her throughout her childhood? [[The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman|Full Review]] |-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0008291845.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291845/ref=nosimplace?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Set in a typical American town, ''We Are Not Okay'' tells the story of four teenage girls facing the difficulties brought on by high school and growing up as a girl in todaySadler's societyWells. The novel is told from four different perspectives, those of Lucy, Ulana, Trina Ballerinas Clara and SophiaOlivia are sisters, whose friendship statuses vary from BFFs to sworn enemiestwins no less. The reader is presented with a glimpse into each of their livesIdentical on the outside but not, but more importantly their mindswe learn, and at times the thoughts of those characters could have been taken directly from my own. Gomes has created a heartbreakingly real and relevant novel that focuses on prominent topic areas which are becoming ingrained in our society, particularly in relation to the ''Me Too Movement''inside. ''We Are Not Okay'' reminds the reader of the importance of phrases like ''I'm With Her''. [[We Are Not Okay by Natalia Gomes|Full Review]]  <!-- Kate Tough -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:034914365X.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/034914365X/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] Life has just hidden behind a corner and stuck a foot out as Rhona Beech came past. She and Mark had been together for nine years and it was beginning to feel ''settled''. Then Mark announced that he'd got a job in Canada and he was going whether Rhona wanted to come with him or And not. The ''not'' bit of the sentence was the way it worked out and Rhona was left on her own. Wellstage, she wasn't completely on her own: she had friends and family, but it's not the same as having that special someone in your life, that someone who makes you part of a coupleeither. So Rhona had to start again, rejoining a world that bore little resemblance to the one she'd left nine years ago - and Because there's a lot of difference between being in the middle of your twenties and the middle of your thirtiesthat builds a dancer. [[Keep Walking Rhona Beech by Kate Tough|Full Review]] <!-- Varenne -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058738.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058738/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Historical Fiction|Historical Fiction]], [[:Category:Literary Fiction|Literary Fiction]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] It strikes me Some things that nobody can speak well of the Wild West outside the walls of a theme park. Our agent to see how bad it was here is Pete Ferguson, who bristles at the indignity of white man against Native 'Indian', who spends days being physically sick while indulging in a buffalo hunt, and who hates the way man be taught or learnt – and womandiscipline, of course attention to detail – can turn against fellow man at the bat of an eyelid. But this book is about so much more than the 1870s USA, and the attendant problems with gold rushes, pioneer spirits and racial genocide. He finds himself trying to find this book's version of Utopia, namely the Equator, where everything is upside downsome things, people walk on their heads with rocks in their pockets to keep them on the ground to counter the anti-gravity, and where, who knows, things might actually be better. But that equator is a long way away – and there's a whole adventure full of Mexico and Latin America between him and it… [[Equator by Antonin Varenne and Sam Taylor (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Jane O'Connor -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:B07GLCDXZL.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07GLCDXZL/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Needlemouse by Jane Oje ne sais quoi'Connor]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]], [[:Category:Women's Fiction|Women's Fiction]] We first meet Sylvia Penton on her birthday and her boss, the Prof, is taking her out to lunch. This is her favourite day of the year, not because it's her birthday but because of the special time she gets to spend with the man she loves. He's told her that he and his wife are going to divorce - Martha is apparently having an affair - and Sylvia is convinced that the Prof will then declare his love and they can be together. She hasndon't fully constructed 'together' in her own mind - she envisages it as romantic, but her imagination hasn't yet progressed to the sexual part of the relationship. There's time though - she's only been the prof's PA for fifteen years. [[Needlemouse by Jane O'Connor|Full Review]] <!-- Laurain -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1910477672.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1910477672/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Vintage 1954 starts by thrusting several completely different characters upon us, before deciding to run with them and formulate a plot. So we have an American biker, just landing in Paris but unfortunately not with the wife who shared his dream of visiting the city together. We have a goth girl who everyone recognises come from an American crime show, but actually is a humble restorer of antiques. We have a cocktail barman, infatuated with the goth girlclassroom. We also have a man ruling the roost over a whole suite of individual apartments fabricated from the Haussmann-era mansion his family once owned. Finally something conspires to get them togetherA stage presence, and drinking from the same bottle of a rare 1954 red wine. Onlycharm, one of them has a bizarre incidence in his family history that also features the same plonk – where a grandfather imbibed, and walked out the door one rainy morning, never to be seen again. But of course nobody will be doing any disappearing now, though – will they? [[Vintage 1954 by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken (translator) and Emily Boyce (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- McLean -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786076071.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786076071/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Thrillers|Thrillers]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] When Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared. In the long hot summer of 1992, in an isolated suburb of Australia surrounded by Bushland, the girls vanished during the school's Showstopper concert at the riverside amphitheatre. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters united the small community, they were never found. Returning home years later, Tikka must make sense of that strange moment in time – of the summer that shaped her, and the girls she never forgot'joie de vivre''. [[The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean|Full Review]] <!-- AMS -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1408711265.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1408711265/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] Long-time followers of The Bookbag will know I'm difference between a die-hard fan of AMS. So you can imagine my excitement at reading a brand new book in a brand new series, described by the author himself as Scandi Blanc (as opposed to Scandi Noir)! Here we meet a new detective named Ulf Varg, who works in the Department for Sensitive Crimes, solving those crimes that perhaps fall outside the usual police parameters. This particular book deals with crimes including someone who is stabbed in the knee, the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend, and a case of potential werewolves. They're the crimes that perhaps nobody else would bother to deal with, and I rather enjoyed them, especially the stabbing where you find that actually, you identify with the person who committed the crime, rather than the victim. [[The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith|Full Review]] <!-- Kennedy -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0993202349.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993202349/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"| ===[[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]]  The final novel in Alan Kennedy's WW2 trilogy sees Captain Alex Vere taken off active duty and banished to Scotlandworker, providing trade craft spy training. It's stifling and suffocating and feels as much like a prison to Alex as anything the Germans would provide. And where is Justine? Alex hasn't seen her since he went to ''that'' disastrous meeting with John Cabot, instigator of the disinformation campaign, and returned to find her missing. A failed mission is one thing but no Justine is quite another. Alex can't get Justine out of his headstar. Has she left the service? Does she know too much? Is she even still alive? [[The Things That are Lost by Alan Kennedy|Full Review]] <!-- Schienmel -->|-| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|0861544080[[image:0349003289.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1492667242/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]  | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Teens|Teens]], [[:Category:General Fiction|General Fiction]] ''They needed someone to blame, and I was the only available scapegoat. Their daughter was my best friend. Playing the scapegoat was the least I could do under the circumstances.'' Seventeen year old Hannah Gold was born mature – or so her parents tell her. She has dined in fancy restaurants, explored the most sophisticated corners of the globe and lived a life of luxury. [[A Danger to Herself and Others by Alyssa Sheinmel|Full Review]]