Published April 10th, 2025 by Simon & Schuster UK Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance Novel, Military Novel
Welcome to my review for this immersive story. Thank you to Simon & Schuster UK for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Golden Hour is an epic dual timeline story which interweaves glory-seeking desert archaeologists, priceless treasures, Nefertiti’s tomb and the decadent cabarets of WW2 Cairo with restless expat lives in bohemian Beirut.
Archaeologist Lucie Fitzgerald’s mother is dying – she’s also been lying. As her home, the ‘Paris of the East’, Beirut, teeters on the brink of war in the ‘70s, Polly Fitzgerald has one last story to tell from her deathbed. It’s the story of her childhood best friend Juno and their life in ’30s Cairo. Lucie travels home to be with her dying mother and discovers the truth about her family, Juno’s work and their shared search for the greatest undiscovered tomb of all – Nefertiti’s.
From the cities to the deserts, this transporting and moving story of a lost generation transformed by war is a study of great love and sacrifice in all its forms, the perfect novel for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Victoria Hislop.
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MY REVIEW:
Polly Fitzgerald is dying. So her daughter, Lucie, travels home to be by her side. But as she sits by her mother’s deathbed, Lucie is unprepared for the final story that she will tell her. Transporting us to Cairo on the brink of World War 2, Polly tells Lucie the story of her childhood best friend, Juno, and what happened in Cairo in the 30s. It is a story of the unbreakable bonds of friendship, of forbidden love, long-held secrets, and unspeakable tragedy.
I’ve always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt so I knew that a story about Archaeologists, priceless artifacts and the search for Nefertiti’s tomb would be one that captivated my attention. Beautiful, immersive, fascinating and transportive, I was pulled in from the opening pages. Exquisitely written, skillfully interwoven and full of evocative imagery, Kate Lord Brown had me in her thrall from beginning to end. She expertly kept me in the palm of her hand by rationing the reveals as she moves between timelines and narrators. I was on a knife-edge of suspense and couldn’t stop reading.
At the centre of this story are three compelling women who were a joy to read. They and the other characters were richly drawn, making you care about them and I quickly felt invested in their lives. I was even rooting for the forbidden romance between two of the characters. But there were so many questions I needed the answer to, and I was powerless, unable to stop listening until all was revealed. But when they were I was unprepared for just how much they would break me.
So, if you’re looking for a summer read full of exotic escapism, this is the book for you.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
*I listened to this on Bookbeat. Click here to get 90 days listening free (ends 28 July)*
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kate Lord Brown graduated from the Courtauld Institute of Art and KLC Design School. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and gained a MA in creative writing from the Manchester Writing School, MMU.
Kate has written six novels including The Perfume Garden which was shortlisted for UK Romantic Novel of the Year. Kate’s other novels, including The Beauty Chorus and The House of Dreams, are twentieth century historical fiction with heart and she is always looking for those gems of forgotten history which make you think ‘why doesn’t everyone know about this …?’ Her books have been translated into numerous languages and have been top ten bestsellers in the US/Canada, UK, Germany, Norway and Spain. Kate lives in Somerset with her family.
Published July 3rd, 2025 by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
Happy Publication Day to this gorgeous romcom. It’s the perfect day to have my stop on the blog tour. Thank you to SJV at Books and the City for the invitation to take part and for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Their story might be scripted, but the chemistry is real.
When Cynthie Taylor gets her first real acting job, starring in a small British movie, she is over the moon. There’s only one problem . . . Cynthie’s arrogant and annoyingly handsome co-star Jack hates her, and the feeling is definitely mutual. While they may be at war behind the scenes, their on-screen chemistry is palpable, and the studio sees an opportunity – have the two young stars fake a romance that will charm fans and draw crowds.
Thirteen years later, Cynthie and Jack have successfully kept their promise to stay far away from one another, until a surprising offer comes to make a sequel to the cult classic that launched their careers. But there’s a catch: they must also rekindle their pretend relationship . . . and this time there’s a documentary crew following their every move.
Cynthie and Jack both desperately need this film to work, but can two ex-rivals ever really trust each other? And what happens when the roles they’re playing start to feel all too real?
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MY REVIEW:
Cynthie Taylor’s star has been on the rise ever since her first acting role starting in a small British movie thirteen years ago. She has fond memories of that shoot with one exception: her arrogant co-star Jack. Their chemistry sizzled on screen and they successfully had a fake romance, but behind the scenes it was war and they vowed to never see eachother again. But recently the film became a cult classic and the director wants to make a sequel and for them to rekindle their fake romance. All while a documentary crew follows their every move. Cynthie needs this role. Can she put on her greatest performance yet? And can she resist the feelings that surface once she and Jack come face to face?
Happy Publication Day to this funny and engaging romcom. Enemies-to-lovers is my favourite romance trope and I’d heard great things about Laura Wood’s writing, so I was excited to start this one. I was not disappointed. Cynthie and Jack’s hatred for each other radiates from the pages, but there’s also an undercurrent of sexual chemistry that adds an extra layer of tension.
Told in dual timelines, the story moves between the present and thirteen years earlier. The timelines centre around a movie shoot so there is a lot of detail about the behind-the-scenes operations and inner workings of the film industry, all of which felt authentic and well researched. The story is skillfully written, with many heartwarming and laugh-out-loud moments alongside the deeper themes explored such as abuse in relationships, #MeToo, and the treatment of women in the film industry.
The story is told by Cynthie and Jack. I enjoyed both perspectives but found Cynthie much more likeable from the start while Jack was spoiled and irritating. They both go on a journey of self-discovery and I enjoyed watching Jack grow as a person and Cynthie grow in confidence. I was rooting for them as people and for them to finally give into their feelings and become a couple. I wanted that happy ending!
Witty and compelling, this romcom is a must for the TBR of all romance fans.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr Laura Wood is a best-selling, award winning academic and writer. She is the winner of the Montegrappa Scholastic Prize for New Children’s Writing and the author of the ‘Poppy Pym’ series, the Blue Peter Book Prize shortlisted ‘Vote for Effie’ and several young adult novels including A Sky Painted Gold and A Single Thread of Moonlight.
Laura loves Georgette Heyer novels, Fred Astaire films, travelling to far flung places, recipe books, Jilly Cooper, poetry, cosy woollen jumpers, Edith Nesbit, crisp autumn leaves, Jack Gilbert, new stationery, sensation fiction, salted caramel,Rufus Sewell’s cheek-bones, dogs, and drinking lashings of ginger beer.
Into the Fire (DI Helen Grace, 13) by M. J. Arlidge
Published July 3rd by Orion Thriller, Crime Fiction, Mystery, Police Procedural, Crime Series
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Nowhere to hide. No one to turn to. Nothing to lose.
Helen Grace is sure she made the right decision quitting her job as a detective. Until the day she looks out of her window to see a desperate young woman being pursued by two vicious thugs.
Still a force to be reckoned with, Helen races into the night, swiftly downing the young woman’s attackers. For a moment, it feels like Helen doesn’t need her badge to do good, but as she leads her charge to safety, she’s struck from behind, regaining consciousness just in time to see the terrified woman being driven off in a white van.
Helen’s determined to find the woman and save her, but begging her former colleagues for help gets her nowhere. It’s clear that this time Helen is on her own.
Racing against the clock, Helen soon discovers a whole group of vulnerable women who desperately need her help. But fighting crime as a maverick is a dangerous game. One that could cost Helen her life, and the life of those she holds most dear…
Published July 3rd by Faber & Faber Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: What if the only way to bury the truth is to bury your husband?
The first attempt at killing her husband was the night of the dinner party.
After forty years, Thom Graves has become an incredible disappointment to his wife, Wendy – he drinks too much, flirts with other women, and worst of all, is in danger of revealing their dark secret. But how far is Wendy willing to go to stop him?
Starting at the end, and ending at the beginning, Kill Your Darlings is an ingenious mystery about two people’s life together, and the secrets which fatally bind them.
Published July 3rd by Zaffre Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Margaret Smith is at the beach. It is a summer day unlike any other Margaret has ever known. The Smith family have left the town where they live and work and go to school and come to a place where the sky is blue, the sand is white, and the sound of the sea surrounds them. An ordinary family discovering the joy of getting away for the first time. Over the course of the coming decades, they will be transformed through their holiday experiences, each new destination a backdrop as the family grows and changes, love stories begin and end — and secrets are revealed.
Coming this summer, Getting Away is a dazzlingly ambitious new novel from the author of Waterstones’ Fiction Book of the Month, This Family, and the Costa shortlisted The Stranding.
Published July 3rd by Orion Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘In my life, there are things that have happened to me, and things that I have done, that have proven to be moments that have a clear before and an after. One of those moments, perhaps in some ways the biggest, was the day that I met Richard Aveling for the first time.’
Charlie is twenty-three, single and the new publicity assistant at the independent London publishing house Winden & Shane. Richard Aveling is fifty-six, married and the author that has defined his generation.
Charlie has long idolised the charming, illustrious writer, who also represents a link to her late mother, who loved his work. But as they embark on an illicit and all-consuming affair, Charlie is forced to hide the relationship from everyone she cares about.
And when the success of Richard’s latest book launches him to a new level of fame where all anonymity is lost, she realises she might just be in too deep…
A thought-provoking exploration of a relationship founded in power, control and silence, Bitter Sweet is perfect for book clubs and will appeal to fans of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors.
Published July 3rd by HQ Contemporary Romance, Saga, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Jo hasn’t seen Oliver since that magical, life-changing summer when their idyllic island paradise was shattered. Growing up on Walnut Tree Island, they were everything to each other, defying a feud that fractured their families decades before. If first love runs deep, Jo and Oliver’s ran like the river itself, fast and true.
On Walnut Tree Island, love affairs and secrets come and go like the tides. Once the pulse of a flourishing 1960s music scene, it’s where Mary Star fell in love with a young musician about to hit the big time, only to be left with a baby and a broken heart. Mary has made the island a haven for two generations of Star women, raising her daughter and her granddaughter, surrounded by the river, supported by a bohemian, artistic community.
But Oliver’s return to the island after years away throws everyone into a frenzy. The threat of change is coming to paradise. And for Jo, Oliver’s return opens the wounds of a love she thought she had lost for ever…
Beautifully written, featuring a cast of magnetic characters, River of Stars is the captivating new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Georgina Moore.
Dear Miss Lake (The Emmy Lake Chronicles, 4) by AJ Pearce
Publsihed July 3rd by Picador Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Dear Mrs Bird, AJ Pearce’s Dear Miss Lake returns us to wartime London where Emmy Lake is facing her greatest challenge yet . . .
England, July 1944.
After nearly five years of war the nation is weary, and the readers of Woman’s Friend need agony aunt Emmy Lake more than ever. With London under attack from the doodlebugs, the magazine decamps to the countryside, determined to keep helping the women of Britain and give hope to readers feeling powerless in the face of desperate news.
With husband Charles now posted closer to home, and best friend Bunty at her side, Emmy throws herself into rural life, juggling children, competitive knitters and plans for a very important wedding. And then a phone call comes that means she may finally have the chance to become the war correspondent she always dreamed of.
But disaster strikes, and suddenly Emmy is faced with her biggest challenge yet. Because when your own heart is breaking, how do you help everyone else?
Joyful, moving and uplifting, Dear Miss Lake is the perfect story of the power of friendship and love.
Published July 3rd by Hodder & Stoughton Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A spellbinding tale of love, strength and sacrifice from the Sunday Times bestselling author. Based on the gorgeous island of Malta in WWII, this is a story about the power of fate, and how sometimes, in order to find yourself – and to find love – you must first lose everything else. . .
Fate has brought them together. Will time tear them apart?
2025
Named after a star, war correspondent Maia knows how to find the brightest stories – the tales of survival and strength – hidden amongst the dark realities of combat.
Now, travelling to Malta to visit her estranged father, with one more chance to build a relationship with her last remaining relative, she’s here to find her own story: never having found somewhere – or someone – she can call home, she’s desperate for answers that might show her where she truly belongs.
But when she arrives on the beautiful mediterranean island, she realises her long-lost family is full of more secrets than she could possibly have imagined. . .
1942
Maia wakes up to find herself on an island under siege, a city in ruins – and knows she must have been sent here for a reason.
Who has she been sent to save? Or is it Maia herself that needs saving? And just when she’s finally found what she’s been seeking . . . will time separate them forever?
Perfect for fans of Lucinda Riley, Santa Montefiore and Dinah Jefferies.
Published July 3rd by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction, Historical Thriller, Biographical Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A young noblewoman accused of murder, awaits execution. Imprisoned in the Corte Savella, she has captured the hearts and sympathy of all Rome. . .
This is the true and tragic tale of Beatrice Cenci.
Murder most foul or vengeance most just?
Helpless victim or resolute heroine?
Rome, 1599.
Beatrice yearns to escape the clutches of her abusive father and determined to find a way back to Rome, enlists the help of Olimpio, the castle’s keeper. Soon the love that grows between them will transform Beatrice’s fortunes, for better and for worse. . .
History has sold her short. She is no doe-eyed victim of her father’s brutality, nor the cunning murderer who plotted her father’s demise. No, this Beatrice – a woman pregnant by her lover, incarcerated in a remote castle by her father, and brim-full of white-hot rage – is both innocent and guilty, saint and sinner.
And she will stand tall in the face of the violence of men, no matter the cost.
Published July 3rd by Zaffre Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Police Proccedural
BOOK DESCRIPTION: WHEN A CHILD DISAPPEARS, NO SECRET IS SAFE . . .
THE POIGNANT AND BRILLIANTLY CLEVER NEW THRILLER FROM AWARD-WINNING CRIME AUTHOR, LIAM McILVANNEY.
Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with rich, fulfilling lives. They have a son they adore, a house on the beach and a safe, friendly community in a picture-postcard town.
Until, one day, Bonnie the labrador comes in from the beach alone. Their son, Rory, has gone – the only trace left behind is a single black sandal.
Their lives don’t fall apart immediately. While there’s still hope, they dig deep and try to carry on.
But as desperation mounts, arms around shoulders become fingers pointed – at friends, family, strangers, each other. Without any answers, only questions remain. Who can they trust? How far will they go to find out what happened to Rory?
And the deadliest question of all: what could be worse than your child disappearing?
When the truth begins to emerge, they find themselves in a world they could barely have imagined.
Published July 3rd by Harper Collins UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: You think you know what happened that night
But the truth is far more dangerous
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From the No.1 international bestselling author of ANNA O comes a story of secret pasts and buried memories. A MURDER IN PARIS is a thriller you’ll never forget …
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Imagine the past returning to you in fragments.
A hotel room, a pillow, a lifeless body.
Your ordinary, innocent life upended by one flash of memory.
You can’t remember what led to the crime.
All you know is that you must return to the scene, to the clues that lie waiting in Room 11.
But this is a mystery that goes far beyond that room, that night, that murder.
Published July 3rd by Pan Macmillan Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Your child has been kidnapped.
You’re live on television.
Going live in 10, 9, 8 . . . Today is a huge day for TV reporter Rose’s career. A live interview with one of the most powerful men in the country, on one of the nation’s biggest TV shows.
7, 6, 5 . . . But, when she hears an unfamiliar voice in her ear, she knows something is very wrong.
4, 3, 2 . . . Her earpiece has been hacked. She’s live on air in the middle of the interview. They tell her they have kidnapped her family.
1 And, in order to protect them, Rose must do exactly what the hijacker says. They are in control now.
Published July 3rd by Hodder & Stoughton Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Everyone’s invited. Everyone’s a suspect.
An exclusive black-tie birthday party. A sprawling mansion. A body falling from a balcony. One of the guests is dead, and another is a killer – but who is the hunter, and who is the prey?
As the drinks flow, so do the lies . . . and nobody is safe.
Was it Dani, the tenacious new mother with a history of postpartum psychosis, or Kim, the ex-wife with an alcohol problem? Orlaith, the elderly Irish nanny who talks to spirits? Mikayla, the lonely teenager, or the clique of toxic mean girls who pretend to embrace her? Or was it the pair of psychotherapists who watch and judge them all?
I Know Where You Buried Your Husband by Marie O’Hare
Published July 3rd by Bantam Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Sophia, Safa, Ella, Ajola and Caoimhe have been friends since school. They are difficult, unlikeable women; funny, sharp and clever ones – the sort that would have probably ended up burned at the stake a few hundred years ago.
When one of them is about to be framed for murder, they inextricably bind their fates together via some bin bags, a spade and a promise never to tell. Afterwards, they decide to separate to ensure the safety of their secret, leaving each of them to navigate the daily challenges of womanhood alone.
But when an anonymous blackmailer threatens to expose them years later, the group must come back together to get their stories straight – and find out who is behind their torment. But is it already too late?
Evocative, sharp, and full of insightful humour, startling debut I Know Where You Buried Your Husband is a painfully relatable examination of 21st century womanhood.
Published July 3rd by Riverrun Contemporary Ficiton, Literary Fiction, Psychological Ficiton, Tragicomedy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Fleeing Scotland in the wake of family disgrace, 16-year-old Ida Campbell secures a scholarship at a failing girls’ boarding school on a remote part of the south English coast. Despite the eccentricities of her new Headmistress, who warns her of the dangers of the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the bomb, St Anne’s seems like a refuge to Ida. But all this is about to change. For a start, her new room-mate is the infamous Louise Adler, potential arsonist and hardened outcast.
Meanwhile, the geography teacher Eleanor Alston, in her late thirties, a disastrous love affair in her wake, faces the new term with weary resignation. But the fragile ecosystem of the school is disrupted by the arrival of a new teacher, Matthew Langfield. Eleanor has an uneasy feeling he is not who he says he is.
And things only get worse when a mysterious sickness starts to spread throughout the school, causing strange limb jerks and seizures among the pupils. What is happening to the girls of St Anne’s? Could there be a poisoner among them? Is Ida’s scholarship really an escape, or is it instead a new nightmare?
Published July 3rd by Pushkin Vertigo Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Fiction, Horror, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A twisty puzzle in which the reader is the detective, examining a series of creepy floorplans for clues
‘Deliciously unsettling and refreshingly unique, Strange Houses will lure you in and keep you captive with every clever twist’ – Kristen Perrin, author of How to Solve Your Own Murder
A sinister hidden room.
A dead space between two walls.
A sealed cellar.
A child’s face glimpsed at a window.
Every house hides secrets.
But some secrets are far darker than others.
More than a million readers have discovered the terrible truth behind these strange houses.
Published July 3rd by William Morrow War Story, Historical Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the New York Times bestselling author of the smash-hit The Measure—a runaway bestseller and a Read with Jenna TODAY Show pick—comes a stunning speculative story of healing, self-discovery, forgiveness, and found friendship.
What if there were a cure for the broken-hearted?
Welcome to the Poppy Fields, where there’s hope for even the most battered hearts to heal.
Here, in a remote stretch of the California desert, lies an experimental and controversial treatment center that allows those suffering from the heartache of loss to sleep through their pain…and keep on sleeping. After patients awaken from this prolonged state of slumber, they will finally be healed. But only if they’re willing to accept the potential shadowy side effects.
On a journey to this mystical destination are four very different strangers and one little dog: Ava, a book illustrator; Ray, a fireman; Sasha, an occupational therapist; Sky, a free spirit; and a friendly pup named PJ. As they attempt to make their way from the Midwest all the way west to the Poppy Fields—where they hope to find Ellis, its brilliant, enigmatic founder—each of their past secrets and mysterious motivations threaten to derail their voyage.
A high-concept speculative novel about heartache, hope, and human resilience, The Poppy Fields explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person, posing the questions: How do we heal in the wake of great loss? And how far are we willing to go in order to be healed?
Published July 3rd by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Their story might be scripted, but the chemistry is real.
When Cynthie Taylor gets her first real acting job, starring in a small British movie, she is over the moon. There’s only one problem . . . Cynthie’s arrogant and annoyingly handsome co-star Jack hates her, and the feeling is definitely mutual. While they may be at war behind the scenes, their on-screen chemistry is palpable, and the studio sees an opportunity – have the two young stars fake a romance that will charm fans and draw crowds.
Thirteen years later, Cynthie and Jack have successfully kept their promise to stay far away from one another, until a surprising offer comes to make a sequel to the cult classic that launched their careers. But there’s a catch: they must also rekindle their pretend relationship . . . and this time there’s a documentary crew following their every move.
Cynthie and Jack both desperately need this film to work, but can two ex-rivals ever really trust each other? And what happens when the roles they’re playing start to feel all too real?
Published July 3rd by Bedfore Square Publishers Gothic Fiction, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Fairy Tale, Magical Realism, Nautical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Adam Conlan has made a new life for himself in Morrow-on-Sea. After a wild youth, the goldsmith had settled down, determined to be around for his young son. But now Ophelia Richards appears at his studio door, asking if he will buy her gold. The writer entices and unsettles him; he sees she is adrift in the same cold pain and loneliness as he is.
At the same time, faces begin appearing at the studio window, an unwelcome gift arrives in the post, gold goes missing.
Then comes death, then comes Detective Inspector William Kent.
Woven through with Morrow’s fairy tales, Dead as Gold is a modern gothic crime novel veined with love, violence, family, and desire. Humans still use fairy tales to explore their deepest truths. So who is a wolf, and who is a sparrow?
Published July 10th by Mantle Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Historical Thriller, Historical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Art of a Lie is a beguiling cat-and-mouse thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Square of Sevens, Laura Shepherd-Robinson.
That’s the trouble with stories, especially the ones you write for yourself. Sometimes you think they’ve ended, when they’ve barely begun . . .
London, 1749. Following the murder of her husband in a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. The Punchbowl and Pineapple, her confectionary shop on Piccadilly, is barely turning a profit, and her suppliers are conspiring to put her out of business. So when she learns that her husband had a large sum of money in his bank account that she knew nothing about, the surprise is extremely welcome. And when William Devereux, a friend of her late husband, tells her about a new Italian delicacy called “iced cream”, Hannah believes it might transform the fortunes of her shop.
But her husband’s unexpected windfall attracts the attention of author-turned-magistrate Henry Fielding, who suspects the money was illicitly acquired. Unless Hannah can prove otherwise, her inheritance will be confiscated. As she and Devereux work to uncover the secrets of her husband’s double life, their friendship opens Hannah to speculation and gossip, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything, even her husband’s murder.
Published July 10th by Hodder & Stoughton Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Everyone knows Daniel. But no one knows where he is …
THEN
Alone in New Orleans, Selina is struggling to fit in until a charismatic stranger invites her for a drink. It feels like fate, but who is Daniel, and what does he want from her? Just as the humidity and the hangovers start to take their toll, Daniel vanishes
NOW
Daniel is missing. No one has seen or heard from him in weeks. Beside herself with worry, his sister Caroline hosts an intimate gathering in her London home so those closest to Daniel can come together and compare notes. But what should have been five courses of a Cajun-style feast has now become an interrogation. Those left behind must piece together their shared understanding of the man they thought they knew.
And all isn’t quite as it seems: Caroline has invited a stranger to the table, an accomplished psychic who claims to have met Daniel four thousand miles away in New Orleans. As evening turns to night, the dark truth of what really happened begins to emerge…
Published July 10th by Piatkus Contemporary Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Do you ever feel that life isn’t going to plan?
When Alice Thorington collapses in the street after a particularly hellish day at work, she must finally admit to herself that her outwardly happy life – steady relationship, well-paid job, beautiful flat in the city – isn’t everything she’d hoped it would be. Burnt out by long hours and living a life that doesn’t fulfil her dreams, Alice returns home to Yorkshire.
Her childhood home brings complicated family dynamics, a rediscovery of her passion for stargazing and two new friends: Berti, a boy who finds it easier to count the stars than interact with people, and Matt, her brother’s best friend and Alice’s teenage crush. With each of them facing their own struggles, can the stars that meant so much to Alice in her past help them to find their way in the present?
Filled with heart and warmth, this uplifting novel reminds us all that we need the darkness if we want to see the stars.
Published July 10th by Michael Joseph Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Urban Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE 2025 DEBUT THAT WILL STAY WITH YOU FOREVER
The moment Zoe notices Jack in their Harvard chemistry class, with his scruffy clothes and casual self-assurance, she knows he’s the one to beat.
When Zoe starts trying to outsmart Jack in chemistry, he knows she’s the person he’s been looking for.
Because Jack has dreams that go far beyond the classroom. And while he and Zoe might be from different worlds, they share the same thirst for knowledge and fierce ambition. When he invites her to partner with him on some research, she puts aside her pride, and joins him.
Apart they are brilliant, but together they are unstoppable, and within two years, they are at the helm of a thriving start-up company, and deep in a relationship that seems a perfect match in every sense.
Until a shocking accusation is levelled against Jack which threatens everything they’ve built – their company, their reputation, and most importantly, their love.
Are some dreams too big to come true? And how far would you go to achieve them anyway?
A captivating, deeply poignant novel about ambition, deceit, the recklessness that comes with early success and the way that love can make us feel invincible.
Published July 10th by Fig Tree Literary Ficiton, Contemporary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of the Booker nominated, international bestseller Nightcrawling: a novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a Florida beach town.
