Contemporary fiction titles are those which focus on the present or near past. Stories rooted in the current cultural, social, and political landscape which feature characters we can all recognise.
Contemporary Fiction Books
Turner Publishing Company A Beach Two Babes and the Squid
Book SynopsisOne Beach, Two Babes, and the Squidis a comedic thriller that takes readers on a wild ride as undercover cop Rick Dante tracks down the notorious Russian scam artist Boris Nabokov, all while falling for a bikini-clad real estate agent who may not be who she says she is.
£12.34
Turner Publishing Company Shaky Town: A Novel
Book SynopsisLONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS“L.A. is where you reside. Shaky Town is where you live.”Welcome to Shaky Town, a place invisible on maps and found only in the secret heart of its citizens.In this masterwork of panoramic style, Lou Mathews—a former mechanic and street racer—weaves together the tragedies and glories of one eastside neighborhood in the 1980s. From a teenage girl caught in the middle of a gang war, to an Irish priest who has lost his faith and hit bottom, the characters in Shaky Town live on a dangerous fault line but remain unshakable in their connections to one another.A luminous achievement of peerless authenticity, Shaky Town captures the grit and gold of working-class Los Angeles and lays down Matthews's marker as one of the city’s great chroniclers.Trade Review“One of the best books of fiction to have come out in recent memory . . . [Shaky Town] is one of those rare works that carries an assuring integrity, showing evidence of a writer who understands the bafflement that is the human condition and has the capacity to articulate inchoate sadness and hurt and anger.” —ZYZZYVA“This novel is a particular triumph of storytelling, each installment more acute, more poignant, more revealing than the last, each story crackling with its own distinct energy and intelligence. The characters are jumpy at the margins—volatile, mournful, funny as hell—with the little-known warrens and alleyways of Los Angeles teeming all around them. Mathews is a master, and perhaps contemporary fiction’s best-kept secret.” —Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness “In telling this story of the Los Angeles he’s known, served, and loved, Lou Mathews does more than add to the conversation writers have created about this city, he’s created a peerlessly detailed and empathetic work of art.” —J. Ryan Stradal, author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota “No one writes, or maybe ever has written, as well as Mathews about the local streets and their navigations, liberations, and traps, as brilliantly demonstrated in these stories.” —Steve Erickson, author of Shadowbahn “Shaky Town is ultimately an embrace of all the people—the respectable and the outcast, the casualties and the survivors, the sinners and the sinned against—that make up a Los Angeles at once pitiless and tender, horrible and wonderful, located in actuality and personal mythology.” —Oscar Villalon, managing editor of ZYZZYVA “In Shaky Town, Lou Mathews has written a peerless chronicle of working-class Los Angeles, capturing his beloved hometown in all its tragedy and knuckleheaded glory. A former mechanic and eastside street racer, he illuminates daily life with the same kind of grace and authority that Leonard Gardner brought to Fat City. Mathews is the real deal, matching style with soul and reminding us what matters in this life.” —Jim Gavin, author of Middle Men and creator of Lodge 49 “With Shaky Town, Lou Mathews brings a fascinating and unforgettable corner of the real Los Angeles to vivid life, creating an authentic portrait of a time, a place, and a people. This community is no stranger to tragedy and loss, but there is much beauty, hope, and even humor in Mathew’s stories as well. His characters know what it means to endure, to survive. They have their triumphs and their struggles—yet so often in these pages, if we pay close enough attention, they are also showing us how to live.” —Skip Horack, author of The Other Joseph “Mathews turns the prism of East L.A. this way and that, examining it from various perspectives. As an L.A. native, Mathews writes as an insider, giving voice to a diverse group of Angelenos spanning multiple generations and cultures. The result is greater than the sum of its parts: a panoramic vision of an alluring, deranged, rattletrap of a city . . . Remarkably alive.” —Larissa Dooley, Los Angeles Review of Books
£12.34
Turner Publishing Company Ways the World Could End
