Narrative theme: love / relationships
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Gold Bug Variations
Book Synopsis
£16.14
HarperCollins The Christmas Bookshop
Book SynopsisThe instant New York Times bestseller!?Sublime...Colgan infuses her latest book with humor, wit, suspense and a perfectly cast love triangle.?--USA TodayThe Christmas Bookshop is literary hot chocolate with a bourbon shot: hot, sweet but with a surprising emotional kick.--The Times (UK)Perfect for the holidays! A brand-new heartwarming Christmas novel from the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop on the Corner and Christmas at the Island Hotel. Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia's perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal.Frankly, Sofia doesn't exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job.Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie's ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop and Carmen? And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Welcome to the School by the Sea
Book SynopsisThe first book of Jenny Colgan’s delightful new four-part series, set at a charming English boarding school on the sea.Maggie went to the window and opened it wide, inhaling the lovely salt air off the sea. Why had she never lived by the sea before? Why had she always looked out on housing estates and not the little white hulls of trawlers bobbing off in the distance?It’s gloriously sunny in Cornwall as the school year starts at the little boarding school by the sea. Maggie, the newest teacher at Downey House, is determined to make her mark. She’s delighted by her new teaching job, but will it come at the expense of her relationship with her safe, dependable boyfriend Stan?Simone is excited and nervous: she’s won a scholarship to the prestigious boarding school and wants to make her parents proud. Forced to share a room with the glossy, posh girls of Downey House, she needs to find a friend, fast
£14.44
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Rules at the School by the Sea
Book SynopsisIt’s summer, but school is in session in the delightful second book of New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan’s utterly charming School by the Sea series, set at a girls’ boarding school in Cornwall.For the second year at Downey House, it''s getting harder and harder to stick to the rules . . .Maggie Adair’s first year as a teacher at Downey House was a surprising success. After making the leap from an inner-city school in Glasgow, she’s learned to appreciate the mellower pace of the girls’ boarding school by the sea.Now engaged to her longtime boyfriend, sweet and steady Stan, Maggie’s just got to stop thinking about David McDonald, her colleague at the boys’ school down the road. Well, hasn’t she? Can Maggie take a leaf out of the Well Behaved Teacher’s exercise book and stick to her plan for a small but elegant wedding and settled life of matrimony?Even as Maggie tries to stay within the lines, rules are being broken all around her. Maggie’s boss, headmistress Veronica Deveral, has more to lose than anyone. When Daniel Stapleton joins the faculty, Veronica finds herself forced to confront a scandalous secret she thought she’d carefully buried forever. How long will she be able to keep her past under wraps?What does a new year of classes, rules, and camaraderie hold for the students and faculty at Downey House?
£14.44
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Lessons at the School by the Sea
Book SynopsisThe summer holiday brings new passion and new challenges in the enchanting third book of Jenny Colgan’s utterly delightful School by the Sea series, set at a girls’ boarding school in Cornwall.School is out, following a bit of saucy scandal at Downey House...Beloved high school teacher Maggie Adair had been comfortably, if somewhat ambivalently, engaged to her dependable long-distance boyfriend Stan. But in the heat of summer, Maggie’s attraction to her colleague David McDonald has caught fire. Now both are facing an uncertain future as they try to figure out how to stay committed to their careers—and each other.Meanwhile, the girls of Downey House—mercurial Fliss, glamorous Alice, and shy, hard-working Simone—have had long summers at home, which weren’t quite the respite they had been hoping for. But the new school year is thankfully here, and i
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc An Island Wedding
Book Synopsis
£15.29
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
Book Synopsis“It’s a good thing that this is only the first book of a trilogy, because after getting to know Tabitha, you won’t want to leave her at the end. . . . Written intimately as if you’re peering into the mind of a close friend, this book is a true testament to the stresses on women today and how great girlfriends (and grandmothers) are often the key to our sanity.” — Good Morning AmericaThe first novel in a captivating three-book series about modern womanhood, in which a young Black woman must rely on courage, laughter, and love—and the support of her two longtime friends—to overcome an unexpected setback that threatens the most precious thing she’s ever wanted.Tabitha Walker is a black woman with a plan to “have it all.” At 33 years old, the checklist for the life of her dreams is well underway. Education? Check. Good job? Check. Down payment for a nice
£21.59
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Change
