Reviews

  Libby is no stranger to adventure.  She usually travels with her globe-trotting Mother, but this time she is being sent to live with her Aunt who runs a travelling school which is currently in Paris. Libby is a fan of detective novels and is always on the lookout for a mystery to solve. When her Aunt is accused of stealing a valuable piece of jewellery, Libby and her new friend Connie set out to prove her innocence and uncover … Read more

  Stepping Up is the debut novel by Sarah Turner, known for her blog The Unmumsy Mum and her best-selling non-fiction books, The Unmumsy Mum, The Unmumsy Mum Diary and The Unmumsy Mum A-Z. Thanks to Sarah’s publisher, we are incredibly excited to review this early proof edition. Out in March 2022, this feel-good read is sure to be a hit. Commercial, uplifting and women’s fiction fans, read on… Beth has never stuck at anything. She’s quit more jobs and relationships than … Read more

  A searing novel – the emotional temperature of both pleasure and pain are hard to bear at times but the writing is brilliant and makes for compulsive reading.  Edith is about to die. She reflects on her life, to understand who she is and the story of how she became.  When she was 8 her mother suffered a brain haemorrhage. Unable to cope with her disabilities, Edith’s father fled. Edith learned how to support her mother and they managed … Read more

  A playful and entertaining book, from the author of the 2016 award-winning novel His Bloody Project. Having previously discovered a controversial but fascinating book by the disgraced yet extraordinary psychotherapist Collins Braithwaite, the author (ie Macrae Burnet) is offered some contemporary notebooks which are apparently the diary of a young woman who was determined to expose the therapist for causing the suicide of her sister. The notebooks reveal a sadly naïve young woman with a determination to avenge her … Read more

  Female ambition and empowerment wrapped up in a 12th Century tale of nuns, by the hit author of Fates And Furies. “Omnia Bene!” (translation: “All is well!”) At 17, Marie is sent to a decrepit abbey (having been banished from court by mighty Queen Eleanor) to become a nun and devote herself to God. She rails against her fate but cannot escape and then, despite her anger and frustration, she understands she can make a difference. She organises, cajoles … Read more

  You’ve probably heard of her – the hideous Gorgon with snakes for hair who turns all that look at her to stone. But this brilliant new Young Adult novel from Jessie Burton (author of The Miniaturist) compels us to look again.  ‘You should be careful who tells your story’, Medusa warns us. In this breath-taking and powerful reclaiming of the ancient Greek myth, Medusa finally tells her own story.  18-year-old Medusa lives on a lonely but beautiful island, with her Gorgon sisters, … Read more

  A return to form for Jonathan Franzen in this addictive (and huge) novel. Set at the beginning of the changing winds of the 1970s, pastor and patriarch Russ Hilderbrand is struggling to hold the strands of his life together. His disgrace at work, his shaky marriage, his relationship with his unruly kids and his own self-doubt all add up to trouble as Christmas looms over the horizon. Following these events, the secrets and lies of the Hilderbrand family are … Read more

  The long-awaited and hugely original follow-up to the phenomenally successful Wonder was worth waiting for! There are moments when you realise that the decision you’re making will reverberate for the rest of your life. This is a story about making brave choices. It’s 1860s America, the sheriffs and their deputies have a perilously thin grip on the prospectors, bounty-hunters and criminal gangs hiding in the unmapped land. Tensions between abolitionists and slavers are about to blow up into the … Read more

  “This is the story of the summer I almost lost my mum, and found a shark older than the trees….” In the beginning, we meet ten-year-old Julia relocating with her parents from their home in Cornwall to a lighthouse in Shetland. Julia’s mum, a marine biologist, is using the trip to search for an elusive and 400-year-old Greenland Shark. While her parents are settling into their temporary home, Julia meets a shy and soulful boy called Kin. The new … Read more

  Ingredients: 1 school plagued with curses; 1 young witch who can’t do magic; 1 talking cat sleuth on holiday. Method: Place the ingredients in a big cauldron and stir well over a low fire at midnight. Dancing and chanting optional. Raven Charming has always known magic is real – she comes from a family of witches. And although she doesn’t seem to have any magical ability of her own yet, she knows how important it is to keep magic … Read more