Book SynopsisA 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best General FictionDave is a Dad with Asperger's.He sees the world differently than most, and he feels like he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to raising his 15-year-old daughter, Cleo. She also feels like he has no idea what he’s doing, especially now that her mom is gone.They were both better off when Jana was around—Dave's wife, Cleo's mother. But now she's not, and they are left to figure out life on their own. Dave dedicates his attention to his newfound hobby of doomsday prepping, researching the various ways the world could end. Cleo feels like her world already has.Everything changes when neighbors move in, threatening their isolation in the hills of San Juan Capistrano. Cleo is intrigued by the new girl, Edie, and soon finds out the intrigue is mutual. Dave, not at all intrigued, is forced to come to terms with everything he cannot control.As they struggle to live in the present, both Dave and Cleo must dare to revisit the tragic past they share. What happened to Jana? Who was she, really? Who are they without her?Ways the World Could End is a story of grief, friendship, and love—the love between parents and children, between spouses, between teenagers, and between strangers. It is a story that requires us to consider the bounds of forgiveness, what we’re willing and not willing to forgive, and reminds us that often the hardest thing to forgive is ourselves.Trade Review“Hooper offers an insightful and finely crafted look at how a family copes with grief . . . This memorable and stirring story of survival brings the goods.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Joyful . . . Teenage Cleo and her relationship with Edie will strike a chord with young readers.” —Booklist“In Kim Hooper’s capable hands, humor prevails in this touching tale of loss, isolation, and forgiveness.” —Melissa Scholes Young, author of The Hive and Flood“Kim Hooper's writing has me hooked from the first page. The father-daughter relationship between Dave, who lives with Asperger's Syndrome, and Cleo, his lonely and sarcastic teen, is funny and tender. Hooper's warm-hearted depiction of these characters paints a touching, painful, and funny portrait of loss, love, and connection. The novel left me thinking about all the ways the world can end, both large and small.” —Amy Tector, author of The Honeybee Emeralds“With tenderness, humor, candor, and insight, Kim Hooper brings her characters from darkness to light in a story that’s ultimately about the power of love.” —Jennifer Anne Moses, author of The Art of Dumpster Diving
£17.59
Turner Publishing Company After Everyone Else
Book SynopsisA 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner for Best RomanceA 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best General Fiction From the acclaimed author of Before Anyone Else comes a captivating new novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. Bailey thought she’d gotten her happy ending. She is married to the man she loves, she has started a family, and her design business is flourishing. But when Bailey’s ex-husband, a famous TV chef, is found murdered with her DNA all over his apartment and body, she is suddenly facing murder charges in a high-profile case. Already burdened by the demands and challenges of marriage, motherhood, and her career, Bailey now must do everything she can to prove her innocence. But it’s the ones she thought would surely be on her side—her enigmatic lawyer and her husband—who might be doubting her innocence the most. Alternating between the past and present, After Everyone Else chronicles the grip of the past, the challenges of forgiveness, and the resilient love we save for the person we love after everyone else. Trade Review“Marriage, mother-daughter bonds . . . and murder. Acclaimed author Leslie Hooton’s new novel After Everyone Else packs a powerful punch. Alternating between the past and present, what begins as a mystery quickly deep dives into the intricacy of relationships. Hooton doesn’t miss a beat as she deftly explores how far we go to protect those we love—a Must-Read.” —Lisa Barr, USA Today bestselling author of Woman on Fire“With After Everyone Else, Leslie Hooten has delivered another gem of Southern literature: funny but heartfelt, plot-driven yet profound. I can’t wait to see what she gives us next.” —Amy Greene, nationally bestselling author of Bloodroot“Warm-hearted and witty, After Everyone Else grabs you from page one and takes you on a journey of mystery and celebration as it explores relationships between mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. Leslie Hooton does it again!” —Jane Rosen, New York Times bestselling author of Eliza Starts a Rumor and A Shoe Story“After Everyone Else brings us back into the life of Bailey Edgeworth, Leslie Hooton’s memorable, sparkling character from her first novel, but Hooton is such a gifted writer and natural storyteller that this story brings us new twists, new drama, new terrain, all in that witty, emotional resonant writing style. And, always, at the heart of Hooton's writing, there is an exploration of the past, how we are made, and how family and love open up new possibilities that we never expected.” —Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang“A big-hearted book that captures the delicate balance of marriage and motherhood.” —Rochelle B. Weinstein, USA Today bestselling author of This Is Not How It Ends
£11.04
Turner Publishing Company After Everyone Else