When Adela Woods tells her parents she’s pregnant, they immediately send her a thousand miles away to stay with her grandmother in Padua Beach. The intention is that she will leave her baby in ‘the forgotten Panhandle of Florida’. and resume her suburban life nine months later as though nothing happened. But Adela’s plans are soon washed away by the tide.
First, Adela meets Emory, a new mother determined to defy the expectations of everyone around her, returning to high school with her newborn baby strapped to her chest. Then she meets Simone, ringleader of ‘the Girls,’ a group of young mothers who create a village together in the back of her red truck―dancing, breastfeeding, raising their children and themselves.
The town thinks they’ve lost their way. Really, they are finding it.
But as they look for love, make and break friendships, navigate the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood, Adela, Emory and Simone also find themselves on an inescapable collision course with one another.
A novel full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of secrets and betrayals, The Girls Who Grew Big offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman, a daughter, and a mother.
Published July 15th by Manilla Press Historical Fiction, Ancient History, Historical Romance, Political Fiction Political Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A STORY ABOUT FEMALE AMBITION, LEARNING WHERE TRUE POWER LIES, AND EXACTLY WHAT IT COSTS. _
Fulvia is the daughter of a wealthy but unimportant Roman family. Raised in the countryside, she longs for a life of intrigue and influence. When her father dies and her inheritance is threatened, Fulvia makes her way to the city of Rome to secure her future.
There she marries a young aristocrat named Clodius, who is more interested in partying with his hedonistic friends than politics. Fulvia is drawn into their world of debauchery, and learns just how precarious the balance of power in the Republic is. Her ambition drives them both to political power that draws the attention of the senate, and more seedy underworld opponents. But Rome is a dangerous place, and power can become notoriety overnight. Fulvia soon learns just how high the stakes really are, and that her ambitions may come at a terrible cost.
Published July 17th by HQ Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Her secrets will be the death of you.
It’s rare for a room in beautiful, iconic Columbia Mansions to be up for grabs and Gwen is thrilled when its new occupant Pixie turns out to be the most delightful neighbour she could have wished for. Before long the two women have formed an unlikely age-gap friendship and Gwen is making herself useful to Pixie in all kinds of ways.
But when a crime comes to light Gwen’s protective instincts go into overdrive, igniting an appetite for revenge that none of the residents are prepared for.
The last thing they need in Columbia Mansions is a scandal.
Published July 17th by Orenda Books Psychological Thriler, Mystery, Hardboiled
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Struggling to separate her dreams from reality, a young woman investigates the disappearance of her sister ten years earlier … worried that she might be next. A breathtaking, twisty standalone thriller from the international bestselling author of the Forbidden Iceland series… ––––––––––
November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsí has a secret penpal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name. Now she is excited to meet him for the first time.
But when the date arrives, Marsí is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsí and her penpal had agreed to meet.
November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsí It’s from her penpal, and he’s still out there…
Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsí returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own.
But Marsí has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories.
Published July 17th by Orion Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Romantic Suspense
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Like every good romance, this story ends with a wedding. And like every good mystery, it begins with a murder…
When Alexandra’s fiancé runs off with her so-called best friend, her life veers sharply away from the romance films she’s obsessed with. She’s worked so hard to get her fairytale ending after the horrors of her past, and despite this setback, she’s determined she’ll still find her happy ever after.
To distract herself, Alexandra tries to focus on her job where she has a secret specialty: matchmaking psychopaths. But in losing the two people closest to her, she’s unignorably lonely. Sowhen a hot, overprotective new client wants to date her, and another gorgeous new client wants to become her best friend, she can’t help but find the attention a little comforting.
Things take a turn the day the human heart is left on Alexandra’s doorstep. But is the culprit one of her new admirers, or has a monster from her past returned to destroy her happy ending forever?
Matchmaking for Psychopaths is an unbelievably twisty and gripping read about obsession, filled with Tasha Coryell’s signature observational humour and satirical slant.
Published July 17th by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thiller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Paradise comes at a price . . .
The stunning mountain views. The beautiful shore of Lake Geneva. The terrified woman held in the suite belonging to the hotel’s millionaire owner.
Lo Blacklock’s all-expenses paid trip to a luxury Swiss chateau should have been the ideal return to work. But as her past catches up with her, the millionaire’s mistress demanding that Lo help her escape, and a body turning up in the room next door, forces Lo to ask how far would she go to help someone she’s not even sure she can trust… The gripping follow-up to multi-million bestselling author Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10 – coming soon to Netflix, starring Keira Knightley.
Published July 17th by Penguin UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Get ready for the unmissable new thriller from the #1 internationally bestselling author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder ******
In seven days Jet Mason will be dead.
Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. She’ll do it later, she always says. She has time.
Until, on the night of Halloween, Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder.
She suffers a catastrophic brain injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, she’ll suffer a deadly aneurysm.
Jet never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her ex-best friend turned sister-in-law, her former boyfriend.
She only has seven days, and as her condition deteriorates she has only her childhood friend Billy for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something:
Published July 17th by Bantam Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: She didn’t see it coming . . . And neither will you.
THE GRIPPING NEW PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FROM THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF EVERYONE HERE IS LYING AND THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR. —-
Bryden and Sam have it all – thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condo, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.
Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden – working from home that day – has failed to collect their daughter from daycare.
Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.
Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.
How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all?
With every minute that passes – and as questions swirl around their community – Bryden and Sam’s past seems a little less perfect, their luxury condo less safe, their friends, neighbours and relatives no longer quite so reliable . . .
Published July 17th by Wildfire Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: 1857, Glasgow.
A young socialite named Madeleine Smith stands accused of murdering her lover. Thousands wait outside the court to hear the result. The scandalous nature of the affair, detailed explicitly in letters published in newspapers across the world, has made her case a worldwide sensation. But when the jury find themselves unable to decide whether she is guilty, they render a verdict of ‘Not Proven’ – and Madeleine is freed.
1927, New York.
Harry Townsend, a handsome Hollywood film scout believes he has found the woman once known as Madeleine Smith. He wants to tell her story on film for the new ‘talkie’ generation. Since her trial she has lived under many names, as a glamourous society hostess in bohemian Bloomsbury to the likes of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, George Bernard Shaw and William Morris. Until suddenly, in 1890, when she disappeared off the face of the earth.
Could this quiet, secretive widow of an Irish labourer be the same Madeleine Smith who once stood trial for murder and escaped?
She has one last secret to reveal. Will Harry persuade her to tell it?
Published July 17th by Hutchinson Heinmann Literaray Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: For fans of The Vanishing Half and Little Fires Everywhere, a sweeping and heartfelt debut about finding your roots across borders and beyond blood-ties
May 1998: Mimi Traung and her baby daughter Ngan wait restlessly at the gates of Philadelphia airport. There is still a day’s travelling left before they would land back home on Vietnamese soil. While they prepare to board, the unimaginable happens.
Seventeen years later, two best friends are discussing their summer plans before college over a piece of mooncake. Both have trips ahead in search of their roots: Sabrina is preparing to travel to China to meet her mother’s family. Kit leaves for Tokyo, convinced that her biological mother is Japanese. Their parents watch on from the quiet suburbs of Chestnut Hill, nervous of what their daughters might find.
Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates. Each of these women are looking to find their place in the world. Eventually Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face, and have to confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties.
Published July 17th by Viking Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A mesmerising portrait of a young man confined in by his class and the ghosts of his family’s past, dreaming of artistic fulfilment. It confirms Benjamin Wood as an exceptional talent in British literature.
Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach to scrape for shrimp; spending the rest of the day selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.
When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?
Haunting and timeless, this is the story of a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.
Published July 17th by Tor Nightfire Thriller, Suspense, Horror Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Full of heartbreak, revulsion and black humour, a scientist desperately searches for a cure to a zombie virus while also hiding a monumental secret – her undead husband.
Kesta’s husband Tim was the last person to be bitten in a zombie pandemic. The country is now in a period of respite, the government seemingly having rounded up and disposed of all the infected.
But Kesta has a secret . . .
Tim may have been bitten, but he’s not quite dead yet. In fact, he’s tied to a bed in her spare room. And she’s made him a promise: find a cure, bring him back.
A scientist by day, Kesta juggles intensive work under the microscope alongside Tim’s care, slipping him stolen drugs to keep him docile, knowing she is hiding the only zombie left. But Kesta is running out of drugs – and time. Can she save her husband before he is discovered? Or worse . . . will they trigger another outbreak?
Published July 17th by Penguin UK Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fition, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Romance Novel
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Welcome to the party of the year. You’ve been invited to an exclusive, luxury event in Norway, hosted by a billionaire. Your moment has finally arrived. But you’re not going for the canapes and champagne. You’re going for revenge.
Where anything is possible. You’ve spent months preparing for this moment. Because you know that beneath the host’s polished public persona, he’s a vicious killer who has murdered several innocent people, including your sister. Even murder… Then a guest dies in mysterious circumstances, and you begin to wonder… is this a trap? Why does it feel like you’re being watched? And will you ever escape?
The Enchanted Greenhouse (The Spellshop, 2) by Sarah Beth Durst
Published July 17th by Tor Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fantasy, Romance Novel, Fantasy Comedy, Fantasy Series
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Return to the cosy and heart-warming world of The Spellshop in The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst, a world brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes and honeyed love.
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the Great Library of Alyssium.
When Terlu wakes up, she finds herself on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. The only other human on the island is a grumpy – but surprisingly sweet – gardener. He offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes and freshly baked honey cakes – at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return and doesn’t want to. And when she learns that the magic that sustains the greenhouses is failing – causing the death of everything within them – Terlu knows she must stay and help. Even if that means breaking the law again. Assisted by the gardener, a sentient rose and a winged cat, Terlu must uncover the spell that will save the island – and possibly also find a fresh chance at love and happiness along the way.
Funny, kind and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse by New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst is a story about giving second chances – to others and to yourself.
Published July 22nd by Cassava Republic Press Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Named one of the best New Novelists for 2025 by The Observer.
Bradford, December 1962.
A precocious Mercy makes her reluctant entrance into the world, torn from the warm embrace of her mother’s womb, to a chaotic household that seems to have no place for her. Her siblings do not understand her, her mother’s attention is given to the Church, and the entire family lives at the whims of her father’s quick temper.
Left to herself, Mercy finds solace in books, her imagination, and the quiet comfort of her faithful toy, Dolly. But escapism has its limits, and as the grip of family, faith and fear threatens to close in, Mercy learns she must act if she wants a different future; one where she is seen, heard, and her family set free.
The Mercy Step is a sharply-witted and tender portrait of a young girl’s quiet rebellion, and her refusal to be broken.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America’s rising eugenics movement – when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove imprisonment and forced sterilizations based on class, race, disability, education, and country of origin – in this tragic and uplifting novel of social injustice, survival, and hope for readers of Susan Meissner, Kristin Hannah, and Christina Baker Kline.
When Lena Conti—a young, unwed mother—sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are labeled burdens to society, denied entry, and deported back to Germany. Now, alone but determined to give her daughter a better life after years of living in poverty and near starvation, she finds herself facing a future unlike anything she had envisioned.
Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. Though the hills around Wolfe Hollow remind Lena of her homeland, she struggles to adjust. Worse, she is stunned to learn the children in her care have been taught to hide when the sheriff comes around. As Lena meets their neighbors, she realizes the community is vibrant and tight knit, but also senses growing unease. The State of Virginia is scheming to paint them as ignorant, immoral, and backwards so they can evict them from their land, seize children from parents, and deal with those possessing “inferior genes.”
After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena face impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter—and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.
Published July 31st by Michael Joseph Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The outstanding new psychological thriller from the 5 million copy-bestselling author of Here to Stay and The Magpies ******
Summer 1999. Will joins five other idealistic graduates working for an eccentric psychology professor. They’re going to launch a website to change online dating forever.
No-one expects it to end in tragedy.
Twenty-five years later, Will gets an invitation: a dinner party. A chance to see the old gang again.
But as soon as he arrives, something doesn’t seem right.
There’s an unexpected guest. The hosts are clearly keeping a secret. And on the way in, Will is sure he heard crying.
Everyone has something to hide about what really happened that summer.
But only one of them is willing to kill to find the truth…
Published July 31st by Harper Collins UK Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Regency Romance, Romance Novel, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a delicious new romcom…
He wants a wife. She wants to be jilted. This. Is. War.
Rich, handsome and titled Lord Ashford has every lady in England longing for his hand in marriage.
Everyone, that is, except Miss Lydia Hanworth – the only young woman Ashford wishes to marry.
Pressured into accepting Ashford’s proposal, the announcement must be kept secret for ten days. Can Lydia free herself from her obligations before the engagement is publicly announced, without ruining her reputation? You can achieve an awful lot in ten days, after all…
Published July 31st by Apollo Historical Fiction, Regency Romance, Historical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: AN ESTATE ON THE LINE.
1796. Duval Harlington, recently released from prison in France, is on his way home. Memories of the tranquil family estate kept his spirits high through his worst days in La Force, so it is no small sorrow to return and find Muchmore thrown into chaos. His despicable father, he learns, has died. And while he has left the estate to Duval, there is one small stipulation: he must be married, or else lose everything.
A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE.
With only two days and seven hours to find a wife, devoted bachelor Duval is prepared to walk away. But then he stumbles upon a wife sale.With women being bought and sold like chattels, Duval is horrified by what he sees. Until he lays eyes on one intriguing figure.
A BRIDE WITH A HIDDEN PAST.
Duval makes an extravagant bid, and he and Edmée are married with minutes to spare. But little does Duval know, this is only the beginning of his troubles. For Edmée is not who she says she is, and her secrets will soon threaten to dismantle everything he holds dear.
Published July 31st by Solaris Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Romantic Fantasy, Horror Fiction, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: You are afraid of the border places. You are afraid of the fork in the road.
Fleeing her mistakes in Glasgow for a marriage of convenience, Norah Mackenzie’s new home on an estate far in the north of Scotland is a chance for freedom, a fresh start. But in the dim, draughty corridors of Corrain House, something is very wrong. Despite their warm correspondence, her distant, melancholic husband does not seem to know her. She is plagued by ghost ships on the sea, spectres at the corner of her eye, by winding, grasping roots. Her only possible companion, the housekeeper Agnes Gunn, is by turns unnerving and alluring, and harbours uncanny secrets of her own.
As the foundations crumble beneath her feet, Norah must uncover the truth about Corrain House, her husband, Agnes, and herself, if she is to find the freedom she has been chasing.
Published July 31st by Fourth Estate Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Episoltary Novel, Domestic Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In this dazzling debut novel of love and secret histories, a young woman unearths the story of a lost Shanghai pencil company and a hidden family ability which will alter the path of her life forever.
Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-confessed recluse, she finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their nineties, and she worries about them – especially her grandmother Yun whose memory has begun to fade.
Monica has become intent on tracking down her grandmother Yun’s long-lost cousin, Meng, before it’s too late. In her search, Monica connects with a young woman archivist who presents her with a single pencil that holds a clue to a hidden family history. Through this discovery Monica comes to learn of her grandmother’s years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company.
As WWII raged outside their door, Yun and Meng came into a power unique to the women in their family: the ability to reclaim stories from the pencils they were written with. But when government officials uncovered their secret ability, they were both forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive. These shocking revelations set Monica on a path that will change all their lives in ways she can scarcely imagine.
At once a sweeping family epic and a powerful love story with deep emotional resonance, Allison King’s brilliantly inventive debut novel pushes us to question how well we really know our own stories and the many beguiling ways they can connect our lives.
Published July 31st by HQ Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: She lives to please … Did she kill to survive?
A tradwife never questions.
Lizzie and Bex were inseparable in college. But after graduation, Bex vanished. Fifteen years later, Bex is now Rebecca Sommers, a tradwife influencer with millions of followers who are obsessed with her perfect life, five children, and handsome husband Gray. Lizzie is a struggling magazine writer, watching reels while her young children demand her attention.
A tradwife never disobeys.
Then, out of the blue, Bex calls Lizzie with a career-making proposition – an exclusive interview with her about her multi-million-dollar business and an invitation to the influencer event of the year.
A tradwife never … lies?
But when Bex goes missing and Gray is found brutally murdered, Lizzie is suddenly plunged into the dark side of social media and confronted with jealousy and backstabbing. If Lizzie is going to find Bex – and save her life – she will need to uncover who her old friend has become, and which of Bex’s secrets is worth killing for …
Everyone Is Lying to You is the explosive tradwife thriller readers have been waiting for. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Claire Douglas, First Lie Wins and The Housemaid.
Published July 31st by Century Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘I need to report a crime. My baby has been stolen.’
All Lauren wants is a new life in Spain. She’s suffered an unimaginable loss, but at last she has found a home in the pretty seaside town of Mantilla de Mar. Everyone deserves a new start, and Lauren needs to put her past firmly behind her.
Hope has everything: an interesting career as a therapist, an attractive husband, a dream home in the countryside – and, finally, the baby she always longed for. Sam. Her beautiful boy.
But Sam has gone missing.
So when the police tell her that a woman has been found in Spain with a child matching Sam’s description, Hope thinks that her nightmare might be coming to an end.
But Lauren is insisting Sam is her baby. She even has his passport and birth certificate to prove it.
So what really happened to Baby Sam? And who still has secrets to hide?
One child. Two mothers. And a past that won’t let them go.
Published July 31st by Bantam Contemporary Romance, Regency Romance, Romantic Comedy, Gothic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A lost journal. A long-buried secret. A story waiting to be told.
Cleo Finch has loved gothic literature all her life. She’s spent years researching and writing her thesis on the works of one gothic novelist in particular, Orlando Browne, and is determined to prove that Browne was the pen name of a female author, Alys Weston.
But as her best friend Tris never fails to remind her, she still hasn’t succeeded in finding concrete evidence that proves this to be true.
That is, until Cleo’s Uncle Ambrose gifts her Alys’ very own diary.
As Cleo begins deciphering Alys’ daily entries, she finds herself utterly absorbed by Alys’ vivid descriptions – particularly of the rakish Lord Rayven – and the challenges Alys faced trying to keep Orlando’s true identity a secret.
And so, newly inspired, Cleo sets aside her thesis to pen a gothic novel of her own . . .
Published June 19th, 2025 by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for one of my favourite books this year. This was a bibliophile’s dream and joy from start to finish. Thank you to SJV and Team Books and the City for the invitation to take part and for my proof copy of the book.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
‘Book Boyfriend is Lucy Vine at the absolute top of her game’ MIKE GAYLE
‘A proper love letter to love stories and the people who read them’ DAISY BUCHANAN
‘From belly laughs to heartfelt emotion, this book is absolute peak romcom’ LINDSEY KELK
Jemma has lived a thousand lives through books. The only life she isn’t living is her own. That is, until the day she finds a note from a stranger in her favourite library book. When she replies, the pair begin a longhand conversation about their love of novels that sees Jemma finally coming out of her shell. Is she ready to fall in love for the first time – with someone she’s never met?
Clara has always run away from her problems, but this might finally be one she can’t escape. Everyone wants to know what happened to Clara in America – but Clara isn’t talking. Instead she’s focusing all her energy obsessing over a hot new actor, starring in the TV adaptation of her twin Jemma’s favourite book. Soon, Clara is reading every interview, trawling his social media, and following him to showbiz parties in the hopes he’ll notice she’s The One.
As the sisters fall hard for two men they’ve never met, it’s time to ask the question: Can either relationship survive the real world?
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MY REVIEW:
A romcom about a book nerd who has a meet-cute through anonymous letters inside a library book? Could there be a more perfect book for a bibliophile to read? I don’t think so, and I didn’t hesitate to sign up to be part of this blog tour.
Funny, delightful and uplifting, reading this was like a warm hug. A love letter to books, Lucy Vine’s love of literature is evident on every page and made me feel so seen as a bibliophile. Exquisitely written and cleverly plotted, I was in love from the first page and immediately knew that this would be a book I devoured. And I was right, reading it in practically one sitting and staying up until the early hours to finish it as I HAD to know if Jemma got her happy-ever-after with her mystery man.
The story is narrated by Jemma and Clara, twin sisters who couldn’t be more different. Jemma is a book lover who prefers to fade into the background and is happiest at home re-reading her favourite book. Meanwhile, Clara is outgoing, the life of the party who is happiest when all eyes are on her. The sisters have long had a strained relationship and it is strained even further when Clara announces she’s moving back to the UK from the States, as with nowhere else to go she moves into Jemma’s houseshare and the sisters have to adjust to living together again.
At the centre of this book is another book, Too Good to Be True, Jemma’s favourite book which is like a character in its own right. Jemma loves the book so much that she owns multiple copies that are only to admire on her shelves, and she takes a copy out from the library to regularly re-read. It’s obvious from the start how important this story is to Jemma, and you can feel how much she cherishes it and the joy it brings her. A few months ago, Jemma discovered a note inside the book from the only other person who takes out the book and they have been exchanging anonymous notes ever since, sharing their love of books. Talk about the perfect meet-cute for a book lover! But when Jemma learns that not only has the book been adapted, but its title has been changed, she is horrified. She can’t watch, especially as the lead actor is nothing like she imagined. Clara disagrees and not only loves the show – declaring that TV is better than books! – and developing an unhealthy crush on the actor; declaring he’s the one for her and tracking him down to engineer him falling in love with her.
There’s a cast of compelling background characters that I loved reading, especially Harry and Salma, Jemma’s housemates. And Milo was the perfect leading man, even if Jemma disagreed. He was fun to read and I loved the very different reactions Jemma and Clara had to him and his celebrity status. Then there’s the mystery narrator, a brilliant character who opens each of the book’s three parts. He talks directly to the reader which pulled me in and immediately made me feel part of the story.
But who was Jemma’s ‘book boyfriend’? There’s a number of potential candidates and Vine does a great job of keeping the reader guessing about his identity. I’ll admit, I did guess who he was early on, but I was also never completely sure of my suspicions thanks to the twists and red herrings. I loved the bumpy ride she took me on to finally get the answer and how even when his identity was revealed the wait wasn’t over, Vine keeping me on the edge of my seat as I waited to see if he and Jemma would actually get together. My poor heart!
An absolute joy from start to finish, this is a must-read for all book lovers.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lucy is the best-selling author of novels, Hot Mess, What Fresh Hell, Are We Nearly There Yet?, Bad Choices, Seven Exes, and Date With Destiny. Book seven is called BOOK BOYFRIEND and is out 19 June 2025. Lucy’s currently working on book eight, out summer ‘26.
Her books have been bought in 17 territories – including the US, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Serbia, Japan, the Netherlands, Czech, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Finland, Slovakia and Sweden. Hot Mess was optioned for a TV series in America, while Hot Mess and Are We Nearly There Yet? have both been longlisted for the very brilliant Comedy Women In Print book award.
In a previous life, Lucy was a journalist, working for magazines and newspapers including GRAZIA, Stylist, heat, Fabulous, New, Now, marie claire, Glamour, COSMOPOLITAN, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun and The Mirror.
Lucy is also an events host (available for hire!), and previously ran a regular event and podcast series with Waterstones, called the Hot Mess Clubhouse, featuring conversations with funny women.
June is almost upon us, so it’s time for my most anticipated June releases. There’s some exciting debuts from authors including Charlotte Runcie, Jemimah Wei, Mel Pennant, Jennifer Treveylan, Anne Senes and Xenobe Purvis. And there are fantastic new releases from authors I love, including Taylor Jenkins Reid, C.L. Taylor, A. A. Chaudhuri, Sarah Pinborough, V. E. Schwab, Riley Sager, Will Carver, Caroline Lea, Fiona Cummins, Karin Slaughter, Beth Morrey, Lucy Vine and Ruth Hogan.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Published June 3rd by Hutchinson Heinmann Psychological Fiction, Romance, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: AN EPIC NOVEL SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE 1980S SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM ABOUT THE EXTRAORDINARY LENGTHS WE GO TO LIVE AND LOVE BEYOND OUR LIMITS.
In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.
Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love – this time among the stars.
Published June 3rd by Headline Historical Fiction,Gaslamp Fantasy, Fantasy Anthologies
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Avallon Hotel offers unrivalled luxury in the wild Appalachian Mountains, its curative sweetwater washing away the troubles of high society. June ‘Hoss’ Hudson, a local girl turned general manager, has known its power since she first stepped through the century-old doors – and into the fold of the Gilfoyle family, the hotel’s aristocratic owners.
But in 1942, the real world intrudes. War comes to the Avallon dressed in fine furs and government suits. Under the State Department’s watchful eye, the Gilfoyle heir welcomes three hundred enemy diplomats and Nazi sympathisers. And June must play host.
As dark alliances and unexpected desires crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, not every guest is who they seem. Not least Agent Tucker Minnick, listening for secrets through the hotel walls, whose coal tattoo threatens to betray his past and undo June. And more troubling is the secret she has guarded for years – that the mountain waters can harm as much as heal…
The extraordinary, genre-defying debut adult novel by the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author.
Published June 5th by Avon Books Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Welcome to Lowbridge. Where secrets hide behind every door…
When newly divorced Jude arrives in the small town of Lowbridge, she is soon drawn to widower Will, the father of her young daughter’s best friend.
But Will’s past is shrouded in tragedy, with questions that no one knows the answer to – and after two tragedies tore his life apart in just a few short years, gossip and rumours abound about what really happened to the women he loved.
