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
Sisters of Fire and Fury by Laura Bates
Expected Publication Date: October 10
History will not remember you; it will crown him with glory. You will be forgotten, and the other women with you.’
Having won the battle against Mordaunt’s men and revealed themselves, the sisterhood face bigger challenges with their numbers diminished and enemies threatening at all sides. Meanwhile Cass’ blossoming powers and destiny call to her but can she lead the sisterhood when she is afraid of the warrior within her? The answers lie in Camelot, and as gathering forces threaten her new world, Cass must face her destiny and face King Arthur himself.
Get ready for bigger battles, destiny and old magic in this spectacular sequel to the epic Sisters of Sword and Shadow. (Credit: Simon & Schuster UK)
Let a Sleeping Witch Lie: Welsh Gothic Stories by Elizabeth Walter
‘Old ways die hard on the Welsh border…’
In these haunting tales, nothing is as it seems. A tormented voice calls from the barred windows of an empty room. A dusty museum exhibit possesses sinister powers. A glass of blackberry wine links the living with the sins of the dead.
Between 1965 and 1975, Elizabeth Walter published five collections of supernatural stories. But whilst the names of her contemporaries such as Robert Aickman are now widely recognised, Walter is relatively unknown to modern readers. Mixing folklore, history, and ancient traditions, these gothic stories draw on Walter’s Welsh heritage and the rich inspiration of South Wales and the border country.
Including the mysterious ritual of ‘The Sin-Eater’, the folk horror of ‘Dead Woman’ and the poignant ‘Come and Get Me’, Let a Sleeping Witch Lie is the perfect way to rediscover Elizabeth Walter’s chillingly remarkable talent. (Credit: Poetry Wales Press)
The Faerie Isle: Tales and Traditions of Ireland’s Forgotten Folklore by Síne Quinn and illustrated by Dermot Flynn
The folklore of Ireland has long been beloved by children across the world, but the lesser-known heroes and villains of Irish legends are the faerie folk.
From trickster spirits to slippery shape-shifters, from the tiny leprechaun to the enormous giant, this stunningly illustrated gift book will guide you through sixteen remarkable Irish faeries. With “fact” pages exploring each fae’s traits and origins, followed by a beautifully illustrated double page story inspired by true tales found in the Irish Folklore Collection, this will be a special gift for children everywhere. (Credit: Walker Books)
Haunted Ireland: An Atlas of Ghost Stories From Every County by Kieran Fanning and illustrated by Mark Hill
Join master storyteller Kieran Fanning on a visit to every county in Ireland through 32 spooky stories. From well-known hauntings like The Ghost of Loftus Hall and The White Lady of Kinsale, to lesser-known sightings like The Black Pig of Kiltrustan and Father Hegarty’s Phantom Horse, there’s a story and a site to discover wherever you are in Ireland! (Credit: Gill)
England: A Natural History by John Lewis-Stempel
Our countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In England, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history.
In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies; the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles; wild thyme; granite cliffs; rock pools and sandy beaches; red deer standing at ancient oaks; the wayside flowers of the lane; hedgehogs and hares; and snow on the high peak. Each landscape – be it calm green or wild moor, plunging cliff or flatland fen – has shaped our idea of ourselves, our sense of what it is to be in England.
In a stunning package, complete with decorated boards, endpapers, chapterheads and a map, England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel’s nature writing. (Credit: Transworld Publishers)
Relic Hamilton, Genie Hunter by Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Hyun Song We
‘Genies grant wishes! That’s all anyone ever cares about. They forget that genies were imprisoned in those lamps for a reason…’
Relic Hamilton is just your average 12-year-old, living a quiet life with his grandfather above their old antiques shop in Chinatown in London.
Until one day, while polishing some mysterious brass lamps in the basement, something extraordinary happens. Relic feels spine-chillingly cold. Breathless. Scared. And suddenly, a real, live genie stands before him!
But this is no kind, benevolent genie. This genie is evil … and it feeds on hope.
Relic finds himself catapulted to the centre of a fast-paced underground community of genie hunters, led by the excitable Professor Latimer and the tech-savvy Doctor Raphaela. Together, they travel in their one-of-a-kind jet, the Aladdin, secretly chasing rogue genies before they can wreak havoc on the world…(CreditL Walker Books)
I Shall Never Fall In Love by Hari Conner
Expected Publication Date: October 10
George has always been in love with their best friend, Eleanor – and has always tried to ignore it.
Now Eleanor is coming of age and expected to marry a suitable man, it doesn’t matter how George feels – they have to let her go. Besides, George is busy avoiding their aunt’s matchmaking, taking over the failing family estate, and trying to keep their dressing in men’s clothes a secret.
