March is fast approaching so it’s time to look at what books are on the horizon. 2022 is proving to be an incredible year in the book world and every month it is getting harder to narrow down these list, even when I’m allowing myself twenty-five books on each list. It’s crazy! I will never finish my TBR at this rate lol.
March is filled with some of my most anticipated reads of the year, including the latest installments in two of my favourite crime series. Here are the twenty-five books out next month that I’m most anticipating…
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
Published: March 1st
Publisher: Quercus
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mum, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, the mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: two weeks in Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.
But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. Buoyed by the stunning waters, beautiful cliffsides, delightful residents, and – of course – delectable food, Katy feels herself coming back to life.
And then Carol appears, healthy and sun-tanned… and thirty years old. Katy doesn’t understand what is happening, or how – all she can focus on is that somehow, impossibly, she has her mother back. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman who came before.
But can we ever truly know our parents? Soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young woman who does not yet have a clue.
Rebecca Serle’s next great love story is here, and this time it’s between a mother and daughter. With her signature ‘heartbreaking and poignant’ (Glamour) prose, Serle has crafted a transcendent novel about how we move on after loss, and how the people we love never truly leave us.
Buy here*
The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Orion
Genre: Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Paris, 1750.
In the midst of an icy winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city’s celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter.
Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker’s experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.
For as children quietly vanish from the Parisian streets, rumours are swirling that the clockmaker’s intricate mechanical creations, bejewelled birds and silver spiders, are more than they seem.
And soon Madeleine fears that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the very heart of Versailles…
A intoxicating story of obsession, illusion and the price of freedom.
Buy here*
The Marsh House by Zoe Somerville
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Apollo
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Psychological Fiction, Horror Thriller, Ghost Story, Coming-of-Age Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Part ghost story, part novel of suspense The Marsh House is the haunting second novel from the author of The Night of the Flood where two women, separated by decades, are drawn together by one, mysterious house on the North Norfolk coast.
December, 1962. Desperate to create a happy Christmas for her young daughter, Franny, after a disastrous year, Malorie rents a remote house on the Norfolk coast. But once there, the strained silence between them feels louder than ever. As Malorie digs for decorations in the attic, she comes across the notebooks of the teenaged Rosemary, who lived in the house thirty years before. Trapped inside by a blizzard, and with long days and nights ahead of her, Malorie begins to read. Though she knows she needs to focus on the present, she finds herself inexorably drawn into the past…
July, 1931. Rosemary lives in the Marsh House with her austere father, surrounded by unspoken truths and rumours. So when the glamorous Lafferty family moves to the village, she succumbs easily to their charm. Dazzled by the beautiful Hilda and her dashing brother, Franklin, Rosemary fails to see the danger that lurks beneath their bright façades…
As Malorie reads Rosemary’s diary, past and present begin to merge in this moving story of mothers and daughters, family obligation and deeply buried secrets.
Buy here*
One For Sorrow (DI Luc Callanach Book 6) by Helen Fields
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Crime Series
SYNOPSIS:
Bestselling crime author Helen Fields is back with her best book yet. A masterful crime thriller that is set to be the most memorable read of 2022.
One for sorrow, two for joy
Edinburgh is gripped by the greatest terror it has ever known. A lone bomber is targeting victims across the city and no one is safe.
Three for a girl, four for a boy
DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach face death every day – and not just the deaths of the people being taken hostage by the killer.
Five for silver, six for gold
When it becomes clear that with every tip-off they are walking into a trap designed to kill them too, Ava and Luc know that finding the truth could mean paying the ultimate price.
Seven for a secret never to be told…
But with the threat – and body count – rising daily, and no clue as to who’s behind it, neither Ava nor Luc know whether they will live long enough to tell the tale…
With twists and turns you’ll never see coming, prepare to be gripped by this devastatingly good thriller. Perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and MJ Arlidge.
Buy here*
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
SYNOPSIS:
Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants
A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.
Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.
The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest
There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.
Who holds the key?
Buy here*
Reputation by Sarah Vaughan
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Legal Thriller, Political Thriller, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
From the bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal, soon to be a major Netflix series…
Reputation: it takes a lifetime to build and just one moment to destroy.
‘Sarah Vaughan has done it again. Superb’ Shari Lapena
Emma Webster is a respectable MP.
Emma Webster is a devoted mother.
Emma Webster is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist.
Emma Webster is a liar.
