Are you looking for your next great read? Why not try out the books from across the pond? Despite from what governments say, books are essential and are needed now, more than ever. So if you are need of a variety and want to read diverse stories, then I suggest you try out some British and Irish titles!
We may have left 2021 behind, but the pain and struggles of last year are still being faced, especially independent bookstores. Continue to support indie bookstores by shopping on Bookshop.org and Hive.co.uk.
Please note that Book Depository is closed down it’s website on April 26, 2023.
Waterstones currently ships to the United States but there will be an international shipping fee. You can also try with the British bookstore, Blackwell’s, also with Wordery.com. Now on with the recommendations!
Featured Book of the Month:
The Illusions by Liz Hyder
Expected Publication Date: June 22
At a time of extraordinary change, two women must harness their talents to take control of their own destiny
Bristol, 1896. Used to scraping a living as the young assistant to an ageing con artist, Cecily Marsden’s life is turned upside down when her master suddenly dies. Believing herself to blame, could young Cec somehow have powers she little understands?
Meanwhile Eadie Carleton, a pioneering early film-maker, struggles for her talent to be taken seriously in a male-dominated world, and a brilliant young magician, George Perris, begins to see the potential in moving pictures. George believes that if he can harness this new technology, it will revolutionise the world of magic forever – but in order to achieve his dreams, he must first win over Miss Carleton . . .
As a group of illusionists prepare for a grand spectacle, Cec, Eadie and George’s worlds collide. But Cec soon finds herself facing the fight of her life to save the performance from sabotage – and harness the element of real magic held deep within her . . .(Credit: Bonnier Books)
The Case of the Lighthouse Intruder by Kereen Getten and illustrated by Leah Jacobs-Gordon
Fayson has always wanted to be a detective. When her cousins recruit her to their top-secret gang on the island one summer, her dreams seem to be coming true. But the Greatest Gang of All Time don’t live up to their name, and keep getting distracted from missions by things like food, falling asleep and a fair bit of squabbling!
Guided by her favourite mystery novels, Fayson takes charge and tries to track down clues about the strange shadow that has been appearing in the island’s lighthouse. With tensions stirring within the gang, can she use all her smarts to solve the case? (Credit: Pushkin Children’s Books)
Until The Road Ends by Phil Earle
When Peggy saves a stray dog from near-death, a beautiful friendship begins. Peggy and Beau are inseparable: the only thing that can ever come between them is war. Peggy is evacuated to the safety of the coast, but Beau is left behind in the city, where he becomes the most extraordinary and unlikely of war heroes. Night after night, as bombs rain down and communities are destroyed, Beau searches the streets, saving countless families. But then disaster strikes, changing Peggy’s life forever. With her parents killed, both she and Beau are left alone, hundreds of miles apart. But Beau has a plan to reunite them at long last . . . (Credit: Andersen Press)
Death At The Chateau by Ian Moore
Richard Ainsworth’s French B&B has been taken over by a production company shooting a historical film at the Château de Valençay. But everything grinds to a halt with the sudden passing of an actor under suspicious circumstances.
To get to the bottom of things, Valérie Dorçay and Richard offer catering services to the hastily resumed production. There they discover that the vanity, duplicity and murder of an 18th century French court is nothing compared to that of a 21st century film set, with more heads yet to roll. (Credit: Duckworth Books)
The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy Cotswold village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their unexpected first child. He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam. But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local antenatal class and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation.
With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice sets out to solve the mystery and clear her name, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head. (Credit: Bonnier Books)
The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams
In a small pocket of London, between the houses of No.77 and No.79 Eastbourne Road, lies a neglected community garden.
Once a sanctuary for people when they needed it most, the garden’s gate is now firmly closed. And that’s exactly how Winston at No.79 likes it – anything to avoid his irritating new next-door neighbour.
But when a mystery parcel drops on Winston’s doormat – a curious bundle of photographs of a community garden, his garden, bursting with life years ago – a seed of an idea is planted . . .
Somewhere out there, a secret gardener made a decades-old promise to keep the community’s spirit alive. And now it’s time for The Twilight Garden to come out of hibernation . . .(Credit: HarperCollins)
Limelight by Daisy Buchanan
Frankie has a love-hate relationship with the spotlight.
She secretly craves attention, but she is ashamed of that craving. And after a lifetime of comparison to her perfect sister Bean, she has never felt more invisible. She only ever feels seen when she uploads risqué photos to her small community of online fans. She creates a new her: confident, sexy and utterly unrecognisable from the real Frankie.
Then the worst happens. Bean is diagnosed with cancer. While Frankie wants to fill the freezer with home cooked food, her mother decides she knows better and somehow launches a nationwide cancer fundraiser, with Frankie as the supportive-sister-spokesmodel. Inevitability, her account is found. Now everyone has their eyes on Frankie.
With her family no longer speaking to her, Frankie flounders in her newfound notoriety. Feminists and misogynists rage at her online, while she attracts hundreds of new subscribers. Whether they’re demanding apologies or expecting an empowering call to arms, everyone wants Frankie to explain herself. But how can she explain what she barely understands? (Credit: Little, Brown Book Group)
This Could Be Us by Claire McGowan
Kate has done the unthinkable. She’d worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left – disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating.
Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate’s best friend. She’s been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his.
Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate’s new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reckon with what she did. The guilt and the love. The pain and the hope. In other words, family. (Credit:Little, Brown Book Group)
When They See Me by Gill Perdue
Detective and expert witness interviewer Laura Shaw knows she is needed. But in the aftermath of a case that nearly broke her, Laura questions if she can continue to do police work. Her partner, Detective Niamh Darmody, is on the case, but without Laura to rely on, she’s struggling too.