Book SynopsisGOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK The Change is like a guttural rage scream (and somehow a soft, tearful hug) of a book, and I couldn't have loved it any more. --Emily HenryBig Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town. A roar of rage, a pacy page-turner, I loved it with all my broken heart. Read it. You'll love it.--New York Times bestselling author Marian KeyesMiller triumphs...THE CHANGE is that rare treat: a suspenseful story with great pacing, memorable characters, and an engaging voice. Fantastic in every way, this fierce anthem against misogyny is a smash.--Publishers Weekly (starred review)A pointed, punchy, and potent thriller...wry and clever, serious and exacting, and masterfully suspenseful.--Booklist (starred review)In the Long Island oceanfront community of Mattauk, three different women discover that midlife changes bring a whole new type of empowerment...After Nessa James's husband dies and her twin daughters leave for college, she's left all alone in a trim white house not far from the ocean. In the quiet of her late forties, the former nurse begins to hear voices. It doesn't take long for Nessa to realize that the voices calling out to her belong to the dead a gift she's inherited from her grandmother, which comes with special responsibilities.On the cusp of 50, suave advertising director Harriett Osborne has just witnessed the implosion of her lucrative career and her marriage. She hasn't left her house in months, and from the outside, it appears as if she and her garden have both gone to seed. But Harriett's life is far from over in fact, she's undergone a stunning and very welcome metamorphosis.Ambitious former executive Jo Levison has spent thirty long years at war with her body. The free-floating rage and hot flashes that arrive with the beginning of menopause feel like the very last straw until she realizes she has the ability to channel them, and finally comes into her power.Guided by voices only Nessa can hear, the trio of women discover a teenage girl whose body was abandoned beside a remote beach. The police have written the victim off as a drug-addicted sex worker, but the women refuse to buy into the official narrative. Their investigation into the girl's murder leads to more bodies, and to the town's most exclusive and isolated enclave, a world of stupendous wealth where the rules don't apply. With their newfound powers, Jo, Nessa, and Harriett will take matters into their own hands...
£23.79
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Wild Girls
Book Synopsis
£14.44
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Vintage Contemporaries
Book Synopsis
£22.39
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Vintage Contemporaries
Book SynopsisExceptionally warm-hearted . . . mounts a convincing case for such uncool causes as good taste over fashionable taste, editing as creative craft work, and smart novels where everything matters only as much as it ever matters in life. --VoxSlate editor Dan Kois makes his fiction debut with this stunning coming-of-age novel set in New York City, about the joys of unexpected life-altering friendships,the power of finding ourselves in the moment,and the importance of forgiving ourselves when we inevitably mess everything up.It?s 1991. Em moved to New York City for excitement and possibility, but the big city isn?t quite what she thought it would be. Working as a literary agent?s assistant, she?s down to her last nineteen dollars but has made two close friends: Emily, a firebrand theater director living in a Lower East Side squat, and Lucy, a middle-aged novelist and single mom. Em?s life revolves around these two wildly different women and their vividly disparate yet equally assured views of art and the world. But who is Em, and what does she want to become?It''s 2004. Em is now Emily, a successful book editor, happily married and barely coping with the challenges of a new baby. And suddenly Lucy and Emily return to her life: Her old friend Lucy''s posthumous book needs a publisher, and her ex-friend Emily wants to rekindle their relationship. As they did once before, these two women?one dead, one very alive?force Emily to reckon with her decisions, her failures, and what kind of creative life she wants to lead.A sharp, reflective, and funny story of a young woman coming into herself and struggling to find her place, Vintage Contemporaries is a novel about art, parenthood, loyalty, and fighting for a cause?the times we do the right thing, and the times we fail?set in New York City on both sides of the millennium.
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Mika in Real Life
Book SynopsisA GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICKA #READ WITH MC BOOK CLUB PICKA wonderful, life-affirming story about second chances, parenthood, and love...--Lauren Ho, author of Lucie Yi is Not a Romantic and Last Tang StandingFrom Emiko Jean, the author of the New York Times bestselling young adult novels Tokyo Ever After and Tokyo Dreaming, comes a whip-smart, laugh-out-loud funny, and utterly heartwarming novel about motherhood, daughterhood, and love how we find it, keep it, and how it always returns.Mika Suzuki's life is a mess. Fired from a dead-end job, she shares a home with her best friend, who just might be a hoarder if all the unopened deliveries are a sign. Her last relationship to a burnout named Leif ended in flames. And she's a perpetual disappointment to her traditional Japanese parents, especially to her mother, who keeps presenting her with dating prospects found in church.Then she receives the surprise of her life a phone call from Penny, the baby she placed for adoption sixteen years ago. Now a headstrong teenager, Penny is eager to learn all about Mika, who she is and what her dreams are. The harder-won heart belongs to Thomas Calvin, Penny's adoptive widower father. What starts as a rocky relationship with him slowly blossoms into friendship and, just maybe, something more.Faced with her own insecurities, Mika at first embellishes the facts about her life. But Penny's love revives so many of the dreams she once had, especially those about being an artist and making a difference in the world... ultimately forcing her to answer the question, Just who is Mika in real life?