Eleanor has always wanted to do everything ‘right,’ including falling in love – but she’s never met a boy she’s interested in. She’s more concerned with finding the perfect match for her cousin Charlotte, and working out why George is suddenly pulling away. But Eleanor’s friendships seem to be falling apart, and she’s beginning to realise that she likes George more than any man she’s met at a ball… (Credit: Simon & Schuster)
The Twelve by Liz Hyder and illustrated by Tom de Freston
Expected Publication Date: October 10
As the Winter solstice blankets the Pembrokeshire landscape in an otherworldly glow, sisters Kit and Libby are drawn to a mysterious white tower to test a prophecy they have heard talked about. But when the magic of the tower causes Libby to vanish, they find themselves caught in a mystery that takes them in to the deep past. Libby has been erased from the world – her laughter, her presence, even their mother’s memories of her have all disappeared.
The world has rewritten itself, leaving Kit to navigate a reality where her sister doesn’t exist. Determined to unravel the enigma surrounding her sister’s disappearance, Kit joins forces with a local boy named Story. Together, they journey through a world steeped in ancient folklore, on a quest fraught with danger beyond their wildest imagination. The race is on to find a sister, help heal a cosmic wound and put the world back on its proper course. This lyrical and beautiful novel explores themes of responsibility both personal and political and the importance of love and friendship to make good in the world. (Credit: Pushkin Children’s Books)
Handle With Care by Louisa Reid
Expected Publication Date: October 10
No one knows Ruby is pregnant – not even Ruby herself. So when she gives birth at school on a miserable February morning, her world is thrown into chaos. Keeping the baby isn’t an option, but keeping quiet about who the father of her child definitely is; because if Ruby’s best friend Ashley finds out the truth, then she’ll lose her too.
When Ruby finally realises what she and her baby need, somehow that doesn’t seem to matter any more. So Ruby must take matters into her own hands, with tragic consequences… the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lost Rainforests of Britain comes a fierce expose of how private landowners wreck the countryside, and how the public can restore it. (Credit Guppy Publishing)
And Then There Were None:The Ultimate Mystery Edition by Agatha Christie
Expected Publication Date: October 10
Solving the world’s most puzzling mystery novel just got even more fiendish in this gorgeous new hardback collector’s edition – with the final solution sealed in an envelope at the back of the book!Can you crack all the clues and catch the killer before you unseal the ending?
Ten strangers are lured to an island mansion on an isolated rock near the Devon coast. Cut off from the mainland, with their generous hosts mysteriously absent, they are each accused of a terrible crime. When one of the party dies suddenly, the guests realise they may be harbouring a murderer among their number.
The ten strangers include a reckless playboy, a troubled doctor, a formidable judge, an uncouth detective, an unscrupulous mercenary, a religious spinster, two restless housekeepers, a highly decorated general and an anxious secretary. As one by one they are picked off, the dwindling group must stay one step ahead of their deadly stalker. Who will survive? And who is the killer?
And in every room hangs a copy of an ominous nursery rhyme, foreshadowing the awful fates of ten people doomed to die…
For the first time ever, this unique edition of Agatha Christie’s masterpiece presents her story in a format that is entirely faithful to her original conception, with the final solution presented in a letter that can only be revealed once you have finished the story and discovered if you have solved the deadly puzzle correctly.
Could You Survive Midsomer? – A Winter’s Murder: An Official Midsomer Murders Interactive Novel by Simon Brew
Expected Publication Date: October 10
Can you survive the festivities of Midsomer?
Halloween in the beautiful county of Midsomer finds itself overshadowed by a trick or treat that takes a nasty turn. Sara McLower answers the door, and finds her life ended by a pumpkin. When villagers gather a few weeks later for her funeral, there’s an understandable sense of unease.
Still, there’s the festive lights switch-on to look forward to at The Windy Dog pub, overseen as always by longstanding landlady Betty Grainger. But when she flicks the light switch, it’d be fair to say that things go with a bit of a bang. It leaves not one but two serious crimes to investigate.
Which is where you come in. Step into the shoes of a detective in Midsomer, and choose your own path through the investigation. Can you get to the bottom of just what’s happened, or will you end up putting your own life in jeopardy?
Your task, in this follow-up to the bestselling Could You Survive Midsomer? To solve what’s gone on, arrest who needs arresting – and try to avoid coming a cropper yourself. Good luck, detective…
An official Midsomer Murders Interactive novel set in ITV’s most celebrated and murderous county. (Credit: Octopus Publishing Group)
The Hotel by Daisy Johnson
Expected Publication Date: October 17
A triumph of contemporary horror from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author, this collection of short stories will haunt you long after you turn the final page.
A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations –yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore.
On entering The Hotel, different people react in different ways. To some it is familiar, to others a stranger. Many come out refreshed, longing to return. But a few are changed forever, haunted by their time there. And almost all those affected are women…
They are children and mothers, monsters, cult film-makers, thrill-seekers and workers on the night shift, all with their own tales of its strange power, of the horrors of Room 63, and of desperate but failed attempts to escape its seductive pull.
