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 2025 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. Now on with the recommendations!
Featured Book of the Month
Gone For Good by Sarah Crossan
Expected Publication Date: February 26
Connie Ryder is taken from her home in the dead of night and sent to Silver Lake Academy – a remote, high-security facility for ‘troubled’ teens. At Silver Lake, the vulnerable and the violent are locked in together under a brutal regime that aims to improve their behaviour. But when Connie learns she’s been given the bed of a missing girl named Belle, she is drawn deep into a chilling web of secrets and lies…
A sensational, immersive and hugely propulsive ‘missing girl’ thriller, set against the backdrop of America’s controversial Troubled Teen industry. (Credit: Simon & Schuster UK)
The Barbecue at No. 9 by Jennie Godfrey
Expected Publication Date: February 12
In the summer of 1985, the entire country is poised for the biggest music event in history – Live Aid.
The residents of Delmont Close are preparing for a neighbourhood barbecue to celebrate this historic moment, but someone uninvited is watching them closely, getting ready to make their move. But who are they watching, and why?
The Gordons – Hanna, her high-strung mother Lydia and sweet father Peter – have opened the doors to their home. And when their neighbours flood in, so do all the secrets that have been kept in the close. There is Rita, a new resident from Australia, Steve a young man who is battling his own demons, Aunty Beverley who has come to pass judgment on her relatives.
The Barbecue at No.9 explores family, friendship and love with Jennie Godfrey’s signature wit, warmth and bite. (Credit: Cornerstone)
In Glass Houses by Edel Coffey
Expected Publication Date: February 12
Twenty years ago, Eddie’s career as a journalist was destroyed by the Juliet Fox case.
Juliet was young and beautiful, born into the privileged world of the Manhattan elite. Pulled into their orbit by her investigation, Eddie discovered how far the rich and powerful are prepared to go when their way of life is threatened . . .
Eddie has always known that the wrong man was made the scapegoat for Juliet’s murder. So when a new luxury sky-rise is opened by Juliet’s father, just metres from where her body was discovered two decades before, Eddie can’t resist finding her way in, back into a world where dangerous people operate in the shadows, and anyone might kill to keep a secret safe. (Credit: Little, Brown Book Group)
The Impossible Gladiator by M.G. Leonard
Expected Publication Date: February 12
The action adventure of Gladiator meets the time travel of Doctor Who in the third title of this epic series by bestselling award-winner M. G. Leonard. Perfect for 8 to 12-year-old fans of Adventures on Trains. Supports the key stage 2 curriculum. Illustrated throughout in black and white by Manuel Šumberac.
Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson are enjoying an amazing holiday in Rome, until they they are swept up in the mysterious disappearance of world-famous illusionist Kinetic. He vanished during a live broadcast from the Colosseum, but he never reappeared. When Kinetic’s sister finds a strange description in a history book of a gladiator who sounds uncannily like her brother, the friends are determined to help.
They travel through secret time doors to the spectacular – and deadly – Colosseum in Ancient Rome, but can the brave trio survive long enough to find Kinetic and bring him home?
The Impossible Gladiator can be read as a stand-alone novel, or enjoyed as part of the thrilling Time Keys series written by M. G. Leonard. Follow Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson’s adventures in Ancient Egypt, Hunt for the Golden Scarab, and Viking Norway in The Legend of Viking Thunder. (Credit: Pan Macmillan)
The Street Art Mystery by Sharna Jackson
Expected Publication Date: February 12
Margot, Wesley and Josephine have got an awesome weekend mapped out for the end of the holidays before they start high school – and they don’t want anything to stand in the way of their BIG plans in London. But when they are staying with Margot’s mum and her new boyfriend Teddy in Notting Hill, something happens that they just can’t ignore…
Join the kids as they follow the case across wild West London, following the trail of a super creative murderer as well as some epic street art. From skate parks, tower blocks and canal towpaths they end up on a float at the colourful Notting Hill carnival – the biggest party of the year! How will they piece together the evidence to solve the mystery at the heart of London’s coolest sights? (Credit: Penguin Random House Children’s UK)
Murder At The Ivy Hotel by Emily Hourican
Expected Publication Date: February 12
Twelve-year-old Meredith and ten-year-old Macy feel like the luckiest girls around. The Ivy Hotel in Dublin is old, beautiful and beloved, with a tight-knit staff that feel like family, and they get to call it home.