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Groupies
Book Synopsis
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Change
Book Synopsis
£23.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Summer on Sag Harbor CD
Book SynopsisINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe View cohost and three-time Emmy Award winner Sunny Hostin spirits readers away to the warm beaches of Sag Harbor in the second novel of her bestselling Summer series.Olivia Jones, hard-working and accomplished, has, against the odds, blazed an enviable career path in the finance world. But behind the veneer of her success, she is mourning several devastating losses and betrayals. Untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia moves to a summer home in The Hamptons.Here, Olivia finds a close-knit community of African American elites who escape New York City for the beautiful beaches of the Hamptons. Since the 1930s, very few have known about this Historically Black Beachfront Community, and the residents like it that way.That is, until real estate developers discover the hidden gem. And now, the residents must fight for the soul of this HBBC.As the summer stretches on, Olivia teams up with her new friends to protect their community and, in doing so, discovers who she really is. Though not without cost, Olivia’s search for her authentic identity and her fight to preserve her new Black utopia, will lead her to redefine the meaning of love, friendship, community, and family—and restore her faith in herself and her chosen path.
£33.74
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Mika in Real Life
Book Synopsis
£23.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Manhattan Girls
Book Synopsis
£21.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc An Island Wedding
Book Synopsis
£20.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop
Book SynopsisYour most delightful holiday read: the sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller The Christmas Bookshop, from beloved Scottish author Jenny Colgan.Christmas comes early—far too early—to McCredie’s little Old Town bookshop in Edinburgh. It’s summer, but an American production company has decided that McCredie’s is the perfect location to film a very cheesy Christmas movie. After all, who can resist the charmingly narrow historic street with its Victorian grey stone buildings and warmly lit shop windows? Carmen Hogan, the bookshop’s manager, is amused and a bit horrified by the goings-on, but the money the studio is paying is too good to pass up. She uses the little windfall from filming to create new displays and fend off a buyout offer from an obnoxious millionaire who wants to turn McCredie’s into a souvenir shop selling kilts made in China and plastic Nessies. Still reeling sl
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Fourteen Days
Book Synopsis
£26.34
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Cloud Girls
Book SynopsisA PEOPLE MAGAZINE PICK! “Shocking—and shockingly good. It is thought-provoking, anger-provoking, guilt-provoking, and—most importantly—it is a brilliantly written novel.”—Roddy Doyle Thrown together by a harrowing twist of fate, two girls will find hope and redemption in friendship in this award-winning, emotional gut punch of a novel from the author of Bright Burning Things.Sassy, streetwise Sammy is a teenage girl who is falling through the cracks. Neglected by an alcoholic mother, the problems she endures at school and home lead her into the hands of adults who don''t have her best interests in mind. Failed by them at every turn, Sammy acts out, seeking attention from boys, then men, when what she wants most is protection.Meanwhile, in a small village in Eastern Europe, preternaturally beautiful and naïve Nico is about to turn thirteen and as her family falls upon desperate times, her father is approached to marry her off. Her family knows that the nice life this stranger seems to be offering Nico is too good to be true, but they and Nico hope for the best as she’s shuttled across the border into Ireland, where she and Sammy find one another in their new home, a suburban brothel.As Nico and Sammy journey into this dark underbelly and out the other side, their friendship—and the unexpected acts of kindness they give and receive—form a potent bond.Heartbreaking and breathtakingly beautiful, Cloud Girls exposes the failings of polite society and the cruelty that exists beneath its surface, yet reminds us that goodness and love can flourish in the darkest times.
£27.00
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Lessons at the School by the Sea
Book SynopsisThe summer holiday brings new passion and new challenges in the enchanting third book of Jenny Colgan’s utterly delightful School by the Sea series, set at a girls’ boarding school in Cornwall.School is out, following a bit of saucy scandal at Downey House...Beloved high school teacher Maggie Adair had been comfortably, if somewhat ambivalently, engaged to her dependable long-distance boyfriend Stan. But in the heat of summer, Maggie’s attraction to her colleague David McDonald has caught fire. Now both are facing an uncertain future as they try to figure out how to stay committed to their careers—and each other.Meanwhile, the girls of Downey House—mercurial Fliss, glamorous Alice, and shy, hard-working Simone—have had long summers at home, which weren’t quite the respite they had been hoping for. But the new school year is thankfully here, and it will bring new pupils and lots of fresh challenges for students and teachers alike at the school by the sea.
