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 2023 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.
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 Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness. Rachel is gone, presumed dead.
The case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. But then Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again…(Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
Keedie by Elle McNicoll
Set in Juniper five years before A Kind of Spark, Keedie is a powerful coming-of-age story that thoughtfully tackles bullying, navigating friendships, and the joys and difficulties of being an autistic teenager.
As Keedie and her twin sister Nina approach their fourteenth birthday, they seem to only be growing further apart. Keedie instead feels drawn to, and fiercely protective of, their quiet younger sister Addie – who on the surface is the opposite of loud and fiery Keedie, but in fact they have more in common than anyone knows. (Credit: Knights of Media)
The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell
Some people are in
On the last Saturday in August, politicos and socialites trade tidbits of gossip and sips of Pimm’s under the tasteful bunting of a Richmond garden party. They’d never guess that the police are just a stone’s throw away, pulling a body out of the river Thames.
Some people wish they were
The drowning appears to be a tragic accident – until Detective Caius Beauchamp gets an unexpected tip. The victim, it seems, had enemies in high places. Did being on the wrong side of them get her killed?
Either way, being out is absolute murder. (Credit: Faber & Faber)
The Potting Shed Murder by Paula Sutton
Welcome to the sleepy village of Pudding Corner, a quintessentially English haven of golden cornfields, winding cobbled lanes … and murder.
Daphne Brewster has left London behind and is settling into her family’s new life in rural Norfolk, planting broad beans in raised beds and vintage hunting for their farmhouse.
But when the local headmaster is found dead amongst his allotment cabbages, the village is ablaze: Who would kill beloved Mr Papplewick, pillar of the community? Daphne soon comes to realise perhaps the countryside isn’t so idyllic after all…
When the headmaster’s widow points her finger at Minnerva, Daphne’s new friend, Daphne vows to clear her name. Sneaking into the crime scene and chasing down rumours gets her into hot water with the local inspector – until she comes across a faded photograph that unearths a secret buried for forty years…
They say nothing bad ever happens in close-knit Pudding Corner, but Daphne is close to the truth – dangerously close…(Credit: Dialogue)
What am I Missing?: Discover the Four Blind Spots That are Holding You Back, and How to Overcome Them by Emma Reed Turrell
One of the UK’s best-loved psychotherapists reveals the blind spots that are clouding our judgement and affecting our relationships, and shares the tools to overcome them
Have you ever had a conversation with a friend or relative that’s hit a nerve and you can’t figure out why it bothered you so much? Over the course of her 15-year career, Emma has discovered that the root of this pain and confusion often lies in a blind spot: a gap in our awareness that distorts how we perceive ourselves and our loved ones which, left unchallenged, can leave us feeling unloved, insecure or overwhelmed.
In What am I Missing? Emma reveals the four blind spot profiles along with client case studies to demonstrate how they show up in daily life, and exercises to help us see past them. (Credit: Penguin Books)
The City Beyond The Stars by Zohra Nabi
Expected Publication Date: April 11
Set in a lavish world of sorceresses, alchemists, jinn and flying carpets, this spine-tingling middle-grade book is perfect for fans of Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Sophie Anderson.
Confined to a besieged Settlement, Yara longs to free her mother from the alchemists in the City of Zehaira. When Yara receives a message from her mother to find the hidden residence of the Grand High Sorceress, it sets her on a different path.
Yara and her friends set off on an adventure to find her mother’s home, and to seek out a secret magic that her mother was working on – magic so powerful that it could defeat the alchemists once and for all. But the wicked alchemist Omair Firaaz is on her trail and will stop at nothing to gain the power himself…
Can Yara and her friends find the magic that could be the answer to everything … before it destroys them all? (Credit: Simon & Schuster UK)
The Letter With The Golden Stamp by Onjali Q. Raúf
Expected Publication Date: April 11
‘It’s funny that I’m named after a movie star. If I ever became one, I would probably win every award on the planet, because I have to act every single day of my life.’
10-year-old Audrey has a secret. A secret she’s constantly afraid of social services finding out. So she has fine-tuned her life into becoming one of the best actresses on the planet. As soon as she steps out of the front door, the show is on, and all the world becomes her stage! No-one would ever guess that she is a nurse and doctor for her mam, the family food shopper (and sometimes shoplifter), a medicines collector, and even bedtime-reader for her younger siblings.
But when Audrey’s mam gets sicker, Audrey becomes determined to find a way of getting her to the best doctor in the best hospital in the country so that she can get better and they won’t ever need to be apart and she won’t have to worry anymore. The only problem is, it’s a dream that will cost her thousands.
As Audrey sets about trying to make her dream for her family come true with a plan that involves her precious stamp collection, an unsuspecting postal system, and a globally renowned philatelist, someone else on the street embarks on a secret mission of their own. One that will alter Audrey’s life – and that of her family – forever. (Credit: Hachette Children’s Group)
The Four by Ellie Keel
Expected Publication Date: April 11
We were always The Four. From our very first day at High Realms.