Meredith and Macy’s mum is the General Manager, and their modest apartment is tucked away in a corner, but it has lots of perks. The girls make friends with long-term residents – like Colin, the quiet little boy who plays piano, and Agatha, the eccentric older lady who stays in a plush suite with her dog, Milo. The girls love spying on fancy events, sneaky treats from the restaurant and knowing all the secret stairs and corridors that guests never see, where the staff move around invisibly, making sure everything runs like clockwork…This is going to come in handy. Because within the cosy walls of the Ivy Hotel, there is also danger, intrigue and threat. Just as the hotel’s new owners arrive, ready to sniff out any excuse to make cuts and fire staff, the girls are faced with their biggest task yet: a murder to solve. (Credit: Scholastic)
The House of Fallen Sisters by Louise Hare
Expected Publication Date: February 12
December, 1765. In the early hours of the morning, Sukey Maynard flees her home – a brothel in Covent Garden. Her maidenhood is about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, and she is too frightened to stay. But when she is captured and returned to the house of fallen sisters, she has a choice to make – should she stay, or should she run again?
As Sukey accepts her fate, she begins to learn how to navigate this strange new life of hers, and soon realises that there are those who wish her and her sisters harm. But this world that operates in the shadows has its own set of rules, and if Sukey is to survive then she must learn to play the game…(Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
Under The Floorboards of 39A by Lucy Kennedy
Expected Publication Date: February 19
Do you believe in magic? Well, you just need to look beneath your feet … because under the creaky floorboards of lots and lots of houses in Ireland, but most particularly under those of a house called 39A Cove Street in Dublin, there lives a whole community of little elves, working and making magic from all the things you drop between the cracks! Meet Joey and Freddie O’Brien, nine-year-old twin elves who get up to all sorts of mischief together. From their missions Up-Up to borrow supplies from their human neighbour, Bee-Bee, and stay out of the path of her big St Bernard dog, to their adventures in Squirby Village, creating magic out of the things we leave behind. But when the twins see Bee-Bee is not herself, and needs help, they gather their friends and rush to the rescue! (Credit: Gill)
Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry
Expected Publication Date: February 19
Sarah Perry’s father-in-law David died in the autumn of 2022, only nine days after a cancer diagnosis. He was in some ways a very ordinary man: he loved stamp collecting, fish and chips, comic novels and his local church. Yet as Sarah and her husband Robert nursed David through his final days, they realised how extraordinary he really was.
This loving, clear-eyed and unforgettable book shows how death may be met and understood as a part of life – a universal experience that is terrible and beautiful, intimate and real, sometimes all at once. (Credit: Vintage Publishing)
Banshee: Mythological Irish Women Retold edited by Ailbhe Malone
Expected Publication Date: February 26
In this spellbinding anthology, Ireland’s most electrifying female writers breathe new life into ancient Irish myths, reclaiming the stories of women who have too long stood in the shadows of warriors and kings.
Editor and journalist Ailbhe Malone was raised on these legends – but the women, always cast as mothers, warriors or witches, were never given the lead. And so, Banshee was born: not just a retelling but a radical reclamation.
Banshee transports you to treacherous landscapes and salt-crashing seas, generational curses and mystical islands. Here you’ll find unruly mothers, rule-breaking queens, and women outrunning their destiny – stories pulsing with desire, danger and defiance.
This is a celebration of womanhood – and an homage to the ancient stories that still shape us. (Credit: Little, Brown Book Group)
These Isles: A People’s History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales by Brian Gloom
Expected Publication Date: February 26
An inventive new look at the entwined histories of Britain and Ireland’s nations – and the people who have called them home.
Brian Groom, author of the bestselling Northerners, reveals a colourful and often-contested story of the Celts, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans and others who have occupied these islands, along with their culture, languages and passions.
Groom explores the role of religion and the British Empire, international diasporas and internal migration, gender relations and war in this entertaining narrative.
With forays into popular culture, sport, music, language, literature and art, These Isles stretches from 800,000-year-old footprints on a Norfolk beach to the changing fortunes of the early 21st century. It offers a uniquely rich and kaleidoscopic vision of the shared stories of people across Britain and Ireland – past and present. (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
The Shadow Pony by Olivia Wakeford
Expected Publication Date: February 26
Evan hates change, which is a big problem because the last few years have brought a lot of it. His family is split down the middle, and lately Grandad hasn’t been himself. But Evan can always depend on best friend Okie Dokie, his lovable dog.
When a school trip takes Evan to an old mine where Grandad used to work, things go disastrously wrong. Grandad refuses to talk to Evan about the mine, and especially about the poor pit ponies that worked down there in the dark.
But Evan is desperate to know more about Grandad’s past and if he can only find out what Grandad’s hiding, the weird gulf between them will surely disappear. Can Evan uncover Grandad’s secrets before they are lost forever? (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
Starlight and Storm by Rachel Greenlaw
Expected Publication Date: February 26
The third and final irresistible adventure in the Compass and Blade trilogy, full of intrigue, sizzling romance, dark magic and monstrous beings.
