10 Ten New Release Books in April 2026

Today I am looking ahead to next month's new release books. I am also looking forward to some spring sunshine to go with them.

There are loads of good-looking books being published in April. I have limited myself to just ten in this post; otherwise, I would probably still be compiling the list when April actually arrives!

 Dead Straight Line by Malcolm Duffy 

Two unlikely worlds collide as prize-winning Malcolm Duffy explores the life-changing repercussions of a single action in a game gone wrong.

Sixteen-year-old Rory is a rule-breaker, a risk taker, a maverick. As a kick he comes up with a game called Dead Straight Line. The idea is simple – wherever you happen to be, you’ve got to get home in a dead straight line. Across the back gardens of stranger’s houses, locked parks, trespassing on private property – whatever it takes.

One day, Rory pressures his friend Eliot into playing, resulting in a serious accident. Shunned by friends and facing pressure from his furious parents, Rory becomes even more angry and disruptive. When his school suggests helping out a care home, he’s unimpressed. But paired up with Tanker, an eighty-year-old Geordie military veteran, who fought in the Falklands War, things slowly begin to change.

From seeking thrills to finding friends, choosing the right path in life is never a dead straight line. But there is always a way.

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

 A Widow's Charm by Caitlyn Paxson

In this witty fantasy romance, a widow blackmails her rakish necromancer neighbor to bring her husband back to life and save her home . . . only to find herself falling for him instead.

Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of the manor when she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. But when he drops dead quite unexpectedly, the plans that would have protected her and the people of Croftholde from her malevolent brother-in-law die along with him. What's a widow to do?

Fortunately, potential salvation arrives in the form of Lord Erol Elmwood, who is fleeing the consequences of using his forbidden Charm to raise the dead and save his own life. Now he's injured, destitute, and miserable, stuck hiding out at the neighboring estate.

For Hilde, blackmailing Lord Elmwood to resurrect Thorgoode seems like the perfect solution. For Elmwood, beautiful Lady Croft seems like the ideal distraction from his troubles. The problem is, all she wants from him is the horrifying power he knows he can never use again.

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

The Lost Woman by Karen Mulvahill

To reclaim what the Nazis stole, she must face what she tried to forget.

Paris, 1940. Nicole Cassin is a Jewish teenager living above her family’s art gallery when the Nazis occupy the city. Overnight, everything is her home, her security, her future, and Nicole is forced to grow up fast. As Paris sinks deeper into fear and suspicion, she is drawn into the Resistance and into a world where a whispered name or a single painting can mean the difference between freedom and tragedy.

Decades later in New York, Nicole—widowed and running out of time—receives a letter that upends the life she has spent years trying to build. Determined to reclaim her family’s legacy, she hires Robert, an art historian with ties to the wartime efforts to save Europe’s cultural treasures, to trace the fate of her parents’ stolen collection, including a portrait of her mother painted by Picasso.

What begins as a search for lost paintings becomes something far more dangerous. Robert’s investigation leads into a shadowy network of collaborators, ex-Nazis, and art dealers, where fortunes were made in the ruins of war, and where the truth about Nicole’s past has been waiting, buried in plain sight.

Preorder Link - Amazon UK

  Margery and Me by Maryka Biaggio

In the 1920s, Margery Crandon captivated both Boston society and psychic researchers with her astonishing seances. At her gatherings, her deceased brother Walter regularly appeared, entertaining the circle with his witty and cheeky remarks. Margery's abilities earned her the admiration of luminaries, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Butler Yeats. But one man stood in opposition: Harry Houdini, the legendary magician, who was determined to expose her as a fraud. Margery and Me tells the true story of the medium who mystified scientists, challenged skeptics, and sparked a sensation across America and Europe. As Houdini and Margery clashed in a battle of wits and wills, the question remained: Could the master illusionist unmask her, or would her extraordinary powers be enough to convert even the most resolute of doubters?

Preorder Link - Amazon

  How to Cheat at You Own Death by Kristen Perry

LAURA NEVER MEANT TO LIE. BUT OLD HABITS DIE HARD.

When Annie Adams heads to London to visit her mother, Laura, the last thing she expects to find is a dead body. Least of all for it to be Fliss, the budding artist Laura had just taken under her wing.

Annie is no stranger to murder - after all, she's solved a few cases already. And something about the way Fliss died feels familiar. She's seen a case like this before. Or read about it, rather, in the journals of her dead Great Aunt Frances, whose close friend was killed in the 1960s in the exact same way: with her heart surgically removed from her chest.

