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Summer Reads
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We have sorted the books into categories based on the type of book you want to read - rather than the classsic 'genre' - just click on the mood you are in.
Fun and Feel Good
Mysterious and Thrilling
Emotional and Absorbing
People and Travel
Action Packed and Exciting
Another Time, Another Place
Books for teens and young adults
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Worldwide Adventures In Love
Louise Wener
May 2009 Book of the Month.
A lovely book full of nostalgia and warmth. Jessie’s story is set in the 1970’s and finds her coping with a family life that is breaking down...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/04/2009
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Palace Circle
Rebecca Dean
A family saga of the aristocratic and political circles of London and Cairo from 1911-1941. Infidelities, spying, high society, intrigue and passions sweep you through a multi-voiced narrative of a dramatic and fascinating period spotted with real historical characters. Lovely...
Format: Paperback - Released: 14/05/2009
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Revelation
C J Sansom
The killer takes his methods of killing from the Book of Revelation in a period beset with religious violence, for this is the wane of the reign of Henry VIII. It is part of an excellent series starring the sleuth...
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/05/2009
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Cathedral of the Sea
Ildefonso Falcones
An epic of the 14th century which follows the entire life of a Barcelona boy and the cathedral he comes to love and helps to build. Powerful, moving, engrossing, it charts his rises and falls as well as those of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 26/03/2009
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Tease
Immodesty Blaize
The British Queen of Burlesque, Immodesty Blaize, turns her talents to writing, with great success. With all the racy, raunchy fun you could expect from a novel about a girl who has risen to the top of her game in...
Format: Hardback - Released: 14/05/2009
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Guernica
Dave Boling
Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 20 May 2009.
A literary page-turner, an epic story of love and war straddling the dreadful bombing during the Spanish Civil War and an involved family saga. This is Captain Corelli territory for Spain,...
Format: Paperback - Released: 21/04/2009
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Past Imperfect
Julian Fellowes
Reviewed on Richard & Judy on Wednesday 13 May 2009.
Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 29 January 2009.
Wealthy Damian Baxter is dying without an heir when an unsigned letter arrives inferring he had a son thirty...
Format: Paperback - Released: 30/04/2009
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The Best Day of Someone Else's Life
Kerry Reichs
May 2009 Debut of the Month.
Funny, sophisticated, witty and thoroughly enjoyable! Kerry Reichs certainly inherited the writing gene from her mother Kathy and we think you will find her debut novel impossible to put...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/04/2009
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Unsticky
Sarra Manning
A delightful read in the vein of that feel-good film Pretty Woman, only here the girl is not a hooker, just desperate as she is so badly in debt. Both main characters have loads of baggage and each needs to...
Format: Paperback - Released: 14/05/2009
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The Drowning Girl
Margaret Leroy
May 2009 Book of the Month.
A great read, a well thought-out plot with a good build to the final crisis. It concerns a disturbed child with a mother who is at her...
Format: Paperback - Released: 15/05/2009
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The Death Maze
Ariana Franklin
Ariana Franklin was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library 2009 - the prize awarded for an author's body of work.
A very special historical murder mystery and a wonderful follow-up to her prize-winning Mistress of the Art of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 09/04/2009
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A Simple Act of Violence
R J Ellory
April 2009 Book of the Month.
R J Ellory was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library 2009 - the prize awarded for an author's body of work.
I am an enormous fan...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/04/2009
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Six Seconds
Rick Mofina
April 2009 Book of the Month.
Six seconds is the time between detonation and the bomb exploding. In this excellent thriller six seconds becomes real nail-biting stuff. The target is the Pope on...
Format: Paperback - Released: 17/04/2009
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Sashenka
Simon Montefiore
March 2009 Debut of the Month.
A big, sweeping, romantic adventure of half a century of turbulent Russian history beautifully told. It pulls at the heart strings while informing, it forces you through the pages...
Format: Paperback - Released: 12/03/2009
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Diaz
February 2009 Debut of the Month.
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Although the title suggests this book is all about Oscar, he is just one out of an array of characters. Oscar’s family...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/02/2009
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Bone by Bone
Carol O'connell
Small-town America full of strange characters and a bucket-load of secrets. One does wonder if such a small town could contain so many wacky people and secrets but who cares, it works! The narrative is calm, almost understated, no histrionics,...
Format: Paperback - Released: 23/07/2009
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Kill For Me
Karen Rose
This follows on from Die For Me and Scream For Me, both of which I urge you to read, but you can start here and be hooked. It’s got the lot: rape, murder, abduction, paedophilia and more. Within...
Format: Paperback - Released: 09/07/2009
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Too Close to Home
Linwood Barclay
With the runaway success of last year’s No Time for Goodbye, expectations have been high for Barclay’s next novel and luckily he
doesn’t disappoint. When the Cutter’s neighbours are all shot dead in
their home one night, the Cutter family find...