Book SynopsisA 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Winner for Best RomanceA 2023 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best General Fiction From the acclaimed author of Before Anyone Else comes a captivating new novel about the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. Bailey thought she’d gotten her happy ending. She is married to the man she loves, she has started a family, and her design business is flourishing. But when Bailey’s ex-husband, a famous TV chef, is found murdered with her DNA all over his apartment and body, she is suddenly facing murder charges in a high-profile case. Already burdened by the demands and challenges of marriage, motherhood, and her career, Bailey now must do everything she can to prove her innocence. But it’s the ones she thought would surely be on her side—her enigmatic lawyer and her husband—who might be doubting her innocence the most. Alternating between the past and present, After Everyone Else chronicles the grip of the past, the challenges of forgiveness, and the resilient love we save for the person we love after everyone else. Trade Review“Marriage, mother-daughter bonds . . . and murder. Acclaimed author Leslie Hooton’s new novel After Everyone Else packs a powerful punch. Alternating between the past and present, what begins as a mystery quickly deep dives into the intricacy of relationships. Hooton doesn’t miss a beat as she deftly explores how far we go to protect those we love—a Must-Read.” —Lisa Barr, USA Today bestselling author of Woman on Fire“With After Everyone Else, Leslie Hooten has delivered another gem of Southern literature: funny but heartfelt, plot-driven yet profound. I can’t wait to see what she gives us next.” —Amy Greene, nationally bestselling author of Bloodroot“Warm-hearted and witty, After Everyone Else grabs you from page one and takes you on a journey of mystery and celebration as it explores relationships between mothers and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. Leslie Hooton does it again!” —Jane Rosen, New York Times bestselling author of Eliza Starts a Rumor and A Shoe Story“After Everyone Else brings us back into the life of Bailey Edgeworth, Leslie Hooton’s memorable, sparkling character from her first novel, but Hooton is such a gifted writer and natural storyteller that this story brings us new twists, new drama, new terrain, all in that witty, emotional resonant writing style. And, always, at the heart of Hooton's writing, there is an exploration of the past, how we are made, and how family and love open up new possibilities that we never expected.” —Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang“A big-hearted book that captures the delicate balance of marriage and motherhood.” —Rochelle B. Weinstein, USA Today bestselling author of This Is Not How It Ends
£18.69
Turner Publishing Company The Sky Club
Book Synopsis“When I’m dead and buried . . . you get the hell out of here . . . Make a life somewhere else . . . a life that I can’t even imagine.” Jo Salter, a woman from the North Carolina mountains, sets about constructing a new life for herself in Asheville in the wake of her mother’s death. A life that no one—including her mother—could have imagined. Jo has a gift. She is a mathematical prodigy—a woman who sees and thinks in numbers. She secures a job as a teller at Central Bank & Trust, where she recreates herself as a modern woman and rises through the professional ranks. While working at the bank, Jo becomes fascinated by Levi Arrowood, the dark and mysterious manager of the Sky Club, an infamous speakeasy and jazz club on the mountainside above town. When the Great Depression brings Central Bank & Trust down in a seismic crash, Jo is forced to find a new home and job. She finds both at the Sky Club, where she strikes a partnership with the alluring Arrowood as she is drawn deeper into a glamorous and precarious life of bootlegging, jazz, and love.The Sky Club is the story of money, greed, and life after the crash from the eyes of one remarkable woman as she creates her own imagined life.Trade Review“Fans of historical and American Southern fiction will breeze through this action-packed, fast-paced novel.” —Library Journal“Roberts has captured a moment in Asheville’s history that to this day affects our way of life. It is a well-told tale, reminiscent of John Ehle’s great novel, Last One Home. I think Ehle would have been proud of The Sky Club.” —Wayne Caldwell, author of Cataloochee“Ever since Terry Roberts took up writing about his ancestors in Western North Carolina, he has produced a remarkably varied and valuable shelf of novels . . . but The Sky Club is the best one yet! Wildly original, this is a truly Appalachian novel all about money, sex, drinking, and the Great Depression . . . along with the more familiar themes of place and family. I especially admire the apparent ease with which Roberts has created the tough, true, funny, and unforgettable Jo Salter, an independent pistol of a woman who tells this lively tale set in a speakeasy on top of a mountain.” —Lee Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Girls“The Sky Club is a wagonload of perilous fun. Terry Roberts has engaged, with customary