As threats pile up on Laura's doorstep, it soon becomes clear that she's next, and that she's hiding something . . . With her mother's life on the line, can Annie find the killer before it's too late?

From the gritty streets of 1960s Soho to the lofty galleries of present-day West London, follow Annie and Frances as they race to bring a killer to justice.

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

 The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

Rainy March is a proud third-generation book witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps into and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and wrangle characters that go off-script.

Book witches live by a strict code: Real people belong in the real word; fictional characters belong in works of fiction.... Do not eat, drink, or sleep inside a fictional world, lest you become part of the story. Falling in love with a fictional character? Don't even think about it.

Except Rainy has fallen hard for the Duke of Chicago, the dashing British detective who stars in her favorite noir series. After their illicit romance is exposed, Rainy is forbidden from ever seeing her fictional lover again, lest she be expelled from her book coven-and forced to give up the magical gifts that are as much a part of her as her own name.

When a priceless book is stolen from her home, there's only one person she trusts to help her get it back: the Duke. Thus their shared quest begins through the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Great Gatsby, and other classics that will reveal hidden enemies and long-buried family secrets.

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

The Name Game by Beth O'Leary

Who's playing who?

The Isle of Ormer: population 500, soon to be 501.

Charlie Jones has landed on the island to embark on her brand new life. As the manager at Ormer's only farm shop, this job will be her perfect next chapter. Good riddance to the mainland, this is it - fresh air, and a clean slate.

Except there is one small issue . . .

Charlie Jones has also just arrived on the Isle of Ormer, to embark on his brand new life. His job at the farm shop feels like fate, and could not have come at a better moment. On Ormer, Charlie has promised himself he'll escape old friends, bad habits and heartbreak.

This second chance is the best thing that could have happened to Charlie . . . and Charlie.

That is, until they are introduced . . .

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

  The Enemy's Wife by Deborah Swift

1941. When Zofia’s beloved husband Haru is conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army, she is left to navigate Japanese-occupied Shanghai alone.

Far from home and surrounded by a country at war, Zofia finds unexpected comfort in a bond with Hilly, a spirited young refugee escaping Nazi-occupied Austria.

As violence tightens its grip on the city, they seek shelter with Theo, Zofia’s American employer. But with every passing day, the horrors of war and Haru’s absence begin to reshape Zofia’s world – and her heart.

Can she still love someone who has become the enemy?

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

Lochbound by Rebecca Templeton

There is no happily-ever-after . . .

Kilmara, Scotland. 1725. For fifty years, Iris has accepted the curse that blighted her life. By night, she is a heartbroken woman, destined to walk the misty shores of Kilmara without growing older. By day, she is Moireach, a terrifying monster imprisoned in the murky depths of Loch Moine.

When bodies begin appearing on the shore, the villagers are convinced Moireach is responsible. So a hunter - the rugged, ruthless Henry Carver - is summoned to slay the monster of the loch.

Iris must break her curse before she is killed for crimes she cannot believe she has committed. But as Kilmara's hunt for the monster becomes ever more fevered, she and Henry are drawn together in a dangerous game of impossible attraction.

And when a figure from Iris's past suddenly reappears, she must choose what - or who - she is willing to sacrifice to win her freedom.

. . . when you are the monster.

 Fruit Fly by Josh Silver

Anyone can write a bestseller. Here’s how.

GO GAY

It’s been seven years since Mallory shot to fame as a literary sensation. But after years of struggling with writer’s block, she’s desperate to resurrect her career before it spirals into obscurity. She needs inspiration to strike – and fast.

GO SAD

Enter Leo – a young struggling addict sleeping under bridges and trading sex for survival. He’s vulnerable. He’s enigmatic. He’s exactly what Mallory has been looking for.

GO DARK

Mallory needs Leo if she wants another bestseller. Authenticity sells, and there’s nothing more authentic than real life. She’s the perfect person to tell Leo’s story. Gay, sad, dark – just what the world needs right now. But as secrets threaten to unravel more than just her career, Mallory must decide: just how far will she go to pen the perfect story?

Preorder Link - Bookshop.org

(header photo courtesy of Karolina Bobek/Unsplashed)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Books I Want to Read in November 2024

 

Wow, it's November already and I am looking ahead to some of the books that I hope to read this month.  Here are just ten that have caught my eye.

You may notice that there are no Christmas titles in this list. There will be a dedicated post of Festive reads coming soon so watch this space!

