Here’s my pick of this week’s new hardback/paperback fiction titles. In some cases the eBook might already be available. My source is primarily The Bookseller, but I’ve started to include other sources to broaden the selection.
Just a reminder, I don’t have access to a complete list of titles being published, and, as I don’t see any advance copies, my choices are based on the cover, blurb, gut instinct and what takes my fancy at the time.
(NB This post features Affiliate links from which I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases)
Index
Crime, Thriller and Mystery (includes Historical Crime/Mysteries)
Historical (I tend to take this as pre 1960’s ie not in my lifetime!)
Crime, Thriller & Mystery
The Murder Machine by Heather Graham
Artificial intelligence meets genuine murderous intent.
This state-of-the-art smart home has everything: a next-generation entertainment system, an ultramodern kitchen where every appliance is online and even a personal AI to control it all. Standing above its owner’s lifeless body, FBI agent Jude Mackenzie is faced with the daunting task of discovering how the woman was killed by her own home. How do you catch a murderer that doesn’t leave any fingerprints?
Enter Special Agent Victoria Tennant, whose familiarity with cybercrime reveals the stark truth: a machine can only do what it’s been directed to. As the number of grisly “accidents” begins to rise, the pair must race to uncover the perpetrator even as they find themselves caught in their digital crosshairs! There’s nowhere to hide when danger may be as close as the very phones in their pockets.
The Lying Man by Andy Maslen
A famous victim. A locked room. Dark secrets. For DS Ballantyne, murder isn’t black and white.
DS Kat Ballantyne came to the crime-writing festival for an escape. Instead she’s walked straight into a murder scene.
Moments before he’s due on stage, a famous novelist is found dead in a locked room. It looks like natural causes, but Kat sees tiny clues that suggest murder. As she investigates, she uncovers literary rivalries, personal vendettas and hidden agendas. Is there anyone who didn’t have a motive to murder Mark Swift?
As the case takes a turn for the darker, Kat finds herself in a world where the line between right and wrong is blurred. Can she bring Swift’s killer to justice? And, if so, should she?
When We Were Killers by CF Barrington
Five friends. One deadly obsession.
The salt-scented quadrangles of St Andrews University greet misfit first-year student Finn Nethercott with indifference. This is a place where only privilege counts, and those from the right backgrounds can get away with murder.
Finn is quickly seduced into a new circle of friends. Four history scholars obsessed with the deepest roots of ancient Scotland. They sweep him away on wild adventures to forgotten castles and faerie lochs.
But he soon discovers the darker sides of his new friendships: deadly rivalries, midnight rituals, and a desperate search for a long-lost hallucinogen.
Then, as Finn is pulled into a world where he can’t always trust what he’s seen each night, the group’s obsession turns deadly…
The Boomerang by Robert Bailey
John Grisham meets Yellowstone in a gripping political thriller by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Robert Bailey, as one man fights for family against a government with a shattering secret.
The president of the United States has terminal cancer. Chief of Staff Eli James, his faithful consigliere and best friend, is one of the few who know. But just as the president’s condition mysteriously improves, Eli’s hit with another blow: his daughter has cancer too.
Hell-bent on helping her, Eli turns to Big Pharma’s top lobbyist for advice, but their encounter yields more questions than answers. As he races along a twisted trail to the truth, he stumbles upon a devastating cover-up worth billions of dollars—and millions of lives.
Armed with this deadly secret, Eli goes rogue, fleeing with his family out west. To keep them safe, he forms an uneasy alliance with land baron Nester “the Beast” Sanchez, known for his ruthless power tactics. An epic showdown brews, and it’s the state versus one desperate citizen, willing to risk everything to save his daughter. Can Eli broker a truce with his once allies? Or will there be war in the desert?
The Girl in Cell A by Vaseem Khan
THE WORLD KNOWS HER AS THE GIRL IN CELL A.
Convicted of murder at seventeen, infamous killer and true crime celebrity Orianna Negi has always maintained her innocence.
BUT IF SHE DIDN’T KILL GIDEON WYCLERC…
Orianna has a blind spot over that fateful day: she can’t remember what happened. Forensic psychologist Annie Ledet is tasked with unlocking the truth.
….THEN WHO DID?
Orianna grew up in Eden Falls, ruled by the insular Wyclerc dynasty and its ruthless patriarch , Amos. As their sessions progress, Annie reaches into Orianna’s past to a shattering realisation…. Scandal. Sex. Power. Race. And murder. Between guilt and innocence lies a fallen Eden.