vigor, many of his favorite themes: local Appalachian history, mountain cultures rural and urban, personal and communal courage, individuality. The resulting story is sprightly and steady in the manner of its heroine, the gifted Jo Salter. Every page here shines with truthful surprise. Bravo!” —Fred Chappell, author of I Am One of You Forever“The Sky Club portrays diverse, unexpected facets of the Appalachian region in the years of the Great Depression. It is a novel of climbing—social, financial, emotional, romantic—to a mountaintop, to The Sky Club, to risk and wealth, to danger, and, ultimately, to enduring love.” —Robert Morgan, author of Gap Creek and Chasing the North Star“With an uncanny ability to make you feel as if you were there—when the Great Depression hit Asheville—Terry Roberts gives voice to Jo Salter, a fiercely independent woman determined to honor her Mama’s dying request that she create a life hard to imagine. Not since Memoirs of a Geisha has a male author portrayed a woman’s life so convincingly.” —Mark Kaufman, Story and Song Bookstore
£14.24
Black Rose Writing Heavenly Blues
Book Synopsis
£19.90
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC A Soldier Dies to Live
Book Synopsis
£6.99
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC Faithfully Failed
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£6.99
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC SweetSpot Now and Then
Book Synopsis
£10.44
G&D Media The Importance of Being Earnest
Book SynopsisThis brilliant tour de force by Oscar Wilde has delighted millions around the world since the play's first production in1895. One of the wittiest plays ever, it is a buoyant comedy of manners celebrated for the lighthearted ingenuity of its plot and its inspired rapid-fire dialogue.From the play's vivacious opening in Algernon Moncrieff's London flat to its hilarious finale in the drawing room of Jack Worthing's country manor this comic masterpiece will keep you breathlessly awaiting each and every plot twist. Jack and Algernon are best friends, both wooing ladies who think their names are Ernest, that name which inspires absolute confidence. In this farcical comedy the protagonists maintain fictitious identities to escape burdensome social obligations. Set in late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats serious institutions like marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.This hilarious madcap farce about hidden and mistaken identities, secret engagements, lovers' entanglements, and the never-ending vanity and selfishness of high society members will have you laughing out loud. You'll delight at the witty banter, well-crafted jokes and insults at the expense of the upper classes and the ridiculousness of human behavior that have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde's most enduringly popular play.A mainstay of high school curriculum for decades this extremely clever and undeniably silly story about eccentric characters is a powerful social satire and criticism of Victorian high society's shallowness and materialism. It's one of few pre-20th century comedies able to have maintained its laugh factor to the present day.
£10.44
Verve House Books Johnny Boy
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£17.99
Solid Ground Press The Reckoning Time
Book Synopsis
£11.47
Heloise Press Broccoli Punch
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£11.66
Heloise Press THE WOLVES OF STARO SELO
Book SynopsisA moving novel about life in a depraved Bulgarian neighbourhood.
£11.66
Selkies House Limited FROM SAVAGERY
Book SynopsisHustle, dodge, pedal, breathe; love, bury, don't look back. In thisfast-paced collection of stories from Venezuelan debut authorAlejandra Banca, a lost generation of young refugees acceleratesinto the light with breathtaking rhythm and shimmeringauthenticity. These are the Savages.
£13.50
Granta Publications Ltd Allegro Pastel
Book SynopsisA new title in the Granta Magazine Editions series: a vivid, ironic and blisteringly contemporary account of millennial love in Frankfurt and Berlin.Allegro Pastel follows a cult author and a web designer as they live and love in contemporary Berlin.Tanja and Jerome are navigating a long-distance relationship in a world of constant communication and emotional hyper-reflection. Whether they''re WhatsApping one another from drug-fueled dance parties or sending ambiguous emojis on a trip to Decathlon, every gesture is controlled and self-aware. This is love in the post-therapeutic age, set against the backdrop of a rapidly heating climate.Written with crackling insight, dry humour, and deep emotional intelligence, Allegro Pastel proclaims Leif Randt as the premiere German stylist of his generation.Granta Magazine Editions is a paperback original series of exceptional literary voices published byGrantamagazine.
£11.69
Holland House Books Crooked Seeds
Book SynopsisDeidre is a victim, of herfamily, her society, her history. That is how she seesherself, and so she feels free of all obligations, moral and practical. Untilthe police take her back to her family home...