What are your reading plans this month? Are any of these books on your reading radar?

The Poison Pen Letters by Fiona Walker

The Dressmaker's Mirror by Susan Weiss Liebman

The Reunion by M. A. Hunter

Someone Like You by Sandy Barker

The Palace Dressmaker by Jade Beer

Elizabeth of York and the Birth of the Tudor Dynasty by Beverley Adams

A Witch's Book of Wisdom by Patricia Telesco

Shtum by Jem Lester

The Cavendon Women by Barbara Taylor Bradford

My Family: The Memoir by David Baddiel

The Ravenswood Witch by Jenni Keer - #bookreview #blogtour

 

1885

Her heart was pounding and her breaths were raspy in her throat. She was beyond exhausted and had to rest for a moment, steadying herself by placing her hand on a rough gatepost and bending forward to stop herself being sick...

***

‘There are a lot of shadows at Ravenswood, so you will need to be strong…’

The year is 1885 and a young woman is on the run, knowing if she’s caught, she’ll be hanged for murder.

 Moments from a safe haven, she collides with a gruff stranger, falling and breaking her ankle.

To her surprise, the man – Marcus Greybourne – convinces the local constable that she is his reclusive wife of ten years, Luna. He carries her back to the neglected and crumbling Ravenswood Hall, promising if she agrees to maintain this charade, he will keep her safe until her injuries have healed.

But the house is haunted by shadows and secrets. What’s more, the real Luna Greybourne is missing, without trace. Scratches and marks made by her around the house suggest witchcraft; and indeed Luna is known locally as the Ravenswood Witch; her reputation in tatters, like the wallpapers of the padlocked rooms she’d destroyed.

As strange happenings in the house continue, outside the screech of a raven echoes across oppressive woods that seem alive with dark magic. And the woman who is now pretending to be Luna can’t help but fear she’s escaped the noose for a far more terrible fate…

***

I was so pleased when I was offered an advanced readers copy of this book as part of the blog tour, as I was already a fan of Jenni Keer's books. I have previously read At the Stroke of Midnight and No. 23 Burlington Square, both of which I enjoyed very much. You can read my reviews of those books by clicking on their respective titles.

I do not often read spooky books and I definitely steer clear of the horror genre. I am far too much of a coward for that! However, whilst this was spooky and quite eerie at times I really enjoyed that element of the story. 

Sticking with the witchy theme, I recently read Weyward by Emilia Hart, as well as The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant. Both excellent books with similarities. The plot of The Ravenswood Witch was a little different to either of those which made this all the more compelling to read.

The plot has much to offer; a runaway fugitive, witchcraft, ghostly apparitions and a romance to boot. There was also a twist partway through the book that I was not expecting. It was an excellent curve ball to throw into the plot. I shall say no more about that as I would hate to spoil your own discovery of this when you read the book. And I do use the word when as you will really be missing out on an excellent book if this one passes you by.

The book is set in 1885, and Ms. Keer does an excellent job in portraying the period, along with the setting of a derelict and run down house in which the main character finds herself. The house oozes with mystery and secrets and she finds herself wondering if in escaping the hangman's noose, she has stumbled into a more dark and dangerous situation.

This is an outstanding novel, and I will even go as far as saying it is amongst the best books I have read this year. I highly encourage you to treat yourself to a copy of this to snuggle down with in the run up to Halloween.

ISBN: 978 1785139796

Publisher:  Boldwood Books

Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  352 (paperback)

About the Author:

Jenni Keer is the well-reviewed author of historical romances, often with a mystery at their heart. Most recently published by Headline and shortlisted for the 2023 RNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year.

(ARC and all media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

The House of the Witch by Clare Marchant - #bookreview #blogtour

 

The silhouette of a church stands against the night sky, fragile waning moonlight casting shadows across uneven ground. A person stumbles over the muddy, disturbed space towards a dark void, gaping wide...

***

Now: When Adrianna arrives at the small, run-down cottage, near the sea in rural Norfolk, she can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Here she can forget her life in the city, and the problems she’s left behind there, at least for a while.

But – like Adrianna herself – the cottage holds secrets. And when Adrianna finds a mysterious bundle of notes hidden under a floorboard, she can’t shake the idea that they’ve been waiting for her. Especially when – in the rambling, overgrown garden – she then finds a strangely-carved stone, drawing her into a centuries-old mystery…

1646: Between her work as the village midwife and the medicines she sells from her cottage, Ursula has no need for a man. But this ideal leaves her unprotected in a world where just one accusation of witchcraft can mean certain death. So when she catches the eye of a powerful new local doctor, she must use every part of her cunning, or risk becoming his prisoner…

Can the two women – their paths bound by place and history – each find the keys to their own destiny?