As whispers of murder surround Will, Jude becomes determined to uncover the truth – and with her own father’s tragic fate haunting her, she refuses to let another innocent man suffer.
Yet in Lowbridge the darkness runs deep, and nothing is as it seems. Can Jude protect Will from a community out for blood? Or will she become the next victim in this web of deceit?
Because whilst one dead wife is tragic, two starts to look like murder…
Published June 5th by Hera Books Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Noir Ficiton, Urban Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: First comes gossip … then comes revenge
When single mum Lola Martinez’s son, Luca, starts school, she feels that she’ll never fit in with the yummy mummies in the playground. Confident, married to wealthy men, with ample free time, they are everything she isn’t.
However, Lola is invited into the inner circle, surrounded by seemingly friendly people, even if Lola’s silence about her child’s father puzzles them. Despite herself, Lola quickly becomes involved in playground politics, making as many enemies as friends.
But then Lola is brutally murdered, her death rocking the close-knit community. As the police investigate the case, they discover that Lola was hiding many secrets – as are the mums in her new social circle. But who had the most reason to kill her? And who else might unwittingly hold the answers to what happened that night?
An addictive psychological thriller with an end twist that will make you gasp, for fans of Lisa Jewell, T.M. Logan and Frieda McFadden. If you loved Big Little Lies, you’ll adore this.
Published June 5th by Pan Macmillan Crime Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Why would my best friend want to destroy my life? Girl Falling is an atmospheric, psychological mystery from the award-winning author of Dirt Town.
Finn and her closest friend Daphne grew up in the imposing shadow of Australia’s Blue Mountains. Their uneasy bond forged from both losing their sisters at a young age. Now in their twenties, Daphne is at university, while Finn remained in the mountains, falling in love with newcomer Magdu. A young woman with troubles of her own.
After tensions arise during Magdu and Daphne’s first meeting, Finn is looking forward to a day of rock climbing and bonding for the three women on the cliffs near their town. But nothing goes as planned, and in a horrific accident, Magdu falls to her death.
In the aftermath, the friends become the focus of a police investigation. Was it really an accident? Or did something far more sinister play out that day?
Bold, dramatic and utterly compelling, Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor forces us to confront the stories we tell ourselves about the people we love.
Published June 5th by Avon Books Crime Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Police Procedural, Legal Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Don’t miss the gripping crime novel in which a heroic act ends up ripping a small town apart with devastating consequences…
––––––––––––––––––––––––
HE RUNS INTO THE FLAMES A HERO.
Steve thought he had left his troubled past behind. Living a quiet life with his wife and children, everything changes the night he rescues a baby from a burning house, becoming an unexpected national hero.
HE EMERGES FROM THE ASHES A SUSPECT.
But as the spotlight shines brighter, so does the scrutiny, and a shocking accusation is made – that Steve is the man responsible for an unsolved murder in Beachbrook years prior.
BUT WHICH ONE IS HE REALLY?
As his world unravels, public opinion is firmly divided. Steve pleads his innocence, but DS Sue Willmott is determined to get to the bottom of what really happened all those years ago.
Published June 5th by Sphere Mystery, Crime Fiction, Women Sleuths
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A remote Icelandic island. A diplomatic dinner party. And a murderer in the midst.
The stakes at dinner couldn’t be higher.
The Canadian embassy are visiting a remote Icelandic island and the great and the good have gathered to welcome them. But beneath the glamour, tensions are bubbling.
When the deputy Canadian ambassador is poisoned at dinner, suspicion falls on everyone present, but particularly on the ambassador himself. Jane, the ambassador’s wife, knows that she has to solve the murder if she is to save her husband and her marriage. But Jane knows better than anyone that, when it comes to protecting scandalous secrets, there are no lengths to which people won’t go.
So soon the question becomes: can she track down the killer before they strike again?
Published June 5th by Orion Thriller, Suspense, Gothic Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Ghost Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: If their new new home doesn’t break them, their secrets will…
When Emily wakes from a coma following an accident that nearly kills her, she finds herself agreeing to move from London to the wild moors of Devon with her husband Freddie. A fresh start is exactly what their marriage needs.
As their car pulls up to Larkin Lodge, their dream country home, Emily’s heart sinks. Outside, everything is covered in an icy gray mist. Inside, the air is filled with dust and abandonment.
And then she finds the empty suite on the second floor. A room so bleak, so cold, so void of anything good. Something bad happened in here. Someone dies in here. Why can’t Freddie feel the darkness that stirs within its walls?
There’s something wrong with the house, this strange house, where the floorboards creak at night, the doors rattle, the windows slam shut, the taps turn on and off – and on and off.
But if the house is hiding something, so are Emily and Freddie…
Published June 5th by HQ Thriller, Suspense, Horror Ficiton, Supernatural Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Evil has a one track mind…
Celebrated children’s author and illustrator Annie Blunt has had a dreadful year. Her husband was killed in a tragic accident, then one of her children’s books ignited a major scandal. Desperate for a fresh start, she moves with her young son Charlie to a charming small town in upstate New York where they can begin to heal.
But Annie’s year is about to get worse.
Bored and lonely in their isolated new surroundings, Charlie is thrilled when he finds a forgotten train set in a locked shed in the grounds of their new house. While Annie is pleased to see Charlie happy, there’s something unsettling about his new toy. Strange sounds wake Annie in the night – she’s sure she can hear a train in the middle of the night, although there isn’t an active line for miles. And then bizarre things start happening in the neighbourhood. But even stranger, Annie can’t seem to stop drawing a disturbing new character that has no place in a children’s book…
Grief plays tricks on the mind, but Annie is beginning to think she’s walked out of one nightmare straight into another, only this one is far more terrifying…
Sunday Times bestselling author Linwood Barclay enters new territory with a fiendishly twisted supernatural chiller.
Published June 5th by Hemlock Press Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Suspense, Horror Ficiton, Ghost Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: England, May 1945
Monkshill Park School for Girls seems a world away from the violence that engulfed Europe during World War II. Yet its lonely, decaying grounds have witnessed a murder.
Annabel Warnock, a teacher with a secretive past, left for the holidays and never came back. Both teachers and girls assume she simply walked out, but the truth is quite different. Her body tumbled from the Maiden’s Leap, a viewpoint on the clifftop Gothic Walk, and was washed out to sea.
But Annabel herself is still trapped at Monkshill, unable to move on. As she haunts the grounds and school, she discovers a hidden world – students, staff and servants are riven with deadly rivalries and dangerous tensions.
Published June 5th by Apollo Mystery, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Time has forgotten this remote corner of West Cornwall, and left its many secrets undisturbed. Until now…
Ezra Curnow has lived in the little cottage on the Trengrose estate all his life. He was born there, as was his father, and his grandfather before that. It is his own little Cornish paradise.
Then the mistress of the estate, Eliza, dies without leaving a will, putting the cottage’s ownership into question. London financier Toby and his wife Minty are soon enticed by Trengrose’s charm and, worse still, see a lucrative rental opportunity in Ezra’s cottage.
But Ezra is prepared to battle to save his beloved home, and has a number of secret weapons in his armoury. What Ezra doesn’t know is that Eliza also took some secrets to her grave – and she doesn’t intend to rest quietly until they come to light…
A sumptuous Cornish tale packed with heart, relationships and mysteries from the past, from the bestselling author of The Sea Gate.
Published June 5th by The Borough Press Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A one woman show A one night stand A one star review
Theatre critic Alex Lyons made his name from his brutal, brilliant reviews.
So when he sees Hayley Sinclair’s dismal one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe, he thinks nothing of dashing off another of his trademark one-star pans for the newspaper. He also thinks nothing of taking her home after the performance, failing at any point to mention who he is.
What he doesn’t expect is for Hayley to revamp her show into a review of Alex’s entire life, exposing what an awful person he really is. Worse, the show is a smash hit, and Alex is about to become national news. But can Hayley bring the establishment down without taking herself with it?
Funny and thrilling, Bring the House Down gives you a front row seat to the downfall of the people who tell us what to think. It’s about art, performance, female rage, and how while revenge may be sweet, it can also be perilous.
Published June 5th by Fourth Estate Psychological Ficiton, Romantic Comedy, Literary Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: What if your perfect life was a charade?
It is August, and eight old friends have gathered at a country house for a writers’ retreat. By day, there is reading beside the pool or writing in the shady corners of the estate. In the evenings – drinks, dinner outdoors, games, midnight swimming.
But as temperatures rise in the stifling last days of summer, tensions do too. Old jealousies, new temptations and bitter rivalries bubble to the surface. By the end of the week, friendships – and lives – will have changed forever.
Astute, witty and page-turning, The Book Game is a novel about ambition, competition, regret and desire; about paths not taken and last chances suddenly seized; about the games people play. It asks what it means, in all senses, to be in the middle of life.
BOOK DESCRIPTION: WHO WOULD YOU SACRIFICE AT THE ALTAR OF AMBITION? A dazzling story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore by National Book Award ‘5 Under 35’ honouree Jemimah Wei?
Singapore, 1996. Before Arin, Genevieve Yang was an only child. Living with her parents and grandmother in a single-room flat in Bedok, she is saddled with an unexpected sibling when Arin appears, the shameful legacy of a grandfather long believed to be dead.
At once collaborators and sisters, Gen and Arin grow up inseparable, navigating the intensity of life in working-class Singapore – where urgent insistence on achievement demands self-immolation in the realms of imagination, work, and play. But as the rapidly modernising, winner-takes-all world threatens to leave one behind as the other’s star rises exponentially, the sisters must weigh their allegiances and bonds, the cost of success and ultimately reckon with who they’ve become. What results is a story that cracks open the fault lines of Singaporean society, our desperate need for acceptance and our yearning to be loved.
Vivid and visceral, The Original Daughter is a breathtaking act of empathy by a new literary star.
Published June 5th by Doubleday Literary Fiction, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: DISCOVER YOUR NEXT FEELGOOD JAPANESE NOVEL, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES
Over 1.4 million copies sold in Japan _________
The contents of each traveller’s heart is a mystery known only to themselves
Trundling through the scenic countryside of Kyoto and Osaka is the Hankyu line, a burgundy-coloured electric train that has been carrying its commuters to their destinations for decades.
Over the course of a single journey in springtime, and the return journey six months later just as the leaves begin to fall:
– a young man meets the woman who happens to take out the last copy of the library book he was about to borrow; – an angry wedding guest dresses in a white gown to upstage the bride; – a university student leaves home for the first time; – a twenty-something finally grows the courage to walk away from an abusive partner – a widow learns independence, as she and her granddaughter meet their new dog.
As the seasons and the landscapes change, passengers jostle and connect, as this gentle timeless train carries each one forward towards the person they intend to become.
Published June 5th by Zaffre Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The brand-new standalone thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Flight, Julie Clark. Perfect for fans of Gillian McAllister, Lisa Jewell and Claire Douglas.
“I know what your dad did.”
I set down my sandwich. “He wrote a book.”
The boy, whose name I no longer remember, had shaken his head, eyes sparkling with glee to be the one to tell me. To shatter my childhood right there in the school cafeteria. “Your dad killed his brother and sister. Murdered them in their own home.”
Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, famous not only for his novels, but for being the prime suspect in the brutal slaying of his siblings.
On the brink of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father’s last book, not realising that she will be forced to reckon with the ghosts that live at the centre of her family. Because after fifty years of silence, Vincent Taylor is finally ready to talk. But is he ready to tell the truth?
Published June 5th by Hemlock Press Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Police Procedural, Noir Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: He’s tracking people down one by one
And you’re next on the list…
A MAN MURDERED, LIVE ON CAMERA
When a DVD is delivered in the dead of night, DCI Cara Elliott hits play on a horrifying showreel of violence… This is death, on demand.
A KILLER COUNTING DOWN
Avid viewers are paying for the killings, with twisted specifications. A request, an abduction, a murder. And always in a forty-eight-hour pattern.
A MISSING DETECTIVE
But when the killer finds out they’re being investigated, they reveal their next target. In forty-eight hours, a police officer will be the one in front of the camera. The hunters have become the hunted, and the clock is ticking…
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab
Published June 10th by Tor Fantasy Fiction, Dark Fiction, Contemporary Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From V. E. Schwab, the No. 1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying, unforgettable novel to sink your teeth into.
Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 1532. London, 1837. Boston, 2019.
Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.
One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.
Published June 10th by Viper Books Mystery, Crime Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Adventure Fiction, Western Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: * A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK *
Gold fever has taken him. I believe he means to kill me…
Canada, 1898. The gold rush is on in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon. Fortunes are made as quickly as they’re lost, and Dawson City has become a lawless settlement.
In its midst, three women are trying to survive on the edge of civilisation. Journalist Kate has travelled hundreds of miles after receiving a letter from her sister, who fears that her husband will kill her. Martha’s hotel is under threat from the local strongman who is buying up the town. And down by the river, Ellen feels her future slip away as her husband fails to find the gold they risked so much to seek.
When a woman is murdered, Kate, Martha and Ellen find their lives, fates and fortunes intertwined. But to unmask her killer, they must navigate a desperate land run by dangerous men who will do anything for a glimpse of gold…
Rich in its setting and characters, The Rush is a gripping historical crime novel perfect for readers of Stef Penney by way of Kristin Hannah and C Pam Zhang.
Published June 12th by Baskerville Mystery, Crime Fiction, Cozy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Death has come to her doorstep . . .
Retired nurse, avid gardener, renowned cake maker and fearless sleuth Miss Hortense has lived in Bigglesweigh, a quiet Birmingham suburb, since she emigrated from Jamaica in 1960. She takes great pride in her home, starching her lace curtains bright white, and she can tell if she’s been short-changed on turmeric before she’s even taken her first bite of a beef patty. Thirty-five years of nursing have also left her afraid of nobody – be they a local drug dealer or a priest – and an expert in deciphering other people’s secrets with just a glance.
Miss Hortense uses her skills to investigate the investments of the Pardner network – a special community of Black investors, determined to help their people succeed. But when an unidentified man is found dead in one of the Pardner’s homes, a Bible quote noted down beside his body, Miss Hortense’s long-buried past comes rushing back to greet her, bringing memories of the worst moment of her life, one which her community has never let her forget.
It is time for Miss Hortense to solve a mystery that will see her, and the community she loves, tested to their limits.
Published June 12th by Hodder & Stoughton Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Horror Fiction, Hardboiled, Political Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: One train. No stops. A deadly game of survival and revenge.
‘A locked room thriller at its best! Nonstop suspense with twists and turns that will leave your head spinning’ FREIDA MCFADDEN
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.
Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.
But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge-and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.
With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them-even though it means putting her own life at risk.
Published June 12th by Viking Historical Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Saga
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Every family’s story starts somewhere. Alice and Tom’s begins here.
On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Alice Jansen collects her treasures – the keepsakes, figurines and mementoes that help her make sense of her fragile family. But the next day her heart is broken, and the final treasure, a gift from her father, is lost. Two years later, Alice answers a phone call from a stranger and runs away to New York, and tries to forget her last golden summer at the orchard on the banks of the Hudson.
Tom Raven can’t understand why he keeps losing so many of the things and people that really matter to him, but he knows for certain that something important is missing from his life. One day, he remembers a forgotten letter and makes a phone call, then leaves Sevenstones, the only place that feels like home, for a strange city…
Harriet Evans’s gorgeous new novel is the unputdownable story of Alice, Tom, and Sevenstones. Of a family and a house over fifty years and three generations, of their beginning and their ending, and of finding the treasures that symbolise the most important memories in our lives.
Published June 12th by Virago Speculative Romance, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: There’s no such thing as an ordinary love story
When Emily catches sight of Gennifer Hall at a party, she is transported back to the moment they fell in love as teenagers. Their connection was electric, and they thought it was forever.
Twenty years later, Gen is an Olympic runner, the career she strived for, while Emily is living a picture-perfect life: Manhattan townhouse, two young children and a wealthy husband, Jack. But Jack’s controlling behaviour is spiralling, and Emily has lost sight of who she once was.
Now, despite Emily’s fracturing marriage and the pressures of Gen’s career, they are drawn back together by a magnetic attraction. After years of heartbreak, missed chances and misunderstandings, will they finally get a second chance at first love?
A sweeping love story about desire, friendship, mistakes and the possibility of second chances, for fans of The Paper Palace and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Published June 12th by Doubleday Coming-of-Age Story, Urban Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of the Sunday Times Number One Bestseller, The Versions of Us. A novel about six lifelong friends and one unforgettable year.
Zoe, Al, Rachel, Rob, Yas and Indie. Six friends who were inseparable at university, who have all had their secret or not so secret passions for each other, their hopes and fears.
Over the years, they have gone their separate ways. Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay at home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father’s funeral business.
When Rob’s engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose?
BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy. It’s about births, deaths, marriages… and everything in between.
Published June 12th by Constable Mystery, Crime Fiction, Dark Comedy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A hilarious and whip-smart crime novel by the multimillion-copy bestselling author of the Horrible Histories. The perfect mystery for fans of Anthony Horowitz, Richard Osman and Janice Hallett.
Four strangers on a train. An unlikely introduction:
‘Actually, I’m a murderer.’
It is 1973 and the lives of four people are thrown into turmoil when sharing a carriage with an unremarkable little man with glasses, on the night train back to Newcastle.
By the end of the following day, one of them will be dead, one will turn blackmailer and another forced to commit a crime. And all of them will be under the astute observation of Aline, the local police officer with her own agenda to fulfil.
When the body count begins to rise, the question is: just how many murderers are out there… and who will be the next victim?
Published June 17th by Quercus Historical Fiction, War Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Hong Kong, 1941. Following the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the wealthy Tang family flee to Hong Kong.
As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a sheltered – if lonely – existence overseeing her daughter Qiang and managing the household alongside her devoted maid, Biyu.
But when the Japanese army invade, the three women are scattered. Mingzhu is coerced into working for a Japanese captain. Qiang and Biyu escape the island, only to be forced into factory work then separated after an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters.
The longer the brutal occupation lasts, the more determined the women are to resist. And as war rages around the world, each is holding onto the hope that the other is alive.
Beautifully told and compulsively written, When Sleeping Women Wake is an utterly transporting story of female resistance and untold bravery, at once epic and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful. Perfect for fans of Lisa See, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and Kristin Hannah.
Published June 19th by Orenda Crime Fiction, Psychological Ficion, Medical Ficiton, Alternative History, Dystopian Ficiton, Political Thriller, Metaphysical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A Japanese scientist thwarts an international plot to release a deadly virus by mutating it to make people kinder, but something goes horribly wrong … A darkly funny, mind-blowing speculative thriller from the ‘most original writer in Britain’ (Daily Express)…
_________
Compassion may be humanity’s deadliest weapon…
The threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly.
And it’s coming.
The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together. Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.
Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice. Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.
Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end.
But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…
Published June 19th by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction, Gothic Ficiton, Historical Mystery, Regency Romance, Biographical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A suspense-filled retelling of the summer that should have broken Mary Shelley – but inspired her to write Frankenstein instead . . .
—-
Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816.
The dark summer that birthed a monster . . .
Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. Tormented by Shelley’s betrayals, haunted by the loss of their baby and suspicious of her sister’s intentions, Mary seeks sanctuary.
But Lord Byron’s villa, lying under ominous, ash-shrouded skies, feels more like a trap. When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural tale, Mary is as drawn to the challenge as she is, unexpectedly, to Byron himself.
And so an idea begins to form in her mind . . .
It spills out of her in thick, black ink. A thing given life is before her.
Day and night, she is possessed. Heart and mind. Body and soul.
But is she in control, or is it?
In this hauntingly evocative feminist retelling, Caroline Lea delves into the female rage, creative madness and steamy scandal that bore the world’s most famous work of gothic fiction. Perfect for fans of The Essex Serpent and TheManningtree Witches.
Published June 19th by Manilla Press Historical Fiction, Gaslap Fantasy, Contemporary Horror, Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Two women. An extraordinary power. An explosive bond. In a time of revolution, their fates will lie in the turn of a card . . .
It is the early days of the French Revolution and, on the streets of Paris, terror reigns.
Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand is a young woman with an extraordinary power – through her tarot cards, she can commune with the dead, revolutionaries and the aristocracy alike seeking her out to divine their fortunes. Lenormand is loyal to Marie Antoinette and the dauphin of France, but she has seen the queen’s fate in the cards and must take care that it doesn’t become her own.
Then, one fateful day, she comes across Cait, a scullery maid from Ireland who has travelled to Paris for love. Cait has powers too – she can read people’s pasts as Lenormand reads their futures. The two young women share an electrifying connection, drawn to each other’s abilities. But Cait is hiding something. What will she do – and who will she betray – to bring revolution to the shores of her beloved Ireland too?
Inspired by the astonishing true story of Marie-Anne Adelaide Lenormand, The Tarot Reader of Versailles is a sweeping, powerful novel where allegiances, betrayals and even fate itself can be forged or broken by the turn of a card . . .
Published June 19th by Harper Collins UK Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Suspense, Domestic Fiction, Political Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Don’t miss the brand-new gripping thriller and courtroom drama full of twists and turns that will keep you up at night!
* * * *
Lily and Safa were best friends growing up. Now, Lily is the nation’s favourite breakfast TV presenter and Safa, once a renowned journalist, is reeling from a recent fall from grace.
When news breaks about suspicious bruises on Lily’s body, Safa attempts to rekindle their old friendship. But Lily claims the bruises are nothing to worry about.
And then one night the police are called to Lily’s home. Lily is strangely calm – and a body lies dead at her feet.
Lily pleads not guilty, and then says nothing more. Driven by her desire to give a voice to all victims, Safa begins her own investigation into what happened that night.
But Safa is not prepared for what her quest for justice will uncover …
Published June 19th by Harper Collins UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The gripping and exciting first book in a brand new crime thriller series from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author.
***
Welcome to North Falls. A small town where everyone knows everyone. But nobody knows the truth.
Emmy Clifton has lived here all her life. She thinks she knows her neighbours. She’s wrong.
She thinks it’s just another hot summer night: a night like any other. She’s wrong.
When her best friend’s daughter asks for help, she thinks it’s just some teenage drama. She thinks it can wait. She’s never been more wrong in her life.
As the town ignites in the wake of the girls’ disappearance, Emmy throws herself into the search. But then she realises: You never really know a town until you know its secrets.
Published June 19th by Pan Macmillan Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Police Procedural, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: There’s your side. My side. And the truth.
Lisa Jewell meets Jodi Picoult in a story of betrayal and deception in the aftermath of family tragedy.
She must face justice. As her sister it kills me to say it. As his mother I demand it.
When Jen Miller entrusts her youngest child to the care of her beloved sisters, she has no idea of the devastating tragedy that is about to unfold.
To celebrate her sister’s wedding, global superstar Winter Kellaway throws the party of the decade at her luxurious beachside estate. The decorations are flawless. The champagne is on ice. The guests have arrived. But one misstep will have heartbreaking consequences that will rock this close-knit family to their core.
With her life in pieces, how can Jen ever begin to forgive?
Saul Anguish, a brilliant but tormented young detective, is called in to investigate and uncovers a long-buried and shocking family secret. As the trail takes a dramatic turn, they must now all face the truth that you can never truly leave the past behind . . .
Published June 19th by Raven Books Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: You know who. You don’t know why.
The play date started well. The children happy in one room while their mothers relaxed and drank wine in another.
But then the stranger appeared at the window. And then he was inside the house. And then he grabbed the knife…
Alice only means to stop him. She doesn’t mean to hit him so hard. She didn’t mean to kill him.
The police conclude that she acted in self-defence, but wracked with guilt, Alice sets out to apologise to Linda, the mother of the young man she killed – only to find she is unable to come clean about who she really is. But as Alice learns more about Ezra and why he was at her house, she starts to wonder whether she really has the full picture about what happened that day…
This latest simmering suspense novel from the internationally bestselling Katherine Faulkner is a unputdownable must-read that will have you hooked from the first twist to the last.
No One Would Do What The Lamberts Have Done by Sophie Hannah
Published June 19th by Bedford Square Publishers Mystery, Susupense, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Adventure Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: You think it will never happen to you: the ring of the bell, the policeman on the doorstep. What he says traps you in a nightmare that starts with the words, ‘I’m afraid…’
Sally Lambert is also afraid, and desperate enough to consider the unthinkable. Is it really, definitely, impossible to escape from this horror? Maybe not. There’s always something you can do, right?
Of course, no one would ever do this particular something – except the Lamberts, who might have to.
No one has ever gone this far. Until Sally decides that the Lamberts will…
Published June 19th by Orenda Books Crime Fiction, Psycholgoical Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: When his life falls apart after a horrific tragedy, a composer returns to his native France, where he creates an AI machine with his dead wife’s voice, with unexpected, devastating consequences…
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London, late 1990s. Stan, a young and promising French composer, is invited to arrange the music for a theatrical adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The play will never be staged, but Stan meets Liv, the love of his life, and their harmonious duo soon becomes a trio with the birth of their beloved daughter, Lisa. Stan’s world is filled with vibrant colour and melodic music, and under his wife and daughter’s gaze, his piano comes to life.