£9.49
Holland House Books Braids Migraines
Book SynopsisWhen Nomandla is awarded ascholarship to attend the prestigious Cameron House for Girls in Durban, shethinks her life will improve. Instead it falls apart.
£9.49
Spring Street Books Rainbows and Lollipops
Book Synopsis
£11.69
Burton Mayers Books The: Visitors
Book SynopsisFourteen years ago, Peter saved the world. Now, his sister Emily and two strangers receive coded invitations to return to the hidden village of Templewood, where Peter faces a new, terrifying threat. Templewood is home to the Sect, a secretive organisation intent on global power. They have infiltrated many Governments and are collaborating with the Visitors: alien invaders who have brought gifts of advanced scientific and genetic discoveries. These gifts will potentially provide enormous benefits for humanity and facilitate the Sect’s bid for power. But at what cost and what is the Visitors' motive? Why are they taking, then retuning, increasing numbers of the local population? Peter, Emily, and their friends must uncover the truth before their worst fears are confirmed.Trade ReviewPraise for Another Life;Another Life is a beautiful and thought-provoking meditation on the meaning and purpose of life, seen through the lens of a mystery story steeped in English folklore… The book’s narrative voice and its depiction of details from the natural world are outstanding.;British Fantasy Society;‘Owen Knight blends a sense of mystery and ancient spirituality with profound questions about personal identity. The narrative interweaves dreams, memories and present reality, as the reader is led forward towards the book's revelatory conclusion.’;Dr Mel Thompson, best-selling philosophy author;Intriguing metaphysical folk-thriller… A fusion of reality, dreams and time jumps - that shines a light on the classic folklore legends of the green man and mixes lost love with a mystery tale.;Matt Adcock, writer and film/book critic.
£11.12
Lurid Editions In Transit
Book Synopsis
£11.69
Bullaun Press The Rarest Fruit
Book Synopsis
£11.70
Central Avenue Publishing Goyhood
Book SynopsisCOMING IN PAPERBACK! Reuven Fenton's novel Goyhood is a brilliant debut about a devoutly Orthodox Jewish man who discovers in middle age that he's not, in fact, Jewish, and embarks on a remarkable road trip to come to grips with his fate; it's Chaim Potok's The Chosen meets Planes,Trains and Automobiles.When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small-town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he'd left his wasted youth behind. Now he's a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world - a dirt-poor country boy reinvented in the image of God. But his mother's untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne'er-do-well twin brother David aren't, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer's only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim? So begins the Belkins' Rumspringa through America's Deep South with Mom's ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.
£12.59
Orion Publishing Co The Eye of the Reindeer
Book SynopsisTHE ALCHEMIST meets THE SNOW CHILD in this beautiful odyssey through the snowy landscapes of northern Finland.Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, Ritva is sent away to Seili - a remote island to the south of Finland. A former leper colony, Seili is now home to 'hopeless cases' - women who have been outcast from society. But Ritva can't understand why her father has allowed her to be taken there, and she longs to be reunited with her little sister.Hope arrives in the form of Martta, a headstrong girl who is a Sami, and who reminds Ritva of her lost mother and her tales - of Vaja the reindeer, the stolen sealskin, and of a sacred drum hidden long ago. When Ritva and Martta decide to escape, there is only one place that calls to them. And so they begin the long journey North, to the land of the Sami, in search of healing and forgiveness...Readers say:'Some books make a lasting impression and I think this is definitely one of them. .. It's a celebration of the human spirit and our connection to nature.' Rosie Evans, Good Reads, 5 stars'I love losing myself in a book & this one is one of those for me. I was transported to the land of the midnight sun.' Lynda, Good Reads 5 stars'It has been one of those books that I have felt I have escaped into, because the setting is so richly described and the story line sweeps you up and carries you along.' https://becomingfinnishsite.wordpress.com'The setting in Scandinavia and the lands at the top of the world was so well described as to almost be a character in itself and I was fascinated by the details relating to the indigenous people of this region - the Sami - and their way of life.' Bruce Gargoyle, Good Reads, 4 stars
£19.92
JMD Media Undeliverable Letters Unreachable Galaxies Or
Book Synopsis
£13.16
Poetry Wales Press Cease Upon Midnight
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Granta Books The Third Love
Book SynopsisHaving married her childhood sweetheart, Riko now finds herself trapped in a relationship that has been soured by infidelity. One day, she runs into her old friend Mr Takaoka, who offers friendship, love, and an unusual escape: he teaches her the trick of living inside her dreams. Now, each night, she sinks into another life: first as a high-ranking courtesan in the 17th century, and then as a serving lady to a princess in the late Middle Ages. As she experiences desire and heartbreak in the past, so Riko comes to reconsider her life as a 21st-century woman - as a wife, as a mother, and as a lover - and to ask herself: after loving her husband and loving Mr Takaoka, is she is ready for her third great love?
