Lovereading Latest: Recommended eBooks

Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies
Hilary Mantel

Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £15.00 - Saving £5.00 (25%)

May 2012 MEGA Book of the Month. With her dazzling, utterly absorbing style of writing Bring Up the Bodies focuses on the downfall and destruction of the charismatic Anne Boleyn. This is the sequel to the 2009 Man Booker-winning Wolf Hall the second in what will be a Tudor trilogy. The final book will be called The Mirror & the Light, and will continue Thomas Cromwell's story until his execution in 1540.

The Chaperone - Laura Moriarty

The Chaperone
Laura Moriarty

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Book of the Month. I am reminded of the 20s musical number "Anything Goes" here, for in "The Chaperone" it certainly does. This is 20s New York, the girl being chaperoned is the young Louise Brooks (the silent filmstar) and the whole prohibition and explosive atmosphere of the period is superbly realised. Our heroine is orphaned Cora, the chaperone, a lovely character in a dead-end marriage, bent on finding her biological family. What she discovers both in her marriage and her old adoption home are secrets that eventually all concerned will take to their graves. Highly recommended.

The Last Summer - Judith Kinghorn

The Last Summer
Judith Kinghorn

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.24 - Saving £1.75 (25%)

May 2012 MEGA Debut of the Month. An enchanting, sweeping debut of big storytelling, of social and political change spanning the First World War and beyond, perfect for reading groups and fans of Kate Morton and Downton Abbey. It's a glorious read, highly recommended.

Changeling - Philippa Gregory

Changeling
Philippa Gregory

Format: Hardback - Released: 24/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

May 2012 MEGA Book of the Month. Best-selling Philippa Gregory’s first book for teenagers is a thrilling story of malice and betrayal, courage and passion. Tricked out of her inheritance by her greedy and duplicitous brother, Isolde must swap ruling over her own castle and estate for a life of confinement as the Lady Abbess of the local nunnery. Bad things are happening among the nuns and soon Isolde’s life is in grave danger as she is accused of heresy, a crime which carries the penalty of being burnt at the stake. How clever and feisty Isolde is rescued from her fate and turns the tables on her persecutors with the help of Luca Vero, the handsome young enforcer of true religion, is a spellbinder of a story. Click here to visit The Order of Darkness website.

I Left My Tent in San Francisco - Emma Kennedy

I Left My Tent in San Francisco
Emma Kennedy

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Travel Book of the Month. Startlingly honest and ridiculously funny, I Left My Tent in San Francisco is the miraculous story of how the hapless pair made it back alive to tell the disastrous tale. Emma Kennedy has the wonderful gift of being able to write as if she is talking to you, in a chatty, half laughing way. The basis of her story is her post university trip across America with her well bred friend Dee which turns into an adventure they will never forget. They seem, on the face of it, an unlikely combination but in fact balance each other and combine well to give a contrast in each scene the author presents. She has an amazing memory for detail, for conversation and has a self deprecating air which highlights her liability to be involved in incidents where she is made to seem amusingly either inadequate or inefficient. I suspect she is neither, but instead has the art of turning the most trivial happening into an adventure which makes for laugh-out-loud reading. There is an element of “there but for the grace of God go I” about much of her recollections, as most of us can remember getting into scrapes when young which seemed hilarious at the time, so it is easy to relate to her style of writing. I suspect that looking back at the trip has highlighted the fun and the amusement rather than any hardship and this gives the book a sunny, happy go lucky air which recommends itself for light summer reading.

The Heroes - Joe Abercrombie

The Heroes
Joe Abercrombie

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £6.74 - Saving £2.25 (25%)

May 2012 Book of the Month. Why do people fight pointless wars and what does it take to be called a Hero? If you are a lover of action fantasy novels then the brilliant, powerful and bleak The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie should be on your reading list.

The Bicycle Book - Bella Bathurst

The Bicycle Book
Bella Bathurst

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £6.74 - Saving £2.25 (25%)

May 2012 Travel Book of the Month. A brilliant, charming, engaging look at the sometimes weird world of the bicycle and bicyclist. The people who ride them (including over water), the people who build them (the revered magicians), in fact a huge cast of colourful characters and stories. A must for any fan of pedal power.