#Reputation: The story you tell about yourself. And the lies others choose to believe…
Buy here*
Four Aunties and A Wedding by Jesse Sutano
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: HQ
Genre: Mystery, Romance, Humour, Romantic Comedy
SYNOPSIS:
They vow to make it a day to remember…
The laugh-out-loud new novel from the bestselling author of Dial A For Aunties, winner of the Comedy Women In Print Prize 2021
It’s supposed to be the perfect day…
After getting away with literal murder, Meddy can’t wait to settle down and marry the love of her life, Nathan. She’s found the dress, got the dream venue at Christ Church College, Oxford, plus having a destination wedding comes with the added bonus of not having to invite her very large extended family.
…But is it even a wedding if nobody gets killed?
Although when her meddling aunties get involved, Meddy knows her wedding is going to be anything but quiet. Even though there’s no dead body hidden in the freezer this time, for better or worse, it’s certainly going to be a day she’s never going to forget…
Buy here*
The Old Woman with a Knife by Gu Byeong-Mo
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Canongate
Genre: Literary Fiction, Thriller, Translated Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Hornclaw is a sixty-five-year-old female contract killer who is considering retirement. A fighter who has experienced loss and grief early on in life, she lives in a state of self-imposed isolation, with just her dog, Deadweight, for company.
While on an assassination job for the ‘disease control’ company she works for, Hornclaw makes an uncharacteristic error, causing a sequence of events that brings her past well and truly into the present.
Threatened with sabotage by a young male upstart and battling new desires and urges when she least expects them, Hornclaw steels her resolve, demonstrating that no matter their age, the female of the species is always more deadly than the male.
Buy here*
The School For Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
‘We have your daughter’
Frida Liu is a struggling mother. She remembers taking Harriet from her cot and changing her nappy. She remembers giving her a morning bottle. They’d been up since four am.
Frida just had to finish the article in front of her. But she’d left a file on her desk at work. What would happen if she retrieved it and came back in an hour? She was so sure it would be okay.
Now, the state has decided that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. Soon, mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything?
The School for Good Mothers is an explosive and thrilling novel about love and the pressures of perfectionism, parenthood and privilege.
Buy here*
This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Genre: Psychological Fiction, Suspense, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Natalie Collins always has a plan.
Her troubled younger sister Kit rarely does.
Until Kit finds Wisewood, a secretive self-help retreat on a secluded Maine island. It promises you’ll leave a better, braver version of yourself.
But why does it forbid contact with the outside world? Why are there no testimonies from previous guests? Natalie fears it is some kind of cult.
Then, after six months of silence, she receives an email from Wisewood:Would you like to come tell your sister what you did – or should we?Who is digging into the sisters’ past? How did they discover Natalie’s secret? A secret that will destroy Kit.
She has no choice but to go to Wisewood, to find out if this place of healing has more sinister motives.But as she’s about to discover, Wisewood is far easier to enter than to leave . . .
Buy here*
Twelve Secrets by Robert Gold
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Book Series
SYNOPSIS:
Ben Harper’s life changed for ever the day his older brother Nick was murdered by two classmates. It was a crime that shocked the nation and catapulted Ben’s family and their idyllic hometown, Haddley, into the spotlight.
Twenty years on, Ben is one of the best investigative journalists in the country and settled back in Haddley, thanks to the support of its close-knit community. But then a fresh murder case shines new light on his brother’s death and throws suspicion on those closest to him.
Ben is about to discover that in Haddley no one is as they seem. Everyone has something to hide.
And someone will do anything to keep the truth buried . . .
Buy here*
The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkenen
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Pan MacMillan
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
SYNOPSIS:
From Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, the authors of the top ten bestseller The Wife Between Us and An Anonymous Girl, comes The Golden Couple – a compelling page-turner that will keep you guessing to the very end.
If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in ten sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. She helps people overcome everything, from domineering parents to assault. Her successes almost help her absorb the emptiness she feels since her husband’s death.
Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple, until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.
When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.
Buy here*
The Atlas Six (Atlas Series Book 1) by Olivie Blake
Published: March 3rd
Publisher: Tor
Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy Series
SYNOPSIS:
The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake is the runaway TikTok must-read fantasy novel of the year. If you loved Ninth House and A Deadly Education, you’ll love this.
Originally a self-published sensation, this edition has been fully edited and revised, including gorgeous new illustrations.
Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction.
Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.
When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places.
Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind’s deepest secrets. Reina Mori is a naturalist who can perceive and understand the flow of life itself. And Callum Nova is an empath, who can manipulate the desires of others. Finally there’s Tristan Caine, whose powers mystify even himself.
Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society’s London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.
The story continues in The Atlas Paradox, the heart-stopping sequel.
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Sundial by Catriona Ward
Published: March 10th
Publisher: Viper Books
Genre: Thriller, Gothic Romance, Horror Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
You can’t escape the desert. You can’t escape Sundial.
Rob fears for her daughters. For Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. For Annie, because she fears what Callie might do to her. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her of the family she left behind. She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.
Callie is afraid of her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely. To tell her secrets about her past that both disturb and excite her. And Callie is beginning to wonder if only one of them will leave Sundial alive…
From the bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street comes a stunning thriller exploring the toxicity of the mother-daughter bond, and the power of the past to twist the present.
Buy here*
A Life for a Life (Detective Kate Young Book 3) by Carol Wyer
Published: March 15th
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Thriller, Police Procedural, Crime Series
SYNOPSIS:
Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer―except an unpredictable detective.
When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task―to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.
Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper―and closer to home―than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.
With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?
Buy here*
Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
Published: March 17th
Publisher: Wildfire
Genre: Historical Fiction, War Story, Coming-of-Age Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
With every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end of time.
It is 1938 in China, and the Japanese are advancing. A young mother, Meilin, is forced to flee her burning city with her four-year-old son, Renshu, and embark on an epic journey across China. For comfort, they turn to their most treasured possession – a beautifully illustrated hand scroll. Its ancient fables offer solace and wisdom as they travel through their ravaged country, seeking refuge.
Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. His daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, but he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down?
Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the search for a place to call home.
Buy here*
The Awakenings by Sarah Maine
Published: March 17th
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Adventure Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
An immersive and compelling novel that explores the struggle by two women, divided across centuries, for control over their lives, set against a beautiful historical backdrop.
‘An echo of Daphne du Maurier‘ Independent
Yorkshire, 1890. Having lost her father and brothers in tragic circumstances, Olwen Malkon is forced to leave her childhood home to live with her uncle’s family. In his chill vicarage, however, she fears that she is also losing her mind, as strange dreams take her into the life of Ælfwyn, a woman from a distant past whose fate is overshadowed by menace and betrayal.
In the grip of these afflictions, Olwen finds sympathy with the local doctor, John Osbourne, who is intrigued by her case. Suspecting darker undercurrents are at work, John comes into conflict with Olwen’s family, who dismiss her as a hysteric and, when he seeks to protect her, with the law.
As the dreams intensify, danger awaits them both. But when they begin to mirror reality, she and John start to suspect that it is these visions of the past which hold the answers . . .
Buy here*
The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page
Published: March 17th
Publisher: One More Chapter
Genre: Romance Novel, Saga, Humorous Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they always had done, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her…
When Janice starts cleaning for Mrs B – a shrewd and tricksy woman in her nineties – she meets someone who wants to hear her story. But Janice is clear: she is the keeper of stories, she doesn’t have a story to tell. At least, not one she can share.
Mrs B is no fool and knows there is more to Janice than meets the eye. What is she hiding? After all, doesn’t everyone have a story to tell?
Buy here*
The Resting Place by Camilla Sten
Published: March 29th
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Thriller, Suspense, Horror Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Deep rooted secrets.
A twisted family history.
And a house that will never let go.
Eleanor lives with prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize a familiar person’s face. It causes stress. Acute anxiety.
It can make you question what you think you know.
When Eleanor walked in on the scene of her capriciously cruel grandmother, Vivianne’s, murder, she came face to face with the killer–a maddening expression that means nothing to someone like her. With each passing day, the horror of having come so close to a murderer–and not knowing if they’d be back–overtakes both her dreams and her waking moments, thwarting her perception of reality.
Then a lawyer calls. Vivianne has left her a house–a looming estate tucked away in the Swedish woods. The place her grandfather died, suddenly. A place that has housed a chilling past for over fifty years.
Eleanor. Her steadfast boyfriend, Sebastian. Her reckless aunt, Veronika. The lawyer. All will go to this house of secrets, looking for answers. But as they get closer to uncovering the truth, they’ll wish they had never come to disturb what rests there.