When the discovery of a second body blows all their theories out of the water, Laura and Niamh must accept that the killer is poised to strike again. (Credit: Penguin Books UK)
The Burnings by Naomi Kelsey
1589. Scottish housemaid Geillis and Danish courtier Margareta lead opposite lives, but they both know one thing: when a man cries “witch”, no woman is safe.
Yet when the marriage of King James VI and Princess Anna of Denmark brings Geillis and Margareta together, everything they supposed about good, evil, men, and women, is cast in a strange and brilliant new light.
For the first time in history, could black magic – or rumours of it – be a very real tool for women’s political gain?
As the North Berwick witch trials whip Scotland – and her king – into a frenzy of paranoia, the clock is ticking. Can Margareta and Geillis keep each other safe? And once the burnings are over, in whose hands will power truly lie? (Credit: HarperCollins UK)
The Magic Hour by David Wolstencroft
Eleven-year-old Ailsa Craig is always late! To everything – her own birth, school, and even her own house exploding! Although it is certainly better to be late for that than early…
But then one day, Ailsa discovers the secret of a lifetime: An extra hour in the day. The Magic Hour which exists in a fantastical, parallel Edinburgh, accessed at twilight. As she explores this extraordinary place where anything seems possible, Ailsa can’t believe her luck. Her grades improve and life seems to be on the up – even the popular kids start liking her.
But messing with time, can have desperate consequences. When Ailsa discovers that the extra time comes at a terrible cost, she must battle the sinister forces at work and save herself, her parents and the world.
What would you do with an extra hour in the day? (Credit: Scholastic)
Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin
Expected Publication Date: June 22
Vivvy Bouchet, respected scientist and reluctant psychic, saved a boy’s life after a premonition when she was a child.
That boy is now a Texas police officer.
He convinces Vivvy to help him solve a high-profile cold case, working alongside detective Jesse Sharp, a sceptic of anything but fact.
Three-year-old Lizzie Solomon disappeared in broad daylight from her home.
A body was never found, but the child’s mother, Nicolette,
is in prison for the disappearance, loudly proclaiming her innocence.
When a popular podcaster hears of Vivvy’s involvement in the case,
his conspiracy theories about the missing child, and Vivvy’s background,
have an army of fans hanging on every dangerous word.
But when it becomes clear there may be a kidnapper
– or killer – still on the loose,
Vivvy knows there’s more to lose than her reputation.
Because the difference between the truth and a lie can mean life or death . . .(Credit: Penguin Books)
Conviction by Jack Jordan
Expected Publication Date: June 22
He trusts his lawyer with his life…he shouldn’t.
Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage children as they slept and burning their house to the ground. When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper’s desk, she knows it could make her career. A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for the night, she is approached by a man.
He tells her she must throw the case or the secret about her husband’s disappearance will be revealed. Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares about, until she does as she is told. Neve must make a choice – go against every principle she has ever had, or the people she loves will die. (Credit: Simon & Schuster)
The Trial by Rob Rinder
Expected Publication Date: June 22
When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.
The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task. Not least because this is trainee barrister Adam Green’s first case.
But it will quickly become clear that Jimmy Knight is not the only person in Cliveden’s past with an axe to grind.
The only thing that’s certain is that this is a trial which will push Adam – and the justice system itself – to the limit . . .(Credit: Conerstone)
The Sanctuary by Emma Haughton
Expected Publication Date: June 22
Very few people get the opportunity to stay here.
And some don’t get to leave …
Zoey doesn’t remember anything about last night. But she knows something went badly wrong. For she is no longer in New York. She’s woken up in the desert, in a white building she doesn’t recognise, and she’s alone.
When she discovers she’s been admitted to The Sanctuary, a discreet, mysterious, isolated refuge from normal life, to avoid jail, she is stunned. She knows she has secrets, troubles, but she thought she had everything under control. But as she spends more time with other residents, she begins to open up about what she’s running from. Until she realises that not everyone in The Sanctuary has her best interests at heart, and someone might even be a killer . . .(Credit: Hodder & Stoughton)
Windrush: 75 Years of Modern Britain by Trevor Phillips and Mike Phillips
Expected Publication Date: June 22
An oral history of Britain’s first West Indian immigrants and their descendants
In 1948 the former troop ship Windrush made the 30-day journey across the Atlantic from Jamaica. The arrival of its 500 passengers, the first generation of Caribbean migrants in the UK, was the initial step in the formation of a new identity: the black Briton.
Fifty years later, Mike and Trevor Phillips spoke to those on the Windrush itself, as well as those who followed, to tell the story of Britain in the second half of the twentieth century through the eyes of the outsiders who became insiders.
Now updated to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the ship’s voyage and including reflections on its political and cultural legacy in 2023, Windrush is an essential record of this transformative era in British social history. (Credit: HarperCollins)
City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak
Expected Publication Date: June 29
India, 1855. The British rule, and all across the country, Indian magic is being stamped out.
More terrifying still, people born with magic are being snatched from their homes. Rumour is that they are being taken across the sea – to England – by the all-powerful, sinister Company.
When Chompa’s home is attacked and her mother viciously kidnapped, Chompa – born with powerful and dangerous magic that she has always been forbidden from using – must travel to the smoky, bustling streets of East London in search of her. But Chompa will discover far more treachery in London than she had bargained for – and will learn that every act of her rare magic comes with a price . . .(Credit: Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
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