Three Mothers by Hannah Beckerman
A heartbroken mother
When seventeen-year-old Isla Richardson is killed in a hit-and-run incident, a community’s lives are thrown into disarray. For Isla’s mum, Abby, it is her second devastating bereavement, having lost her husband five years ago. As Abby begins to uncover secrets about Isla’s life, she’s forced to rethink everything she thought she knew about her family.
A supportive best friend
For Abby’s best friend, Nicole, the tragic death sets in motion a chain of events that will have irreparable consequences for her husband and her two teenage sons.
A determined mum
For Jenna, Isla’s death threatens to expose secrets about her son’s past that she has done everything in her power to hide, to secure him a better future.
A tragedy unites them—but it could also tear their families apart
Tackling friendship, family, social prejudice and the pressures facing young women, Three Mothers asks: how well do we really know our children? And how far would any of us go to protect the people we love?
The Harrow by Noah Eaton
A darkly comic novel of subterfuge, whisky glasses, and the drive of an underdog to find the truth, no matter the consequences…
Welcome to the The Harrow, last survivor of London’s once-notorious muckraking magazines. John Salmon, its battle-hardened editor, and his misfit journalists have fought for years to keep it alive, but extinction looms.
Neither the arrival of trainee Danny Roth nor a local gangland killing looks set to change that. But as John reluctantly allows Danny to investigate the murder, they soon find themselves entangled in a story that could save The Harrow – but might cost them their lives…
A brilliantly plotted crime mystery full of larger-than-life characters from the seamy underbelly of modern London.
The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex
‘The week I shot a man clean through the head began like any other . . .’
In January 1989, Birdie wakes to the news she’s been waiting eighteen years to hear. Jimmy Maguire, the man who killed her sister, has been freed from jail. Birdie sends her kids to school and then leaves for London with a gun and a plan: to find Jimmy and make him pay.
But there’s another side to the story, and Birdie is about to enter a world of family lies, worn-out loyalties and long-buried betrayals . . .
Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang
Julie Chan didn’t mean to steal her identical twin’s life. She meant to call the police when she found the body. She meant to dial 911.
Except when she unlocked Chloe’s phone to make that call, she also gained access to her estranged sister’s sponsorship deals, her followers, her wealth, her whole life.
And Julie’s not prepared to give it back. Not yet. So it’s goodbye Julie, love Chloe x
Now all Julie has to do is keep her head down and blend in with the beautiful Belladonnas, the tribe of influencers who had welcomed Chloe in to their inner circle before she died.
Julie’s going to breathe, detox, workout. Curate each post. Filter each picture. Spend whole days filming unboxing videos.
But someone out there knows that even identical twins have their differences…
Murder at the Ponte Vecchio by TA Williams
An iconic bridge… 🌉
Private investigator, Dan Armstrong, lives and works in Florence and knows the world famous Ponte Vecchio well. Usually a magnet for tourists, on this occasion it is the scene of an unexplained death, and Dan finds himself involved in the intriguing case.
An uncompromising man… 😠
Dan quickly discovers that the victim, an elderly jeweller, was every bit as hard as the diamonds he sold in his shop on the bridge. Few people liked him, not even his adult children, and his business dealings look murkier than the waters of the River Arno. Dan suspects more secrets lie hidden…perhaps inside the massive safe in the old man’s luxury villa…
A complex case. 💎🔍
As the evidence begins to mount up, so too do the suspects with their different motives. With a fortune in gold bullion and precious stones involved, Dan thinks the only way to catch the killer is to lay a trap, but might he be caught in the killer’s sights? Fortunately, he has Oscar, his canine wingman at his side, always eager to prove that he’s as good as gold. 🐶
Can Dan and Oscar sniff out the killer’s tracks or will this case be a bridge too far?
Heart Wood by Amity Gaige
In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.
At the centre of the search is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who managing the search on the ground. While Beverly is searching, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.
General/Contemporary Fiction
Air by John Boyne
Being in limbo, 30,000 feet in the air, offers time to reflect and take stock. For Aaron Umber, it’s an opportunity to connect with his 14-year-old son as they travel halfway across the world to meet a woman who isn’t expecting them.