Buy here*
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
Published: March 31st
Publisher: Viking
Genre: Contemporary Literature, Contemporary Romance, Romance Novel
SYNOPSIS:
Yinka wants to find love. Her mum wants to find it for her.She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, a preference for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food, and a bum she’s sure is far too small as a result. Oh, and the fact that she’s a thirty-one-year-old South-Londoner who doesn’t believe in sex before marriage is a bit of an obstacle too…
When her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences ‘Operation Find A Date for Rachel’s Wedding’. Armed with a totally flawless, incredibly specific plan, will Yinka find herself a huzband?
What if the thing she really needs to find is herself?
MARIE CLAIRE ‘BEST BOOKS OF 2022’ AND FEBRUARY PICK FOR MALALA’S LITERATI BOOKCLUB
Buy here*
Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May
Published: March 31st
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Fantasy Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Gothic Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Lesbian Literature
SYNOPSIS:
In the aftermath of the First World War, a young woman gets swept into a glittering world filled with illicit magic, romance, blood debts and murder in this lush and decadent debut novel.
On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch.
When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline’s extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.
Buy here*
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Published: March 31st
Publisher: Picador
Genre: Literary Fiction, Medical Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
SYNOPSIS:
Today I might trace the rungs of her larynx or tap at her trachea like the bones of a xylophone . . .
Something gleeful and malevolent is moving in Lia’s body, learning her life from the inside out. A shape-shifter. A disaster tourist. It’s travelling down the banks of her canals. It’s spreading.
When a sudden diagnosis upends Lia’s world, the boundaries between her past and her present begin to collapse. Deeply buried secrets stir awake. As the voice prowling in Lia takes hold of her story, and the landscape around becomes indistinguishable from the one within, Lia and her family are faced with some of the hardest questions of all: how can we move on from the events that have shaped us, when our bodies harbour everything? And what does it mean to die with grace, when you’re simply not ready to let go?
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies is a story of coming-of-age at the end of a life. Utterly heart-breaking yet darkly funny, Maddie Mortimer’s astonishing debut is a symphonic journey through one woman’s body: a wild and lyrical celebration of desire, forgiveness, and the darkness within us all.
Buy here*
The Club by Ellery Lloyd
Published: March 31st
Publisher: Mantle
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
SYNOPSIS:
From the author of R&J pick, People Like Her, and for fans of The White Lotus and Big Little Lies, Ellery Lloyd’s The Club is an exhilarating, addictive read, telling a story of ambition, excess, and what happens when people who have everything – or nothing – to lose are pushed to their limit.
There’s no place like Home . . .
The Home Group is a collection of ultra-exclusive private members’ clubs and a global phenomenon, and the opening of its most ambitious project yet – Island Home, a forgotten island transformed into the height of luxury – is billed as the celebrity event of the decade.
But as the first guests arrive, the weekend soon proves deadly – because it turns out that even the most beautiful people can keep the ugliest secrets and, in a world where reputation is everything, they’ll do anything to keep it.
If your name’s on the list, you’re not getting out . . .
Buy here*
Metronome by Tom Watson
Published: March 31st
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
Not all that is hidden is lost.
For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they must take for survival every eight hours. They’ve kept busy – Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps – but something is not right.
Shipwrecks have begun washing up, and their supply drops have stopped. And on the day they’re meant to be collected for parole, the Warden does not come. Instead there’s a sheep. But sheep can’t swim.
As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he’s been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they’ve been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come.
Buy here*
The Book Share by Phaedra Patrick
Published: March 31st
Publisher: HQ
Genre: Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction
SYNOPSIS:
It’s never too late to start a new chapter…
The utterly charming and feel-good new novel from the bestselling author of The Secrets of Sunshine and The Library of Lost and Found.
Liv Green loves losing herself in a good book. Her everyday reality is less romantic, cleaning houses for people who barely give her the time of day. But when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero and mega-bestselling author Essie Starling, she can’t believe her luck.
When Essie dies unexpectedly, Liv is left with an astonishing last wish: to complete Essie’s last ever novel. To do so, change-averse Liv will have to step away from the fictitious worlds in her head, and into Essie’s shoes. As she begins to write, she uncovers a surprising connection between the two women – and a secret that will change Liv’s life forever…
Heart-warming and uplifting, the new book from the author of The Library of Lost and Found is a reminder of how it’s never too late to change your own story – perfect for fans of All the Lonely People and The Authenticity Project.
Buy here*
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Are any of these in your TBR? What books are you excited for being released in March? Let me know in the comments.
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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles See you again next month for more anticipated treasures, Emma xx
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