Paris, today. After Liv’s fatal accident, Stan returns to France surrounded by darkness, no longer able to compose, and living in the Rabbit Hole, a home left to him by an aunt. He shares his life with Babette, a lifeguard and mother of a boy of Lisa’s age, and Laïvely, an AI machine of his own invention endowed with Liv’s voice, that he spent entire nights building after her death.
But Stan remains haunted by his past. As the silence gradually gives way to noises, whistles and sighs – sometimes even bursts of laughter – and Laïvely seems to take on a life of its own, memories and reality fade and blur… And Stan’s new family implodes…
For readers who love Laura Kasischke, David Nicholls and Kazuo Ishiguro
Published June 19th by Mantle Suspense, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Discover this breathtaking debut novel of family secrets and searing atmosphere set over one long, hot summer on the New Zealand coast.
In the past, we had always spent our summer holidays in remote places. That had always been my mother’s preference. This year was different . . .
As the long summer holiday stretches ahead, ten-year-old Alix wants to spend every second on the beach and in the water. But, with her parents unusually distracted and her older sister now more interested in boys, she finds herself alone.
Then she meets Kahu at the beach and he tells her about The Mystery. Two years ago, a girl went missing and none of the adults could find her. So the new friends decide to investigate – because people don’t just disappear.
But, as Alex and Kahu search for clues, they stumble upon secrets they wish they’d left alone. Is Alix’s holiday house as safe as it seems? And is her sister putting her trust in the wrong people?
Brilliantly page-turning and tensely atmospheric, Jennifer Trevelyan’s A Beautiful Family will leave a lump in your throat and a hole in your heart.
Published June 19th by Bantam Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In the sleepy seaside sleepy town of Waverly, Rosie and Seb Kent are happily married. Now that Seb has achieved his dream of becoming headmaster of the local school, their lives couldn’t be any better.
Then Abi arrives.
Abi, a young, single mother, has come to Waverly for a fresh start. She plans to reinvent herself and give her children a new life.
Then she sees Seb.
As their complicated hidden past threatens to destroy them both, they try their hardest to keep it contained. But in a small town, secrets don’t stay hidden for long and soon, what should be their private business becomes a very public scandal. How far will everyone – them, their families and the whole community – go to protect everything they hold dearest?
Published June 19th by Bantam Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Psychological Fiction, Crime Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: How many times would you let your child get away with murder?
The new break-out thriller from Sam Lloyd, author of Richard & Judy Book Club pick The Memory Wood.
When you look down at your newborn baby, you realise they were right, those smug parents you’ve always rolled your eyes at: you’d do literally anything for your child. To make them happy, keep them safe.
So when Joseph Carver wakes one night to find his teenage son Max scrubbing the kitchen, hands wet with blood and panic flooding his voice as he promises it was an accident, he didn’t mean to do it, Joseph does the only thing he can. He helps Max bury the body.
Joseph thinks that’s the end of the nightmare. Until he finds Max with stricken eyes and bloody hands once again . . .
You’d do anything for your child – even cover up a murder.
Published June 19th by HarperNorth Crime Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Fairy Tale, Horro Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: *A SUNDAY INDEPENDENT HOT DEBUT AUTHOR OF 2025*
Into the woods.
Count to ten.
Only one of us comes home again.
1995, Ireland. Panic grips the village of Drumsuin when a teenage girl goes missing in the nearby forest.
Saoirse is not the first girl to disappear in those woods. And when it’s revealed she was playing the Counting Game that day – a ritual believed to ward off the forest’s evils – old superstitions send the community into turmoil.
One person saw what happened to Saoirse. But 9-year-old Jack won’t tell the Gardai. Freya, an English psychotherapist with her own history of grief, is brought in to help the investigators break his silence.
As the race to find Saoirse alive accelerates, can Freya make Jack talk? Why is he keeping the forest’s secrets? And who is hell bent on driving Freya out of Drumsuin before the truth is discovered?
The Counting Game is a deeply haunting, atmospheric and emotional mystery, from an unmissable new voice in Irish crime fiction, perfect for fans of Tana French, Erin Kelly and Belinda Bauer
When Daphne confesses to killing a number of men throughout her lifetime, she chooses Ruth to produce the podcast reporting her story. Each episode charts Daphne’s humble beginnings from the Dust Bowl in Canada to her glittering life in 70s New York – and a string of murders in her wake.
Daphne tells her story. Ruth listens. And edits it.
The public are hooked. Is she a feminist icon taking revenge on bad men? Or just a ruthless criminal? Then, as the podcast finale approaches, it becomes clear that neither woman has been entirely honest with the other. Who has been controlling the narrative?
After all, the truth doesn’t always make for the best story…
A darkly witty thriller, sparking conversations around true crime and female serial killers, for fans of Janice Hallett, Bella Mackie and Katy Brent.
Published June 19th by Orion Historical Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The greatest journey is the one you least expect…
Long before Dorothy visits Oz, her aunt, Emily Gale, sets off on her own unforgettable adventure much closer to home…
When news reaches Kansas that her beloved sister has tragically died, Emily Gale must become a mother overnight. Her sister’s orphaned child, Dorothy, desperately needs a home.
But Emily doubts her ability to fill her sister’s shoes; her life on the barren Kansas prairies is no place for a child.
On the unforgiving plains, Emily’s courage is endlessly tested. The prolonged drought and relentless dust storms threaten to destroy everything – including her home and her marriage.
Can Emily overcome her grief and let Dorothy heal her heart?
From the promise of Chicago in the 1920s to the harsh beauty of the Kansas prairie during the dust bowl of the 1930s, this is a story of family, duty and one woman’s journey of self-discovery.
Published June 19th by Harper Collins UK Literary Fiction, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Isabella’s NOT dead.’
Every time someone asks Gwen about her best friend – you know, the one who ghosted them all fifteen years ago – this is what Gwen tells them.
But where is Isabella? Why did she leave, just when Gwen needed her the most?
Setting out to solve the mystery, in an adventure that takes Gwen across the country then across Europe; that tests her friendships and strains her marriage, Gwen searches for Isabella.
But Isabella’s not the only one who’s lost. Is Gwen also searching for… herself?
Published June 19th by Scribner UK Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘There was a painting my family set on fire. It burned to ashes, and then it came back.’Oxfordshire, 1899. Grace Inderwick grows up on the peripheries of a once-great household, an unwanted guest in her uncle’s home. She has unusual skills and unusual predilections: for painting, though faces elude her; for lurking in the shadows; for other girls.
Then a letter arrives, postmarked Saint Helena. After years missing at sea, Grace’s cousin Charles is ready to come home. When Charles returns, unrecognisable and uncanny, a rift emerges between those who claim he is an imposter and Grace’s aunt, who insists he is her son. And Grace, whose intimate knowledge of forgeries is her own closely-guarded secret, must decide who and what to believe in, and what kind of life she wants to live.
Deftly-plotted and shimmering with Nell Stevens’s distinctive intelligence, style and wit, THE ORIGINAL is a novel about the value of authenticity in art and in love, and what it means to be a true original.
Published June 19th by Simon Schuster UK Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Jemma has lived a thousand lives through books. The only life she isn’t living is her own. That is, until the day she finds a note from a stranger in her favourite library book. When she replies, the pair begin a longhand conversation about their love of novels that sees Jemma finally coming out of her shell. Is she ready to fall in love for the first time – with someone she’s never met?
Clara has always run away from her problems, but this might finally be one she can’t escape. Everyone wants to know what happened to Clara in America – but Clara isn’t talking. Instead she’s focusing all her energy obsessing over a hot new actor, starring in the TV adaptation of her twin Jemma’s favourite book. Soon, Clara is reading every interview, trawling his social media, and following him to showbiz parties in the hopes he’ll notice she’s The One.
As the sisters fall hard for two men they’ve never met, it’s time to ask the question: Can either relationship survive the real world?
Published June 19th by Chatto & Windus Romance, Humorous Fiction, Medical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: What if your mother knows you better than you know yourself?
On remote Tuga de Oro, vet Charlotte Walker has been taken to the islanders’ hearts and, between days on the farms and nights with a new love interest, she’s content to remain in blissful retreat from her real life, in London.
Just for now, obviously.
Until real life hits the island with the force of a tropical storm: Charlotte’s mother arrives.
Lucinda Compton-Neville knows an identity crisis when she sees one, and has come to haul her daughter back on course: back to England, back to her career, back home where she belongs.
Funny, moving, and hope-filled, Island Calling is the joyous second novel in the Tuga Trilogy – about mothers and daughters; about holding on and letting go.
The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-Yeon
Published June 19th by Pan Macmillan Literary Fiction, Psychological Ficiton, Crime, Mystery, Translated Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Holding on to the belief that life had meaning and must go on, I, too, would carry on.’
In this million-copy bestseller from Korea, the owner of a corner store takes in a homeless man who does a good deed – a kind soul whose presence will transform the whole neighbourhood.
Seoul Station is home to Dokgo, a man with no memories of his past. Until one day his subdued existence is disrupted when he stumbles upon a lost wallet, triggering a chain of events that will change the course of his life.
Enter Mrs. Yeom, a retired teacher turned convenience-store owner, who, upon discovering Dokgo’s act of kindness in returning her purse, offers him a meal as a token of her gratitude. Their chance encounter blossoms into an unexpected alliance when the man’s bravery saves the store from ruin, earning him not just a job but a place in the heart of the neighbourhood.
But just when things are looking up for Dokgo, Mrs. Yeom’s troubled son, eager to sell the store, hires a detective to dig into the mysterious man’s past and unearth what he seems to be trying so hard to forget . . .
The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-Yeon, translated form Korean by Janet Hong, is a moving and joyful story of a woman fighting for her community and a man who has lost everything except the will to try again.
Published June 26th by Corvus Romance Novel, Domestic Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Every flame tells a story…
George McGlory has been struggling since the death of his beloved wife, Audrey. But when he witnesses a public health funeral – with no flowers and no mourners – he is inspired to create The Light a Candle Society.
As George and his friends join together to celebrate forgotten lives, their care, compassion, humour and friendship become gifts not only to the people they are remembering, but to each other.
And the kindness of strangers gives them strength to confront the secrets of their own histories, forging joyful and unexpected new connections…
Published June 26th by Hutchinson Heinmann Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Domestic Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The season of strangeness has begun . . .
Many stories are told about the five Mansfield sisters. They are haughty, thinking themselves better than their neighbours in the picturesque village of Little Nettlebed. They have taken the death of their grandmother hard. They are liars, troublemakers, untamed and dangerous… Accounts of their behaviour differ, but the villagers all agree that the girls are odd.
One long summer, a heatwave descends. Bloated sea creatures wash up along the parched riverbed, animals grow frenzied, ravens gather on the roofs of those about to die. As the stifling heat grips the village, so does a strange rumour: the Mansfield sisters have been seen transforming into a pack of dogs.
With the witch trials only a recent memory, hysteria sets in. Slowly but surely, the villagers become convinced that something strange is taking root in Little Nettlebed. And when a bark finally leads to a bite, the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.
Visceral and richly atmospheric, The Hounding plunges its reader into 18th century Oxfordshire, where the power of a man’s word is absolute, and it is safer to be a wild animal than an unconventional young woman.
Published April 10th, 2025 by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Pscyhological Thriller
Welcome to my review for this riveting locked-room mystery. Thank you to Black Crow PR and Simon and Schuster UK for sending me a proof copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
********
ABOUT THE BOOK:
And Then There Were None meets The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Ten strangers. An old dark house. A killer picking them off one by one. And a missing girl who’s running out of time. . .
Ten strangers wake up inside an old, locked house. They have no recollection of how they got there. In order to escape, they have to solve the disappearance of a young woman. But a killer also stalks the halls of the house, and soon the body count starts to rise. Who are these strangers? Why were they chosen? Why would someone want to kill them? And who – or what – is the Beast in the Cellar?
Forget what you think you know.
Because while you can trust yourself, can you really trust THE OTHER PEOPLE?
********
MY REVIEW:
Ten strangers wake up locked inside an old house with no recollection of how they got there. To escape, they must solve the disappearance of a young woman in the next 12 hours. And that’s not all. Someone wants them dead and soon they are picking them off one by one…
Dark, mysterious, funny and heart-poundingly tense, The Other People is a captivating locked-room murder mystery filled with comedy. C. B. Everett showcases himself as an author to watch with this sensational debut. It jumps straight into the action and then barely pauses to catch a breath, keeping me guessing as I read on tenterhooks. Masterfully written, fast-paced, cleverly plotted, complex and intricately interwoven, Everett had me in his thrall from the first page, totally pulling me in and making me fall for his red herrings. I loved how it addresses the reader throughout, making me feel part of the story and pulling me in so deep that I felt as trapped as one of the characters and unable to leave until all my questions had been answered.
The story is narrated by a large cast of compelling, flawed and unreliable characters, giving the reader a glimpse inside their minds but leaving us unsure who or what we can trust. While all of them are well written, I have to say that, for me, it was the Beast in the Cellar who stole the show. Witty, sarcastic and candid, this cryptic character talks to the reader, taking us through the mystery, mocking familiar thriller tropes, philosophising, and warning us to be careful who and what we trust. I lived for their scenes and often found myself laughing out loud during them.
Another thing I loved about this book is how unashamedly it is itself. It is proud of being a murder mystery and Everett reveled in using the familiar murder mystery tropes. I also liked how he explored some of the deeper questions surrounding the genre, such as whether or not we mourn unlikeable victims, and how we want more than ‘just a killer’, preferring someone with motives and inner turmoil to someone who simply wants to kill.
Darkly funny, claustrophobic and suspenseful, this is a first-class thriller that is not to be missed.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
C.B. Everett is the pen name for author Martyn Waites. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and worked as an actor for many years before becoming a writer. His novels include the critically acclaimed Joe Donovan series, The Old Religion, and The White Room. In 2013, he was chosen to write Angel of Death, the official sequel to Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, and in 2014 won the Grand Prix Roman Etranger for Born Under Punches. He has been nominated for every major British and French crime fiction award and has also enjoyed international commercial success with eight novels written under the name Tania Carver.
Welcome to my list of most anticipated April released. There are some exciting debuts, including The Eights, Mere, The Midnight King, A Line You Have Traced, and This Is Not A Game, and some new releases from authors I love including Nita Prose, Eve Smith, Essie Fox, Abigail Dean and Paige Toon.
Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou
Published April 1st by Wildfire Fairy Tale, Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Something terrible has happened.
In a mysterious apartment filled with ghosts, our unnamed narrator attempts to explain this to her child – how do I talk about this? she wonders.
The truth must become something beautiful. We must begin with a fairy tale.
And so she begins to construct a beautiful fairy tale for her child – one that begins with a strange baby boy whose nails grow too fast and whose skin smells of soil. As he grows from a boy into a man, a plague seems to follow him everywhere. Tragedy strikes in cycles – and wife after wife, death after death, plague after plague, every woman he touches becomes a ghost. These ghosts call out desperately to our narrator as she tries to explain, in the very real world, exactly what has happened to her.
And they all agree on one thing, an inescapable truth about this man, this powerful lord who has loved them and led them each to ruin:
If you leave, you die. But if you die, you stay.
A debut novel as emotionally poignant as it is fiercely smart, Sour Cherry is an arresting debut examining toxic masculinity through its chorus of women – deconstructing the idea of what makes someone a monster.
Published April 3rd by Gollancz Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Mythology, Greek Mythology, Science Ficiton, Gay Ficition
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A timely and timeless reimagining of the story of Dionysus, Greek God of ecstasy and madness, revelry and ruin, for readers of The Song of Achilles and Elektra.
Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to fight for the homeland he’s never seen and to follow his commander’s orders at all costs. But when he rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes’s palace, his commander’s orders cease to make sense: Phaidros is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple, and to keep the baby’s existence a secret.
Years later, after a strange encounter that led to the death of his battalion, Phaidros has become a training master for young soldiers. He struggles with panic attacks and flashbacks, and he is not the only one: all around him, his fellow veterans are losing their minds.
Phaidros’s risk of madness is not his only problem: his life has become entangled with Thebes’s young crown prince, who wishes to escape the marriage his mother, the Queen, has chosen for him. When the prince vanishes, Phaidros is drawn into the search for him-a search that leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus, whose guidance is as wise as the events that surround him are strange. In Dionysus’s company, Phaidros witnesses sudden outbursts of riots and unrest, and everywhere Dionysus goes, rumors follow about a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire.
In The Hymn to Dionysus, bestselling author Natasha Pulley transports us to an ancient empire on the edge of ruin to tell an utterly captivating story about a man needing a god to remind him how to be a human.
Published April 3rd by Fig Tree Historical Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: They knew they were changing history. They didn’t know they would change each other.
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and her own friends – for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won’t be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone – even The Eights – if she is to succeed.
But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.
The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.
Published April 3rd by Mantle Historical Fiction, Lesbian Literature, Historical Romance, Supernatural Fiction, Religious Ficiton, Medieval Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Mere by Danielle Giles is a hypnotic historical novel about fear and survival, power and position, and a love that takes hold in the darkest of places.
Norfolk, 990 AD. Deep in the Fens, isolated by a vast and treacherous mere, an order of holy sisters make their home. Under the steely guidance of Abbess Sigeburg they follow God’s path, looking to their infirmarian, Hilda, to provide what comfort and cures she can.
But when the mere takes a young servant boy, Sigeburg’s grip falters and Hilda quickly realizes this place holds secrets darker and more unholy than she can fathom.
Then proud Sister Wulfrun, a recent arrival to the convent, has a vision: a curse is upon them and change must be brought. Is she saint or serpent? To Hilda, Wulfrun is a signal bolder and brighter than any fire set – one she cannot help but follow . . .
Published April 3rd by Bantam Press Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Coming-of-Age Story, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Silent Patient meets The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in this elegant and twisty debut thriller. _
When does the acting stop – and the deception begin?
Famous film star Lila Crayne is America’s Sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. A golden girl. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning New York apartment, and are embarking on a new movie: a modern feminist adaptation of a classic twentieth-century novel.
To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins work with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch – and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, no one is quite who they seem, and before long, careers, reputations and lives are in danger of being irrevocably destroyed . . .
Published April 3rd by Renegade Books Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Mashup Novel
BOOK DESCRIPTION: 1922: You are cordially invited to summer at the Gatsby Mansion in West Egg, with the most illustrious – and the deadliest – guest list.
Freshly twenty-one and sporting a daring new bob, Greta Gatsby – younger sister to the infamous Jay – is finally free of finishing school. An idyllic summer stretches ahead of her at the Gatsby Mansion, the jewel of West Egg.
But when Greta arrives at the secluded white-stone estate bathed in the late-afternoon light, she finds she isn’t the only visitor. Jay is hosting an intimate gathering of New York’s fashionable set: Daisy and Tom Buchanan, along with his brother Edgar, Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker.
That evening, the guests enjoy a candelabra-lit dinner party. That night, they dance to the lilt of the gramophone. The next morning, one of them is missing.
Murder has come to West Egg, the warm breeze tainted by scandal, betrayal and secrets. Turning sleuth isn’t how Greta meant to spend her summer – but what choice does she have when one of them could be next?
The gilded opulence of the Roaring Twenties. A murder that scandalises high society. And a clever young woman of unusual persistence… A deliciously unputdownable whodunnit perfect for fans of The Christie Affair and Miss Austen Investigates.
Published April 3rd by Picador Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Erotic Thriller, Drama
BOOK DESCRIPTION: This is a murder mystery. This is a story about love. Or is it? . . .
Fair Play is the puzzle-box story of two competing tales that brilliantly lay bare the real truth of life – the terrifying mystery of grief.
‘A treat – clever, confident, and always surprising’ – Paul Murray, author of THE BEE STING
Abigail and her brother Benjamin have always been close. To celebrate his birthday, Abigail hires a grand old house and gathers their friends together for a murder mystery party. As the night goes on, they drink too much and play games. Relationships are forged, consolidated or frayed. Someone kisses someone they shouldn’t, someone else’s heart is broken.
In the morning, everyone wakes up – except Benjamin.
Suddenly everything is not quite what it seems. An eminent detective arrives determined to find Benjamin’s killer. The house now has a butler, a gardener and a housekeeper. This is a locked-room mystery, and everyone is a suspect.
As Abigail attempts to fathom her brother’s unexpected death in a world that has been turned upside down, she begins to wonder whether perhaps the true mystery might have been his life . . .
Published April 3rd by Black & White Publishing Romance Novel, Magical Realism, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: At seven o’clock one Tuesday evening, in a perfectly ordinary tower block near Westminster, four strangers meet for the first time. They each have three things in common: all suffered a traumatic experience six months earlier; all exhibit a dogged inability to put it behind them; and all accepted an invitation to attend tonight’s counselling session with the unconventional Genevieve – a determined woman with an unusual theory to test.
But this isn’t a novel about psychotherapy or self-forgiveness. Because there is another reason these four people have been brought together. And when that perfectly ordinary tower block near Westminster turns out to be not quite so ordinary, all five are forced to make some unexpected – and, for some, impossible – decisions . . .
A novel about friendship, strength and love, The Seven O’Clock Club is a reminder that life can give you hope. Even in the darkest of spaces.
Published April 3rd by Tor Contemporary Fantasy, Dark Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Succession meets magic in Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake. This is the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.
Where there’s a will, there’s a war.
Thayer Wren, brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, is dead. As the ‘father of modern technology,’ he leaves an incredible legacy. But which of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children could inherit the Wrenfare throne?
Meredith, head of her own profitable company, has recently cured mental illness. If only her journalist ex-boyfriend wasn’t set on exposing what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman ever, wants to do everything right. Except his wife might be leaving, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. Heading Wrenfare could relaunch his sinking ship. Eilidh was a world-famous ballerina, until a life-altering injury. Gaining the company might finally validate her worth.
On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins. Yet as they gather to read his final words, which Wren will come out on top?
This is a compulsive contemporary fantasy of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the height of her powers.
Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon by Mizuki Tsujimura
Published April 3rd by Doubleday Mystery, Magical Realism
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE UNFORGETTABLE MILLION-COPY JAPANESE BESTSELLER BY THE AUTHOR OF LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR
Brimming with suspense and heartbreak, the million-copy Japanese fantasy mystery for fans of BEFORE THE COFFEE GETS COLD and LONELY CASTLE IN THE MIRROR ______________
Is there anyone you wish to see?
So asks the smart young man, Ayumi, to his clients who have come to him for a reunion with the person who once changed their life.
But it is no ordinary reunion The people they ask to see have passed away.
Calling himself the go-between, Ayumi lays down strict rules around the meetings between the living and the dead: the deceased cannot have been summoned by anyone else; they may refuse; and they must meet under a full moon.
– Anxious Hirase asks to see the celebrity who showed her kindness at a critical moment; – An arrogant family man wants clarity about a will from his beloved mother; – After a bike accident, a school girl has a question for her former best friend; – A salary man wants to ask the only woman he ever loved what caused her to run away.
With each reunion, tantalizing clues are scattered for readers to piece together the emotional truth behind the go-between in this mesmeric and unputdownable tale of kindness, compassion and connection.
Published April 8th by Quercus Romance, Romantic Comedy, Melodrama, Tragicomedy, Drama
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Lost at sea . . . with your one-night stand
‘Feels like a brand new version of romance . . . I drowned happily in this book’ Jodi Picoult
‘I adored it, it was so romantic’ Marian Keyes
Lexi is looking for no-strings-attached fun with a stranger. She deserves one night for herself, doesn’t she?
Zeke is looking for love. But for one night with a woman like Lexi, he’ll break his rules . . .
Sparks fly at the pub, one passionate kiss leads to another and they end up stumbling home to the marina together.
The next morning, hungover and shaken by an amazing night, Lexi is more than ready for Zeke to leave. There’s just one small problem . . . the houseboat they stayed on has been swept out to sea.
As their supplies start to run dangerously low, and the waves pick up, Zeke and Lexi soon realise there’s much more on the line than their new relationship.
How long can they really survive on a drifting houseboat in the North Sea? Will search and rescue find them? And who will they be if they both make it back to dry land?
Swept Away is the epic new romance from the million-copy bestselling author of The Flatshare and The No-Show about your one-night stand becoming your one and only lifeline. Sharp, funny and breathtakingly intense, this standout novel is set to capture readers’ hearts next spring.
Published April 10th by Orenda Books Thriller, Speculative Thriller, Medical Thriller, Science Fiction, Alternative History
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Living forever can be lethal…
Ruth is a law-abiding elder, working out her national service, but she has secrets.
Her tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter had an unexpected outcome: the discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year reverses your biological clock, guaranteeing a long, healthy life.
But Ruth’s cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, who hungers for immortality, and the SuperJuve – a premium upgrade – was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are dubbed Supers, and the population begins to skyrocket.
Then, a perilous side-effect of the SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences, and as the planet is threatened, the population rebels, and laws are passed to restore order: life ends at 120. Supers are tracked down by Omnicide investigators like Mara, and executed…
Mara has her own reasons for hunting Supers, and she forms an unlikely alliance with Ruth to find Grundleger.
But Grundleger has been working on something even more radical and is one step ahead, with a deadly surprise in store for them both…
Published April 10th by Viper Books Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘This is a work of fiction. This is not a confession.’