Unsettled by his past, and anxious for his future, Aaron is at a crossroads in life. The damage inflicted upon him during his youth has made him the man he is, but now threatens to widen the growing fissures between him and his only child. This trip could bind them closer together, or tear them further apart.
In this penetrating examination of action and consequence, fault and attribution, acceptance and resolution, John Boyne gives us a redemptive story of a father and a son on a moving journey to mend their troubled lives.
Favourite Daughter by Morgan Dick
‘He left you some money.’
Mickey felt her mouth drop open. The first half of that sentence had rung clear and true. The second half had not. Her father was one to take, not give.
After he left them for his new family, Mickey resolved never to think of her father again. She’s fine without him; yes, she drinks, but only sometimes and, really, she can’t not.
But with only $181 to her name, she’s not above attending some mandated therapy to access her inheritance. She’ll kneel at the Kleenex alter and soon be bingeing Bridgerton with a bottle of Russian Standard, five million dollars richer.
Arlo has more issues than most of her clients. Being a therapist has not prepared her for grief. She adored her father – his laughter, his charm, the smell of his cologne. She thought he adored her, too, but now he’s given his inheritance to a daughter no one knows, and Arlo is at a loss.
Two sisters are unknowingly thrown together for the first time.
It’s crazy, it’s unethical.
It’s perfect.
Liquid by Matiam Rahmani
‘My career had gone nowhere. My love life was non-existent. And as for s*x – here I was, home alone on a Saturday night with a chick flick playing on my laptop because I didn’t own a TV. You can draw your own conclusions.’
Our protagonist always believed herself to be the smartest person in the room. But a couple of years on from earning a fancy PhD, she’s still broke, single and stuck in a job going nowhere. One option remains: marry rich.
Her summer becomes a whirlwind of dating: martinis with a lazy heir, board games with a butch producer and a Venmo request from a ‘socialist’ trust-fund babe. However, when some unexpected and tragic news takes her – and her project – to Tehran she is forced to ask and answer some overdue questions about family, connection and, terrifyingly, her own purpose in life and in love.
A riveting spin on a classic romantic comedy, Liquid delivers a modern tale of romance, loss and belonging in a gorgeous high-wire voice that explodes off the page with wit, verve and originality.
Pig by Matilde Pratesi
‘Aksai Black Pied, American Yorkshire, Angeln Saddleback…’
Pigs are Valentina’s safe place. When she’s feeling overwhelmed, she lists the breeds until her mind becomes quiet again.
Vale struggles to live life without order. Every morning, she reads the note that her flatmate Clara has pinned on the fridge telling her what to wear and what to eat, before leaving for her job at a bookshop.
Sometimes Vale’s colleagues invite her to drinks, but she never goes. She knows that Clara wouldn’t be happy if Vale socialised with others. As Clara’s told her plenty of times – who else would put up with her weird pig facts?
But a chance encounter at the bookshop leads to an exciting opportunity. As Vale steps into the world of other people, Clara tightens her grip: she isn’t yet ready to let go of her favourite prey.
Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn
A brother and sister lost and found, in a novel that seizes your heart and enthrals your mind, from the author of the Patrick Melrose series.
‘We set off in opposite directions and walked around the world until we met, and I’m very pleased we have…’
It is summer. Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him with a fragile hold on reality and a hunger to connect with the mother who abandoned him. His therapist, Martin, also faces challenges, including his adopted daughter Olivia’s tenuous relationship with her biological mother. Olivia, meanwhile, is producing a radio series on natural disasters, which itself seems to be running parallel to the events unfolding in her personal life.
Over a year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, revealing their destinies in a new light. Parallel Lines is a novel about connection, family, love, and the cascading consequences of our choices.
So Good to See You by Francesca Hornak
2004. Serge, Rosie and Daniel are enjoying their final weeks of university. They are young, inseparable and full of optimism.
Fifteen years later, they are guests at a lavish four-day wedding in Provence – and no longer friends.
Life has not turned out quite as planned since their heady days at Oxford. Film-maker Serge is winning awards, but hiding a huge debt and a fractured relationship. Behind Rosie’s social ease, she is heartbroken. And with Daniel’s fame has come spiralling anxiety.
Now, with four days of organised fun ahead, all three are armed with their best conversation and brightest smile. At least everyone is following the same script: do not bring up the past. But as the Champagne flows, appearances slip and true feelings emerge.
Albion by Anna Hope
The Brooke family are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home – twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone – to bury Philip: husband, father and the blinding sun around which they have all orbited for as long as they can remember.
Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, has dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to nature: a last line of defence against the coming climate catastrophe. Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn. Each believes their father has given them his blessing, setting them on a collision course with each other.
Isa has long suspected that her father thought only of himself, and hopes to seek out her childhood love, who still lives on the estate, to discover whether it is her feelings for him that are creating the fault lines in her marriage.
And then there is Clara, who arrives in their midst from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture all the dreams on which they’ve built their lives.
The Dolce Vita Divas by Maddie Please
At the ripe (and fabulous) age of 64, Joanna Dawson finds herself seeking a new adventure. Her husband, Greg, has run off with a TBT (thin, blonde, trollop, obviously), her kids have flown the nest, and her social calendar is emptier than her wine rack.
As Jo’s 65th birthday looms, she’s left wondering: Is this it?
Enter Susie, her best friend, with an offer Jo can’t quite refuse: an all-expenses-paid trip to Italy to honour their late friend Ellen. Jo’s not sure she wants to go all the way to Italy, but with nothing else to do and if only to make Susie happy, she agrees. A holiday is a holiday after all.
Capri is even more gorgeous than Jo imagined and soon she and Susie are having the time of their life, especially as Jo is reunited with her dashing first love, Paulo. The one who, most definitely, got away…
Things might have fizzled with Paulo decades ago, but in the land of sun, pasta, and far too much wine, Jo begins to wonder: Could this be her second chance at life…and amore?
Destructively Mine by Krista & Becca Ritchie
Their chemistry is criminal . . .
Raised by con artists, Phoebe Graves only knew a life of swindling the rich – until she and her best friend, Hailey Tinrock, decided to leave their life of crime behind, starting over in a wealthy college town in Connecticut. They’re determined to live honest lives. But you know what they say about good intentions . . .
While Phoebe is fake-dating the son of an uber-wealthy and influential family, she’s actually falling deeper in love with Brayden ‘Rocky’ Tinrock, Hailey’s older brother. To make matters more complicated, Phoebe’s mother shows up out of the blue with conniving matchmaking plans of her own.
Her mother’s arrival threatens everything Phoebe has planned. To keep her love, her friends and her newfound happiness, Phoebe will have to return to her old games . . . and win.
One More Day of Us by Shari Low
Would you give up your dreams for love? ❤️
1990: In a hot, humid Hong Kong summer, three young singers are loving life, performing to packed crowds every night in a swanky hotel bar. Twenty-three-year-old Scottish songbird, Moira Chiles is living the dream alongside Carina Lloyd and Lisa Dixon. They work hard, play hard, and always stick together… until one day Moira has to make a choice that changes everything.
Fast forward to…
2025: In a wet, chilly, Glasgow summer, Moira has just retired after singing in Glasgow pubs and Caribbean cruise ships for three decades. Now she’s ready for a new adventure – one that takes her to Hong Kong to revisit a world she left behind. Moira hasn’t seen Carina or Lisa for over thirty years, but will an invitation to join her on a holiday of a lifetime rekindle the friendships that changed her life? Or will stepping back in time expose secrets that could break their hearts?
Historical
The Show Woman by Emma Cowing
WHATEVER LIFE BRINGS, THE SHOW MUST GO ON …
1910. With the disappearance of her mother and the sudden death of her father, Lena instantly loses any security she has within the circus she has known all her life. She is advised to sell the carousel her father cared for like a child and look for a husband, or a job in a factory.
Until flame-haired Violet, known to all in the fairgrounds as ‘the greatest trapeze artist that ever lived’, suggests they go it alone with their own, all-female act. With her outspoken ways and her refusal to marry, Violet is as much an outcast as Lena. What do they have to lose? Recruiting new performers including bareback horse-rider Rosie, on the run from her abusive father, and Carmen whose rainbow ribbons hide the darkness in her past, the four women form an unbreakable bond.
Thrust into a harsh and dangerous world that treats them with suspicion, disdain and even violence, they must forge their own path in search of freedom, security, and love.
The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner
Powerful witchcraft. A hunt for sunken treasure. Forbidden love on the high seas. Beware the Amalfi Curse…
Haven Ambrose, a trailblazing nautical archaeologist, has come to the sun-soaked village of Positano to investigate the mysterious shipwrecks along the Amalfi Coast. But Haven is hoping to find more than old artefacts beneath the azure waters; she is secretly on a quest to locate a trove of priceless gemstones her late father spotted on his final dive. Upon Haven’s arrival, strange maelstroms and misfortunes start plaguing the town. Is it nature or something more sinister at work?
