September is just around the corner and there are some fantastic new releases to look forward to. Dare I say it, but there are one or two Chrismas titles in here!
Without further ado, here are just ten that have caught my eye.
The Last Bookshop in Prague by Helen Parusel
Was she incredibly brave or incredibly stupid? Neither. Just a bookshop girl doing what she could against her country’s oppressors.
The banned books club was only the beginning; a place for the women of Prague to come together and share the tales the Germans wanted to silence.
For bookshop owner, Jana, doing the right thing was never a question. So when opportunity comes to help the resistance, she offers herself – and her bookshop. Using her window displays as covert signals and hiding secret codes in book marks, she’ll do all in her power to help.
But the arrival of two people in her bookshop will change everything: a young Jewish boy with nowhere else to turn, and a fascist police captain Jana can’t read at all. In a time where secrets are currency and stories can be fatal, will she know who to trust?
A Christmas Murder by Mary Grand
Susan didn’t plan on being an amateur sleuth and after two successful investigations, she’s looking forward to a quiet Christmas. So, when local businesswoman Meera is in desperate need of help, Susan agrees rather reluctantly.
The task should be easy enough. The infamous press mogul Duncan Fern is coming back to the Isle of Wight, the scene of his family’s childhood holidays, to celebrate Christmas with his grown-up children and their partners, his new glamorous wife Kirsten who is forever dripping with diamonds, and the spikey editor of his paper the Morning Flame, Antoine. The newly-refurbished luxurious Bishopstone Manor is the perfect setting for a festive break and all Susan has to do is help Meera host.
But when a snowstorm descends over the island, and the following morning a body is found, Christmas at the Manor takes a darker turn. Can Susan get to the bottom of the mystery before the murderer strikes again…
The Red Lie by Hua Foley
Born into the Mao era, the author’s education in school and at home by her father, a devoted Communist propaganda officer, was a brainwashing process. She was just seven when her father described how the enemy Nationalists beheaded his parents with a straw cutter during the civil war. Before she was old enough to understand the concept of love, she learned who to love and who to hate, believing all enemies deserve to die.
When student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 demanded freedom and democracy, Foley risked prison passing them secret information about army troop deployment. This act ended her career as a university assistant professor and put her on a wanted list. She embarked on a smuggler-aided border crossing to Macau, and eventually arriving in Hong Kong, and from there, departed for a new life in the United States.
Returning to China after an eight-year exile, she discovered her father’s betrayal and lies. She eventually came to understand that his fear-driven loyalty to the Party arose from survival instincts. He chose to dance with the devil. Over time, he learned to dance with ease and grace, and in the end, such dancing became his life.
The Red Lie is an account of the struggle to free oneself from the binding tentacles of brainwashing. It is a tale of loyalty tested, humanity challenged, and lives ruined by lies. At its core, it is a woman’s struggle in a world so hardened by ignorance, hatred and fear that compassion and kindness are largely nonexistent. It shows one person’s quest for self-invention against the backdrop of late twentieth century politics—a tale still current given the East-West tensions of today.
The Tanglewood Bookshop by Lilac Mills
A rural book shop. A chance to start over. But can she make her dream a reality?
Karen used to love the excitement of her London life, but lately her passion for expensive city living has begun to wane. So when she's given the opportunity to open a bookshop in picturesque Tanglewood, she jumps at the chance.
But village life is much quieter than she anticipated – is she actually suited for rural living? Resigned to a boring and uneventful Christmas, when she meets gorgeous Saul she is more than ready to have some fun and enjoy the festivities. If only Saul didn't have a reputation for being a player...
Will Karen become the heroine in her own Christmas romance, or will he love her and leave her under the mistletoe?
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and snoozed in your house for hours on end. This happened to me.
When lockdown led busy professional Chloe to leave the city and return to the countryside of her childhood, she never expected to find herself custodian of a newly born hare. Yet when she finds the creature, endangered, alone and no bigger than her palm, she is compelled to give it a chance at survival.