***

This is easily the best book I have read this month.

I always enjoy a book with a dual time-line. I love the way an author can make the past inform the present and demonstrate how linked we are to the past.  Ms. Marchant accomplishes this with aplomb in The House of the Witch. 

What she does really well is to create two very distinct voices. Ursula is a single woman living in 1646, a dangerous time to live without the protection of a man. Adrianna's story is set in the present day and finds herself living in Ursula's cottage in rural Norfolk when she needs a break from a high stress job in London.

Both of these stories were gripping and were equally well written.  This book comprises everything a good dual timeline novel should have. So often I find in novels of this type that I am drawn to one of the timelines more than the other. However, these were equally enthralling as the characters and the plot were utterly believable.

The author has clearly researched the period very well and has an excellent understanding of her characters. I was on the edge of my seat from the very beginning as I could see the dangers lurking ahead for both Ursula and Adrianna. 

If you enjoy historical fiction which features courageous women with some supernatural added into the mix then you will love this book as much as I did. I highly recommend it.

ISBN: 978 1836030379

Publisher:  Boldwood Books

Formats:  e-book, audio, hardback and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  328 (paperback)

About the Author:

Clare Marchant is the author of dual timeline historical fiction. Her books have been translated into seven languages, and she is a USA Today bestseller. Clare spends her time writing and exploring local castles, or visiting the nearby coast.

(ARC and media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch by Melinda Taub - #BookReview #BlogTour

 

I suppose if this were a proper book I'd begin it something like, "Miss Lydia Bennet, youngest of five daughters to a father hopelessly entailed, had few advantages in life, but not too few to squander." That sounds fine, and important, and promises that no matter how exciting the story may become it will all resolve with a tidy boring moral at the end. That is why Kitty and I prefer to skip the last chapter of novels.

However, that bit about squandering isn't true. Oh, I daresay many in Meryton would whisper that I had indeed squandered all my advantages of birth and position; and Lord knows I have shed many a tear over it...

***

Miss Lydia Bennet may be the youngest, but what she lacks in maturity and responsibility, she more than makes up for in energy, fun - and magic.

In this exuberant reimagining of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story from her own perspective. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves; Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs.

But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns: her best-loved sister Kitty is really a barn cat, and Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would you expect from a demon? And if you think Mr. Darcy was uptight about dancing etiquette, wait till you see how he reacts to witchcraft. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that when you're a witch, promises have power . . 

Full of enchantment, intrigue, danger, and boundless magic, The Scandalous Confessions of Miss Lydia Bennet, Witch, has all the irreverent wit, strength, and romance of Pride and Prejudice - while offering a highly unexpected redemption for the wildest Bennet sister.

***

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of my favourite books. I am always a little hesitant to read books which move the story on in one way or another, although I have read some that make an excellent job of it, The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow springs to mind of an excellent example of this. Sadly this is not always the case.

However, Melinda Taub delivers a book based on the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia, and takes the story off in a direction that is both fun and amusing. This is an entertaining romp of a story centred around witchcraft in Recency England. 

It is very much a book that does not take itself too seriously. Austen purists may not care for the liberties taken with the characters. However, read as a book that is intended to be read as a lively, witty and enjoyable retelling of a familiar story, it cannot fail to please.

The author has taken a familiar tale and spun a whole new perspective of the story from it. The characters are all recognizable from the original story, but seen through Lydia's eyes we observe a very different perspective. 

Pride and Prejudice is a book I re-read often. However, I will never be able to look at Kitty Bennet in quite the same way again. I shall say no more as I would hate to spoil your own discovery and enjoyment of Kitty's place within the family.

Happy reading!

ISBN: 978 1529426243

Publisher:  Jo Fletcher Books

Formats:  e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages: 400 (hardback)

About the Author:

Melinda is the former head writer and executive producer of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and was the co-producer of the 2020 Daily Show special on the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The idea for Lydia Bennet came to her when she was Sam Bee's head writer during the Trump years and, often stressed and sad, all she could read were her best-loved books - Pride & Prejudice being high on the list.