As Haven searches for her father’s sunken treasure, she begins to unearth a centuries-old tale of ancient sorcery and one woman’s quest to save her lover and her village by using the legendary art of stregheria, a magical ability to harness the ocean. Could this magic be behind Positano’s latest calamities? Haven must unravel the Amalfi Curse before the region is destroyed forever…
Against the dazzling backdrop of the Amalfi Coast, this bewitching novel shimmers with mystery, romance and the untamed magic of the sea.
A Wedding for the Homefront Girls by Susanna Bavin
Manchester, 1941: Amid the heartbreak of war, can the girls band together to give their friend the wedding she deserves?
Kept apart by war work, bombs and blackouts, Lorna and her beloved George cherish every precious moment together. George’s vital role working for the War Office keeps him in London, while Lorna rolls up her sleeves to do her duty each day at the Manchester Salvage Depot, alongside her dearest friends, Sally and Betty.
When George proposes, Lorna is happier than she could ever have imagined. But her high spirits are soon dashed when she hears that the War Office is sending George to America. With the notoriously perilous Atlantic crossing standing between him and his safe return, suddenly Lorna’s future seems more under threat than ever before.
Despite the uncertainty, as the wedding date grows closer, the residents of Star House rally around Lorna to help her prepare. Even air raids and rationing can’t dampen the mood as a four-tiered wedding cake is fashioned out of cardboard. And when a beautiful wedding dress is gifted to her, the only thing left to do is anxiously await news of her fiancé…
Will Lorna and George get the happily-ever-after they dream of? And will the Home Front Girls finally be able to give their dear friend the perfect wedding day?
The House at River’s Edge by Rachel Burton
A spellbinding tale full of secrets and lies set over two life-changing summers 💫
1914: Anticipating a long summer of freedom at her friend’s family estate in Cambridge, Grace Villiers is disappointed by an unexpected addition to their party. Then the new arrival offers to teach Grace to swim, and she is forced to see there is more to Algernon Lake than his reputation. But, with war brewing across Europe, this will be a summer that changes everything for the young friends.
1997: Following her father’s sudden death, Barbara finds herself living with her mother in a house that is, literally, falling down around them. As she tries to put their new home in order, she discovers a photograph of her grandfather as a young man with his friend – two soldiers at the start of the First World War. Setting aside her grief, Barbara becomes determined to uncover their story, hoping it will bring her closer to the family she feels slipping away.
But when her search for answers opens up truths she isn’t prepared for, Barbara will come to realise, some secrets may be best left alone.
Romance
Their Greatest Strength by Hannah Cowan
I’ve been tackled by defensive linemen twice my size and sprinted into end zones with thousands of fans screaming my name, but nothing – and I mean nothing – could’ve prepared me for Blakely.
I should have known from the first time we met that she’d change everything for me. How could she not? A woman bold enough to break into my house and attempt to steal from me isn’t exactly someone you forget and move on from.
So, when I’m asked, or told, to find a wife, I know it has to be her.
That’s supposed to be all it is. She needs somewhere to live, and I need the headlines. But what starts as a simple arrangement quickly becomes something far more complicated. Blakely is guarded, unpredictable, and protective of those she loves. The more time I spend with her, the more I realize this isn’t about my career anymore.
With just two months on the clock, can I break down her walls before she breaks my heart?
First love, Second Draft by Becca Kinzer
She’s a romance writer burned out on love. He’s her famous baseball star ex-husband. The last man she wants to be forced to work with is the one who broke her heart.
Rom-com writer Gracie Parker hasn’t written a bestseller since she and her husband, a major league baseball star, divorced five years ago. On thin ice with her publisher—and with a looming deadline—Gracie couldn’t have picked a worse time for a painful injury that has her flat on her back. At this point, she’d accept help from anybody . . . except her first love and ex-husband, Noah Parker.
The baseball season has just ended in massive disappointment for Noah. He’s facing the stark reality that he gave up everything for a career that’s let him down and that it might be too late to get back the one person he should’ve held on to. So when Gracie’s nephew calls, saying Gracie’s looking for a tenant for her next-door rental, it feels like it’s meant to be.
