Published by Penguin

Are you in the mood for a romance that’s engaging, funny and wholly satisfying?  Emily Henry is the queen of rom-com fiction and her latest book, Great Big Beautiful Life, is perfect escapism as we head into winter.

Selected as one of Reece Witherspoon’s Book of the Month titles, Great Big Beautiful Life features two writers who’ve been invited to Little Crescent Island by a famously reclusive heiress, Margaret Ives.  Now in her eighties, Margaret has decided to allow her scandalous life story to be told and is choosing between Alice, an eager young journalist who specialises in celebrity stories and Hayden, a “serious” (read: grumpy) Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, as to who she’ll entrust with her story.

A trial period has been set up for the two writers independently to get to know Margaret and to come up with their own proposals for a book.  Each is bound by an ironclad NDA prohibiting them from discussing any details with anyone, least of all each other, which would be fine, if they weren’t so utterly, irrefutably, and inappropriately attracted to one another…

The banter is clever, the characters are charming and the dialogue whips along as you rush to discover the real truth behind the Ives family story and who is going to tell it.  Such fun!

Here’s my review on Instagram

Published by Chatto & Windus

Wuthering Heights meets Daisy Jones and the Six – on ice skates! A fabulous peak behind the scenes of figure skating at the highest level and what it takes to make it to the Olympics. Seriously gripping!

Katarina Shaw has always known that she was 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, a shocking incident destroys their partnership.

As the ten year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorised tell-all documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha. But Kat can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy, so after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story. 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.

Unputdownable!

Here’s my review on Instagram

Published by Hutchinson Heinemann

Taylor Jenkins Reid is absolutely brilliant at taking us to an exact moment in time in a specific world.  In Carrie Soto is Back she took us to the world of high-stakes tennis in the 1990’s, In Daisy Jones and the Six it was the 1970’s rock music world and in Atmosphere she introduces us to NASA and space travel in the early 1980’s. And what a trip you’re in for!

As an astrophysics professor, Joan Goodwin is a maths and science nerd so when she is offered her dream job at NASA, she is over the moon, quite literally!  Her days are filled with unbelievable new experiences in her favourite field of interest.  She is thrown in with a group of fellow astronaut candidates who become her family.  Together, they are learning more than they ever thought possible.  There certainly isn’t time for a love affair, especially with a fellow astronaut, and yet…

As we follow Joan’s journey, we also follow the journey of a shuttle – mission STS-LR9 – which runs into a massive problem in space – a genuine “Houston, we have a problem”.  Joan is on comms that day.  She is the person talking the crew through the crisis.  It is gripping, seat-of-your-pants reading!  As Kristin Hannah, author of Nightingale says, “thrilling…heartbreaking… uplifting… the fast-paced emotionally charged story of one ambitious woman, finding both her voice and her passion, as she fights to become one of the first female NASA astronauts in the 1980s.”  Loved it!

Here’s my review on Instagram

Published by The Borough Press

I love, love, LOVED this book!!  I didn’t actually know till I looked it up that a ‘deep cut’ is the term musicians use for the lesser know songs on an
album and of course there’s the more literal definition of being hurt or wounded.

Percy and Joe meet at university in California in the early 2000’s.  They might not know a lot about life but they both know a lot about music! This book is a cracker!!

Oh, and I nearly forgot to tell you – work on the Deep Cuts movie has already begun. Starring Saoirse Ronan and Austin Butler in the lead roles.

Please look for the playlist on Spotify – its brilliant!

“Tender as a ballad and pleasurable as a pop song” – Coco Mellors

Here’s my Instagram review

Published by Century

My review on Instagram

Maggie McCabe is a highly skilled and renowned Army combat surgeon, she has always lived life at the edge, where she could make the most impact.  And it was all going to plan…until it wasn’t.

After a devastating series of tragedies leads to her medical license being revoked, Maggie has lost her purpose, but not her nerve or her passion. At her lowest point, she is thrown a lifeline by a former colleague, an elite plastic surgeon whose anonymous clientele demand the best care money can buy, as well as absolute discretion.  With nothing to lose, she accepts the offer.