£9.49
Transworld Publishers Ltd Amberville
Book SynopsisEric Bear thinks he has escaped his violent past, but when crime boss Nicholas Dove threatens Eric's beloved wife Emma Rabbit, Eric has no choice but to do what he asks: find a way to remove Dove's name from the Death List. Problem is, no one knows if the Death List really exists. Nevertheless, Eric gathers his old team together - sadistic male prostitute Sam Gazelle, sweet but dangerous Tom-Tom Crow, and wily Snake Marek - and they set off to find the elusive list.What Eric learns will forever change the way he thinks about his life, his family, and his town.Trade ReviewThis genre-busting curiosity is already a hit in the US . . . Watership Down with car chases. * Telegraph *Utterly believable . . . a lot of fun. * Financial Times *True identities constantly shift in this world -- lovers might be enemies, priests can be evil, and stuffed animals, given the depth and intellect that Davys gives them, may as well be human * Chicago Sun-Times *Oddly gripping and convincing ... Skip that evening Scotch and read this one stone-cold sober -- it's plenty trippy as is * Washington Post *A delightful mystery-thriller set in a city populated by stuffed animals...dastardly fun to read * San Francisco Chronicle *
£999.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd Laying The Ghost
Book SynopsisReaders of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson will love this delightfully light-hearted, witty and sparkling romantic comedy. Perfect to settle down with!'Fast and fun' -- Woman & Home'I loved it!' -- ***** Reader review'Gripping from beginning to end' -- ***** Reader review'A book best read in one sitting' -- ***** Reader review***********************************************************************************IS IT EVER TOO LATE TO REKINDLE AN OLD FLAME?When Nell was a student, she and Patrick were a serious item. They were inseparable, and she really thought he was The One.But then Alex came along...the safer, more restful option, and thanks to her over-controlling mother she opted for him instead.Now nothing is going right. Alex has left her to live in New York with a younger, blonder woman. Escaping to the Caribbean for a recuperative holiday, she is mugged at Gatwick and her bag is stolen. It's crisis time - and she makes two decisions:First - she will take lessons in self-defence.Second - she will try and find Patrick again.Is she trying to put the past behind her - or setting out to ruin her future?Trade ReviewFast and fun * Woman & Home *
£14.39
Vintage Publishing The Room, The Invoice, and The Circus
Book SynopsisIn this trilogy of novellas, Jonas Karlsson explores the quirkier side of human nature, helping us to see the world anew via three eccentric narrators.Firstly, jobsworth Bjorn starts a new career and expects to progress quickly with his meticulousness and efficiency. But he only gets the recognition he deserves in the Room which, it transpires, only he can visit. Next, a man with a seemingly unremarkable life -- a job in a video store, a small flat, no partner, one good friend and a nice ice cream shop nearby -- receives an enormous invoice for his ‘experienced happiness’. Unable to pay, he sets out to discover how, exactly, his happiness bill was calculated. Finally, in The Circus, published in the UK for the first time, two old friends decide to visit a circus together. When Magnus disappears during a magic trick, our protagonist is consumed by the need to find him. And yet, as with any Karlsson story, things aren’t quite what they seem…
£14.70
Pan Macmillan My Beloved Life
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Twelve Red Herrings
Book SynopsisA collection of twelve captivating short stories from the number one internationally bestselling author Jeffrey Archer.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan The Secret Collector
Book SynopsisAbigail Johnson wrote this novel while completing the Curtis Brown Creative three-month novel writing course, where she was tutored by author Laura Barnett. It was longlisted for the 2021 and 2022 Bath Novel Award. Her writing has also been longlisted for the Exeter Novel Award, shortlisted for the 2021 Edinburgh Flash Fiction Award and she was a Friday Night Live finalist at the Festival of Writing in 2017. She lives in Birmingham.