Raising Hare chronicles their journey together and the challenges of caring for the leveret and preparing for its return to the wild. We witness an extraordinary relationship between human and animal, rekindling our sense of awe towards nature and wildlife. This improbable bond of trust serves to remind us that the most remarkable experiences, inspiring the most hope, often arise when we least expect them.
A Lake District Christmas Murder by Rebecca Tope
As Christmas draws nearer, Simmy Henderson is invited to a party in Glenridding at the heart of the Lake District. However, the festivities are overshadowed by two alarming discoveries: a man’s body in the beck above the village and a vulnerable newborn baby, apparently abandoned by its mother.
Caught in the crosscurrents and tensions of the inhabitants of Glenridding, Simmy is drawn into the investigation. The season of goodwill has been eclipsed by far darker emotions and a murderer must be found.
The Grandmother by Jane E. James
I might be a grandmother. But I’m not some sweet, harmless old lady who people can push around.
Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother.
They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by.
I think their father, Vince, killed my daughter. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I warned her he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.
But then, most people have a dark side — and I’m no different.
Now he wants his daughters back.
Over my dead body.
I finally have a family of my own. And nobody is going to take it away from me.
The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb
An investigative journalist uncovers the haunting secret history of her own ancestors in a bewitching novel by the bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake.
When Cassie Graves discovers her husband’s affair, it’s enough to chip away at the foundation of her life. But after researching her family’s Italian ancestry, it completely crumbles beneath her.
Her grandmother Gia’s often-told stories about the past are a lie. Her much-romanticized great-grandfather Giovanni may not even have existed. Most alarming of all, it appears her mysterious great-grandmother Violetta died by stregoneria―witchcraft. Now, piecing together the puzzle of her family tree in the small, centuries-old hill town of Santo Stefano, Cassie finds help from a welcoming group of locals: the accommodating Renzo; Dante, whose own family history connects with Cassie’s; and the ethereal Luna, an interpreter of dreams who gives Cassie a protective amulet―and the warning that she may have walked into a trap.
When Cassie comes upon an old spell book, she gets closer to unearthing long-buried family secrets, the truth about a powerful female lineage, and the haunting discovery of who she really is.
The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson
You’ve heard of the Afterlife. Welcome to the Beforelife.
There are four of us: Samuel, Lucy, Thomas, and me – Eliza.
We came into being the day Becca Valentine was born. We’ve been by her side ever since. What she doesn’t know yet, is that one day she might become our mother.
Then two men come into her life. Both seeking her heart. And then we realise: everything rests on Becca’s love story. Because one of the men is Lucy and Thomas’s father. And the other is mine and Samuel’s. And there’s simply no way we can all be born.
We all want her to make the right choice. We all want to be born. To hold her hand one day. To feel her stroke our hair. To call her our mother.
Then we discover there is something we can do. We can change Fate. But we only have a single chance each. How would you make sure you were born? And what if doing that isn’t what’s best for the person you already love the most in the world – your mother?
Snow is Falling by Sarah Bennett
When Sadie Bingham’s life takes an unexpected turn, her children treat her to a well-earned break at Juniper Meadows, the gorgeous Cotswolds estate owned by the Travers family.
The festive season is in full swing, and Sadie throws herself into the packed Twelve Days of Christmas programme, relishing the opportunity to make new friends and new memories.
Single father Dylan Travers hasn’t been to his childhood home of Juniper Meadows for decades. Estranged from his cantankerous father Monty, he has made a happy life for himself in the States. But now with teenage children keen to know more about their roots, Dylan has brought them back to the Cotswolds to meet his family.
As Sadie and Dylan both navigate a Christmas very different from the ones they had expected it's soon clear that, geography apart, they have a great deal in common. And as Dylan confronts his past and Sadie contemplates her future, perhaps the miracle of this Christmas will be the happily-ever-after they both deserve.