Format: Paperback - Released: 23/07/2009
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The Stolen
Jason Pinter
Henry Parker is back in this third thriller from Jason Pinter. Henry is sent on an exclusive assignment to interview a child, Daniel, who has mysteriously returned to his family after he has been missing for five years. However, Daniel...
Format: Paperback - Released: 19/06/2009
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Fearless Fourteen
Janet Evanovich
All the old characters are back in the next Stephanie Plum adventure. More sleuthing, more comedic situations and more sexual tension brewing away. To be honest nothing incredibly new but if you are a fan then you’ll enjoy catching up...
Format: Paperback - Released: 11/06/2009
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This is How
M J Hyland
This is a fascinating and moving novel about a young man who sees the world from a slightly troubled point of view. From the beginning the signs are there that not all is quite as it should be in the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/07/2009
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American Wife
Curtis Sittenfeld
This is an absolute joy to read. It follows the life of an ordinary American girl, with a teenage tragedy hanging over her, who falls for an ambitious, rich and privileged boy whose sights are on the White House. It...
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/07/2009
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Betrayal
Sasha Blake
Greed, vengeance, lust and, of course, betrayal all rear their ugly heads in this fabulous tale of the Kent dynasty. The billionaire family are caught up in disgrace and scandal, no one is satisfied with their lot and no one...
Format: Paperback - Released: 30/07/2009
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Heart and Soul
Maeve Binchy
The brand new novel from Maeve Binchy is another tale of family and relationship dramas. The story centres round Clara Casey, who is finding her two grown daughters more of a handful now than when they were teenagers. Not only...
Format: Paperback - Released: 09/07/2009
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The Brass Verdict
Michael Connelly
Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2009.
CWA Judges’ comments: 'A highly accomplished legal thriller. Very readable with good twists and an engaging lead character. Never less than compelling to the very last page.'
Lawyer, Jerry Vincent is murdered leaving...
Format: Paperback - Released: 11/06/2009
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That's Another Story
Julie Walters
One of the nations best loved actresses and comediennes tells her story in her own words.After a convent education Julie went in to nursing to please her mother but luckily for us she knew her heart lay in...
Format: Paperback - Released: 23/07/2009
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The Monster of Florence
Douglas Preston, Mario Spezi
A true crime novel that reads like the best of crime fiction. An American crime writer found himself fascinated by the case of ‘The Monster’ after moving next door to an olive grove, in Italy,where one in a series of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/06/2009
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Homicide
David Simon
David Simon was the first investigative journalist to gain unlimited access to a homicide department and in this book brings us a fascinating and insighful piece of true crime writing. His success as producer and writer of the immensely popular...
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/06/2009
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Himglish and Femalese
Jean Hannah Edelstein
Moving a step further than the likes of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,
Jean Hannah Edelstein looks in to how far apart the sexes seem to be moving from
each other, becoming more and more unfathomable...
Format: Paperback - Released: 21/05/2009
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The Tent, The Bucket and Me
Emma Kennedy
If you went holidaying in the 70’s you will remember a time when holidays meant packing all the family in a car, including grandparents, and travelling down motorways and A-roads to get to a campsite or self catering holiday home....
Format: Paperback - Released: 26/03/2009
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Shadows of the Workhouse
Jennifer Worth
More fascinating stories of life in London’s East End in the 1950s, by the author of Call the Midwife, giving an insight into the lives of the poor with that indomitable British spirit of making do, of resilience and...
Format: Paperback - Released: 22/01/2009
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The Victoria Vanishes
Christopher Fowler
Bryant and May, like Holmes and Watson, Morse and Lewis or Poirot and Hastings are a detailed and engaging pair. This time they investigate a murder in connection with a pub that does not exist. Part fascinating London history, part...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/07/2009
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City of the Sun
David Levien
An exceptional first novel by a Hollywood scriptwriter, a gripping, horrifying, unputdownable story of abduction, murder and parental despair. It introduces ex-police officer turned private detective Frank Behr who is definitely a character to follow. With endorsements from some of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 21/05/2009
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Mutiny on the Bounty
John Boyne
Author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas turns to a nautical adventure for his next offering and takes it a step beyond the classic tale, expanding on the story in masterful fashion. Excellent in historical detail, human drama...
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/05/2009
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The Host
Stephenie Meyer
July 2009 Book of the Month.
Having taken the teenage market by storm this clever girl turns from vampires to alien possession for her first remarkable adult novel. The alien ‘worms’ should completely take over...
Format: Paperback - Released: 26/06/2009
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A Penny a Day
Lilian Harry
Lilian Harry is one of those lovely authors whose fans may argue about whether her April Groves books are better than her Burracombe ones. Well, now you have a book that links characters from both in a wedding. What more...