She’s no one’s weapon to wield…
Mira is trapped in a deadly situation which could see the end of everything she has fought for. She must enter into one final desperate bargain, but this time, it’s with her greatest enemy, the ruling council. To save her life, her home and the people she loves most, Mira is forced to compete in a series of terrifying trials filled with dark magic and dangerous monsters.
Her allies are scattered, her people without a home. With Eli lost in another world, Mira must shape herself into a weapon in order to survive. But with the true nature of the ruling council and their ambitions finally revealed, the battle for the future of the Fortunate Isles has become a war. And in war, there is only ever one victor…(Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
The Island Retreat by Cathy Kelly
Expected Publication Date: February 26
Six guests. One week to uncover their secrets.
Rose Talisman is pinning it all on a fresh start.
Five years after her career as a therapist ended in one catastrophic instant, she is opening a retreat in Corfu. The understated, luxurious Villa Artemis is surrounded by wild pines and sea views.
Just six guests. One week. Time for Rose to help them face their secrets – and move forwards.
But Rose has staked everything on the retreat. It has to work – or she loses it all. And people’s secrets have a way of revealing themselves in ways no one expected.
Nobody’s past is staying hidden for long…
Will that include Rose’s, too? (Credit: HarperCollins Publishers)
The Lies Between Us by Jen Bray
Expected Publication Date: February 26
This family lived a life before me. And now I wonder if it was what happened in that life – all those secrets – that tore this family apart . . . not me.
The warring Brown sisters. Lucy. Susannah. Tara. Each is haunted – by disgrace (Lucy), vanity (Susannah) and envy (Tara). Most of all they are haunted by secrets.
Just before a dinner at their mother’s idyllic holiday cottage, Susannah disappears. That same night a young woman is killed violently on a nearby beach.
Amid the confusion the next morning, Lucy discovers a link between Susannah and the murder victim. Lucy must summon all she knows from her short-lived policing career to figure out the connection and find her sister.
But tracking down Susannah means Lucy confronting her own shame. It also means resurrecting ghosts that Susannah, Tara – and their mother – desperately want to keep buried.
Even if Lucy finds Susannah, will the truth destroy them all? (Credit: Penguin Books)
Death at Daffodil Inn by R.L. Killmore
Expected Publication Date: February 26
Spring is blooming in Cinnamon Falls and the annual Daffodil Jubilee is in full swing.
Morgan Taylor, who is reluctantly helping her parents host the event at the Daffodil Inn, wishes she could be left alone to daydream about Will, the dangerously hot single dad she can’t seem to get out her head.
As the Jubilee draws to a close with the Petals and Promises dance, Morgan’s finally finds herself face to face with Will. But their magical moment is swiftly shattered by a bloodcurdling scream.
A guest has been found dead in the inn’s garden maze, and whispers ripple through the crowd: Murder.
With the inn’s future at stake, Morgan teams up with Will to solve the mystery. Can they uncover the truth before it’s too late, or will their search only end in heartbreak? (Credit: Simon & Schuster UK)
Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce
Expected Publication Date: February 26
When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in an Edinburgh park, the city reels – and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with her murder.
As social media explodes and headlines scream for justice, rumours of bullying spiral into something darker: whispers of rituals, obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong.
Matthew Phillips, a respected heart surgeon, is reluctantly called for jury duty. But as the trial unfolds – and the girls reveal a chilling defence no one saw coming – he begins to question everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgement.
Who’s telling the truth? Who can be trusted?
And what really happened to Christian Shaw? (Credit: Headline Publishing Group)
Motherfaker by Anna Brook-Mitchell
Expected Publication Date: February 26
Meet Barri Brown. Respected teacher. Upstanding citizen of Guernsey. Down for a bit of law-breaking . . .
Barri has spent years slaving away as a teacher and covering for colleagues with kids. When her husband vanishes – along with her savings – it’s the final straw. And so, she hatches a wild plan: fake a pregnancy and use the paid maternity leave to start over somewhere new.
With seven foam bumps, a wardrobe full of smock dresses and a great pregnancy heist underway, all Barri has to do is blag it until she can disappear for good – without getting caught and being sent to prison for fraud. How hard could it be?
On a small island like Guernsey, it’s a motherfaking nightmare. And to make matters worse, when Barri’s fake pregnancy forces her to make genuine connections with people for the first time in years, she begins to understand the true cost of her deception . . .
Will she really get away with telling the mother of all lies? (Credit: Pan Macmillan)
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