A triumph of contemporary horror from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author, this collection of short stories will haunt you long after you turn the final page. much darker is at play. (Credit: Vintage Publishing)
A Kennedy Affair by Emily Hourican
Expected Publication Date: October 17
Two powerful families. A changing world.
When Kathleen ‘Kick’ Kennedy left England to return to America, Europe was facing war and Billy Cavendish, future Duke of Devonshire and the man she loves, had told her he could never marry her. Now, in 1943, as London stands a shell of its former self, Kick returns hoping to reunite with Billy – but there are many obstacles ahead.
Lady Brigid Guinness has swapped high fashion and exclusive dinner parties for long shifts as a nurse helping wounded soldiers, forming a close bond with one in particular. And yet the only person she can really talk to is a man shunned by her inner circle. Meanwhile, wide-eyed Sissy Maddington has arrived from Ireland under the care of the Guinness family. She’s eager to explore everything London seems to offer – while she tries to forget where she came from.
As the three women navigate a changed city, they each discover a capacity for love they never could have expected.
But will they find the strength to stay true to themselves?
Inspired by real events, A Kennedy Affair is a powerful story of friendship, forbidden passion – and how in the worst of times we can discover the best of each other. (Credit: Hachette Books Ireland)
Time of the Child by Niall Williams
Expected Publication Date: October 24
When Emily meets the alluring Wyn, she forms a connection that feels like it was always meant to be. As the spark between them grows more powerful, her life takes an exhilarating and Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in the little town of Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from his community. A visit from the doctor is always a sign of bad things to come.
His youngest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed her chance at real love – and passed up an offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.
But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter’s lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.
‘My own life feels richer having read it’ Mary Beth Keane
‘A triumph … There is so much to admire: the lyrical language, how landscape and destiny intertwine, the complex bonds of community’ Ron Rash turn; but every step closer to him, takes her a step further away from her family. (Credit: Bloomsbury Publishing )
Phantom Hearts by Rosie Talbot and illustrated by Sarah Maxwell
Expected Publication Date: October 24
An encounter with Ellory Mann, a talented working-class photographer newly arrived in Glasgow, leads From the bestselling author of Sixteen Souls comes a thrilling graphic novel with a supernatural murder mystery twist. Sixteen-year-old Malia is popular, pretty and smart, but underneath her carefully crafted facade she’s struggling with anxiety. When a school bus crashes killing some of her fellow students, Malia is thrown into a further emotional spiral as she remembers the students; rebel and dropout Shepherd; volatile track star Russ; and brainy Emil.
When Malia meets Keezy, the cute daughter of the local mechanic, the two begin to question the motive for the crash. As Malia and Keezy start to uncover secrets, Malia starts to see ghosts wherever she goes. How will Malia find time to flirt with Keezy when pursued by restless spirits … what don’t the dead classmates want her to discover? And will Malia ever find the courage to tell Keezy how she feels? to hope she has found not only someone who might help her, but also a friend. Yet Ellory is hiding secrets of her own – secrets that become harder to conceal as she finds herself drawn into Charlotte’s world. (Credit: Scholastic)
Palace of Shadows by Ray Celestin
Expected Publication Date: October 24
1899. The desolate Smugglers’ Coast of North Yorkshire is a place that strikes fear into those who live nearby. Unexplained deaths, suicides, young girls gone missing on the nearby moors — the locals say it’s the grand house that drives people mad.
Still, when Samuel Etherstone is contacted by its reclusive owner, Mrs Chesterfield, and commissioned to work on the property, he accepts the offer. For a penniless artist adrift in London, the opportunity is too tempting to ignore.
It is only on arrival at the Chesterfield house that he learns the sinister details of its architect’s disappearance. Meanwhile, the widowed Mrs Chesterfield, keeps adding wing upon wing, and no one will tell him the reason behind her chilling obsession. But as Samuel delves deeper into the mysteries that swirl about the house the nature of the project becomes terrifyingly clear . . .
Murder in Advent by Daivd Williams
Expected Publication Date: October 31
During the festive period, the cathedral town of Litchester is more used to carols by candlelight than flames and intrigue. However, when the proposed sale of the town‘s 1225 copy of the Magna Carta causes a dispute between members of the cathedral chapter, there are far-reaching consequences.
Merchant banker Mark Treasure has been invited down to arbitrate the vicious disagreement, but finds himself dealing with more than he bargained for when the Dean’s verger is discovered murdered, his body left to burn along with the ecclesiastical library.
As Treasure‘s investigation progresses and the evidence points to mayhem and skulduggery, he discovers that Litchester, once a town associated with peace and harmony, is in fact full of sins and secrets . . .(Credit: Pan Macmillan)
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