Format: Paperback - Released: 08/01/2009
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Ember Fury
Cathy Brett
This is a real antidote to those celeb loving, shopping loving novels, for Ember the protagonist in this debut novel, hates everything to do with celebrity, is a bit of a rebel, in fact so rebellious getting kicked out of...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/08/2009
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Kiss of Life
Dan Waters
Generation Dead was one of our most popular titles last year and this exciting sequel is likely to hit the mark too. It’s paranormal romance at its gripping best and goes to prove that readers just can’t get enough...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/07/2009
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Bright Girls
Clare Chambers
A feisty story of the ups and downs and sometimes near disasters of two teen sisters sent away from their home in Oxford to stay with an aunt in Brighton after sinister things happen at home. Younger sister Robyn, the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 25/06/2009
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Ghostgirl: Homecoming
Tonya Hurley
More adventures from Charlotte, the Ghost Girl of the title. Discovering she still hasn't made it through to the afterlife just yet, Charlotte finds herself having to complete an internship helping troubled teens. A welcome return for this funny, mixed-up,...
Format: Paperback - Released: 09/07/2009
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Adored: An It Girl novel
Cecily Von Ziegesar
Rich, clever and glamorous, the It Girls know how to live well. But success can come at a price as Jenny soon discovers when, having got what she’s always wanted including her own TV show, she finds that her life...
Format: Paperback - Released: 11/06/2009
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I am Not a Serial Killer
Dan Wells
March 2009 Debut of the Month.
This is definitely not for the feint hearted, but if your stomach is strong enough then this is an original debut from a terrific new voice in teenage fiction....
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/03/2009
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Everything Beautiful
Simmone Howell
This novel is so tuned in to the teenage psyche - sharp, full of humour and a touch subversive - that it's hard to believe it's not written by one. In fact it comes from the pen of Simmone Howell...
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/01/2009
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Young, Loaded and Fabulous
Kate Kingsley
Addictive, scandalous and glamorous fiction from a brand new author
writing for sophisticated teens! As its title implies this is not for
the faint-hearted. If you're up for a wild read where clubbing or
holidaying in St Tropez is the order of the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 13/11/2008
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Message in a Bottle
Valerie Zenatti
A poignant story of love across a war torn divide. Moved to think about those on the 'other side' after a suicide attack outside her home, seventeen year old Tal sends out a message in a bottle. Soon she is...
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/04/2008
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Megan Book One: The Biggest Decision of All
Mary Hooper
Tender and thoughtful, Megan charts the welter of complex emotions Megan goes through from the moment she discovers she’s pregnant. At only fifteen she has to deal with the impossibly difficult choices that it throws up as well as coping...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/03/2009
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Megan Book Two: And Then There Were Two
Mary Hooper
Having had a baby at fifteen, Megan has to make the most difficult choice. Everyone thinks she shouldn’t keep the baby but Megan feels quite differently. Can she really bear not to? What choice Megan should make and how she...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/03/2009
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Megan Book Three: Two's Company, Three's a Crowd
Mary Hooper
Settling into her new life as a young mother, Megan loves Jack but she also misses the life her contemporaries lead. Reluctantly and not without resentment she settles to the limitation of her unusual situation but, when someone threatens Jack’s...
Format: Paperback - Released: 16/03/2009
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Darke Academy: Secret Lives
Gabriella Poole
This is the first story in a series of three featuring supernatural spirits, with each one set in a different exotic city. Secret Lives has a gripping unputdownable plot, a sophisticated Parisian setting and paranormal romance that will set the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/08/2009
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Young Loaded and Fabulous: Secrets and Liars
Kate Kingsley
More from the jet-set lives of the Young, Loaded and Fabulous crowd. Follow the gang as they head off to Rome for a lavish engagement party, thrown by Italian Vogue. Just a normal Friday night out really!!! Great fun and...
Format: Paperback - Released: 23/07/2009
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Stolen
Lucy Christopher
This controversial debut is a moving drama about kidnapping, isolation and survival and an extraordinary psychological thriller that will steal the minds of those who read it. Sensitive, intelligent and gripping, Stolen is a contemporary story which will force the...
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/05/2009
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Wildthorn
Jane Eagland
Set in Victorian England, this is a thought-provoking and shocking
debut story for teenagers and adults of how a young woman with an
ambition to become a doctor (at a time when it was frowned upon for
women to have such thoughts) is...
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/03/2009
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July and August are often times for holidays and as a consequence Sarah Broadhurst has pulled together a short list of books by a mix of authors, some that aren't the household names of your typical summer reading bookshop promotion but she believes are well worth reading. And others, more well known and equally perfect for that summer break whether on the beach or in the mountains or just curling up in the evenings at home. |
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Immodesty Blaize 
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