In One Person - John Irving

In One Person
John Irving

Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £14.24 - Saving £4.75 (25%)

May 2012 Book of the Month. Picking up on the term 'a sexual suspect' Irving first used in his landmark novel The World According to Garp, In One Person is the tragic, comic and tender story of Billy. Over 50 years we follow Billy's convoluted bisexual life and the theatrical cast of friends and lovers and he searches for love and a sense of who he is. Political and passionate this has been described. Irving's best novel since The World According to Garp.

15 Seconds - Andrew Gross

15 Seconds
Andrew Gross

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Book of the Month. If you love fast-paced, topical thrillers that you simply can't put down, then Andrew Gross and especially 15 Seconds is a great place to go. Pulled over by a traffic cop who is then shot by someone else leaves surgeon Henry Steadman framed for murder and on the run trying to prove his innocence. It's thrilling stuff. Visit our Facebook page and have the chance to win a copy of 15 Seconds... Our Book of the Month this month is the gripping '15 Seconds' by Andrew Gross, and we're giving 10 lucky fans the chance to WIN a signed copy! Click here to find out more...

Women of a Dangerous Age - Fanny Blake

Women of a Dangerous Age
Fanny Blake

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Book of the Month. Publisher turned author Fanny Blake has written another insightful, funny, addictive read that women will totally understand and men would do well to read in order to learn more about real women today. On holiday, soon to be divorced Lou meets serial mistress Ali and they strike up an instant friendship but they have a lot more in common than they realise. It raises the question, can you ever truly escape from the mistakes of the past?

Seating Arrangements - Maggie Shipstead

Seating Arrangements
Maggie Shipstead

Format: Hardback - Released: 24/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. Dark, comic with captivating prose, this is a stunning first novel and quite rightly being talked about as one of the literary debuts of 2012. A seemingly perfect East Coast upper crust american family are brought together by the oldest daughter's wedding. But the daughter is seven months pregnant and family tensions simmer just below the surface. Over the three days of the wedding run up and celebrations, the 59 year old patriarch Winn's life implodes. Highly enjoyable, heartily recommended.

Heart-shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne

Heart-shaped Bruise
Tanya Byrne

Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. This gripping, provoking and emotional debut, written from the perspective of a troubled young girl in a young offenders institute awaiting trial for a vicious crime, is very hard to stop reading once you start. Hatred and love, infamy and identity, revenge and redemption are all explored with powerful yet lyrical writing.

The Playdate - Louise Millar

The Playdate
Louise Millar

Format: Paperback - Released: 04/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. This gripping contemporary thriller will have you turning the pages, and re-evaluating people you call friends. How do you know whether it’s dangerous to leave your children alone with them? For a debut it’s very confidently written and using multiple voices, of the main characters, lets the reader see multiple, increasingly disturbing perspectives. A great one for reading groups, but not for single mothers...

Please Don't Stop the Music - Jane Lovering

Please Don't Stop the Music
Jane Lovering

Format: Paperback - Released: 01/02/2011
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

Winner of the RNA Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2012 and the RNA Romantic Comedy Novel Award 2012. Sarah Broadhurst's comment... '“My congratulations to Jane Lovering for winning the Romantic Novel of the Year with Please Don’t Stop the Music (Choc Lit), a fresh and compulsive page-turner with an interestingly different hero and lots of past drama interestingly drip-fed to us in a lovely read”. And from The judges as a whole: “It was a narrow choice between Please Don’t Stop the Music and The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas, but Jane’s voice was fresh and new with an unexpected hero. It was a romance with dark undertones and it engaged with issues a lot of people recognise. Good humour throughout.” The Lovereading view... This racy, good-fun book entices you into the main characters in the first few pages. Then it gallops through their relationship and the revelations of their troubled pasts at such a pace that you won't realise how quickly your own time has passed as you read this delightful book. On one level, easy and approachable, on another deep and meaningful, you will enjoy meeting these characters and you will want to know more about them. Well worth reading.

The Hunt - Andrew Fukuda

The Hunt
Andrew Fukuda

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2011
Lovereading Price: £7.49 - Saving £2.50 (25%)

If you're on the hunt for an original plot that's thought-provoking and chilling then The Hunt will be just up your street. Gene is human in a world where they've been made extinct other than those held in an Institute. For 17 years he's managed to keep all usual human emotions well hidden from those around him but now having been selected to go on the once a decade hunt of humankind he must somehow learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow competitors whose suspicions about what he really is grow. Praise has been heaped on this debut by the author of the Vampire Academy series among others for its brilliantly original theme.