£9.49
Pan Macmillan Ours are the Streets
Book SynopsisReublished into the Picador Collection, Ours are the Streets is the moving story of a British Muslim and his descent into Islamist radicalization.
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Mr Fox
Book SynopsisHelen Oyeyemi is the author of The Icarus Girl, The Opposite House, White is for Witching, Mr Fox and the short story collection What is Not Yours is Not Yours. Helen has been included in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and is the winner of a Somerset Maugham Award.
£10.44
Pan Macmillan The Butcher Boy
Book Synopsis
£10.44
Pan Macmillan From Scenes Like These
Book SynopsisGordon M. Williams was born in Paisley in 1934. He was the author of several novels, including From Scenes Like These, which was shortlisted for the first Booker Prize in 1969, Walk Don't Walk, Big Morning Blues, The Camp, The Man Who Had Power Over Women, and The Siege of Trencher's Farm, which was made into the film Straw Dogs. He was also the ghostwriter for the autobiographies of footballers Bobby Moore, Terry Venables and Tommy Docherty. He died in 2017.
£10.44
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Flint Kill Creek
Book SynopsisFrom Joyce Carol Oates, one of America''s most feted and critically acclaimed authors, a collection of mysterious, suspenseful and macabre tales.In her inimitable style, Oates takes the reader on unsettling journeys through the modern American psyche. Here you will find tales of loss and grief, confusion and darkness; of violent ends and the cruel march of time; of failed relationships, family secrets, and professional jealousy; of deceitful lovers, distant spouses, and those with murder in mind. Dark secrets or their own consciences impact Oates'' characters as she moves between small American towns and anonymous urban sprawls, between the courtroom, the hospital, the world of academia, and the wilderness of upstate New York with deft skill in this tantalising collection of the macabre and mysterious, the suspenseful and the sublime.''[A] literary goddess.'' Daily Mail
£9.49
Muswell Press Best Friends
Book SynopsisA richly resonant, bittersweet story of late life love. With echoes of Olive Kitteridge and Our Souls at Night, Andrew Meehan's compelling novel ponders the question, is it ever too late to find love?
£11.69
St. Martin's Publishing Group The Summer You Were Mine
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£15.30
Tor Publishing Group Salty Spiced and a Little Bit Nice
Book SynopsisCrazy Rich Asians meets Always Be My Maybe in this deliciously sugar-free rom-com from debut author Cynthia Timoti.She''s salty, he''s spice--there''s no room for sugar in this fake relationship, but it may be sweeter than they think...Ellie Pang has had enough of her controlling family? who has been micromanaging her life since her type 1 diabetes diagnosis?. When her parents orchestrate a public proposal from their business partner?s son, a proposal that goes humiliatingly viral, Ellie escapes to the other side of the country to put her dream of opening a sugar-free bakery into action. After all, she?d done her research. How hard can it be?She hits a snag when her storefront turns out to be a dump and in need of major renovations. Worse, the only person who can help her turn things around is Alec Mackenzie, her brother?s best friend and the man responsible for crushing her teenage heart ten years ago.But Alec has a proposal of his own: he needs a pretend girlfriend in order to cement a business deal. All they need to do is feign love and affection, while trying not to maim each other. As the thin line between hate and fake-madly-in-love starts to blur, buried secrets resurface, and Ellie must learn to trust her heart.
£15.19
St. Martin's Publishing Group A Simple Twist of Fate
Book Synopsis
£14.40
Flatiron Books Forward
Book SynopsisThe fifth book in Natalie Keller Reinert?s beloved Eventing Series, set in the high-stakes world of three-day eventing, now reimagined and repackaged!If Jules was sure about one thing, it was that she would never become a riding instructor. But suddenly she is the lead instructor at the Alachua Eventing Co-Op, and though Jules never thought she?d be so sentimental, she loves training up a new generation of riders. Her own riding has never been better, and Jules will be able to afford a promising new horse if she and Dynamo can win at the Central Park Horse Show in the fall.But cracks start to show as summer sets in. Pete?s overbearing new owner is pressuring him to push his horse too fast. Dynamo is suddenly showing his age on the cross-country course. And sparks are flying between Jules and her new coach, Evan Folkes. As mounting tension threatens her relationship with Pete, and the lights of New York City beckon, will Jules decide to chase new dreams? Or can she choose Pete and the life they?ve built together, and still move forward? In Natalie Keller Reinert?s beloved eight-book Eventing Series, we follow Jules and her friends through the joys and heartbreaks of the competitive eventing circuit, as they work their way into elite echelons?and into one another?s lives and hearts. Utterly immersive and propulsive, this series is an unforgettable journey for anyone who has ever fallen in love with horses, or humans.