Lucas Cole is a bestselling writer. He is also a father, a widower, and a beloved celebrity in his small town. He is an unassuming man - tall, thin and quietly friendly. Lucas Cole is also a serial killer.
Nathan Cole has known the truth about his father since he was ten years old. Too terrified to go to the police, he ran away from home as soon as he was able, carrying the guilt of leaving his sister behind. But when Lucas is found dead in a dingy motel room, Nathan returns to his childhood home for the first time in seventeen years. It’s there he finds The Midnight King, his father’s final unpublished manuscript, a fictionalised account of his hideous crimes, hidden in a box of trinkets taken from his victims. Trinkets that include a ribbon belonging to a missing eight-year-old girl who disappeared only days before his father’s death.
Now, Nathan must deal with the consequences of keeping his father’s secret. But it may not be as simple as finding a lost child. For The Midnight King holds Nathan’s secrets as well as Lucas’s, and he is not the only one searching for the truth…
Full of unexpected twists and heartrending turns, The Midnight King is a gripping thriller perfect for fans of Chris Whitaker, S.A. Cosby and Ian Rankin.
Published April 10th by Harper Collins UK Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: They raised me. Nurtured me. And lied about everything.
Sadie’s childhood has always been shrouded in mystery.
But there are three things she knows.
She was raised by two aunts.
She never knew her parents.
She is convinced she was stolen.
Cristy Ward, podcast host, is gripped by Sadie’s story. It’s perfect for her next true-crime investigation. Yet Sadie’s aunt claims it’s all a fantasy.
As the evidence begins to stack up, and the lies fall apart, they all could be in a lot more danger than they thought…
Published April 10th by Harper Collins UK Mystery, Thriller, Crime Ficiton, Women Sleuths, Crime Series
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A hidden treasure. A hotel heist. Only THE MAID can solve the mystery.
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Molly the maid is no stranger to secrets…
She sees everything behind closed doors at the Regency Grand hotel: wiping away the dust and grime of guests passing through.
But one secret lies much closer to home.
An old trinket – a faux Fabergé egg – is revealed to be a precious antique during an appraisal at the hotel, making Molly a rags-to-riches sensation. But no sooner has the egg shown its value than it’s stolen: vanishing without a trace.
Determined to crack the case of the missing Fabergé, Molly begins dusting for clues – uncovering a mystery that stretches deep into the past.
For in the pages of a long-forgotten diary, written by her late gran, lie the secrets that could unlock all others – and only Molly holds the key…
BOOK DESCRIPTION: MEET THE DETECTIVE DUO YOU’LL NEVER FORGET __________
89-year-old Margaret has lived on Garnon Crescent all her life, except for those few years she never talks about. She knows all the neighbours; their hopes, their heartbreaks.
Only recently, Margaret’s memory isn’t what it used to be. She is sure Barbara, her best friend and neighbour, told her something important. Something she was supposed to remember.
When Barbara is found dead, Margaret determines to recover her missing memory. She and her grandson James begin to investigate, but soon strange incidents occur in her home. Margaret’s daughter thinks her memory is getting worse, but Margaret knows somebody wants her out of the way.
Because Margaret holds the key to solving this crime. If only she could remember where she put it.
Published April 10th by Riverrun Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction, True Crime
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A Granite Silence is an exploration – a journey through time to a particular house, in a particular street, Urquhart Road, Aberdeen in 1934, where eight-year-old Helen Priestly lives with her mother and father.
Among this long, grey corridor of four-storey tenements, a daunting expanse of granite, working families are squashed together like pickled herrings in their narrow flats. Here are Helen’s neighbours: the Topps, the Josses, the Mitchells, the Gordons, the Donalds, the Coulls and the Hunts.
Returning home from school for her midday meal, Helen is sent by her mother Agnes to buy a loaf from the bakery at the end of the street. Agnes never sees her daughter alive again.
Nina Allan explores the aftermath of Helen’s disappearance, turning a probing eye to the close-knit neighbourhood – where everyone knows everyone, at least by sight – and with subtlety and sympathy, explores the intricate layers of truth and falsehood that can coexist in one moment of history.
Full of echoes, allusions and eerie diversions, A Granite Silence is an investigation into a notorious true crime case, but also a stylish, imaginative inquiry into who gets to tell a story, how it is told, and why.
Published April 10th by Magpie Science Ficiton, Time Travel Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘We can fix what we have done. We can undo the mistakes our ancestors made. We can set right what has been done wrong… You are the first step.’
In a silverware shop, a young wife works alongside her husband. Amid growing political turmoil, Bea finds solace in the local marsh, where she is visited recurrently by a mysterious presence, logging each appearance carefully in a scarlet journal. In a time like now, Kay navigates friendship, queerness and the temporary job market, whilst contemplating the significance of her life in a world with such an uncertain future. At her grandmother’s house she finds an intriguing record of an angel’s visits. A hundred years into the future, outsiders have banded together to live off-grid away from a corrupt government and a city wracked by oppression and climate change. When Ess is chosen for a virgin mission, a journey into the past to save the present, she is guided only by a well-thumbed red notebook… Set against the shifting landscape of East London marshes and expanding over three centuries, this is the breathtaking, urgent story of three women separated by history but threaded together by unknown forces.
Published April 10th by Faber & Faber Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It seems so odd to me now, how one can be so unsettled by the improbable. When we know that our entire existence is founded on freak occurrences and improbable coincidences. That we wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for these curious twists of fate.
The first volume of the poetic, page-turning masterpiece about one woman’s fall through the cracks of time.
Tara Selter has slipped out of time.
Every morning, she wakes up to the 18th of November. She no longer expects to wake up to the 19th of November, and she no longer remembers the 17th of November as if it were yesterday.
She comes to know the shape of the day like the back of her hand – the grey morning light in her Paris hotel; the moment a blackbird breaks into song; her husband’s surprise at seeing her return home unannounced. But for everyone around her, this day is lived for the first and only time. They do not remember the other 18ths of November, and they do not believe her when she tries to explain.
As Tara approaches her 365th 18th of November, she can’t shake the feeling that somewhere underneath the surface of this day, there’s a way to escape.
WINNER OF THE 2022 NORDIC COUNCIL LITERATURE PRIZE
The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus by Emma Knight
Published April 10th by Quercus Domestic Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Pen and Alice, childhood best friends from Toronto, are in their first year at the University of Edinburgh. Each has come to the city for her own reasons.
Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s – now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox – lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .
Meanwhile Alice, an aspiring actor, sees university as her route to the West End and beyond. The star of this year’s theatre production, she’s making the most of the power she wields as an object of desire – until an affair with her tutor begins to slip from her control.
Witty, warm and wildly unputdownable, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus is at once a love story and an irresistible mystery, a celebration of female friendship, and a study of how looking back can help us move forward.
Published April 10th by Fourth Estate Mystery, Suspense, Domestic Fiction, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Maybe having a few enemies on the school run means you’re doing something right…
Florence knows all about failure. After a dismal end to her 2000s girlband career, she’s moping around West London, single, broke and unfulfilled. The only things she’s proud of are her increasingly elaborate nail art choices – and her ten-year-old son, Dylan.
But when Alfie Risby, Dylan’s bitter class rival and the child heir to a frozen foods empire, mysteriously vanishes on a school trip, Dylan becomes a prime suspect. Florence has to get her act together, find the missing boy and clear her son’s name or risk losing him forever. The only problem? She doesn’t have any detective skills, she’s not exactly popular at the school gates and she’s just found Alfie’s backpack hidden under Dylan’s bed…
All the Other Mothers Hate Me is an irresistibly witty novel about fitting in, starting over and the lengths we’ll go to for the people we love.
Published April 10th by Century Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRPTION: Three days to fall in love. Six years to try to forget.
Ellie didn’t expect to fall in love while travelling in Europe. But she also didn’t expect to meet a man like Ash.
Three blistering days in Lisbon is all it takes to form an unforgettable connection – deep enough for them to plan to meet again in Madrid. But Ellie arrives late, and Ash is nowhere to be found.
Six years later, the memory of Ash and their time together still burns deeply in Ellie’s heart. She hopes that her dream job as a gardener on a grand estate in Wales will bring the fresh start she desperately needs.
But when Ash unexpectedly crashes back into her life, Ellie is forced to question if the universe has other plans…
Published April 10th by Picador Contemporary Fantasy, Magical Realism, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The must-have sequel to Sosuke Natsukawa’s bestselling The Cat Who Saved Books – an uplifting tale from Japan about a talking cat, a book-loving girl and the power of books to make a difference in the world.
Nanami sees nothing wrong with a library and cat combination. But a talking cat is a whole other story.
Nanami Kosaki loves reading. The local library is a home from home and books have become her best friends. When Nanami notices books disappearing from the library shelves, she’s particularly curious about a suspicious man in a grey suit whose furtive behaviour doesn’t feel right. Should she follow him to see what he’s up to?
When a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears to warn her about how dangerous that would be, together they’re brave enough to follow the frightening trail to find out where all the books have gone. Will Nanami and Tiger overcome the challenges of the adventure ahead?
Warm, wonderful and wise, The Cat Who Saved the Library is also a powerful lesson never to underestimate the value of great literature, and a reminder always to think for ourselves, no matter what our charismatic leaders might say.
Published April 17th by Picador Historical Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of The End We Start From, now a major film starring Jodie Comer, and taking inspiration from the influential Bloomsbury Group, Days of Light is a sweeping, gorgeous story for fans of Mothering Sunday and The Hours.
Easter Sunday, 1938. Ivy is nineteen and ready for her life to finally begin. In the idyllic Sussex countryside, her sprawling, bohemian family and their friends gather for lunch, awaiting the arrival of a longed-for guest.
It is a single, enchanted afternoon that ends in tragedy.
Days later, at a funeral, Ivy is kissed by the man she will marry, and grieves with the woman who will become the love of her life. And this is only the beginning . . .
Chronicling six pivotal days across six decades, Days of Light moves through the Second World War and the twentieth century on a radiant journey through a life lived in pursuit of love and in search of an answer.
Published April 17th by Doubleday Literary Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Drama, Family Saga
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Family is everything, even when it falls apart. Discover the brand-new novel from the multi-million-copy bestselling author.
There is a heatwave across Europe.
Goose and his three sisters gather at the family’s house by Lake Orta in Piedmont, Italy. Their father, a famous artist, has recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his masterpiece. Now he is dead and there is no sign of a painting.
Although the siblings have always been close, as they search for answers over that summer, the things they learn – about themselves, their father and their new stepmother – will drive them apart before they can come to any kind of understanding of what their father’s legacy truly is.
Extraordinarily compelling, at heart this is a novel about sibling relationships and those hairline cracks that can appear within a family: what what happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them.
Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Writter Out of It by Emily Hauser
Published April 17th by Doubleday History
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Did you love Madeline Miller’s Circe? Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls? Jennifer Saint’s Elektra? Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships?
But did you ever wonder who the real women behind the myths of the Trojan War were?
Now award-winning classicist and historian Emily Hauser takes readers on an epic journey to uncover the astonishing true story of the real women behind ancient Greece’s greatest legends – and the real heroes of those ancient epics, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Because, contrary to perceptions built up over three millennia, ancient history is not all about men – and it’s not only men’s stories that deserve to be told . . .
In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women – queens, mothers, warriors, slaves – were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them.
A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women – from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope – Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.
Published April 24th by Orenda Books Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Historical Mystery, Gothic Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: When the disgraced Lord Byron is associated with the deaths of women in Venice, he turns detective to unveil the killer and clear his name. A dazzling, riveting historical mystery by the author of the Sunday Times bestseller, The Fascination. –––––––
When fiction is fatal…
Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city
But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer…
As events escalate and tensions rise – and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear – Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt him…
Rich in gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron’s life, Dangerous is a riveting, dazzling historical thriller, as decadent, dark and seductive as the poet himself…
Published April 24th by HarperNorth Gothic Ficiton, Hisotrical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Ghost Story, Horror Ficiton, Nautical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Each time the globe turns, murder strikes…
1597, London. When Beatrice’s husband returns from exploring the New World, he comes home with unexpected company: a mysterious woman, and an enormous painted globe.
As Hugh refuses to explain who their female guest is, Beatrice’s foreboding grows. The unwieldy globe now strikes her as sinister – a reminder of the world of secrets pervading her household.
Then one night, the great, hulking globe begins to turn of its own accord. Terrifying new illustrations appear on its face – and when untimely deaths ensue, Beatrice is convinced that the drawings are connected.
Desperate to prove that she is not paranoid, Beatrice risks everything to uncover the truth. What sinister force is behind these killings? What really happened on Hugh’s excursion to the Americas? Who is the strange woman who won’t leave her house? And on this otherworldly map of murders, who will be painted as the final victim?
Published April 24th by Doubleday Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The gripping new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Tall Bones, the haunting bestseller and Book of the Month for the Guardian, Grazia and the Observer. _______
‘There’s nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator’s nearby…And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil…’
The Labasques aren’t like other families.
Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep.
So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother.
Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed everything she valued most. Now, there may be no way for her to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…
Set against the haunting beauty of Southern Louisiana, Our Last Wild Days is a stunning, evocative novel about the ways in which we come to understand our place in the world.
Published April 24th by Century Mystery, Crime Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Humorous Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Two unlikely detectives. A killer cocktail of suspects.
A Gibson martini garnished with three silverskin onions is 77-year-old Mimi’s favourite cocktail. It is best served with a crossword puzzle, not as an apéritif at Jane Ireland’s extravagant auction party.
But given Mimi has been blackmailed into attending Jane’s event, at a grand old mansion on Mackinac Island (Michigan’s answer to The Hamptons), there are worse drinks she could spend an evening sinking.
Thankfully for her, she’s roped her granddaughter, Addie – who is escaping the heartache caused by her manipulative ex-fiancé – into accompanying her. While Addie spots celebrities and socialites in the manor’s labyrinth of dark rooms and Mimi wonders how to confess the real reason for her presence at the soiree, a scream pierces the air.
Jane is dead.
And when a second body turns up, Mimi and Addie soon become the unlikeliest of sleuths in a race to narrow down the suspects.
In a house that contains as many secrets as the people within it, it’s going to take more than a Gibson to survive the night…
Jessica and Linda have been best friends since the first day of school. Both girls are from very different broken homes – and beautiful, wilful Jessica has always ensured their survival.
Now eighteen, the two girls have come to Wilde – an elite university in the heart of Dublin, far away from their troubled childhoods. Jessica thrives immediately, and, with the faithful Linda at her side, finds herself at the heart of a new circle of friends.
But then Mark enters the picture. A philosophy student a few years older than them, he has strange and compelling ideas about self-discovery. When Linda and Mark start dating, Jessica is disturbed by the change in her friend – and how quickly she seems to have fallen under this abrasive, charismatic man’s control.
It turns out that Mark’s influence is not limited to Linda alone; and Jessica soon finds out that her whole group of friends are keeping secrets for him – culminating in a terrible tragedy that strikes at the end of their first year.
Years later, Jessica is still grappling with her guilt over what happened at Wilde. And when Mark resurfaces, she knows she owes it to herself – and Linda – to set the record straight once and for all.
Published April 24th by Simon & Schuster UK Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Science Fiction, Crime Series
BOOK DESCRIPTION: DCS Kat Frank and AIDE Lock are back in a cutting-edge new thriller.
The truth will always come out, but at what cost?
Fresh from successfully closing their first live case, the Future Policing Unit are called in to investigate when a headless, handless body is found on a Warwickshire farm. But as they work to identify the victim and their killer, the discovery of a second body begins to spark fears that The Aston Strangler is back. And as the stakes rise for the team, so do the tensions brewing within it.
When DCS Kat Frank is accused of putting the wrong man behind bars all those years ago, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – pursues the truth about what happened with relentless logic. But Kat is determined to keep the past buried, and when she becomes the target of a shadowy figure looking for revenge, Lock is torn between his evidence-based algorithms and the judgement of his partner, with explosive results.
When everything hangs in the balance, it will all come down to just how much an AI machine can learn, and what happens when they do . . .
Published April 24th by Akan Books Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Tender, brutal, devastating, OVERSPILL is the debut novel from incredible new literary talent, Charlotte Paradise, perfect for fans of Sally Rooney and Coco Mellors
Sara is twenty-five. She has never used a tampon without having a panic attack.
She starts dating Miles. For three months, they don’t touch. Miles respects her boundaries, though he longs for them to melt away. Sara desires Miles, but she knows her body, or rather she knows it is an unknowable thing.
Sara wants to be in love, to find a person who allows her to be herself. Someone who is happy with everything she is and everything she isn’t. Miles hopes he won’t hurt her.
But how do you navigate a relationship for which there is no blueprint? How do you love someone when your body is not your own, and how do you reclaim it?
Published April 24th by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Holiday Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The brilliantly escapist and gloriously romantic new summer read from million-copy Sunday Times bestselling author Heidi Swain!
Summer is in full swing when Daisy drives back into Wynmouth in her almost-clapped-out car, having left both her most recent job and the man her parents thought she was going to marry. Coming home could be just what she needs to move her life on.
At Wynbrook Manor, things are in disarray. Owner Algy isn’t getting any younger, and Daisy’s mum Janet, housekeeper at the manor, spends her days running around after him, while Daisy’s dad Robin, the gardener, has been let down by the person he had lined up to take care of the new cut-flower garden.
As Daisy tries to find her place at Wynbrook and in the village, she’s drawn to summer visitor Josh. But when he turns out to be not the person he appears to be, will the spark between them fizzle out? And with it, the chances of this turning into the best summer ever?
Published February 27th, 2025 by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
Today is my stop on the blog tour for the delightful romcom, Same Time Next Week. Thank you to SJV and Books and the City for the invitation to take part, and to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for the honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
‘Milly is the most wonderful, life-affirming writer about women’s lives, love and friendship; her books are a joy.’ JENNY COLGAN
‘Real women, real life, real feeling, Milly brings it all.’ CATHY BRAMLEY
Welcome to Spring Hill, home to a square of independent shops and cafes, a thriving local community and nearby the newest venture, Ray’s Diner. Here a group of women meet once a week over a cup of something warming.
Amanda is primary carer to her elderly mother and one of the only women in a male-dominated company. Used to being second-best all her life, is this her time to finally break ranks and shine?
Sky works at the repair shop, patching up old teddy bears, and their owners’ hearts. But her heart beats for the one man who is strictly off-limits.
Mel has been a loyal and loving wife to Steve for thirty years. Then when he goes to his old school reunion, life as she knows it will never be the same again.
Erin is trying to get over a traumatic loss where her guilt weighs more than her grief. Can she find the first step to healing lies in sharing an hour with strangers once a week?
Astrid is feeling in need of a change and a challenge. But when a fantastic opportunity presents itself, who is around to convince her she is worthy enough to take the risk?
Can these women find the answers to their worries, acceptance, courage, support here? Join them at the same time next week to find out…
‘Milly writes with a huge heart about the challenges women face, particularly in later life. Her wisdom shines through, as does her humour: no-one can bring you from tears to smiles more quickly. Her books are warm, funny and real, and her stories celebrate triumph over adversity, the power of love, and the importance of friendship. Her heroines are down to earth yet reach for the sky and are truly inspirational, like Milly herself. She makes the world a better place.’ VERONICA HENRY
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MY REVIEW:
Spring Hill is a thriving community in Yorkshire that is home to a square of independent shops and cafes. The newest one on the block is Ray’s Diner, where a group of women meet each week hoping to make connections and find friends. Each has their own challenges and reasons for being there, but over a warm cuppa their differences will disappear as they find their similarities, forge new friendships, and find the support they need.
Heartwarming, funny, uplifting and life-affirming, Same Time Next Week is another winner about real people with real problems and real feelings. Milly Johnson never fails to deliver. She has a knack for writing heartfelt slice-of-life stories that feel relatable and real.. Her books are a go-to comfort read for me, so I was thrilled to be offered the chance to take part in this blog tour. I loved the sense of friendship and community that is on these pages; it is so much harder to make new friends as an adult, and I loved that Ms. Johnson has addressed that topic in this book, creating a story about a group of women brought together by loneliness and a desire to connect.
The book is filled with an eclectic cast of characters who are richly drawn, relatable and real. Each of them are going through their own unique challenges that lead to them seeking out the friendship group: Amanda is primary carer to a disparaging mother, Mel is lost after the collapse of her thirty year marriage, Erin is trying to get over a traumatic loss and is plagued by guilt, Erin patches up old teddy bears but can’t patch up her own heart, and Astrid is needing a new direction in life but feels scared to grab the opportunity when it arises. A friendship club is a fantastic idea for finding new friends as an adult and I enjoyed seeing these ladies all bravely taking that first step over the threshold and then finding the love and support they needed.
A witty, warm and wonderful read, I highly recommend this book.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Milly Johnson was born, raised and still lives in Barnsley, South Yorkshire. She is the author of 22 novels, 4 short story ebooks, a book of poetry and a Quick Reads Novella (‘The Little Dreams of Lara Cliffe’) and was an erstwhile leading copywriter for the greetings card industry. She is also a poet, a professional joke-writer, a newspaper columnist and a seasoned after dinner speaker.
She won the RoNA for Best Romantic Comedy Novel of 2014 and 2016, the Yorkshire Society award for Arts and Culture 2015, the Romantic Novelist Association Outstanding Achievement award in 2020, the Goldsboro Books Contemporary Romantic Novel Award in 2021 and the Richard Whiteley Award for Inspiration to the County of Yorkshire in 2022.
She writes about love, life, friendships and the importance of community spirit. Her books champion women, their strength and resilience and celebrate her beloved Yorkshire.
Her 22nd novel ‘Same Time Next Week’ out 27th Feb 2025 is about five women all negotiating big changes in their lives. Will coming together in a friendship group at the new Ray’s Diner help them overcome what fate throws at them? Full of blueberry pie and cookies (don’t blame me if you start craving them)
Welcome to my most anticipated February releases. There’s some exciting new authors releasing their debut novels and some favourite authors releasing their latest stories.
Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey
Published February 4th by Tinder Press Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Where there is wonder, there is love – an unforgettable story of the beauty and savagery of the Alaskan wilderness, from the author of the million-copy international bestseller, The Snow Child.
‘I read with my heart in my mouth, filled with wonder’ Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry ‘An enthralling novel about the endurance of love, the power of forgiveness and the savage, irresistible allure of wild places’ Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. So she’s a little hungover on her shifts, and has to bring her daughter to the lodge while she waits never tables, but it’s a tough town to be a single mother, and Birdie just needs to get by. And then Birdie meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen; who is gentle with Emaleen, and understands Birdie’s fascination with the mountains in whose shadow they live. When Arthur asks Birdie and Emaleen to leave the lodge and make a home, just the three of them, in his off-grid cabin, Birdie’s answer, in a heartbeat, is yes. Out in the wilderness Birdie’s days are harsher and richer than she ever imagined possible. Here she will feel truly at one with nature. Here she, and Emaleen, will learn the whole, fearful truth about Arthur.
Published February 4th by Boldwood Books Contemporary Romance, Magical Realism, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Suddenly Maddy is right there… in her very own future. And it’s all wrong, yet again.
It happens to her every time. When the kisses lead to the bedroom, just when she thinks she might have found the one… Just for a split second, Maddy disappears, and she finds that she’s living her own life. But ten years into the future.
She’s only there for a little while. But each time, it’s long enough to know that she doesn’t want to be any of those future versions of Maddy. Because every man she falls for seems to lead her to a future that is just… wrong.
Until she meets Oliver. And the vision of their future is happy. Beautiful even. A little girl runs around, her braids flying behind her, giggling about how she wants sausages for dinner. She has eyes just like Oliver’s.
There’s just one catch. If Maddy wants the family she’s seeing in her future with Oliver, she realizes she has to break his heart now…
Would you destroy your present if there’s a chance that it could give you the perfect future?
Perfect for fans of David Nicholls, Matt Haig, and The Husbands by Holly Gramazio. The most unmissable ‘what if?’ love story of the year!
Published February 4th by Sphere Romance Novel, New Adult Ficiton, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A junior at Stanford and a student athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships – at least, that’s what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water…
Published February 6th by Harvill Secker Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Mythology
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Brilliant and meticulously researched… I loved it.’ Santa Montefiore
Sister. Rival. Protector.
Quiet and reserved, Clemmie is happy in the background. Although her parents may overlook her talents, her ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at the Egyptian relic parties which have made her father the toast of Victorian society.
But at one such party, the words Clemmie interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. The beautiful and dangerous glyphs she holds in her hands will change her life forever.
Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Egypt on a mission to save what remains of her family. The childhood game she used to play about the immortal sisters, Isis and Nephthys, has taken on a devastating resonance and it is only by following Nephthys’ story that she can undo the mistakes of the past.
On her journey up the Nile she will meet unexpected allies and enemies and, along with long-buried secrets and betrayals, Clemmie will be forced to step into the light.
Published February 6th by Manilla Press Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Fantasy, Thriller, Vampire Literature, Lesbian Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE FIERCEST, MOST POWERFUL RETELLING OF 2025: A STORY OF AMBITION, FEMALE OPPRESSION AND UNSTOPPABLE HUNGER . . .
FOR WHAT DO YOU HUNGER . . . ?
Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage the relationship has soured, and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry’s ambitions take them from London to the Peak District, to the remote, imposing Nethershaw estate, where he plans to host a hunting party. Lenore must work to restore the crumbling house and ready it for Henry’s guests – their future depends on it.
But as the couple travel through the bleak countryside, a shocking carriage accident brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore’s life. Carmilla, who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night, Carmilla who stirs up something deep within Lenore. And before long, girls from the local villages fall sick, consumed by a terrible hunger . . .
As the day of the hunt draws closer, Lenore begins to unravel, questioning the role she has been playing all these years. Torn between regaining her husband’s affection and the cravings Carmilla has awakened, soon Lenore will uncover a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk . . .
Set against the violent wilderness of the Peaks and the uncontrolled appetite of the Industrial Revolution, HUNGERSTONE is a compulsive sapphic reworking of CARMILLA, the book that inspired DRACULA: a captivating story of appetite and desire.
Published February 6th by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction, Fantasy Ficiton, Fairy Tale, Mythology
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Perfect for fans of Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den, Rosie Hewlett’s Medea and Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra
—
RULER. MOTHER. GODDESS. WARRIOR.
They called me The Morrigan. I was magnificent. I was multitudes. They twisted my story, stripped me away. But I will tell it now in my own voice. It begins, as all the best stories do, in darkness.
From an ancient, storm-tossed sea, a tribe of gods reach the rocky shores of Ireland.
Among them, a strange, hungry, red-haired girl. A girl who can change shape, from bird to beast to goddess. A girl who dreams of battle, of blood, of death and power.
She does not know yet that a woman who seeks to rule will always be in danger – or that there are far more treacherous figures in this land than the gods who raised her.
She does not know that one day love will burn so deep in her heart that its scars will never heal. That she will know pain so raw and pure it will almost tear her apart.
She does not know that her journey will take a thousand years. That her name will be remembered for a thousand more.
She is The Morrigan, and she is waiting: a girl with rage coiled in her chest. Beautiful, powerful, ravenous rage. A rage that will live forever.
An electric debut retelling of Ireland’s mythic goddess of war, from a bold and powerful new voice.
Published February 6th by Hamish Hamilton Literary Fiction, Translated Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Like a long winter’s dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes us on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history
‘One of the most profound and skilled writers working on the contemporary world stage’ Deborah Levy
Beginning one morning in December, We Do Not Part traces the path of Kyungha as she travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, to the home of her old friend Inseon. Hospitalized following an accident, Inseon has begged Kyungha to hasten there to feed her beloved pet bird, who will otherwise die.
Kyungha takes the first plane to Jeju, but a snowstorm hits the island the moment she arrives, plunging her into a world of white. Beset by icy wind and snow squalls, she wonders if she will arrive in time to save the bird – or even survive the terrible cold which envelops her with every step. As night falls, she struggles her way to Inseon’s house, unaware as yet of the descent into darkness which awaits her.
There, the long-buried story of Inseon’s family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive documenting a terrible massacre on the island seventy years before.
We Do Not Part is a hymn to friendship, a eulogy to the imagination and above all an indictment against forgetting.
Published February 6th by Fleet Literary Fiction, Suspense
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘From the very first page, Emma Van Straaten had me by the Hail Marys. Obsessive, delusional, disastrous – but so intricately woven with heart, warmth and empathy. An impeccable debut from a rising talent‘ ALICE SLATER ‘An addictive deep-dive into the dark, throbbing heart of obsessive desire. Baby Reindeer meets Convenience Store Woman‘ KIRSTY LOGAN, author of Now She Is Witch
Alice has been cleaning Tom’s flat every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every crease smoothed out in his bed, every multivitamin counted from the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation. But as Alice prepares for the moment when they will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. . .
This Immaculate Body is a story of obsession, of the way women view the world and the ways that the world views them. As Alice frantically tries to cling to an imagined future with Tom, the line between fantasy and reality become ever more blurred, putting everything she has dreamed of at risk.
Published February 6th by Hodder & Stoughton Romance Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The greatest adventure is coming back home.
Lila Metcalfe is a trainee journalist in Derby and she’s very used to being given the stories that no one else wants. So, when her editor tells her that the city’s Cossington Park development is being held up by a solitary resident on Hope Street who is refusing to leave, she knows she is going to be the one sent to find out more. And that’s how she meets Connor.
Twenty-something Connor is the sole resident of Hope Street and he is not at all what Lila is expecting. And he has a very clear reason not to move: he is waiting for his mum to come home.
The uplifting and heartfelt new novel from the author of A Song of Me and You.
Published February 6th by Orion Suspense, Thriller, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: They said a mother knows best and I believed them. Was I wrong?
It is supposed to be a dream. James and I have been trying for years. But now it is starting to feel like a nightmare.
Doctors don’t ask questions, or care about how you’re feeling. They just tell you what to do. They never listen.
Mam and James don’t understand either. James thinks I’m being anxious and Mam says it’ll pass. It always does. That’s what she did when Dad died.
I’ve never felt more alone. Or scared.
Then I joined an online group for mothers. A sisterhood, really. They might be on a screen, but sometimes it feels like they know me better than James. They listen, they care. It’s all I could have asked for.
Until the worst happens and I see them for who they are. But if I leave, what if they come for me next?
Published February 6th by Tor Contemporary Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction, Gay Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: An action-packed supernatural road trip featuring an extraordinary young girl and her two unlikely protectors. The Bones Beneath My Skin is a gripping, heartfelt story that explores what it means to be human – by bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune.
He lost everything. Then he found himself . . .
In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright is at a loose end: his parents are dead, his older brother has disowned him, and he’s been fired from his job. Looking for a sense of direction, he returns to his family’s summer cabin in Oregon.
The cabin should be empty – but it’s not. Inside is a man named Alex, and an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. There’s far more to Art than meets the eye. But as Alex and Nate bond over just how special she truly is, they discover that powerful forces are closing in – forces that want nothing more than to control her.
As danger draws near, Nate decide whether to drown in the memories of his past, or fight for Art and a future he never thought possible.
With his uplifting tales of hope and redemption, there is a TJ Klune book for every reader.
Published February 6th by Atom Domestic Fiction, Religious Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last.
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom’s Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too-but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.
In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.
In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are in the first weeks of COVID lockdown and hating Zoom school, when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.
Published February 6th by Michael Joseph Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A family full of secrets. A chance to set them all free.
When Ebby Freeman travels to France to take a three-month hiatus from her complicated home life, the last person she expects to find is her ex-fiancé Henry, with his new girlfriend in tow.
Nearly twenty years earlier, the Freemans were the only African American family living in a wealthy coastal enclave in Connecticut when armed robbers invaded their home and tragedy changed their lives forever.
Then, just as Ebby thought she had a new chance at happiness, her storybook romance with Henry fell apart.
Now, this unexpected encounter with Henry will force Ebby to reckon with her past and to think on the other loss her family suffered that day – the destruction of a beloved stoneware jar crafted by an enslaved ancestor and passed down through the generations.
A piece that might hold not only her family history, but also the key to reclaiming her future.
Published February 6th by Fig Tree Thriller, Horror Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The most mesmerising, unsettling novel of 2025, perfect for fans of David Mitchell, Julia Armfield, and Margaret Atwood.
The woman never goes by the same name. She never stays in the same place too long. She never ages. She never dies. But those around her do.
When two grieving strangers meet by chance in Osaka airport they uncover a disturbing connection. Jake’s best friend and Mariko’s twin brother each died, 6,000 miles apart, in brutal and unfathomable circumstances.
Each encountered a mesmerising, dark-haired woman in the days before their deaths. A woman who came looking for Mariko – and then disappeared.
Jake, who has carried his loss and guilt for a decade, finds himself compelled to follow the trail set by Mariko’s revelations. It’s a trail that weaves across continents and centuries, leading back to the many who have died – in strange and terrifying and eerily similar ways – and those they left behind: bewildered, disbelieved, yet resolutely sure of what they saw.
And, at the centre of it all, there is the same beguiling woman. Her name may have changed, but her purpose has never wavered, and as Jake races to discover who, or what she is, she has already made her next choice.
But will knowing her secret be enough to stop her?
Published February 6th by Macmillan Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: BEAUTY IS PAIN . . . Exploring themes of ambition, authenticity and empowerment, this taut, politically charged feminist thriller delivers a scathing take-down of the wellness industry, perfect for fans of The Drop Out and Yellowface.
It’s a woman’s world, isn’t it?
Rhoda West has the world at her feet.
As the luminously charismatic CEO of Radical, a fast-growing start-up, Rhoda has built a wellness company whose core mission is the betterment of women’s lives. Showcasing her cult products and her perfect life through her social media, Rhoda is the ultimate ‘Radigal’, encouraging her followers to be #bebetter, whilst driving her business to attain the billion-dollar unicorn status that she craves.
But just as Radical announces the latest fundraising round that will take it over the top, an anonymous twitter account begins revealing the company’s secrets and starts questioning its beliefs and approach, and Rhoda herself.
Is Rhoda really the nurturing leader that she presents to the world, or a fraud on a mission to exploit the women she claims to want to help? As tensions rise and enemies present themselves, the only questions are how far will Rhoda go to fulfil her legacy and how far will her enemies go to destroy it. . .
Published February 11th by Michael Joseph Romance Novel, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The #1 Sunday Times bestselling author, whose books so many love, brings us a fresh, contemporary story of a woman and her unruly blended family
‘The best book she has ever written’ Marian Keyes
***
Welcome to the Kennedy household:
Lila wrote a bestseller about keeping your marriage alive, before discovering her ex was playing happy families with another woman. A woman she sees everyday at school pick-up.
Bill, her stepdad, moved in after Lila’s mum died. He’s kind, old-fashioned and driving her absolutely nuts.
Celie, Lila’s eldest, hates school. Hates it so much she’s stopped going. Her mother’s fine with that – because she doesn’t know yet.
Violet is nine and sings age-inappropriate rap songs, laughs at fart jokes and Lila dearly hopes she’ll never, ever change.
And Truant the dog, who has just bitten the American actor who’s suddenly landed on the Kennedys’ doorstep.
This is Gene – Lila’s estranged father, and no one’s idea of a role model. He walked out on Lila and her mum years ago – and wherever he goes domestic discord follows.
Because Gene’s presence changes things in unexpected ways. Soon the girls discover a kindred spirit in a man always chasing life’s joy. Bill even loosens up. And Lila finds herself, astonishingly, dating.
Something is happening to the Kennedy household – but what is it? And will it break, or save, their family?
Published February 13th by The Borough Press Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Nautical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Sisters separated by centuries.
Voices that can’t be drowned out.
Lucy is running from what she’s done – and what someone did to her.
There’s only one person who might understand: her sister Jess. But when Lucy arrives at her sister’s desolate cliff-top house, Jess is gone.
Lucy is now alone, in a strange town steeped in rumour. Stories of men disappearing without a trace. A foundling discovered in a sea-swept cave. And women’s voices murmuring on the waves…
As Lucy searches for her sister, those voices get ever louder. They tell of two sisters, two centuries ago, bound and transported across the world. A world where men always get their way. A world that is at once distant, and achingly familiar.
Are these voices luring Lucy closer to her sister? Or will the secrets of the past pull them both under?
Published February 13th by Fourth Estate Gothic Ficiton, Horror Fiction, Suspense, Dark Comedy, Satire
BOOK DESCRIPTION: NOW BEING ADAPTED FOR A MAJOR FILM STARRING MARGARET QUALLEY
‘Simmering with rage, propulsive and laugh-out-loud funny’ CATRIONA WARD
‘Weird and wonderful’ LUCY MANGAN, GUARDIAN
Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect Victorian governess. She’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But the longer Winifred spends within the estate’s dreary confines and the more she learns of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family, the more trouble she has sticking to her plan.
Whether creeping across the moonlit lawns in her undergarments or gently tormenting the house staff, Winifred struggles at every turn to stifle the horrid compulsions of her past until her chillingly dark imagination breaches the feeble boundary of reality on Christmas morning. Wielding her signature sardonic wit and a penchant for the gorgeously macabre, Virginia Feito returns with a vengeance in Victorian Psycho.
Published February 13th by Bantam Press Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Six thriller authors. One writing retreat. You’d die to be on the guest list . . .
The Host Legendary mystery author J. R. Alastor’s books are sold all over the world, but no one knows his real name. After years hiding in the shadows, he has sent out six invitations to an exclusive murder mystery retreat on his private island.
The Assistant Mila del Angél has been hired to ensure the week runs smoothly. She has yearned for revenge on a ghost from her past for years – and this could be her chance to get it.
The Players The six bestselling thriller writers accept their invitations without question – it’s an opportunity any author would kill for.
The Game What should have been a week of trope-filled games takes a sinister turn when one guest is found dead, and the others find themselves in the midst of a nightmare drawn from Alastor’s dark imagination. They may have written thrillers – but now they and Mila must survive one…
Publshed February 13th by Quercus Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Suspense, Fantasy Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: SOME MURDERS CAN’T BE SOLVED IN JUST ONE LIFETIME.
‘A five-star start to a dazzling new series . . . Smart, original and utterly masterful’ Janice Hallett
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research.
The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London in order to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Rumour has it that Cain was part of a sinister group called The Collectors; to become a member, you had to kill a woman…
Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her life, her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day.
Could the two cases be connected?
Set your clocks to February 2025 and get ready for an original, transportive and characterful new crime novel from no. 1 bestselling author Elly Griffiths. Perfect for those missing the Dr Ruth Galloway series and for any crime and historical fiction fans.
Published February 13th by Baskerville Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Hardboiled
BOOK DESCRIPTION: RAMONA CHANG
An investigative journalist turned private detective, Ramona’s final scoop left her with a target on her back. Now in hiding, she is living in a run-down flat in east London. But when her latest case looking into an upmarket escort agency takes a dark turn, she needs information only accessible to those in power . . .
DETECTIVE SERGEANT MADELEINE FARROW
A high-flying operative at a government agency, it’s the day of her fiftieth birthday when Madeleine finds out that she has been given the lead on an investigation into corruption on a global scale. But when she finds her case mysteriously blocked from the inside, she needs someone on the outside, capable of moving undetected . . .
As Ramona’s and Madeleine’s cases collide, can the unlikely allies find justice for multiple victims within the capital’s hotbed of lies and deception?
A gripping thrill-ride set against the gloss and grit of contemporary London, DIRTY MONEY introduces an unforgettable new detective duo created by critically acclaimed writer Charlotte Philby.
Published February 13th by Headline Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Robyn ‘Avril’ Managa was twelve when she witnessed her controlling and abusive father murder her mother. Put into care while her well-connected was father given a new identity in Witness Protection, Robyn has lived with the trauma of that day ever since.
Now in her twenties, Robyn has decided she wants a family reunion – so is killing people connected to her father’s case, leaving on their bodies the note: GIVE HIM TO ME.
Dr Kez Lanyon is called onto the case. But can Kez get into Robyn’s mind before she kills again? Or is she about to become Avril’s latest victim?
Profiler and therapist Kez Lanyon returns in a gripping new stand-alone novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Dorothy Koomson.
Published February 13th by Riverrun Literary Ficiton, Psychological Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Remarkably Bright Creatures, this is a charming, witty and moving novel about what it feels like to grow up neurodivergent.
‘Climb up here, Little Alien. Sit next to me. I will tell you about life on this planet. I will tell you how it goes’
From her first words to her first day at school, Little Alien can’t help but get things wrong. She doesn’t understand the world the way others seem to, and the world doesn’t seem to understand her either. Her anxious mum and meticulous dad, while well-intentioned, are of little help.
But when Little Alien sees a documentary about the Voynich Manuscript – a mediaeval codex written in an unknown language and script – she begins to suspect that there are other people who feel just like her. Convinced that translating this manuscript will offer the answers she needs, she sets out on a journey that will show her a delicious taste of freedom.
So begins this charming, witty, and profoundly moving novel about the power of language, the wonder of libraries – and how to find a path that fits, when you yourself do not.
Published February 13th by Aria Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A heart-wrenching and unforgettable story of courage, friendship and resistance, inspired by the incredible true story of a Jewish ballroom dancer in Paris during WWII, perfect for fans of The Paris Library.
Paris, 1938. Annie Mayer arrives in France with dreams of becoming a ballerina. But when the war reaches Paris, she’s forced to keep her Jewish heritage a secret. Then a fellow dancer offers her a lifeline: a ballroom partnership that gives her a new identity. Together, Annie and her partner captivate audiences across occupied Europe, using her newfound fame and alias to aid the Resistance.
New York, 2012. Miriam, haunted by her past, travels from London to New York to settle her great-aunt Esther’s estate. Among Esther’s belongings, she discovers notebooks detailing a secret family history and the story of a brave dancer who risked everything to help Jewish families during the war.
As Miriam uncovers Esther’s life in Europe, she realises the story has been left for her to finish. Grappling with loss and the possibility of new love, Miriam must find the strength to reconcile her past and embrace her future.
Published February 13th by Viking Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ONE STORY. TWO EXES. CAN THEY CHANGE THEIR ENDING?
‘Such a fun, romantic read’ Beth O’Leary ‘This book melted my stone cold heart’ Jendella Benson
Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, meet each other’s friends. Then they break up. And Wale goes on a reality dating show.
Instead of giving in to heartbreak, Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghost-write a celebrity autobiography arises, Temi accepts.
And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…
Will Temi and Wale repeat the patterns of their past? Or can they write a whole new story?
Published February 13th by Century Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Urban Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A beautiful Chelsea town house. A chance to fulfil her dreams. A life adventure awaits… __________
It’s 1968 and it’s cold when Felicity arrives in London to stay with her mother, improve her English, do a secretarial course – and meet a suitable man.
She is already missing her home in Provence and her father and his new wife and their extended family. But it’s only for a year she tells herself – and then she can go back to France and do what she really wants and become a painter.
And then she bumps into Oliver who is quite the most interesting young man she has ever met. He lives on a barge for one thing and has a collection of jobs, but his passion is looking for hidden treasures along the shores of the river Thames.
In a word, he’s a mudlarker – and before long Felicity is mudlarking too. She is also pursuing her dreams and painting scenery for Oliver’s actor friends.
But is Oliver a Suitable Man of whom her mother will approve? Felicity knows she will not …
Love, tangled relationships, and a real life adventure lie at the heart of Katie Fforde’s heart-warming new novel.
Published February 13th by Chatto & Windus Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The happily ever after is only part of the story…A funny, touching, hopeful gem about love, marriage and second chances
It’s the day before her daughter’s wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines. First thing, she loses her job – or quits, depending who you ask. Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities. He doesn’t even have a suit. Instead, he’s brought memories, a shared sense of humour – and a cat looking for a new home.
Just as Gail is wondering what’s next, their daughter Debbie discovers her groom has been keeping a secret…
As the big day dawns, the exes just can’t agree on what’s best for Debbie. Gail is seriously worried, while Max seems more concerned with whether to opt for the salmon or prime rib at the reception, if they make it that far.
The day after the wedding, Gail and Max prepare to go their separate ways again. But all the questions about the future of the happy couple have stirred up the past for Gail. Because ‘happy’ takes many forms, and sometimes the younger generation has much to teach the older about secrets, acceptance and taking the rough with the smooth.
The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea by C. L. Miller
Published February 13th by Pan Macmillan Mystery, Crime Fiction, Cozy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Join Freya and Aunt Carole for more sleuthing in the highly anticipated second instalment in your new favourite crime series, The Antique Hunters. The Antique Hunter’s: Death on the Red Sea is a cosy crime read for fans of the Antiques Roadshow.
When a painting vanishes from a maritime museum – and a dead body is found nearby – the newly established Lockwood Antique Hunter’s Agency, Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole, are called to investigate.
Following a lead that takes them aboard a glamorous antiques cruise sailing toward the Red Sea in Jordan, they quickly discover that the ship’s art gallery is filled with stolen antiquities. Each and every one of them is also listed in Freya’s late mentor’s journals detailing unsolved cases. In chasing a murderer with a stolen painting, they may have found something more sinister than they could’ve imagined . . .
Their hunt soon turns deadly when they learn that the enigmatic and dangerous art trafficker named The Collector could be on board. But on a ship full of antiques enthusiasts – plus some unexpected familiar faces – will Freya and Carole be able to discover The Collector’s identity and stop his murderous plans before the ship docks?
Published February 13th by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Cosy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ONCE UPON A TIME LIKE YOU’VE NEVER READ IT BEFORE . . .
DI Lyla Rondell is on the case of a lifetime. Tasked with investigating a series of perplexing deaths, the only lead she has is that each appears to be based on a different classic fairy tale. Far from the stuff of bedtime stories, the press is having a field day with what they have named the Grimm Ripper Murders.
But as the bodies stack up, Lyla’s whole world is about to flip on its head. Because the killer’s bloody trail stretches deep into her own origin story, and when she discovers the truth, nothing will ever be the same again.
Faced with the fact that everything she knows is fiction, Lyla will have to take a little creative license of her own if she’s going to turn the final page on the killings . . .
Published February 13th by Electric Monkey Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Hisotrical Romance, Young Adult Ficiton
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The Cruel Prince meets Bridgerton in this captivating fantasy brimming with heart-pounding romance, vicious competition and beautiful, cruel fae, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Witch Haven, Sasha Peyton Smith.
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Every citizen of England is granted one bargain from their immortal fae queen. High society girls are expected to bargain for qualities that will win them suitors: a rare talent for piano in exchange for one’s happiest childhood memory. A perfect smile for one’s ability to taste.
But Ivy Benton’s debut season arrives with a shocking twist: a competition to secure the heart of the Queen’s fae son, Prince Bram. A prize that could save Ivy’s family from ruin… and free her sister from the bargain that destroyed her.
Yet every glittering fae deal has a rotting heart, and at the centre of this contest is a dark plot that could destroy everything.
Sweepingly romantic and deceptively enchanting, this alternate history romantasy will enthrall readers of Lauren Roberts, Stephanie Garber, and Sarah J Maas.
Published February 13th by Harper Voyager Romantic Fantasy, Romance Novel, High Fantasy, Fairy Tale, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, Adventure Ficiton, Supernatural Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: RETURN TO THE INTOXICATING WORLD OF THE FAE…
Betrayed by destiny.
Cursed by love.
Bound by hope.
Yeeran and Lettle are no longer prisoners to the fae court, but now they’re bound by the shackles of their hearts …
Yeeran was born for war but is unprepared for love. She has left her new lover, the Queen of the fae, to return to her homeland, only to find that her former lover now threatens war against the fae.
Left behind, her sister Lettle is determined to break the curse that binds the fae to their realm. When a stranger appears in the city, Lettle is convinced he’s the key. But the Fates that once spoke to her have fallen silent.
Can Lettle and Yeeran discover the secret behind the curse – and unite these two worlds before they destroy each other?
Return to the intoxicating world of the fae in the seductive sequel to the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling Faebound.
Published February 20th by Sphere Historical Fiction, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Paris, 1789. The Oberst Factory, which crafts exquisite wallpaper for the most fashionable French homes, is a place shrouded in mystery. Most enigmatic is the woman pictured in each of its prints, rumoured to be the late Mrs Oberst, who died in peculiar circumstances.
When sisters Lara and Sofi arrive there for work, they quickly form a friendship with Josef Oberst, the motherless heir to the factory. Whilst Sofi’s political fervour intensifies, Lara is disturbed by the uncanny way her life appears mirrored in the wallpaper. Meanwhile Hortense, Josef’s spoilt aristocratic wife, is similarly unnerved by the scenes that line the walls of her new home. With the mobs growing ever more violent, is she in danger of meeting the same untimely end as the last Mrs Oberst?
As revolution blazes across France, the lives of Sofi, Lara and Hortense are set to collide in unimaginable and irrevocable ways. Can they change what lies ahead, or are some patterns destined to be repeated?
Published February 20th by Pan Macmillan Romance Novel, Historical Ficiton, Historical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘An unforgettable voice within a breathtaking story about love, lineage, and the intergenerational effect of bravery in the face of misfortune’ – Jessica George, author of Diverse Book Awards winning My Name is Maame
Everything about Adeline Copplefield is a lie . . .
To the world Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives.
Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother; she has no claim to the Copplefield name, nor is she an English lady . . .
Now a black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story . . .
From the author of The Attic Child, Lola Jaye, comes a powerful dual narrative historical novel. The Manual for Good Wives is about love, generational trauma, second chances and hope.
Published February 20th by Chatto & Windus Literary Fiction, Coming-of-Age Story, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A gut-punch novel of girlhood in early noughties Yorkshire from a blazing new voice
Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.
But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They share everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs to trips to the Family Planning clinic when they are late. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin charting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace ― their friendship is as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh takes you by the hand and leads you through Doncaster’s schoolyards, alleyways and nightclubs, laying bare the intimate treacheries of adolescence and the ways we betray ourselves when we don’t trust our friends. Like The Glorious Heresies and Shuggie Bain, it tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, turning one overlooked place into the very centre of the world.