The four scholarship pupils. Outsiders in a world of power and privilege.
It would have made our lives a lot easier if Marta had simply pushed Genevieve out of our bedroom window that day. Certainly, it would have been tragic. She would have died instantly.
But Marta didn’t push her then, or – if you choose to believe me – at any other time. If she had, all of what we went through would not have happened.
I’ve told this story as clearly as I could – as rationally as I’ve been able, in the circumstances, to achieve. I don’t regret what we did. And I would do it all again. (Credit: HarperCollins)
Hagstone by Sinéad Gleeson
Expected Publication Date: April 11
The sea is steady for now. The land readies itself. What can be done with the woman on the cliff?
On a wild and rugged island cut off and isolated to some, artist Nell feels the island is her home. It is the source of inspiration for her art, rooted in landscape, folklore and the feminine. The mysterious Inions, a commune of women who have travelled there from all over the world, consider it a place of refuge and safety, of solace in nature.
All the islanders live alongside the strange murmurings that seem to emanate from within the depths of the island, a sound that is almost supernatural – a Summoning as the Inions call it. One day, a letter arrives at Nell’s door from the reclusive Inions who invite Nell into the commune for a commission to produce a magnificent art piece to celebrate their long history. In its creation, Nell will discover things about the community and about herself that will challenge everything she thought she knew. (Credit: HarperCollins)
My Favourite Mistake by Marian Keyes
Expected Publication Date: April 11
Anna has just lost her taste for the Big Apple…
She has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that?
Anna, it turns out.
Trading a minor midlife crisis for a major life event, she switches the skyscrapers of Manhattan for the tiny Irish town of Maumtully (population 1,217), helping old friends Brigit and Colm set up a luxury coastal retreat.
Tougher than it sounds. Newflash: the locals hate the idea. So much so, there have been threats – and violence.
Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There’s no ugliness she hasn’t seen. No wrinkle she can’t smooth over.
There’s just one fly in the ointment – old flame Joey Armstrong. He’s going to be her wingman. Never mind their chequered history. Never mind what might have been.
Because no matter how far you go, your mistakes will still be waiting for you…(Credit: Penguin Books)
The Boy Next Door by Jenny Ireland
Expected Publication Date: April 11
Now she wasn’t Molly Cassidy, St Anne’s pain-in-the-hole princess. She was nine-year-old Molly who was my best friend in the whole world. Nobody had put her in the recovery position. All these people and they’d just left her like that . . . I held her hand until the ambulance came.
Finbar and Molly live next door to each other. When they were children, they spent hours and hours together. They were best friends. Until they weren’t.
Now 18, Fin and Molly move in very different circles. Molly is popular, pretty, dating the most handsome boy in the whole school. Fin has one friend and he’s pretty sure he hates his dad and his little sister.
At a party one night, though, they’re pulled together in a way neither of them expects and then follows a year that will see them experiencing life-changing challenges, friendships, love and everything in between. (Credit: Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
The Household by Stacey Halls
Expected Publication Date: April 11
In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life – but how badly do they want it?
Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her cold: her stalker of 10 years has been released from prison. As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price. (Credit: Bonnier Books)
The Island at the Edge of Night by Lucy Strange
Expected Publication Date: April 11
A twisty-turny shadowy mystery from highly-acclaimed and Waterstones Prize-shortlisted author Lucy Strange. Abandoned at a boarding school on a bleak and remote Scottish island, Faye discovers that she and the other pupils have been sent there for doing something wicked. But what is it that Faye has done?
She might be bold enough to explore the prison-like island but has she the courage to face a secret deep within herself? A stunning new tale from the Queen of Gothic, Lucy Strange author of The Secret of Nightingale Wood, Sisters of the Lost Marsh, The Ghost of Gosswater and the Waterstones Prize-shortlisted Our Castle by the Sea. (Credit: Chicken House)
The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey
Expected Publication Date: April 18
Delving into the lives of three generations of women, The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey is an extraordinary novel about love and freedom, belonging and rebellion – and about how our past is a vital presence which sits alongside us.
Nell and her partner Adrienne are about to have a baby. For Adrienne, it’s the start of a new life. For Nell, it’s the reason the two of them are sitting in a therapist’s office. Because she can’t go into this without dealing with the truth: that she has been a mother before, and now she can hardly bring herself to speak to her own mother, let alone return home to Ireland.
Nell is running out of places to hide from her past.
