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 2024 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
Murder On The Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood
Expected Publication Date: January 16
Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had hired The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, for an exclusive party with the MADS committee but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And then Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him – it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.
Oliver was, by all accounts, a rather complicated chap with a reputation for bullying children during nativity play rehearsals, and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll find his killer in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and this case is not so clear-cut after all. The gang will need to keep their wits about them to solve this case, otherwise a killer will walk free …(Credit: HarperCollins UK)
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson
Every act of translation requires sacrifice.
Welcome to Bletchley Park… with dragons.
London, 1923. Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivien Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get an internship studying dragon languages, and make sure her little sister never has to risk growing up Third Class. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war.
With her parents arrested and her sister missing, all the safety Viv has worked for is collapsing around her. So when a lifeline is offered in the form of a mysterious ‘job’, she grabs it. Arriving at Bletchley Park, Viv discovers that she has been recruited as a codebreaker helping the war effort – if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.
At first Viv believes that her challenge, of discovering the secrets of a hidden dragon language, is doable. But the more she learns, the more she realises that the bubble she’s grown up in isn’t as safe as she thought, and eventually Viv must decide: What war is she really fighting? (Credit: HarperCollins UK)
The Killing Sense by Sam Blake
Danger is closer than you think…
Single Mum Kate Wilde has escaped an abusive marriage and hasn’t had a holiday in years, so when she wins a five-day trip to Paris to learn about perfume – in a competition she can’t remember entering – it’s a dream come true. Or is it?
Almost as soon as she arrives, Kate’s ex texts with evidence that he’s in Paris too. Kate can feel she’s being watched, and she’s sure someone has been in her apartment. Then she discovers that there’s a killer in the city focusing on red headed women like her. And his kill count is rising.
Who should she fear the most?
All Kate’s senses are on alert. But can her instincts keep her safe? (Credit: Atlantic Books)
The Sad Ghost Club: A Hopeful Guide to Getting Through Bad Days by Lize Meddings
Welcome to the Sad Ghost Club – a club for anyone who has ever felt sad or lost.
We can all feel anxious and alone sometimes. Like you’re almost . . . invisible. But at the Sad Ghost Club, you can find your kindred spirits and know you’re not alone.
In this graphic novel, discover the Sad Ghost Club’s rules for taking things one day at a time. With heartwarming and very relatable comic illustrations, discover how to make it through the day, grow through the hard stuff and look out for your fellow ghosties.
Based on the Sad Ghost Club community, with over 600k followers on Instagram. This is a place where everyone is accepted and everyone belongs.(Credit: Hachette Children’s Group)
So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne
Expected Publication Date: January 16
A terrible heatwave. A very tense baby shower. It will all end in tears…
Nicki, Lauren, Charlotte and Steffi have been friends since university. Now in their thirties, life is pulling them in different directions – but when Charlotte organises the baby shower of hell for pregnant Nicki, the girls are reunited.
Under a sweltering hot summer day, tensions rise – and by the end of the evening, nothing will ever be the same. Someone started a fire at the house – and everyone’s a suspect… Is it Steffi, happily child-free but feeling judged by her friends? Is it Charlotte, desperate to conceive and jealous of those who have? Is it Lauren, who is finding motherhood far, far worse than she imagined? Or is it Nicki herself, who never wanted a baby shower anyway?
In the aftermath, the police put together the facts – but the truth will shock everyone. Even you. (Credit: Hodder & Stoughton)
Death In The Arctic by Tom Hindle
Expected Publication Date: January 16
A frozen wilderness.
A killer in the skies.
When aspiring travel writer Chloé Campbell is invited aboard a luxury airship flying to the North Pole, she thinks she’s bagged the opportunity of a lifetime.
But she hasn’t had long to admire the dazzling icy views before a fellow passenger is found dead in their cabin.
Trapped at the top of the world, the group agrees a tragic accident has occurred. But as the hours tick by, fear turns to doubt.
It seems everyone’s a suspect.
And it isn’t long before the passengers begin to turn on each other . . (Credit: Cornerstone)
The Shetland Way: Community and Climate Crisis On My Father’s Islands by Marianne Brown
Expected Publication Date: January 16
A memoir and investigation exploring loss, community and the climate crisis in the Shetland Islands by environmental journalist Marianne Brown.
How do we balance our needs with the needs of the natural world around us?
How can we have nuanced conversations and debate in a time of extreme activism or extreme denial?
How can we begin to understand the complexities of a subject as enormous as climate change?
And how can we change the way we live to save our lives?