(book courtesy of the publicist)

(all opinions are my own)

The Manningtree Witches by A.K.Blakemore - #BookReview

 

A hill wet with brume of morning, one hawberry bush squalid with browning flowers. I have woken and put on my work dress, which is near enough my only dress, and yet she remains asleep. Jade. Pot-companion. Mother. I stand at the end of the cot and consider her face. A beam of morning sun from the window slices over the left cheek. Dark hair spread about the pillow, matted and greasy and greying in places.

There is a smell to my mother, when she is sleeping. It is a complicated, I think mannish smell. I smelled a like smell when I was sent, as a little girl, to fetch my father away from the Red Lion and to supper. The inn would be clattery with men's voices and small-beer sour, and my father would be very jolly indeed, sweeping me up and kissing me on the forehead, his coat crisp from the rain in the big fields.

***

Fear and destruction take root in a community of women when the Witchfinder General comes to town, in this dark and thrilling debut.

England, 1643. Parliament is battling the King; the war between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers rages. Puritanical fervour has gripped the nation, and the hot terror of damnation burns black in every shadow.

In Manningtree, depleted of men since the wars began, the women are left to their own devices. At the margins of this diminished community are those who are barely tolerated by the affluent villagers – the old, the poor, the unmarried, the sharp-tongued. Rebecca West, daughter of the formidable Beldam West, fatherless and husbandless, chafes against the drudgery of her days, livened only by her infatuation with the clerk John Edes. But then newcomer Matthew Hopkins takes over the Thorn Inn and begins to ask questions about the women of the margins. When a child falls ill with a fever and starts to rave about covens and pacts, the questions take on a bladed edge.

The Manningtree Witches plunges its readers into the fever and menace of the English witch trials, where suspicion, mistrust and betrayal ran amok as the power of men went unchecked and the integrity of women went undefended. It is a visceral, thrilling book that announces a bold new talent.

***

I was given this book by my son as a birthday gift. He said when he saw it in the bookshop he thought, 'this looks like the sort of thing mum would read and enjoy.' He was spot on because I enjoyed reading it very much.

The writing in this book is beautiful. It flows lyrically along and is a joy to read. The language is appropriate for the period in which the book is set and the author has chosen and placed every word with precision.

Whilst it is not an action packed page turner, the writing alone is sufficient to carry the reader along through the steady pace of this story. However, a lot happens in this book and it is a powerful example of the way men abused and exerted their power over women. 

It is no surprise that it won the Desmond Elliott Prize in 2021 as it exudes passion and depth. The author has taken a dark and disturbing period of history and created a novel which portrays a time which is  disturbing and mesmerising in equal measure.

As a debut novel it is an amazing accomplishment and, in my opinion, confirms Ms. Blakemore as  one to watch.

ISBN: 978 1783786442

Publisher: Granta Books

Formats: e-book, audio, hardback and paperback

No. of Pages: 304 (paperback)

About the Author:

A. K. Blakemore is the author of two full-length collections of poetry: Humbert Summer (Eyewear, 2015) and Fondue (Offord Road Books, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Ledbury Forte Prize for Best Second Collection. She has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo (My Tenantless Body, Poetry Translation Centre, 2019). Her poetry and prose writing has been widely published and anthologised, appearing in the The London Review of Books, Poetry, Poetry Review and The White Review, among others.

(author photo courtesy of Amazon and bio info courtesy of the publisher)

The Witches by Brenda Lozano - #BookReview

 

It was six at night when Guadalupe came to tell me they had killed Paloma. I don't remember times or dates, I don't know when I was born because I was born like the mountain was, go ask the mountain when it was born, but I know it was six at night when Guadalupe came to say they killed Paloma as she was getting ready to go out, it was six at night when I saw her there in her room, when I saw her body on the floor and the shine for her eyes on her fingers and I saw her hands they were two in the mirror and the shine was on both like she had just put it on her eyes, like she could get up to put some on mine.

***

This is the story of who Feliciana is, and of who Paloma was.

I had wanted to get to know them, but I realised right away that the people I needed to know better were my sister Leandra and my mother. Myself. I came to understand that you can't really know another woman until you know yourself...

Weaving together two parallel narratives, Witches tells the story of Feliciana, an indigenous curandera or healer, and Zoe, a journalist: two women who meet through the murder of Feliciana's cousin Paloma.

In the tiny village of San Felipe in Jalisco province, where traditional ways and traditional beliefs are a present reality, Feliciana tells the story of her life, her community's acceptance of her as a genuine curandera and the difficult choices faced by her joyful and spirited cousin Paloma who is both a healer and a Muxe - a trans woman.