But to Ireland and the past is where she must go, and that is where The Amendments takes us: to the heat of Nell’s teenage years in the early 2000s, as Ireland was unpicking itself from its faith and embracing the hedonism of the Celtic Tiger. To 1983, when Nell’s mother Dolores was grappling with the tensions of the women’s rights movement. And then to the farms and suburbs and towns that made and unmade the lives at the centre of this story, bound together by the terrible secret that Nell still cannot face. (Credit: Pan Macmillan)
An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi
Expected Publication Date: April 18
Everyone is originally from Africa, and this book is therefore for everyone.
For too long, Africa’s history has been neglected. Dominated by western narratives of slavery and colonialism, its past has been fragmented, overlooked and denied its rightful place in our global story.
Now, Zeinab Badawi guides us through Africa’s spectacular history, from the origins of humanity, through ancient civilisations and medieval empires with powerful queens and kings, to the miseries of conquest and the elation of independence.
Seeking out occluded histories from across the continent, meeting with countless historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and local storytellers, and travelling through more than thirty countries, Badawi weaves together a fascinating new account of Africa: an epic, sweeping history of the oldest inhabited continent on the planet, told through the voices of Africans themselves. (Credit: Ebury Publishing)
Skandar and the Chaos Trials by A.F. Steadman
Expected Publication Date: April 25
Heroes and unicorns as you’ve never seen them before. The epic adventure continues.
The Island always wins…
Skandar and his sister Kenna are finally both at the Eyrie, but tensions are high.
To survive their third year of training, Skandar and his friends must complete a series of terrifying trials across the Island’s elemental zones. Friendships, allegiances and rider-unicorn bonds will be pushed to the limit – only the strongest will make it.
Meanwhile Kenna’s forged bond to a wild unicorn has left her alienated and alone. And when a terrible discovery puts the future of the Island in peril, all fingers point in one direction . . . As dark forces assemble, Skandar must decide how far is he willing to go – for Kenna, and for the Eyrie.
Get ready for unlikely heroes, elemental magic, sky battles, ancient secrets and ferocious unicorns in this highly anticipated adventure that will keep you reading after lights out! (Credit: Simon & Schuster)
The Lifeline by Libby Page
Expected Publication Date: April 25
Everybody needs saving sometimes…
For Kate, having a newborn baby means she is almost never alone. But that doesn’t mean she isn’t lonely. The move from London to Somerset with her husband Jay was supposed be the start of an exciting new chapter. But sometimes she can’t help but wonder if she turned the pages too soon . . .
Phoebe needs help. As a mental health nurse serving her community, the wellbeing of her patients has always come before her own. Yet there’s only so long she can pour from an empty cup.
Looking for a lifeline, Kate and Phoebe find a sense of community – and each other – through their local river swimming group. But when things get tough, they realise that good friends can both raise us up and stop us sinking. (Credit: Orion Publishing Co)
A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray
Expected Publication Date: April 25
Property might be theft. But the housing market is murder.
My name is Al. I live in wealthy people’s second homes while their real owners are away.
I don’t rob them, I don’t damage anything… I’m more an unofficial house-sitter than an actual criminal.
Life is good.
Or it was – until last night, when my friends and I broke into the wrong place, on the wrong day, and someone wound up dead.
And now… now we’re in a great deal of trouble. (Credit: Cornerstone)
The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
Expected Publication Date: April 25
Set at the edge of the Peak district, the story of an impossible love, a family’s loss, and the desire to make a better world – from the Booker-shortlisted author of The Year of the Runaways
Nayan Olak keeps seeing Helen Fletcher around town and on his daily run out to the Peaks. She’s come back to the old house at the end of the lane, with her teenaged son, Brandon, though nobody seems to remember much about her. Some trouble at school, back in the day. A certain defensiveness. Nayan is powerfully drawn to her, though he doesn’t quite know why.
He hasn’t risked love since he lost his young family in a terrible accident twenty years before. All his energy has gone into work at the union, where he’s now running for the leadership against accomplished newcomer, Megha. It’s a huge moment for Nayan, the culmination of everything he believes. But as he grows closer to Helen, and to the possibility that their pasts may have been connected, much more is suddenly threatened than his chances of winning. (Credit: Vintage Publishing)
Fable House: Heart of Fire by E. L. Norry
Expected Publication Date: April 25
Protect your home. Conjure your fire. Fulfil your fate. A gripping story about children finding their power within, with the guidance of the Black Knight from King Arthur’s Round Table.
Fablehouse is a children’s home like no other. Heather and her friends who live here have magic at their fingertips. The children have a powerful friend in Pal, an Arthurian knight. But not everyone the children meet is on their side.
Fablehouse is threatened by an inspector who is searching for a reason to close down this safe haven for mixed-race children. The kids are desperate to save their home, but Pal is distracted. He cannot rest until he’s completed the quest given to him by King Arthur centuries ago.
Can magic help the children to fulfil their destiny, or will they be more isolated than ever? Heather can conjure up fire, but is scared that she can’t control it. Fire can destroy – but could Heather also use its warmth and protection to save her friends and their home? (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing)
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