All Gracie cares about is turning in her manuscript on time, which is directly at odds with Noah’s attempts to win her back, even if she is slightly charmed by his kindness. But can people ever really change? Then Noah throws a curveball that could give Gracie the extension she needs, but it will mean working directly with Noah, something she’s not sure she can face. With no other choice, and everything on the line, Gracie must decide if it is too late for a second draft of their own love story.
A Greek Island Gift by Mandy Baggot
An unexpected gift… A home in paradise?
When Molly Adams finds out she’s inherited an apartment in Kassiopi, Corfu, she’s left thinking there must be some mistake. She doesn’t know anyone in Greece at all.
But when she arrives there’s a shock. Molly hasn’t inherited a whole apartment, it’s only 50%. But there’s more – she’s also inherited 50% of a boat, 50% of an olive tree and… 25% of a cat.
Christos Baros is coming home to Corfu for the summer. A self-made entrepreneur, owning three gyms in Athens, he has no need for half an apartment, half a boat, half an olive tree or a quarter of a cat, but he knows these things are important to his mother.
Molly and Christos’s worlds collide in a whirlwind and the irresistible charm of the Greek island draws them even closer together. But as they uncover the secrets of their shared inheritance, will they discover that sometimes, sharing what you never wanted can lead to exactly what you need?
King of Envy by Ana Huang
He had everything he could’ve wanted . . . except her.
Dangerous. Powerful. Reclusive.
Vuk Markovic is notorious for shunning human interactions. The scarred billionaire rarely talks, and he has no interest in relationships outside his small but trusted circle.
His only exception? Her. The beauty to his beast, the object of his obsession.
He saw her first. He wanted her first. But now, she’s engaged to his oldest friend-and the closer the wedding looms, the more he’s torn between loyalty and desire.
She should be his . . . and he might just risk it all to have her.
***
Beautiful. Successful. Glamorous.
To the world, supermodel Ayana Kidane leads the perfect life. Her career has skyrocketed, and she’s engaged to one of New York’s most eligible bachelors.
What people don’t know is that the engagement is only a business arrangement. He gets his inheritance when they marry; she gets the money she needs to leave her abusive agency.
Pretending to be in love should be easy-until she finds herself increasingly drawn to her fiancé’s enigmatic best man.
Vuk thrills and terrifies her in equal measure. She knows she should stay away, but when her wedding is thrown into chaos, he’s the only person who makes her feel safe…
Until his past catches up with them and threatens everything they love.
Shooting Stars over the Highlands by Lisa Hobman
What would you wish for if you had one chance?
Esme Cassidy had two dreams growing up: to be a famous film star, and to own Drumblair Castle.
Sadly, overly cautious parents put paid to a career in front of the camera, instead encouraging her to study towards a ‘proper job’, and Lady Olivia MacBain is the current custodian of ‘her castle’.
After graduating and a year travelling, Esme returns home broken-hearted and throws herself into her new role as Lady Olivia’s PA at Drumblair Castle. It’s not quite her original dream but at least she’s living at the castle in one of the estate cottages with her housemate and friend, handsome, yet quirky, groundsman Judd.
With the news that the castle will be used as a film set for a period movie, Esme gets to witness first-hand the career she missed out on. And with her teenage crush in the starring role, she can’t believe her luck. But he wouldn’t be interested in a girl like her, surely?
My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner
Elsie Hoffman has been engaged to her college boyfriend for a year and a half. Ginny Holtz has been in love with Elsie for almost a decade and a half.
When Elsie discovers her fiancé already planned their wedding and honeymoon as a surprise and she’s expected to be in a white dress in seven days, she swiftly realizes she’s let herself become too comfortable with a future she never wanted. She breaks things off, and a week later is on a plane to the Caribbean for her non-refundable honeymoon with her best friend Ginny instead.
Ginny thinks it’s high time Elise learned how to speak up for herself. So, they make a deal with her. For the next week, Elsie can have whatever she wants, wherever, however, and whenever she wants it, as long as she asks. They never expected Elsie to want them.
What starts as choosing activities and taking selfies soon turns to toe-curling kisses and much, much more. But what happens when the honeymoon is over?
Meryl Wilsner’s My Best Friend’s Honeymoon is about not only learning to ask for what you want, but for the happiness you deserve.
Play it Off by Monica Murphy
Sienna
I’ve had a thing for Gavin Maddox ever since I was a freshman, but it’s a mission doomed to fail. Of all the guys I could have picked on campus, I had to go too far with the quarterback, my brother’s best friend.