Growing up in Mexico City, Zoe attempts to find her way in a society straitjacketed by its hostile macho culture. But it is Feliciana's and Paloma's stories that draw her own story out of her, taking her on a journey to understanding her place in the world and the power of her voice.

This captivating novel of two Mexicos envisions the writer as a healer and offers a generous and distinctly female way of understanding the complex world we all inhabit.

***

This is a very special book. It was a captivating novel to read, illustrating the complexity of the world in which women live.

It is a dual narrative, alternating between the voices of Feliciana and Zoe. The voices are distinct and the narrative moves seamlessly between the two characters.

Set in a small Mexican village, where being a healer is passed down through the male line, Feliciana learns her art from her cousin, Paloma, who was born a male but becomes a female. The author skilfully tackles the blurring of the genders, presenting the male character of Gasper, who later becomes the female Paloma.

It is not a spoiler to tell you that Paloma is murdered, and this is what brings Zoe, a journalist, to Feliciana's door, to investigate and report on the murder. However, meeting Feliciana leads Zoe to consider her own life and her relationship with her sister.

Overall, the book is about the relationships that women have with one another; Feliciana and Paloma, and also Zoe and her sister, Leandra.

Translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary, the book is original and like no other that I can recall reading. I adored the lyricism of the prose and recommend this unusual novel.

ISBN: 978 1529412277

Publisher: MacLehose Press

Format: Hardback and e-book

No. of pages: 272 (hardback)

About the Author:

Brenda Lozano is a fiction writer, essayist and editor. Born in Mexico City, she studied literature in Mexico and the United States. She has participated in literary residencies in the US, Europe and Latin America, and her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Mexico20 and Bogotá39. She edits the literary journal Make in Chicago and is part of Ugly Duckling Presse in New York. She is the author of two earlier novels, Todo nada (2009), which is currently being adapted for the screen, and Cuaderno Ideal (2015), recently published by Charco Press in an English translation by Annie McDermott as Loop, and a book of short stories, Cómo piensan las piedras (2017). In 2015, she was recognised by Conaculta, the Hay Festival and the British Council as one of the most important authors under forty years of age from Mexico, and in 2017 she was selected by the Hay Festival for Bogotá 39, a list of the most outstanding new authors from Latin America. She currently lives in Mexico City.

(author bio & photo courtesy of Hachette Publishing)

(ARC courtesy of the publisher)

Reading Roundup for March 2021

 

I have been taking a short break from blogging. I find it necessary every once in a while just to keep my writing and reviewing fresh and to focus my mind.

However, I am back now and raring to go. Although I have not been reviewing I have been doing plenty of reading and I thought you might be interested in seeing what I have read during this month. There are no review links for these book but keep an eye out from the first of April when I will be reviewing again.

I make no apology for the photo of the cute little bunny rabbits above (courtesy of istockphoto.com). I know there must be a bookish link somewhere but the truth is, I just could not resist posting this picture. I hope it makes you smile as much as it has me.

Books I Have Read This Month

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart - this was my favourite book for March. A worthy winner of the 2020 Booker Prize.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - another excellent book from Matt Haig and it came a very close second as my favourite read of the month. I have previously read his book How to Stop Time and you can read my review by clicking on the title.

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths - This is number 13 in the Ruth Galloway series and it remains my favourite series of the moment. I have read the previous 12 books and have reviewed The Janus Stone (#2), Ruth's First Christmas (#4.5 a novella), Dying Fall (#5) and The Woman in Blue (#8). Just click on the title to read my reviews. 

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead - Another excellent book from the pen of the Booker Prize winning author of The Underground Railroad.

The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher - This is the first novel I have read by this author and I really enjoyed it.

Not in America: Book 1 in a Jewish Family Saga by Roberta Kagan - I enjoyed this book. It is the first in a four part series and I have already have the second book, They Never Saw it Coming, on my kindle. All four books are available for free if you have kindle unlimited.

The King's Witch by Tracy Borman - This is the first in a trilogy by the amazingly talented Tracy Borman. I am definitely planning on reading the second book in the series, The Devil's Slave.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - I really disliked this book. I know it was hugely popular and many people like it but it was not for me.

Books I Did Not Finish

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff - This was the book chosen for my physical (yet virtual) book group. I really did not like it. It read more like a text book than a biography. Only one person in the group managed to finish it. I shall say no more!

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen - I was just not in the mood for this book once I started it. I have heard many good things about it. It was shortlisted for several awards so I may well give it another try at some point.