£999.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Second Chance Store
Book Synopsis
£16.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc One Christmas Morning
Book Synopsis
£16.14
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Varina Palladinos Jersey Italian Love Story
Book Synopsis
£27.00
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Canary Girls
Book Synopsis
£28.80
HarperCollins Publishers Inc The Librarianist
Book Synopsis
£25.50
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Confessions of a FortySomething Fk Up
Book Synopsis
£16.14
Ebury Publishing Rags to Riches
Book SynopsisBut when a disgraced Amy is disowned by her parents and fiancé, Alice is the only person she can turn to…Forced to give up her life of luxury, Amy lodges with Alice’s friendly working class family.
£12.34
Little Brown and Company The FiveStar Weekend
Book Synopsis
£24.00
Little Brown and Company One Day I Shall Astonish the World
Book Synopsis
£21.60
Random House Canada Asking for a Friend
Book SynopsisFor readers of J. Courtney Sullivan and Emma Straub, and for fans of Firefly Lane, comes a poignant and sweeping novel about life, love, and the ever-evolving nature of female friendship by the author of Waiting for a Star to Fall.The bottom of Jess’s world is falling out. Cocooned in her dorm in the winter of 1998, she’s reeling, and wants to be left alone. But a chance encounter with the older, otherworldly, elusive Clara has Jess awestruck. Clara, newly returned from a two-year trek drifting around the world, is taking a stab at normalcy for once, and the place she starts is university, where she struggles to fit in. Upon meeting Jess, though, Clara feels an instant connection, and everything seems brighter. Soon, the two are inseparable, undeniable necessities in each other’s lives. But when tragedy strikes, they are unceremoniously torn apart, sent tumbling down different paths. And with each passing day, their unbreakable bond is tes
£15.26
Random House USA Inc Inside Story
Book SynopsisFrom one of the most gifted and innovative writers of our time, an autobiographical novel that’s a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die “[A] charismatic compound of fact and fiction...Martin Amis has retained the power to surprise.” —The New York Times This novel had its birth in the death of Martin Amis's closest friend, the incomparable Christopher Hitchens, and it is within that profound and sprawling friendship that Inside Story unfurls. From their early days as young magazine staffers in London, reviewing romantic entanglements and the latest literary gossip (not to mention ideas, books, and where to lunch), Hitch was Amis's wingman and adviser, especially in the matter of the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps—an obsession Amis must somehow put behind him if he is ever to find love, marriage, a plausible run at happiness. Other figure
£16.20
Penguin Putnam Inc White on White
Book Synopsis
£13.60
Random House USA Inc The Orchard
Book SynopsisFour teenagers grow inseparable in the last days of the Soviet Union—but not all of them will live to see the new world arrive in this powerful debut novel, loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.“Spectacular . . . intensely evocative and gorgeously written . . . will fill readers’ eyes with tears and wonder.”—Minneapolis Star TribuneONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: New York PostComing of age in the USSR in the 1980s, best friends Anya and Milka try to envision a free and joyful future for themselves. They spend their summers at Anya’s dacha just outside of Moscow, lazing in the apple orchard, listening to Queen songs, and fantasizing about trips abroad and the lives of American teenagers. Meanwhile, Anya’s parents talk about World War II, the Blockade, and the hardships they have endured. By the time Anya and Milka are fifteen, the Soviet Empire is on the v
£15.30
Random House USA Inc First Time for Everything
Book SynopsisA “big-hearted” (The Daily Beast), “LOL-worthy” (Cosmopolitan) debut about a down-on-his-luck gay man working out how he fits into the world, making up for lost time, and opening himself up to life’s possibilities“Part of a new wave of authors releasing uplifting queer literature that casts its characters as the heroes of their lives . . . crammed with blossoming romances and glittery escapism.”—The GuardianDanny Scudd is absolutely fine. He always dreamed of escaping the small-town life of his parents’ fish-and-chip shop, moving to London, and becoming a journalist. And, after five years in the city, his career isn’t exactly awful, and his relationship with pretentious Tobbs isn’t exactly unfulfilling. Certainly his limited-edition Dolly Parton vinyls and many (maybe too many) house plants are hitting the spot. But his world is flipped upside down when a
£15.30
Penguin Putnam Inc The Kew Gardens Girls at War
Book SynopsisInspired by real events, a touching novel about a new class of courageous women who worked at London’s historic Kew Gardens during World War II.In the face of war, gardening is their duty…When Daisy Cooper’s new husband joins the RAF to fight the Battle of Britain, she’s terrified she’s going to lose him. So when her mother Ivy suggests she join the gardeners at Kew to keep busy, Daisy’s intrigued. After all, Ivy worked at Kew during the last great war and made lifelong friends along the way. Louisa Armitage, not ready to hang up her gardening gloves just yet, and Beth Sanderson, an aspiring doctor looking to make a difference, decide to enlist as well. When tragedy strikes, the women are forced to come together to support one other during their darkest hours. But can the Kew Gardens Girls survive the horrors of war-torn London this time?