Halfway across the globe, sequestered in the lap of luxury and cutting-edge technology, one of the world’s most mysterious men requires unconventional medical assistance. Desperate, and one of the few surgeons in the world skilled enough to take this job, Maggie enters his realm of unspeakable opulence and fulfills her end of the agreement. But when the patient suddenly disappears while still under her care, Maggie must become a fugitive herself—or she will be the next one who is… gone before goodbye!

‘A tour de force thriller. Coben and Witherspoon are a dream team!’ – Lucy Foley

‘Full of jaw-dropping twists and turns’ – Lisa Jewell

‘Savvy, smart and suspenseful’ – Val McDermid

‘Witherspoon and Coben are a match made in literary heaven’ – USA Today

Published by Zaffre

My review on instagram

Q is out of MI6 . . . and in over his head

After Major Boothroyd (aka Q) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6’s 00 agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem uninterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier’s ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces . . . Can Q decode the truth behind Napier’s death, even as danger closes in?

Pay attention! It’s time for Q’s story. Such fun!

‘Fast, wise, funny, suspenseful and highly recommended’ LEE CHILD

‘A cunning and propulsive thriller brimming with wit. A sparkling addition to Bond’s literary universe’ MARK BILLINGHAM

‘Clever, cunning and quirky … Quintessential Khan’ MICK HERRON

‘A wonderful novel, escapist and playful, but with moments of deep tenderness and serious comment’ ANN CLEEVES

Published by faber & faber

My review on instagram

Feel like something utterly gripping?  Kill Your Darlings will have you guessing till the very last page.

After forty years, Thom Graves has become a bit of a disappointment to his wife, Wendy. He drinks way too much, flirts with other women and most worrying of all, is in danger of revealing their darkest secrets; secrets they have vowed to keep between the two of them forever. How has their relationship deteriorated so? How has Thom – her soul-mate – turned into such a defeated man?  And what if the only way for Wendy to bury the truth is to bury her husband?

Kill Your Darlings starts at the end and slowly drip-feeds you information going back and back in time till the day Wendy and Thom met on a school bus trip to Washington DC. It is so cleverly structured – you learn everything in reverse. I finished the book and went straight back to the beginning to double-check myself. It’s totally unputdownable and you need to read it before the movie comes out next year. Guess who’s starring in it: Julia Roberts!

Published by Bantam

My review on instagram

It’s been eight years since we last heard from Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown, and his latest book is well worth the wait!  You remember Robert Langdon – the Harvard symbologist played by Tom Hanks in the movies?  Well, he’s back and embroiled in an outrageous conspiracy that will test even his considerable brainpower and put him at risk of losing all he holds dear.

The Secret of Secrets pulls you in from the very first page and sends you racing round Prague at breakneck pace as Robert tries to find celebrated academic Katherine Solomon who has gone missing without a trace.  The couple were in Prague for a lecture that Katherine had been invited to present based on research she was about to reveal to the world in her first book. What could this information be that people are being killed over?  Who are these enemies?  Why are they after Langdon? Who can he trust?  And where is Katherine?

Set in Prague, an old and dangerous city, steeped in folklore and mystery, against a background of castles, churches, graveyards and forests, this is a breathless, pulse-quickening, rollercoaster ride of a read.  I couldn’t put it down!

Published by Umuzi

A decade or so after the 1820 settlers made their home in the Eastern Cape, a young orphan, Ellen Kent, is sent from a girls home in London to the Colonies as a governess. Passed from pillar to post, Ellen has to learn quickly how to read people, how to fend for herself, and how to live in this new land.

Beautifully written in the language of the time, The Immortalites follows Ellen’s story as she arrives in the Cape, naive and wide-eyed, and quickly grows into a highly perceptive young woman with strength and empathy and a grit most admirable. (See: I’m even picking up the language!)

Such a nuanced and poetic read. And that cover! Isn’t it exquisite? So evocative and irresistible, particularly to one who grew up in the Eastern Cape. The subtle telling of devestating frontier war stories is utterly captivating – made all the more so when you discover the link to the author.

A challenging, insightful and intelligent read – at times harrowing, at times humorous – but so rewarding.

Published by Atlantic

My review on instagram

In an Italian monastery, an infamous sculptor lies on his death bed. During his final hours, Mimo reveals his life story: his impoverished childhood, his unlikely rise to fame and most importantly, his lifelong friendship with Viola, the daughter of a powerful aristocratic family.

An absolute joy of a read. A definite contender for book of the year…