£15.38
Flatiron Books Prospect
Book SynopsisThe sixth book in Natalie Keller Reinert?s beloved Eventing Series, set in the high-stakes world of three-day eventing, now reimagined and repackaged!This time, Jules might finally be in over her head. Pete is away in California, and Jules? promising new horse, Confident Liar, is proving to be a tough ride. Not to mention, her employers are putting the pressure on, expecting more from Jules than she can possibly provide. And Evan Folkes is dangling a shot at international competition that Jules is hard-pressed to resist. She has the support of her old friends and her beloved students, but she?s being pulled in a million different directions.No one is going to wait around while Jules figures out what she wants. On a collision course with the confrontational head of the co-op board, and without Pete to turn to for advice, Jules is drawn back toward her coach. Evan has always wanted to be more than friends, but he?s never been trustworthy. Jules might be risking everything in her attempt to please everyone. She thought she could have it all?but was that too good to be true?In Natalie Keller Reinert?s beloved eight-book Eventing Series, we follow Jules and her friends through the joys and heartbreaks of the competitive eventing circuit, as they work their way into elite echelons?and into one another?s lives and hearts. Utterly immersive and propulsive, this series is an unforgettable journey for anyone who has ever fallen in love with horses, or humans.
£15.00
St. Martin's Publishing Group Rules for Second Chances
Book SynopsisBrimming with heart and heat, Rules for Second Chances explores the hardest relationship question of all: can true love happen twice...with the same person?Liz Lewis has tried everything to be what people want. But she's always been labeled different from everyone else in the boisterous world of wilderness expeditionsthat is, if anyone notices her at all. Her marriage to popular adventure guide Tobin Renner-Lewis is a sinkhole of toxic positivity where she's the only one saying no. In a mountain resort town built around excitement, introverted Liz getsspreadsheets.When she gets mistaken for a server at her own thirtieth birthday party and her last line of communication with Tobin finally snaps, Liz vows to stop playing a minor character in her own life. The (incredibly well-researched and scientific) plan? A crash course in confidencevia improv comedy class.The catch? She's terrible at it, and the only person willing to practice with her is a certain extroverted wilderness guide who seems dead set on saving their marriage one bonkers improv scenario at a time. But as Liz and Tobin get closer (...again), she's forced to confront all the reasons they didn't work the first time, along with her growing suspicion that there might be more to her social awkwardness than anyone realized. Liz has just eight weeks to learn improv's most important lessonyes, andor she'll have to choose between the love she always wanted and the dreams that got away.
£8.99
Henry Holt & Company The Nimbus
Book SynopsisA dazzling debut novel about a child whose literal enlightenment sets the stage for an exuberant tragicomedy of marriage, religion, and parenthood.On an otherwise ordinary fall day on a university campus in Chicago, the toddler son of an ambitious divinity school professor named Adrian Bennett mysteriously starts to glow. The nimbus, as the strange, soft light comes to be known, offers no clues to its origin and frustrates every attempt at rational explanation.Though the nimbus appears only intermittently, and not to everyone, the otherworldly glow quickly upends the lives of all those who encounter it, including Paul Harkin, Adrian's broke and feckless graduate student, who likes being a graduate student a little too much for his own good; Renata Bennett, Adrian's omnicompetent wife, who can't see her son glowing even though the nimbus is turning her life upside down; and Warren Kayita, a down-on-his-luck librarian and aging divinity school alumnus on the run from a violent criminal. As news about the nimbus spreads around the university and beyond, Adrian, Paul, Renata, and Warren are set on a collision course that will threaten their lives and put their deepest convictions to the test.At once a rollicking intellectual satire, a searing portrait of a family in crisis, and a thrilling metaphysical page-turner, The Nimbus offers a comic and profound examination of the persistence of spiritual belief in a secular age and humanity's timeless search for meaning.
£21.74
St. Martin's Publishing Group Ready to Score
Book Synopsis
£14.40