£14.40
Penguin Putnam Inc Best of Friends
Book Synopsis“A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces.” —Madeline Miller “A shining tour de force about a long friendship’s respects, disrespects, loyalties and moralities.” —Ali Smith From the acclaimed author of Home Fire, the moving and surprising story of a lifelong friendship and the forces that bring it to the breaking point Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though—or maybe because—they are unlike in nearly every way. Yet they never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future. Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock
£15.30
Random House USA Inc Avalon
Book SynopsisA NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A profound and singular story about a young woman searching for her place in the world, from one of America’s most original voices—the irresistible story of one teenager’s reckoning with society at large and her search for a personal utopia.“Effulgent and clever.... What fun.” —The New York TimesBran’s Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother joins a Buddhist colony, Bran is raised by her “common-law stepfather” on Bourdon Farms—a plant nursery that doubles as a cover for a biker gang. She spends her days tending plants, slogging through high school, and imagining what life could be if she had been born to a different family. And then she meets Peter, a beautiful, troubled, and charming train wreck of a college student from the East Coast, who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of literature and aesthetics. As the two begin a volatile and ostensibly doomed long-distance relationship, Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings—attending disastrous dance recitals, house-sitting for strangers, and writing scripts for student films. She knows how to survive, but her happiness depends on learning to call the shots. Exceedingly rich, ecstatically dark, and delivered with masterful humor, Avalon is a poignant portrait of a young woman who, against all odds, is determined to find her place in the world and find clarity in its remote corners.
£14.45
Random House USA Inc Elizabeth Finch
Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling, award-winning author of The Sense of an Ending, a magnetic tale that centers on the presence of a vivid and particular woman, whose loss becomes the occasion for a man’s deeper examination of love, friendship, and biography.I’ll remember Elizabeth Finch when most other characters I’ve met this year have faded. –John Self, The TimesThis beautiful, spare novel of platonic unrequited love springs into being around the singular character of the stoic, exacting Professor Elizabeth Finch. Neil, the narrator, takes her class “Culture and Civilisation,” taught not for undergraduates but for adults of all ages; we are drawn into his intellectual crush on this private, withholding, yet commanding woman. While other personal relationships and even his family drift from Neil’s grasp, Elizabeth’s application of her material to the matter of daily living remains important to him, even after her
£13.60
Diversified Publishing Somebodys Fool
Book Synopsis
£27.90
Hachette Australia Weekends with the Sunshine Gardening Society
Book SynopsisNoosa Heads, 1987: Newly divorced Cynthia has returned to her home town from Los Angeles to reconnect with her 19-year-old daughter, who is pregnant and determined not to listen to her mother''s advice. Cynthia''s former best friend, Lorraine, has been stuck mowing lawns as part of a business she shares with her husband - his dream, not hers. When Cynthia convinces Lorraine to join the local Sunshine Gardening Society, they meet young widow Elizabeth, and rootless, heartbroken Kathy. The four women soon discover the society is much more than an opportunity to chat about flowers. Rather, it offers them the chance to lend a helping hand to people whose lives need a bit of care and attention right along with their gardens.Between pulling up weeds and planting natives, the women learn from each other that some roots go deep, and others shallow; that seeds can lie dormant for a long time before they spring to life, and that careful tendi
£25.51
Mira Books Susannahs Garden 3 Blossom Street Novel
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Mira Books Summer on the Island
Book Synopsis
£14.44
Mira Books The Friendship Club
Book Synopsis
£26.09
Mira Books A Family Affair
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Mira Books Midnight Promises
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Mira Books Where Azaleas Bloom
Book Synopsis
£9.99