Published February 27th by Simon & Schuster UK Historical Fiction, Saga
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In the chaos of that terrible night, her secret went down with the Titanic. But secrets have a way of floating to the surface…
Trapped in an unhappy aristocratic marriage, Elinor Coombes sees only lonely days ahead of her. So a present from her father – tickets for the maiden voyage of a huge, luxurious new ship called the Titanic – offers a welcome escape from the cold, controlling atmosphere of her husband’s ancestral home, and some precious time with her little son, Teddy.
When the ship goes down, Elinor realises the disaster has given her a chance to take Teddy and start a new life – but only if they can disappear completely, listed as among the dead. Penniless and using another woman’s name, she has to learn to survive in a world that couldn’t be more different from her own, and keep their secret safe.
An uplifting story about grabbing your chances with both hands, and being brave enough to find out who you really are.
Published February 27th by Quercus Historical Fiction, Mythology, Fairy Tale
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Born of the sun and moon, shaped by fire and malady, comes a young woman whose story has never been told . . .
They call her Sycorax. Seer. Sage. Sorceress.
Outcast by society and all alone in the world, Sycorax must find a way to understand her true nature. But as her powers begin to grow, so too do the suspicions of the local townspeople. For knowledge can be dangerous, and a woman’s knowledge is the most dangerous of all . . .
With a great storm brewing on the horizon, Sycorax finds herself in increasing peril – but will her powers save her, or will they spell the end for them all?
A beautifully written and deeply moving imagining of what came before Shakespeare’s The Tempest from the author of A Girl Made of Air.
Publsihed February 27th by Orenda Books Gothic Fiction, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Horror Fiction, Noir Ficiton, Supernatural Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Suspected of murdering their parents, sisters Lily and Della flee to a strange, unnamed island in Scotland, and their arrival puts in motion a horrifying series of events… Literary suspense meets folk horror in 2025’s most original, mesmerising modern gothic masterpiece…
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Evil runs through this cursed island And these wicked sisters are about to make it burn…
When sisters Lily and Della Pedley are persecuted for the shocking murder of their parents, they flee from their home in Cornwall to a remote and unnamed island in Scotland – an island known for its strange happenings, but far away from the whispers and prying eyes of strangers.
Lily is terrified of what her sister will might do next, and she soon realises that they have arrived at a place where nothing is as it seems. A bitterness runs through the land like poison, and the stories told by the islanders seem to be far more than folklore.
Della settles in too easily, the island folk drawn to her strangeness, but Lily is plagued by odd and unsettling dreams, and as an annual festival draws nigh, she discovers that she has far more to fear than she could ever have imagined. Or does she…?
Chilling, atmospheric and utterly hypnotic, Small Fires is a contemporary gothic novel that examines possession, generational trauma, female rage, and the perilous bonds of family – an unsettling reminder that the stories we tell can be deadly…
Midsommar meets Midnight Mass in a folk horror, modern gothic masterpiece.
Publsiehd February 27th by Headline Thriller, Suspense, Humorous Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Cozy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A headmistress is dead. The circumstances are suspicious. And as every parent knows, being on the school group chat can be murder…
As educators go, Claudia Stitchwell makes Miss Hannigan look like Miss Honey. But when the reviled headteacher drops dead in the school hall, a group of sceptical parents suspect the nut allergy explanation doesn’t add up – they believe someone wanted to teach Miss Stitchwell a lesson.
Only four people could have killed Stitchwell: Hattie, the adored school cook; Kiera, the hard-working teaching assistant; Clive, the loathed school bursar and Ben, the popular deputy head. All of them are liars… but only one is the murderer.
Piecing together evidence from the daily drama and drudgery of the parents’ group chat, local press, police reports, school newsletters, and good, old-fashioned gossip, the determined detective parents are doing their homework to crack the case.
Will you spot the clues? Can you deduce whodunnit? And for the love of all things holy, does anyone have this week’s spellings?
Published February 27th by Sphere Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime Ficiton, Psychological Thriller, Police Procedural
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The stunning new thriller from the author who brought you the jaw-dropping twist of I Let You Go, the gasp-out-loud ending of Let Me Lie, and the loveable, unpredictable Ffion Morgan in The Last Party and A Game of Lies.
Even on the most desirable street, there’s a dark side . . .
The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular.
Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There’s no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead – and why?
As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors . . .
Published February 27th by Bantam Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Historical Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and Booker-longlisted author Belinda Bauer, a sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years.
It was the greatest mystery never told . . .
1926. On the towering cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. But when small and hungry Celie Sheppard finds an ‘impossible’ red egg, it will forever alter the course of her life – and the lives of others.
100 years later in a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort discovers his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now.
A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skulduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.
Published February 27th by Doubleday Historical Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A powerful and spine-tingling gothic tale exploring mother-daughter relationships, sexuality, and class.
‘Bold, blazing, absolutely unforgettable’ Elizabeth Macneal, bestselling author of The Doll Factory
There are some facts about the world that only your mother can teach you. Marguerite had been confined for the sake of her wellbeing. That’s what her mother had said.
Marguerite Périgord is locked in the attic of her family home, a towering Chelsea house overlooking the stinking Thames.
For company she has a sewing machine, Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management and a carrion crow who has come to nest in the rafters. Restless, she spends her waning energies on the fascinations of her own body, memorising Mrs Beeton’s advice and longing for her life outside.
Cécile Périgord has confined her daughter Marguerite for her own good.
Cécile is concerned that Marguerite’s engagement to a much older, near-penniless solicitor, will drag the family name – her husband’s name, that is – into disrepute. And for Cécile, who has worked hard at her own betterment, this simply won’t do.
Cécile’s life has taught her that no matter how high a woman climbs she can just as readily fall.
Of course, both have their secrets, intentions and histories to hide. As Marguerite’s patience turns into rage, the boundaries of her mind and body start to fray.
And neither woman can recognise what the other is becoming.
Published February 27th by Bloomsbury Publishing Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: All that is hidden will soon be revealed . . .
One morning in 1890, a painting wrapped in brown paper appears on the steps of the National Gallery and causes a sensation. It’s clearly by Timothy Ponden-Hall, whose paintings were celebrated and debated not just for their beauty, but for the rumours behind them: they were believed to immortalise the souls of their subjects. But Ponden-Hall has been thought dead for the last 50 years. . .
In a bid to quiet the gossip and rumours that swirl around the streets of London, the gallery brings in renowned and reluctant art historian Solomon Oak to investigate. Oak is assisted by an unlikely aide: his daughter Alice. A passionate but sheltered student, Alice has worldly desires which eclipse the life she’s expected to lead. Together they discover that exposing Ponden-Hall’s legacy will prove more controversial than they could ever have imagined for their family, and for Victorian society.
Set between London and Oxford, The Portrait Artist is a twisting debut exploring race, fame and long-kept secrets.
Published February 27th by Simon & Schuster UK Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Welcome to Spring Hill, home to a square of independent shops and cafes, a thriving local community and nearby the newest venture, Ray’s Diner. Here a group of women meet once a week over a cup of something warming.
Amanda is primary carer to her elderly mother and one of the only women in a male-dominated company. Used to being second-best all her life, is this her time to finally break ranks and shine?
Sky works at the repair shop, patching up old teddy bears, and their owners’ hearts. But her heart beats for the one man who is strictly off-limits.
Mel has been a loyal and loving wife to Steve for thirty years. Then when he goes to his old school reunion, life as she knows it will never be the same again.
Erin is trying to get over a traumatic loss where her guilt weighs more than her grief. Can she find the first step to healing lies in sharing an hour with strangers once a week?
Astrid is feeling in need of a change and a challenge. But when a fantastic opportunity presents itself, who is around to convince her she is worthy enough to take the risk?
Can these women find the answers to their worries, acceptance, courage, support here? Join them at the same time next week to find out…
The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie We Zhao
Published Febuary 27th by Harper Voyager Fantasy Ficiton, Romantic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Romance Novel, Dark Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore the mortal realm apart. Now it is an increasingly dangerous place, falling into eternal night where ravenous demons roam and every day is a fight for survival…
The Immortality Trials offer a second chance in this brutal world and are open to any mortal willing to risk the journey to the immortal realm. The prize for completing them is eternal life…
However, first they must survive.
Àn’yīng knows the prize can heal her dying mother and that she’ll need all the help she can get if she’s to complete them.
But when a rival contestant, both powerful and handsome, promises protection and a chance of survival for both Àn’yīng and her mother, she will need to find out quickly whether she can truly trust the stranger she’s falling for or if he’s the most dangerous player of all … for herself and for all the realms.
It’s very late this month, but today I’m sharing my most anticipated releases out this month. There’s a huge selection, so get ready to add a lot to your wishlist!
The Players by Minetter Walters
Published January 2nd by Allen & Unwin Historical Fiction, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: REBELLION. RETRIBUTION. REDEMPTION. England, 1685. Decades after the end of the civil war, the country is once again divided when Charles II’s illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle.
Armed only with pitchforks, Monmouth’s army is quickly defeated by King James II’s superior forces and charged with high treason. Those found guilty will be hanged, drawn and quartered.
As Dorset braces for carnage, the redoubtable Lady Jayne Harrier and her enigmatic son, assisted by the reclusive daughter of a local magistrate, contrive ways to save men from the gallows.
Compelling and powerful, The Players is a story of guile, deceit and compassion during the dark days of The Bloody Assizes. Secrets are kept and surprising friendships formed in a dangerous gamble to thwart a brutal king’s thirst for vengeance…
Published January 2nd by Century Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick The Last Thing He Told Me comes a riveting mystery wrapped in an epic love story . . .
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One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below.
A tragic accident? Or murder?
Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened that night.
But their relationship has never been easy, and it is about to be tested to the limit as they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father.
Unravelling his mysterious past takes them back to a world they knew nothing about, to a tangled love affair and a web of relationships that other people would far rather stay buried…
Filled with passion, intrigue, lies, and dark, dark family secrets, The Night We Lost Him is a page turning mystery you won’t ever want to put down.
Published January 2nd by Faber & Faber Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Suspense, Dark Comedy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Calm your mind. Be here, now. Take a breath. And kill.
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER – OVER 2.5M COPIES SOLD I didn’t kill anyone until I was forty-two. That’s actually a little on the late side for my current professional environment. Admittedly, I did kill almost half a dozen in the week that followed.
Björn has been given an ultimatum: repair his work-life balance, or his wife Katharina will leave him – and take their daughter.
He reluctantly starts a mindfulness class and to his surprise, it’s a revelation. He becomes calmer, more focused, and he’s starting to understand what’s really important in life. So when his client and brutal crime boss Dragan Sergowicz tries to interfere with his precious family time, Björn remembers his new-found goal to find serenity – and kills him.
Now Björn can deepen his practice and seek inner peace – violently.
Published January 7th by Quercus Mystery, Magical Realism, Fairy Tale, Ghost Story, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Two twins. An unbroken bond. A truth unspoken.
The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’s deep connection with her twin brother, Johnny, has gone beyond intuition – she can feel what he feels. So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone – truly alone – for the first time in her life.
When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settle her brother’s affairs, she’s forced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.
But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one.
What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.
Published January 7th by Hodder & Stoughton Horror Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Ghost Story, Fairy Tale, Suspense
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner. But the bloody messes don’t bother her, not when she’s already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister being pushed in front of a train.
But the killer was never caught, and Cora is still haunted by his last words: bat eater.
These days, nobody can reach Cora: not her aunt who wants her to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, not her weird colleagues, and especially not the slack-jawed shadow lurking around her doorframe. After all, it can’t be real – can it?
After a series of unexplained killings in Chinatown, Cora believes that someone might be targeting East Asian women, and something might be targeting Cora herself.
Soon, she will learn . . . you can’t just ignore hungry ghosts.
Published January 9th by Oneworld Publications Coming-of-Age Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘This story left me thinking about the ways we overcome setbacks and redefine what truly matters.’ Reese Witherspoon
A REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK FOR DECEMBER 2024 * A HARPER’S BAZAAR BEST BOOK OF 2024
A terrible accident forces Natalia to make a devastating choice about her future as a dancer, in this sweeping novel of love and redemption
Prima ballerina Natalia Leonova was once celebrated across the world, her signature bravura in demand on stages from St. Petersburg to Paris to New York. But at the top of her career, an accident forces her into sudden retirement. Injured and alone, she turns to pills and alcohol to numb the pain of her past, still haunted by her relationships with two gifted dancers, Dmitri and Alexander. These men were responsible for her soaring highs, her darkest hours and, ultimately, both played their part in her downfall.
So when Dmitri resurfaces with a tantalising offer for Natalia, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice in order to dance again – and for the chance to return to the great love of her life. Painting a vivid portrait of a world in which ruthless ambition, desire and sublime artistry collide, City of Night Birds unveils the making of a dancer with profound intimacy and breathtaking scope.
From the author of Beasts of a Little Land, winner of the Yasnaya Polyana Award
A Serial Killer’s Guide To Marriage by Asia Mackay
Published January 14th by Wildfire Thriller, Suspense, Dark Comedy, Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A couple that kills together stays together. DISCOVER THE ADDICTIVE THRILLER READERS CAN’T STOP TALKING ABOUT
‘Sexy, stylish, thrilling. A razor-sharp tale of marriage and murder.’ CHRIS WHITAKER ‘Your sassy, twisted must-read of 2025’ JANICE HALLETT ‘If you liked Mr & Mrs Smith, you’ll love this’ CLARE MACKINTOSH ‘Darkly funny and clever’ KATY BRENT ‘Huge fun. You won’t put it down.’ HARRIET TYCE
Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they’re ex-serial killers.
They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to kill. Not many power couples know how to get away with murder.
Then Hazel fell pregnant and they gave it all up for life in the suburbs; dinner parties instead of body disposal.
But recently Hazel has started to feel that itch again. When she kills someone behind Fox’s back and brings the police to their door, she must do anything she can to protect her family.
This could save their marriage – unless it kills them first.
Published January 14th by Titan Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale, Roman History
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A powerful and fierce reimagining of the founding of the Roman empire and the legend of Romulus and Remus-and the mother whose sacrifice made it all possible. Ideal for fans of Madeleine Miller, Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes.
A powerful and fierce reimagining of the earliest Roman legend: the twins, Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of history’s greatest empire, and the woman whose sacrifice made it all possible.
The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children.
But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story.
Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir.
Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.
Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land.
To save her sons and reclaim their birthright, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force—a mother’s love—and fight.
All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia.
Published January 14th by Bloomsbury Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A portrait of the artist as a young woman in a Berlin that can’t escape its history: an electric debut novel about the daughter of Afghan refugees and her year of nightclubs, bad romance, and self-discovery ‘Kaleidoscopic, full of style and soul’ Raven Leilani ‘A must-read . Dark, breathtaking, profound, so fresh’ Guardian ‘A no-bullshit must-read debut’ Kaveh Akbar
In Berlin’s underground, where techno rattles buildings still scarred with the violence of the last century, nineteen-year-old Nila finds her tribe. In their company she can escape the parallel city that made her, the public housing block packed with refugees and immigrants, where the bathrooms are infested with silverfish and the walls outside are graffitied with swastikas.
Escaping into the clubs, Nila tries to outrun the shadow of her dead mother, once a feminist revolutionary; her catatonic, defeated father; and the cab-driver uncles who seem to idle on every corner. To anyone who asks, her family is Greek, not Afghani.
And then Nila meets American writer Marlowe Woods, whose literary celebrity, though fading, opens her eyes to a world of patrons and festivals, one that imbues her dreams of life as an artist with new possibility. But as she finds herself drawn further into his orbit and ugly, barely submerged tensions begin to roil and claw beneath the city’s cosmopolitan veneer, everything she hopes for, hates, and believes about herself will be challenged.
Published January 16th by Orion Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Fiction, Adventure Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THEY’VE FAKED YOUR CHILD’S DEATH. AND IF YOU DON’T GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT, THEY’LL MAKE IT A REALITY.
Things have been difficult for Annie since her husband left; her teenage daughter, Isla, has become a ghost of her former self. Annie’s terrified that Isla might do something desperate, and she’ll lose her, too. So when Annie receives a video of herself crying at Isla’s funeral, her blood runs cold.
Confused and horrified, Annie races upstairs to check on Isla, who is alive and well. The video has been faked. But who sent it and what do they want?
One dark truth soon becomes clear: Annie is the latest in a string of parents being blackmailed, and Isla will be killed if Annie goes to the police or if she fails to give the sender what they want. Annie has a deadly choice: comply with the demands, or try to unmask the dangerous criminal.
Your Child Next is a thrilling and unputdownable novel that asks you how far you’d go to protect the ones you love. Perfect for fans of Harlan Coben and Steve Cavanagh.
Published January 16th by Bedford Squard Publishers Historical Fiction, LGBT Literature
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Wonderfully evocative, this book transports the reader to the dark underworld of late Elizabethan London. I was gripped from the first page.’ Tracy Borman
It is 1597 and Kit Skevy and Mariner Elgin have just robbed the wrong grave.
They are young criminals in the pocket of a gang Lord named Will Twentyman, the Grave Eorl of Southwark. Mariner is the best cutpurse around, a strange Calvinist girl who dresses like a boy and is partner in crime to Kit Skevy, Southwark’s best brawler who carries a secret: he cannot feel pain.
When caught out in their unfortunate larceny, Kit is kidnapped by the menacing alchemist Lord Isherwood (a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his hopes for the Red Lion elixir) and his studious son, Lazarus Isherwood, with whom Kit develops a complicated intrigue. When Mariner enlists the help of a competing French alchemist, Lady Elody Blackwater, Mariner and Kit are thrust into the shadowed, political world of Tudor alchemy, testing both their friendship and their lives.
It matters not who you are born to… but where you are made!
Published January 16th by Orenda Books Nordic Noir, Crime Fiction, Crime Series, Hardboiled, Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Chief Investigator of Nordland Police, Jakob Weber is drawn into a complex case when a teenaged girl goes missing in Northern Norway, and a second woman disappears from a remote island in similar circumstances … FIRST in a compelling, dark new Nordic Noir series.
‘This is first-class Nordic Noir from the real North, where danger lurks around every corner’ Gunnar Staalesen
‘Jakob Weber is a great protagonist, and the sense of place is phenomenal. The perfect start to a series destined for greatness’ Thomas Enger
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In Norway’s frozen north, it’s not just secrets that are buried…
When nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, Northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend. For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends.
But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances – this time on the island of Røst, miles off the Norwegian coast, in the wild ocean.
Rumours that a killer is on the loose begin to spread, terrifying the local population and leading to wild conspiracies. But then Jakob discovers that this isn’t the first time that young women have vanished without a trace in the region, and it becomes clear that someone is hiding something … and another murderous spree may have just begun…
For fans of Joe Pickett, Ragnar Jonasson and Jorn Lier Horst
Published January 16th by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Dark Comedy, Psychological Ficiton, Crime Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Magical Realism, Contemporary Fantasy, Metaphysical Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this entertaining and thought-provoking read, that asks:
If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?
Thea has a secret. She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them. Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out. Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.
Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit. Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job. Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills. But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.
How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?
Published January 16th by Century Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Women Sleuths
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A frozen wilderness.
A killer in the skies.
When aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited aboard a luxury airship flying to the North Pole, she thinks she’s bagged the opportunity of a lifetime.
But she hasn’t had long to admire the dazzling icy views before a fellow passenger is found dead in their cabin.
Trapped at the top of the world, the group agrees a tragic accident has occurred. But as the hours tick by, fear turns to doubt.
It seems everyone’s a suspect.
And it isn’t long before the passengers begin to turn on each other . . .
Published January 16th by Simon & Schuster UK Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: She thinks it was murder. But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else?
Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help.
So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn’t strike her as someone who was suicidal – she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life?
Nancy is the only one convinced that there’s more to Kira’s death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn’t sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things . . .
Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan?
Published January 16th by Doubleday Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: It’s not dust she’s looking for. It’s dirt.
Esmie is meant to be invisible. Just a cleaner with a foreign accent that no one quite has time to place, and a uniform of leggings and a duster that allows her to explore the homes of the wealthy Woodlands gated community, unnoticed.
Which is exactly what she wants. Because Esmie isn’t really a cleaner.
One of the residents of Woodlands has ruined her life. And when she finds out who, she’s going to make them pay . . .
This beautifully sinister, propulsive page-turner that explores themes of identity and privilege is perfect for fans of Harriet Tyce and Lisa Jewell.
Published January 16th by Fourth Estate Thriller, Ghost Story, Psychological Thriller, Contemporary Horror, Contemporary Fantasy, Supernatural Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A DAILY MAIL BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025
A COSMOPOLITAN BEST NEW BOOK OUT IN JANUARY
In the hallowed halls of Cambridge, a dangerous obsession takes hold…
When a young man arrives in Cambridge as a first-year student, he finds himself an outsider. There’s the punting and the politics, the wine and the waistcoats, all seemingly familiar to everyone but him. Then he falls under the spell of Bryn Cavendish.
A notorious party boy and skilled magician, Bryn is magnetic. To be in his circle is to revel in clouds of ecstasy, untouched by the rules. To be exiled is to haunt the peripheries of campus life like a ghost.
As the academic year intensifies and Bryn’s magic tricks become more sinister, one question lingers. Is Bryn’s charisma the source of his influence or does he wield a much darker and more dangerous power?
Published January 16th by Chatto & Windus Contemporary Romance, Sports Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.
‘Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones and the Six . . . As brilliantly choreographed as a gold-medal performance’ JODI PICOULT
Everyone thinks Heath Rocha was my first love. He wasn’t. My first love was figure skating.
Katarina Shaw has always known she’s destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating – and each other – to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating fans with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style and rollercoaster relationship.
Until, at the Olympic Games, as the world holds its breath, a shocking incident instantly destroys their partnership.
Ten years later, an unauthorised tell-all documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha. If Kat wants to own her story, she must break her silence. As Kat’s account of her dramatic rise and fall alternates with scandalous interviews from the film, The Favourites spins into a dance between passion, ambition and what it truly means to win.
Sensational rumours have haunted Kat and Heath’s every step for years, but the truth may be even more outrageous than the headlines.
Published January 16th by Tor Gothic Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Pscyhological Thriller, Horror Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Supernatural Fiction, Paranormal Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: The next twisted unforgettable horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.
‘A chillingly addictive Southern Gothic tale’ COSMOPOLITAN
‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’
They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.
Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.
Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid . . . and it’s usually paid in blood.
Published January 16th by Scholastic Dystopia, Young Adult, Alternative History
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Enter a darkly dystopian world full of eerie folklore, in which illness and difference have been prohibited. But from deep beneath the earth, a rebellion is rising… Perfect for fans of Never Let Me Go and The Luminaries.
Ora has always been fascinated by chilling fairy stories of the Vulpine – the mythical, fox-like monsters who live below ground, emerging at night to snatch ‘imperfect’ babies and children. Because Ora knows that disability and illness have no place in her world. To succeed is to be genetically ‘perfect’, just like her best friend Casta and his family.
Then, one day, Casta’s baby sister disappears. And Ora’s mother reveals a long-buried secret: Ora herself has a genetic illness that affects her lungs… And she’s about to be found out.
Desperate for answers and sanctuary, Ora decides to do the unthinkable and seek out the fabled Vulpine. And below the earth, she discovers a hidden world that turns everything she has been taught upside-down…
Perfect for fans of Never Let Me Go, A Handmaid’s Tale, The Hunger Games and The Luminaries.
A unique and powerful story about stepping into your power and creating a better world, with a brilliant cast of disabled heroes, from an author whose own experiences of chronic illness inform Ora’s.
A chilling dystopian world filled with eerie science fiction and a sweet, slow-burn romance.
Published January 16th by Bloomsbury Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘EDGE-OF-YOUR-SEAT READ’ CHRIS HAMMER ‘A MUST-READ’ ELLERY LLOYD It’s not the lies that kill you. It’s the truth.
They predicted Ivo would become a tycoon They predicted Ayda would go on to become a hotshot lawyer They didn’t predict that Lily would be dead
Twenty years ago, nine university friends made a series of predictions about what would happen to each of them after college. Now they’ve all gathered together for the weekend. Not for a reunion but for a reveal.
Some of them have gone on to staggering success, others to more mundane lives. And one of them is missing.
Before her death Lily seemed agitated. Even scared. In the weeks before her death, she called Maggie, wanting to talk but then refusing to say what was frightening her. Now Maggie is beginning to realise that not everyone at the house this weekend is who they appeared to be.
And those who are lying are prepared to do anything to stop the truth coming out.
An unputdownable page-turner about old friends and new betrayals from an award winning thriller writer at the very top of her game, this is unmissable reading group suspense fiction.
Published January 16th by Hodder & Stoughton Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: **THE BOOK FOR EVERY WOMAN YOU KNOW**
THEY’RE THE BEST OF FRIENDS. OR SO THEY SAY… ⭐ ‘Brilliant: so funny, so sad, so scary’ Jacqueline Wilson⭐ ⭐ ‘It will resonate for all women, and it’s so much fun’ Marian Keyes ⭐ ⭐ ‘Part whodunnit, part dark take-down of motherhood’ Gillian McAllister⭐ ⭐ ‘Compelling, thought-provoking, unputdownable’ Sarah Turner ⭐ ⭐ ‘Universally empowering’ Kate Sawyer⭐ An intense heatwave. A high-stakes baby shower. Will it all end in tears? Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions – but when Charlotte organises the baby shower of hell for pregnant Nicki, the girls are reunited. Under a sweltering hot summer day, tensions rise – and by the end of the day, nothing will ever be the same. Someone started a fire at the house – and everyone’s a suspect… Is it Steffi, happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends? Is it Charlotte, desperate to conceive and jealous of those who have? Is it Lauren, who is finding motherhood far, far harder than she imagined? Or is it Nicki herself, who never wanted a baby shower anyway? In the aftermath, the police put together the facts – but the truth will shock everyone. Even you. BIG LITTLE LIES meets EXPECTATION in the incredible new novel from Holly Bourne – it’s the book you’ll want to read three times, then give to every woman in your life.