This is one woman’s story of how her quest to make peace with her father’s death brought her straight to the heart of a challenging debate about how we save the planet.
When Marianne Brown arrived in Voe, Shetland, to attend the funeral of her father, she had packed enough clothes to last a short trip. But this was February 2020, just weeks before the UK’s first lockdown, and she would be unable to leave for another six months.
Shetland is a place bound together by community, history and culture. But when a huge windfarm is greenlit to export energy to mainland Scotland, it creates rifts between neighbours, friends and even families. One side supports the benefit to a planet spiralling into climate disaster; the other challenges the impact on an environment with an already struggling wildlife population.
As an environmental journalist, Marianne is drawn to investigate this story of sustainable energy that is irrevocably tied to her grief. But nothing is ever straightforward, and she soon finds herself on a transformative journey into the heart of a debate that mirrors global concerns about how we save the planet. (Credit: HarperCollins)
People Like Stars by Patrice Lawrence
Expected Publication Date: January 30
Multi-award-winning Patrice Lawrence’s first contemporary middle grade novel is a page-turning mystery and exploration of fractured families, long-buried secrets and the power of friendship, told with warmth and compassion.
Three 13-year-old strangers are connected by one big secret.
Nervous Ayrton was stolen away from his mum as a baby. He was returned safely, but now Mum won’t let him out of her sight.
Curious Stanley has a Forbidden Grandmother. His mum won’t even talk about her.
Homeless Sen has finally found a place to live, but she’ll be outon the street if she upsets her secretive landlady.
What happens when their paths cross…?
I Bet You’d Look Good In a Coffin by Katy Brent
Expected Publication Date: January 30
Our favourite anti-heroine, Kitty Collins, is back! Expect more wit, sass, and, of course, murder…
My name is Kitty Collins and I’m a serial killer.
I don’t want to kill. It’s just so hard to resist. Some men really, really deserve it.
Men like Blaze Bundy, an anonymous influencer spreading misogyny online. He’s making it very hard for me to control my murderous urges.
Meanwhile I’m in the South of France to watch my mother marry a man I’ve never met. I should be drinking cocktails and focusing on my tan, not plotting a murder.
But a woman’s work is never done. Surely one more teensy little kill wouldn’t hurt, would it? (Credit: HarperCollins UK)
Friends in Youth: Choosing Sides in the English Civil War by Minoo Dinshaw
Expected Publication Date: January 30
Two old friends end up on opposite sides of the English Civil War, in this dazzling history from the acclaimed author of Outlandish Knight
At the Inns of Court, the intellectual, literary, and social heart of early 17th century London, many pivotal friendships were forged: few closer than that of Bulstrode Whitelocke and Edward (Ned) Hyde. Both young men were lively characters, industrious, well-connected, principled and optimistic. They dreamed of reforming the government of Charles I, a young court with age-old problems, by restoring the traditional harmony of Crown and Parliament. This is the story of how their hopes climbed, overreached, and fell into an abyss of relentless civil war.
This highly original, vivid and engaging book recreates the atmosphere, drama, players and ideas of what is arguably England’s (and Britain’s) most crucial and traumatic formative period. Through the stories of his two protagonists, Minoo Dinshaw shows how subtle religious and political differences, careful personal judgments, and mere happenstance combined to place these two friends, most reluctantly, on opposite sides in the English Civil Wars. They would both survive, unlike many thousands of others, into old age; both would become influential historians, shaping how we still understand the conflicts of their age. But their friendship, like the once hopeful country in which it had first flourished, would be forever changed: permanently marred by what both men believed to be senseless and unnecessary civil strife. (Credit: Penguin Books)
‘Til Death by Busayo Matuluko
Expected Publication Date: January 30
Save the date . . . for a killer wedding!
True-crime-obsessed Lara Oyinlola is heading to Lagos for her favourite cousin, Dérin’s, wedding. It’s going to be a holiday filled with glitzy dress-fittings, glamorous parties and, of course, the star-studded event of the year.
But everything isn’t perfect in Dérin’s world. She’s been receiving anonymous threats telling her to cancel the wedding . . . or face dire consequences.
This is the moment Lara’s been waiting for: put her sleuthing knowledge to work and solve a real-life mystery. As Lara investigates, what she doesn’t expect to uncover is a web of secrets, malicious crimes, and near‑death encounters which promise to tear the family apart for good . . .
With sinister secrets, bitchy bridesmaids, annoying exes, and a gossip-loving amateur detective, this gripping mystery thriller from a standout debut author and award-nominated BookTokker will have readers hooked. (Credit: Simon & Schuster UK)
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