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Win a copy of Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams - thebookbag.co.uk

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Win a copy of Bourbon Creams and Tattered Dreams (The Factory Girls) by Mary Gibson
Two will win a copy of the book. For your chance to win just answer the following question:
From what series does the book come?Send your entries by 22 February 2017 here
One entry only per person and per email address please!

Win signed copy of The Roots of the Tree by Amanda Roberts - thebookbag.co.uk

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Win a signed copy of The Roots of the Tree by Amanda Roberts
One person will win a signed copy of the book. For your chance to win just answer the following question:
How old was Annie when she discovered Frank was not her father?Send your entries by 3 May 2017 here
One entry only per person and per email address please!

Win Confessions of Modern Women by Spadge Whittaker - thebookbag.co.uk

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Win a signed copy of Confessions of Modern Women by Spadge Whittaker
One person will win a signed copy of the book. For your chance to win just answer the following question:
What did an Anonymous Modern Woman's ex nickname her mole hair?Send your entries by 10 May 2017
One entry only per person and per email address please!

Win 1 of 2 The Dog Walker by Lesley Thomson - thebookbag.co.uk

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Win a copy of The Dog Walker by Lesley Thomson
Two people will win a signed copy of the book. For your chance to win just answer the following question:
Where did Helen Honeysett live?Send your entries by 31 May 2017 here
One entry only per person and per email address please!

Win A Signed copy of Fall Out by Lizzy Mumfrey - thebookbag.co.uk

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Charlton's the sort of village where people aspire to live, despite its apparent ordinariness. There's the usual mix of commuters (it's not too far from London) and those who make their lives in the village. Richard Hughes is a commuter, but his wife Jessica works at the local academy, where both their children - Alfie and Hannah - are pupils. Pete Cole is a newly-promoted police superintendent and clearly still fond of his voluptuous wife, Susie. Actually, some of that voluptuousness might be better described as fat - Pete suspects that he might need longer arms to hug her before long. Less popular is Gary Webber. He's the sort of man who causes people to heave a sigh of relief when he joins someone else for a drink at the golf club.
Pete and Richard can't understand why Susie has invited the Webbers to the dinner party she's throwing to celebrate Pete's promotion, but there are going to be enough people to dilute him. Susie and Jessica are part of the 'eternal triangle' of close women friends and Leah will be at the table, along with husband Farrukh Ahmed. Eight would really have been enough, but Susie can't not invite an old friend, Caroline and her husband Thomas. Caroline's definitely superior and very sniffy about the sort of food which Susie serves. There's a bit of angst - Gary can't understand why Leah, as a Muslim woman, doesn't like being touched, but as dinner parties go it's a success.
One of the subjects of conversation is the trip that the year 12 kids from the local academy are taking to see the state opening of parliament. As a parent Leah is keen to go so that she can chaperone her daughter Aish unless she's chaperoned, Aisha won't be going. Leah's not cleared to work with kids, but Susie is because she helps with Riding for the Disabled and the first crack in the women's friendship shows when Susie is asked to go on the trip, but Leah is refused. Coincidentally, Pete's going to be on duty in London that day. Gary Webber's daughter is going on the trip, only she has other plans for what's going to happen: tired of the abuse she's been suffering at home she's decided to make a break for freedom.
So, you've got the picture? You think we're in for a delightful story of village politics and intrigue, rather like Gill Hornby's The Hive? Well, you're wrong, because the day of the school trip coincides with an appalling terrorist attack on London. It's on a scale to eclipse 9/11 and everyone's cosy, settled life is shattered. Who lives and who dies is only the start of it. There are the religious implications: did Leah know what was going to happen? Did Pete have an inkling and is that why some of his family weren't there? The headmaster of the school is an easy scapegoat - he shouldn't have allowed the trip to go ahead. And all this is on top of the normal guilt which survivors feel.
I'd planned to read this book over four days. When I thought I was reading an excellent story of village life it looked liked I'd get through it rather more quickly, but then I got to the meat of the story and I simply couldn't put it down. I finished the book in one sitting. Normal life was simply abandoned. The writing is excellent: Lizzy Mumfrey has the ability to show complex and terrible situations in such a way that you feel them viscerally. I'd understood the effects of a nuclear attack before but I'd never felt them quite so painfully and almost personally. It's a big subject, sensitively handled, but ultimately uplifting.
Normally I'd be telling you about how well the characters come off the page, the wonderful sense of location and what a great plot it is, but I don't think I need to. It's a big read, not in the sense of being a literary giant, but of being a book you're really going to enjoy reading. I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

Win The Last Train (Detective Hiroshi) by Michael Pronko - thebookbag.co.uk

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Win a signed copy of The Last Train (Detective Hiroshi) by Michael Pronko
One person will win a signed copy of the book. For your chance to win just answer the following question:
Who used to be a sumo wrestler?Send your entries by 21 June 2017 here
One entry only per person and per email address please!

Win 1 of 2 Blood Sisters by Jane Corry - thebookbag.co.uk

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Competition
Win a signed copy of Blood Sisters by Jane Corry
Two people will win a signed copy of the book. For your chance to win just answer the following question:
How many people set off for school?Send your entries by 12 July 2017 here
One entry only per person and per email address please!
Two sisters and one of their friends set off for school. None of them make it. It sounds like a bad maths problem, but it's part of life for our narrators Alison and Kitty. The terrible events from years ago still haunt them. Alison is now a struggling artist, cut off from her family and playing dangerous games. Kitty is in a residential home, locked inside herself and unable to communicate with the outside world. A few people know what really happened that day, but none of them are talking… yet.
This is a brilliantly intricate book, the sort you almost want to take notes with because there's a lot to take in, a lot to remember. Kitty's voice was exceptional. She has an intelligence and an awareness of which the outside world have no idea and yet at the same time she's vastly immature on some issues and does not always fully understand what is going on. Life in her home is portrayed in acute detail, and of course it's sad at times, but then people like Johnny and Barbara appear and things don't seem quite so bad. For Alison, life is a little more ordinary, death and disablement aside, but that may change with a new job offer and a chance to face her demons.
The book is a guessing game, with hints dropped that all is not what it seems. Alison is scared of the truth emerging, but it takes us a long time to discover why, and what bearing it will have on things. In a way I felt like the story started again towards the end, with a new twist to the lives of both girls and their families. It's quite a long story but keeps your attention beautifully and the switch between narrators is always perfectly timed so in the nicest possible way you never come to a good place to stop.
It's an easy, clean read with tight editing and nothing unnecessary left behind. Even the smallest detail is carefully thought through, every point made or hint dropped for a reason that will become clear if you are patient (or just storm through page after page, devouring the story until you find the answer).