Published January 16th by Bantam Fanstasy Fiction, Magical Realism, Romantic Fantasy, Contemporary Ficiton, Fairy Tale, Cosy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Would you rewrite your destiny if it meant losing a part of your past?
On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it.
Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones – those who are lost – will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.
Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as the pawnshop’s new owner to find it ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike other customers. For he offers help, instead of seeking it.
Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice – through rain puddles, hitching rides on paper cranes, across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds.
But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own – and risk making a choice she will never be able to take back.
Step into the captivating and romantic fantasy novel that will sweep you away on an unforgettable adventure – perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli, Erin Morgenstern and Before the Coffee Gets Cold!
Published January 16th by Pushkin Vertigo Mystery, Horror Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Cozy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘So captivating I read it in a day. So disturbing I thought about it all night’ Janice Hallet, author of The Appeal
‘The twists of a Golden Age whodunit, mixed with a wonderfully innovative use of illustrations. Delightfully macabre and fiendishly clever’ G.T. Karber, author of Murdle
A Japanese mystery bestseller, revolving around a series of creepy drawings, in which the reader is the detective – from the Youtube sensation Uketsu
A series of drawings made by a young woman before her death.
A child’s disturbing picture of his home.
A desperate sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments.
Each contains a chilling warning.
Each reveals a terrible secret, hidden in plain sight.
Uketsu’s eerie mysteries have captivated millions of readers. Can you find the clues in these strange pictures and uncover the sinister truth that connects them all?
Published January 23rd by Orion Crime Fiction, Mystery, Supsense, Political Fiction, Legal Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Alex knows she risks getting fired from her law firm if she takes on another unpaid case, but when she hears Rosa’s desperate voice at the other end of the phone, she knows she has to help: the body of Rosa’s shy teenage sister, Natalia, has been dragged, lifeless, from the Thames. Alex can’t help but think of her own missing little sister. She knows how a lack of answers can eat you alive.
Kat has worked hard to become Special Adviser to the Home Secretary, and is eager to finally put the dark and tragic part of her past behind her. But when she discovers a series of cover-ups, she begins to wonder whether her seemingly perfect new boss could be involved. Then she she’s shocked to discover a letter that raises worrying questions about a girl found drowned in London… Natalia.
There are complex and painful reasons for Alex and Kat not to work together, but when it becomes clear that there are powerful people involved in Natalia’s death, and that other girls are at risk, Alex and Kat must overcome their differences to find answers. Will they save the girls and discover the truth? Or will the high-powered players in this game stop Alex and Kat for good?
Published January 23rd by Picador Coming-of-Age Story, Bildungsroman, Urban Fiction, Political Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: One of The New Yorker‘s Best Books of the Year
‘Beautiful . . . Clare Sestanovich is a writer of disarming radiance’ – Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness
How much knowledge do you need in order to know someone?
As her grandmother is dying, sixteen-year-old Eva wanders the halls of a hospital. There, she spots Jamie. Despite having little in common, from this chance-encounter stems a life-changing platonic love.
She is sixteen, living in middle-class Brooklyn; he is the same age, but from the super-rich of Upper Manhattan. She’s observant, cautious, eager to seem normal; he’s bold, mysterious, eccentric. Eva’s family is warm and welcoming, but Jamie avoids going home to his.
As Eva goes off to university and falls in and out of love, Jamie drops out and is drawn towards radical experiments in politics and religion. Their separate spheres seem to be spiralling away from each other, but it soon becomes clear that they are both circling the same question: how do you define yourself and your beliefs in a divided and unjust world?
Written with precision and immense wit, Ask Me Again is a journey of intimacy across time. A love story of sorts, this coming-of-age novel explores how relationships can define us, change us and point us towards futures we might not have imagined for ourselves.
Published January 23rd by Viking Literary Fiction, Saga
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A remarkable debut. A complex and compulsive read that unravels the intricate twists and revelations among three generations of women with elegance and urgency.’ Miranda Cowley Heller, bestselling author of THE PAPER PALACE
‘A saga: its serious pleasures are its expansiveness and range, and Airey’s rare, particular instinct… a cool, bold image of female pain and liberation’ Guardian
It is late September in 2001 and the walls of New York are papered over with photos of the missing. Cora Brady’s father is there, the poster she made taped to columns and bridges. Her mother died long ago and now, orphaned on the cusp of adulthood, Cora is adrift and alone. Soon, a letter will arrive with the offer of a new life: far out on the ragged edge of Ireland, in the town where her parents were young, an estranged aunt can provide a home and fulfil a long-forgotten promise. There the story of Cora’s family is hidden, and in her presence will begin to unspool…
An essential, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, Confessions traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the irresistible gravity of the past: its love and tragedy, its mystery and redemption, and, in all things intended and accidental, the beauty and terrible shade of the things we do.
Published January 28th by Thomas & Mercer Crime Fiction, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
BOOK DESCRIPTION: In this mesmerising thriller from the bestselling author of Keep Her Secret, a family’s fresh start is just the beginning of their nightmare…
Ethan Dove’s family has moved to a new home in a safe community, and it’s exactly the fresh start they need. Not only is his marriage to Emma hanging by a thread, but his son, Dylan, and twelve-year-old daughter, Rose, deserve to have a happy childhood.
After Rose is bullied by the boys across the road, Ethan is relieved when the woman who lives next door steps in. Fiona Smith has come into their lives at just the right moment, and when she offers to look after Rose during the school holidays, Ethan and Emma can’t believe their luck.
Which is exactly what Fiona wants. Because, far from being the perfect neighbour, Fiona is the last person you should trust with your child. With a vicious plot for revenge, Fiona is happy to train Rose to be her accomplice, especially when she begins to suspect that Rose might not be as innocent as she appears…
The Psychopath Next Door is a gripping and twisted psychological suspense thriller set in the terrifying world of Mark Edwards’s bestselling The Magpies universe.
Published January 30th by Michael Joseph Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: THE GRIPPING NEW NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME
‘Famous Last Words blindsided me with twists and surprises that had me gasping… A brilliant, brilliant book’ Jodi Picoult
‘What an incredible, gripping, thrilling read’ Lisa Jewell
‘Only a Gillian McAllister thriller can make your heart race and then your heart melt from one page to the next! I’m a devoted fan!’ LIANE MORIARTY
‘Utterly effing magnificent. I could NOT put it down!’ MARIAN KEYES
—
It’s Camilla’s first day back at work, her daughter’s first day at nursery. But husband Luke is nowhere to be seen. The only trace of him is an unfinished note. Camilla tries to put it out of her mind; there must be a rational explanation. At work, there are welcomes back, and too many distractions.
Then it starts.
Breaking news: there’s a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive: Luke is caught up in it.
But he isn’t a hostage. Luke – doting father, successful writer, enthusiastic runner and eternal optimist – is the gunman.
What Camilla does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind says, and the clues it might hold . . .
Published January 30th by Pan Macmillan Thrller, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘I was consumed by this book, it’s her best ever, a work of genius’ – Lisa Jewell, author of None of This is True
‘Her best book yet’ – Harlan Coben, author of Fool Me Once
The million-copy bestselling author of His and Hers, Alice Feeney, returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage . . . and revenge.
* * *
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.
Grady calls his wife as she’s driving home to share some exciting news. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by a cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there . . . but his wife has disappeared.
A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Wives think their husbands will change, but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change, but they do.
Published January 30th by HQ Crime Fiction, Thriller, Satire, Parodies, Humorous Fiction, Dark Comedy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Your favourite anti-heroine, Kitty Collins, is back! Expect more wit, sass, and, of course, murder…
‘I was rooting for Kitty even as she killed more men (oops!). Funny and twisty in the best of ways’ Tasha Coryell
***************************
My name is Kitty Collins and I’m a serial killer.
I don’t want to kill. It’s just so hard to resist. Some men really, really deserve it.
Men like Blaze Bundy, an anonymous influencer spreading misogyny online. He’s making it very hard for me to control my murderous urges.
Meanwhile I’m in the South of France to watch my mother marry a man I’ve never met. I should be drinking cocktails and focusing on my tan, not plotting a murder.
But a woman’s work is never done. Surely one more teensy little kill wouldn’t hurt, would it?
**************************
Fans of How to Kill Your Family and Bad Sisters will love this deliciously dark, hilariously twisted new novel from the author of How to Kill Men and Get Away With It and The Murder After the Night Before.
Pre-order here*
The Lamb by Lucy Rose
Publihsed January 30th by Weidenfeld & Nicolson Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction, Coming-of-Age Fiction, Fairy Tale, Gay Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A gripping, sinister folktale set in contemporary Cumbria for fans of Sophie Mackintosh, Angela Carter, Daisy Johnson, Margaret Atwood and Julia Armfield. Pre-order now.
‘A new generation of literary horror begins with Lucy Rose’ Genevieve Jagger, author of Fragile Animals ‘Deliciously dark and shockingly bold. Lucy Rose is one to watch. One of my favourite debuts in a long time’ Kirsty Logan, author of Now She is Witch
‘Stunning, shocking and surprising at each turn – everything one would want from a novel, and so much more. Lucy Rose’s fearful and fantastic imagination is a powerful weapon’ Benjamin Myers, author of Cuddy
‘Lucy Rose weaves together flesh, bones and mommy issues with unsettling deftness to create an unforgettable, nightmarish tale. I ate it all up’ Anna Bogutskaya, author of Feeding the Monster
A FOLK TALE. A HORROR STORY. A LOVE STORY. AN ENCHANTMENT.
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest since Margot can remember. When Margot isn’t at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies.
But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, little Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires and make a bid for freedom.
With this gothic coming-of-age tale, debut novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire and animal instincts – and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.
Published January 30th by Headline Histrorial Fiction, Historical Mystery, Crime Ficiton, Mystery, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Nothing is quite as it seems in Victorian high society, in the twisty and original new novel from the author of THE HOUSEKEEPERS…
‘Sheer delight from start to finish’ Janice Hallett
‘Audacious, cunning, quick-witted’ Louise Candlish
‘As fiendishly clever as its characters’ Jennie Godfrey
They whisper her name in every corner of town. The lady with a hundred faces, a thousand lives. Five moves, five days – for such are the rules of her game.
1898. Quinn Le Blanc, London’s most talented con woman, has five days to pull off the seemingly impossible: trick an eligible duke into marriage and lift a fortune from the richest family in England.
Masquerading as a wealthy debutante, Quinn is the jewel of the season. Her brilliant act opens doors to the grand drawing rooms and lavish balls of high society – and propels her into the inner circle of her target: the corrupt, charismatic Kendals.
But as she spins in and out of their world, Quinn becomes tangled in a dangerous web of love, lies and loyalty. The Kendal family all have secrets of their own, and she may not be the only one playing a game of high deception…
Published January 30th by Simon & Schuster UK Historical Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Readers are in for a true treat … Dazzling’ PATERSON JOSEPH ‘This powerful story is steeped in truth and resonates with humanity. It’s a gritty thriller and a whirlwind adventure, but most of all it’s a tale of love and hope. A beautiful, original and heart-stopping read’ JANICE HALLETT
‘I loved this brilliant book about an essential and forgotten piece of our history. Devious plots, secret pasts and forbidden futures. Gritty and thrilling, with vivid and unforgettable characters’ LAURA SHEPHERD-ROBINSON
Some things are earned. Some things are worth fighting for…
It’s 1782, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance.
But the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.
The underworld labyrinth is run by Elias, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free.
Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…?
Published January 30th by John Murrary Historical Fiction, Historical Romance
BOOK DESCRIPTION: BEST BOOKS for 2025 from Stylist and Good Housekeeping
‘Enthralling . . . the descriptions of the landscape, the meals they eat and the art created are so rich and evocative it’s as if you’re there’ Good Housekeeping
‘Lucy Steeds transports the reader with her sensuous depictions of food, art, and landscape . . . an assured and atmospheric debut’ Sarah Perry, author of The Essex Serpent
‘A furiously romantic, sun-drenched mystery . . . The Artist will leave you yearning in every sense of the word’ Yael van der Wouden, author of The Safekeep
PROVENCE, 1920
Ettie moves through the remote farmhouse, silently creating the conditions that make her uncle’s artistic genius possible.
Joseph, an aspiring journalist, has been invited to the house. He believes he’ll make his name by interviewing the reclusive painter, the great Edouard Tartuffe.
But everyone has their secrets. And, under the cover of darkness, Ettie has spent years cultivating hers.
Over this sweltering summer, everyone’s true colours will be revealed. Because Ettie is ready to be seen. Even if it means setting her world on fire.
‘Gorgeous . . . Steeped in the heat and atmosphere of 1920s Provence, this novel brims with intrigue, hope and yearning’ Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory and The Burial Plot
Published January 30th by Scribner UK Literary Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, NESTING introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.
This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.
What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?
Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman’s bid to start over.
Published January 30th by Bloomsbury Contemporary Horror, Psychological Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: Infused with the folklore of Northern England, It Comes from the River is an unforgettable, uncanny debut about violence, resilience and hope – and the power of women when they work together.
The three women flinch: feel something pass outside. A reek of singed fur, scorching damp. Flaming eyes. A creature. It knows these women. They feel its wanting.
From the river it comes.
To the river it always returns.
Alex is trying to hold her growing family together with a husband who is becoming more and more difficult to keep happy. Lauren hopes that the new man in her life might present a fresh start for her and her two boys. And Nancy’s son has moved her into a care home where she feels entirely out of place, longing for her lost dog while dreaming of her own escape.
But there is something else at play here. Something lurking in the water or at the end of an unlit street; a shadow in a bag of strangers’ clothing; a chorus of voices calling in the distance.
As each woman’s world spirals from her grasp, they feel it getting closer, revealing the truth of what binds them together, and what must be done to set each of them free . . .
Published January 30th by Magpie Gothic Fiction, Fairy Tale, Horror Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Ghost Story
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A murderous aunt, strangely gifted children and witchcraft come together in Camilla Bruce’s new intensely dark adult Gothic fairytale. For fans of Catriona Ward and C.J. Cooke
‘All the elegance and all the venom of one of E.Nesbit’s supernatural stories served with a side of arsenic.’ Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House
The dead won’t stay silent forever…
Clara Woods has a secret. At the bottom of the garden is a flowerbed, long overgrown, where her murdered husband rests in peace – or so she always thought. Then the girls arrived.
Lily and Violet, her adolescent nieces, are recently orphaned and in urgent need of care. Raising teenagers is certainly not what Clara had envisioned for herself, but they come with a hefty sum attached.
There is only one problem: both girls are untrained witches. Lily can literally see how people feel. And young Violet can see the dead man wandering at the bottom of the garden. In fact, she can see all the dead and call them back.
Soon, Clara finds herself surrounded by apparitions – and two girls who know far more about her dark past than they should. A war is waging in this house, and only one side can win…
Published January 30th by Hemlock Press Crime Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Noir Fiction, Police Procedural
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Everything I love in a crime novel – passion, interesting and rooted characters and a great story’ Ann Cleeves
Don’t miss this award winning debut crime thriller set in Sheffield introducing DI Diana Walker: A grizzly murder has Diana questioning everything she knows, and secrets come to light that threaten to tear her world apart
Silence protects the victims… And the killer
When the dismembered body of a headmaster is found on the derelict site of a former school in Sheffield, DI Diana Walker finds herself chasing shadows.
Faced with missing teachers, unreported crimes and silent witnesses, Diana is running out of leads. Her colleagues insist this is just another instance of gang violence, but Diana knows there’s something more. Something everyone’s too scared to talk about.
With her reputation on the line, Diana is determined to find the truth. Her search for answers leads to Sheffield’s neglected underbelly, where she finds distrust, horrifying secrets and a whole new understanding of justice.
Published January 30th by Viper Books Mysery, Suspense, Crime Fiction, Cosy Mystery
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A delightful mix of classic crime fiction and Robert Galbraith’ – IAN MOORE ‘Witty, compelling and an intriguing fiendish murder’ – J.M. HALL ‘Brilliantly entertaining and fiendishly fun’ – PHILIPPA EAST
A dead art historian. Cold War skulduggery. A reluctant Danish sleuth. And an extremely hungry dog.
Dame Charlotte Lazerton – eminent art historian and mentor of Danish academic Torben Helle – is dead. And to make things worse, she was found partially eaten by her Irish wolfhound, Mortimer. While the police believe that she died of natural causes, Torben becomes convinced that Charlotte was murdered, although as usual no one pays any attention to him. That is, until he gains the confidence of a policeman who has watched too many Nordic Noir television shows and is ready to listen to any Scandinavian in a fetching woolly jumper.
Aided by his old friend Leyla, Torben soon realises that there are plenty of people who might have wanted Dame Charlotte dead, from her competitors for a prestigious academic presidency to old enemies from her time in intelligence during the Cold War. One thing is for sure: Torben Helle is woefully unqualified to catch a killer, and the killer knows it…
This witty murder mystery puts a modern spin on the classic Golden Age whodunnit. A must-read for fans of Tom Hindle, Richard Osman and Janice Hallett.
Published January 30th by HQ Urban Fiction, Humorous Fiction, Domestic Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A story of falling out of love from the winner of the Comedy Women in Print Award, for fans of Monica Heisey and Dolly Alderton
‘A thoughtful and tender take on the concept of “home”‘ Pandora Sykes
Mara longs to escape the London rental market and the small, damp flat she shares with her housemate, Lewis (who refuses to wash up cutlery because it makes him feel weird). She wants nothing more than to get into her pyjamas at 6pm and watch Real Housewives in a judgement-free zone.
Then Mara’s prayers are answered as she unexpectedly comes into some money that helps her find a home of her own. She just needs her long-term boyfriend, Tom, to move in so they can be happy and grown-up together.
Except Tom has decided to leave London – and Mara.
Just as her life should be coming together, everything starts to unravel. Navigating a break-up/non-break-up, a best friend accusing her of being self-involved, and a fixation with her new neighbours, will Mara ever be able to shake this homesick feeling?
Published January 30th by Manilla Press Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘Captures with grace and profundity the experience of immigrants and health workers’ TASH AW
‘A beautifully immersive coming-of-age tale set amongst the brilliance and bleakness of 1970s London’ LOUISE HARE
Penang, 1971. When Suyin Lim is offered the opportunity of a lifetime – a place as a trainee nurse in London’s Bethnal Green Hospital – she jumps at the chance to leave her job as a seamstress and unite with her sister, who left for the same path a year before.
However, without warning her sister returns to Penang, a shadow of her former self and Suyin is forced to leave without any answers. Suyin soon finds herself starting a new life in London, falling in love with the vibrant city and its people and as she immerses herself in the gruelling but rewarding work of caring for her patients, she begins to understand what she really wants out of life . . .
BETHNAL GREEN explores the themes of sacrifice and heartbreak, the power of using your voice and the will to build a life of one’s own against the odds. It is also a powerful love letter to dedicated NHS workers from around the world, whose work touches countless lives every day.
Published January 30th by Pan Macmillan Contemporary Romance, Urban Fiction, Lesbian LiteratureBOOK DESCRIPTION: A beautiful, razor-sharp novel by Sarah Handyside, Instructions for Heartbreak is a life-affirming story about female friendship, self-love and how to survive a broken heart.
What if heartbreak came with a manual?
It starts with a late-night knock on the door. Dee, Liv and Rosa share a flat in south London, while Katie lives close by with her boyfriend. But, when Katie’s nine-year relationship ends – suddenly and brutally – she turns up on their doorstep with no idea what to do next, or how to do anything after spending so long with her life entwined with someone else’s.
Out comes the martini shaker (an old, well-washed gherkin jar) and, with an unused sketchbook, an idea. They’ll make Katie the handbook that she needs to process her heartbreak and start rebuilding her life. There are notes on tears, hangovers and roast chicken, scribblings about music, new bedding and pure, white-hot rage.
But Katie is not the only one nursing a broken heart. Rosa is a hopeless romantic, despite still reeling from her ex’s infidelity. Scarred by her ex’s parting words, Dee is committed to being commitment-free. And while Liv knows that breaking up with her girlfriend was what she wanted, she can’t help but wonder if she did the right thing.
Tested by big life changes, even the closest friendships can fray – could the heartbreak handbook they intended for Katie contain the words they all need to hear?
Published January 30th by Quercus Romance Novel, Contemporary Romance, Domestic Fiction, Holiday Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘A slice of escapism … temptingly conjured up’ THE TIMES The dream holiday just got complicated . . .
On the sun-drenched island of Kefalonia, the new arrivals at The Ionian Escape hotel are hoping for a break from everyday life. But some of them are bringing a lot of baggage . . .
Disgraced TV star Miranda Vallance feels like the worst person in the world. Her sister won’t speak to her and her job’s on the line. She’s desperate to put things right, but how?
Eighty-two-year-old Evelyn Chambers has come to fulfil a promise to the love of her life. If she can steel herself to go through with it, that is . . .
And when celebrity chef Frank Neale checks in, rumours swirl around the hotel. But is it his wife, Leonora, who has more of a reason to escape to Greece?
The Island Getaway is a big-hearted novel from the queen of bestselling fiction, celebrating second chances, true love and the life-affirming joy of unlikely friendships.
The Convenience Store By The Sea by Sonoko Machida
herePublished January 30th by Orion Literary Fiction, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: ‘If you loved Before The Coffee Gets Cold you will love this!’
‘A perfect, feel-good story about finding joy in unexpected connections, ideal for those who love a cosy, heartwarming escape!’
Welcome to Tenderness!
A quaint seaside town in Kitakyushu, Mojiko is full of hidden delights. And one unexpected treasure is the 24/7 convenience store, Tenderness.
At first glance, it’s a store like any other.
Sure, it’s a bit odd that the handsome manager has his own fan club. And perhaps the customers are somewhat eccentric. But there’s a warmth about Tenderness that draws you in.
The bright lights are always on. The employees know you by name. And the shelves are stacked with delicious treats, from strong hot coffee to sweet parfaits, egg sandos to ramen, crispy fried chicken to refreshing soba.
After a while, you get the feeling that whatever you need might just be waiting for you here…
The Convenience Store by the Sea is the heartwarming international bestseller from award-winning Japanese novelist Sonoko Machida. A a series of interconnected vignettes set in a 24/7 Japanese convenience store, the novel celebrates the joy of connection and community. Translated by Bruno Navasky.
Published January 30th by Viking Literary Fiction, Translated Fiction
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A heart warming and irresistible novel about the rejuvenating power of pottery, for fans of Before The Coffee Gets Cold and What You Are Looking For Is In The Library.
She rubbed the spoiled clay with her fingertips. Like a wound as it heals, the traces faded, and had soon vanished completely, as if they’d never been there at all.
Burnt out by her newswriting job, Jungmin abruptly quits; she’s worked tirelessly for years and she needs to make a change.
Now, after months of hibernation, it’s time to put her life back together. Venturing out into the streets near Seoul, she stumbles upon the Soyo pottery workshop. Drawn in by its light and warmth, and the smell of clay and coffee, Jungmin feels something unfurl within her…
Here, everyone has a story to share, and as the seasons change, Jungmin returns to herself. Pot by pot, plate by plate, Jungmin discovers that as her hands become busier, her mind becomes calmer, and her heart opens up like never before.
From a rising talent, this is an uplifting story of new friends and old practices, of finding community, and of what happens when you finally slow down in this fast-paced world.
Published January 30th by Harper Voyager Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fantasy, Romance Novel, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Fantasy
BOOK DESCRIPTION: A Discovery of Witches meets The Atlas Six in Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian, a dark contemporary fantasy from a brilliant new talent. Modern Divination is the first book in the Spells for Life and Death duology.
The colour of magic was gold . . .
Twenty-three-year-old witch Aurelia Schwartz has always had to carefully balance her human life with her secret magical one. With a place at an elite Cambridge University college, she almost has everything she could possibly want within her grasp. Just so long as she follows the rules: make no promises. Tell no one what you are. And never stay the night.
Except Aurelia’s gift of green magic has begun to fade. Worse still, someone is hunting witches – and stealing their powers. Reluctantly, Aurelia needs the help of fellow witch – and dreadfully arrogant classmate – Theodore Ingram. Together, they seek refuge among his family in the remote corners of an already-desolate town. But as she grows closer to Teddy, the power-hungry witch-killer, too, draws nearer. And they threaten to destroy everything Aurelia holds dear . . .
Modern Divination by Isabel Agajanian is a magical cosy fantasy with witches, featuring an academic rivals-to-lovers romance, found family and yearning.
Emma's Biblio Treasures 