We’ve spent the last two years avoiding each other. It’s not that easy when you have the same friends, not to mention I can’t forget the way it felt to be with him. But I can be civil. Polite. Detached.
I think…
Gavin
Sienna Cooper is off limits—except for that one time. I can’t forget it, but I need to forget her if I want to keep my head in the game. This is my senior year and, more importantly, my last season of college football. I can’t let anything distract me.
I’ve respected Sienna’s boundaries for this long. I can do it for another year.
…Can’t I?
The Widow’s Irish Secret by Susanne O’Leary
‘This will always be your home.’ My daughter’s voice warms me, and I look out at the sea, smelling the wild Irish flowers on the windowsill. But what if the secret I’m keeping destroys the only family I have left?
Wiping away her tears, Patricia Fleury carefully twists the ring off her finger. She sets it down on the glass tabletop and locks her front door for the final time. She never imagined she’d go back to the West Coast of Ireland, but she knows she can only grieve the loss of her husband if she’s surrounded by her daughters, and the laughter of her grandchildren. Unless her secrets follow her…
The windswept beach sparkles as Patricia spends her days swimming and building sandcastles with her family. But starting again in her old, worn-out cottage, unlived in for years, is harder than she thought. The nights are lonely, and every noise in the darkness reminds her of the painful past she’s trying to escape. Until she runs into a mysterious old friend from the past, Cillian O’Malley, whose dark, hazel eyes look wounded too. With every brush of his hand, and every old memory they share, she begins to feel safe again. If she admits the longing she feels, which burns brighter every day, could they make a new life together?
But when Patricia lets Cillian into her home, allowing herself to imagine waking up in his strong arms every day, he uncovers a young child’s drawings in an old wardrobe in the cottage. Patricia feels a rush of fear as Cillian makes excuses and hurries out of the door. Does he know her secret?
Patricia thought Cillian might accept her for who she really is, but will her mistakes tear them apart? Can they work together to right the wrongs of the past? Or will she hurt those she has fought so hard to protect for all these years?
love, Lies and Whiskey by Melissa Foster
Get ready to fall hard for the mysterious Seeley “Doc” Whiskey and the one woman he never thought would walk back into his life, in this sexy and emotional second-chance standalone romance. The Whiskeys: Dark Knights at Redemption Ranch is a small-town, big-family series of standalone romance novels featuring fiercely loyal, insanely sexy bikers who give horses-and people-a second chance. No cliffhangers, no cheating, and a happily ever after that will leave you breathless.
First loves that were ripped apart, and the epic love that saves them.
At nineteen, Seeley “Doc” Whiskey fell hard for the governor’s daughter, and then she was torn away. He risked his life and his family’s legacy to get her back, only to find out that everything he believed about her was a lie. His heart has been locked down ever since.
Betrayed by everyone she loves, Juliette Chambers has been through hell and back. Now a single mother and veterinarian, Juliette moves back to Colorado to start over. The last person she expects to run into is the man who completely destroyed her.
A chance encounter turns into a moment of fury, sending them into an emotional maelstrom. Tears and accusations fly and passion ignites, but in their wake they discover a trail of secrets and lies and a life-changing blow that takes them to their knees.
Situationship by EM Wilson
Two fiercely independent young professionals begin an “arrangement” where they have pre-scheduled hookups, but the situation grows complicated when feelings get in the way.
Never let friendship get in the way of a situationship . . .
Teagan knows what she wants, and how she’s going to get it. She’s in her last year of law school and appearances are important to her family—she doesn’t want to let anyone down. But when her parent-approved boyfriend isn’t cutting it between the sheets or beyond, she decides to leave him behind–right at the start of summer season. . . and it sucks being single when there are so many weddings and black-tie events lined up in her social calendar. Teagan’s a fiercely independent woman who knows she doesn’t need a man . . . but people ask so many questions. Enter, Heath.
They’ve been in the same friend group forever, and when they set their complicated past behind them, it becomes apparent that they can both get what they want. Heath’s handsome, smart, sexy, and knows his way around, but he’s not “relationship” material. With him, Teagan doesn’t have to be the only “single” at events. Soon, the two sign a contract to define their situation—but when feelings start to get in the way, their deal might be irretrievably broken.
So that’s all for this week.
Happy Reading!
