Lovereading Latest: Family Drama

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.

A Rural Affair - Catherine Alliott

A Rural Affair
Catherine Alliott

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
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May 2012 Book of the Month. Catherine Alliott is at her sparkling and brilliant best in this her latest feel-good read. Full of her trademark wit and characters you feel instantly drawn to. Perfect to curl up with in that 'me' time you've been promising yourself!

The Light Between Oceans - M. L. Stedman

The Light Between Oceans
M. L. Stedman

Format: Hardback - Released: 26/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

May 2012 MEGA Debut of the Month. What a brilliant and memorable debut. Superb characters, heart-rending plot and, set on an island 100 miles from Australia, a uniquely beautiful setting. After the horrors of WW1 Tom finds first solace as a lighthouse keeper and joy as he shares the experience with his young wife. Then one morning a decision they take, seemingly for the best, has devastating consequences. We think this is a perfect book for reading groups.

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?

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...

The River Woman - Sorrel Pitts

The River Woman
Sorrel Pitts

Format: Paperback - Released: 19/09/2011
Lovereading Price: £8.54 - Saving £0.45 (5%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. 'A fascinating story told by a very promising writer.' Sir Michael Parkinson.A young woman is found half frozen to death on a remote farm and her unexpected arrival has a profound effect on the father and son who live there, but who is she and why was she there. With strong believable characters this well written psychological thriller reveals itself bit by bit. As a reader you will feel all is not right yet the author cleverly keeps you on tenterhooks until the very end.

The Underside of Joy - Seré Prince Halverson

The Underside of Joy
Seré Prince Halverson

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. Captivating, beautifully written with a real sense of location this is a heart wrenching story of modern motherhood that is a real emotional roller-coaster. STOP PRESS: For a limited period in the lead up to publication in early May of the paperback edition, the ebook of The Underside of Joy is available at just £1.99. Just click on the correct edition in the right hand column. A "Piece of Passion" from the publisher... Dear Reader: The first time I read Underside of Joy I was lying on my sofa at home feeling very sorry for myself, and not a little annoyed when I heard that a ‘hot’ book had arrived in my inbox. Frankly, I’d rather have been drinking a hot toddy and having a snooze… Three hours later, I looked up from the manuscript, got on my phone to the office, and started bidding. Underside of Joy is that special. To my great relief we were able to successfully pre-empt in the UK before our competitors got started, and every day we received news that another territory had gone to auction – the US, France, Brazil, Germany, the list was endless, and within a month 14 territories had snapped it up. So, what is this book that seems to speak to readers so universally? It tells the story of two children, and two mothers. Ella has been mum to her husband Joe’s children, 3 year-old Zach and 6 year-old Annie, for the past three years, believing their ‘natural’ mother, Paige, has abandoned them, and she loves them as fiercely and passionately as any mother. Then the unthinkable happens and Joe is killed in an accident, leaving Ella gasping for air but clinging to her children for dear life. And then, the moment that stopped me in my tracks, and gave me the goosebumps you only get when you read something special… Little Annie breaks away from the mourners at Joe’s funeral, runs headlong and hurtling towards a statuesque blonde, and calls out the word ‘Mama’. From that page onwards, Seré has you in her snare, sympathies switching endlessly between Ella and Paige, emotions being wrung out by this tragic, uplifting, complex and unforgettable narrative. The novel is so moving that, as one publisher in the Netherlands said after reading its pages, “[I] hugged my kids and husband a little tighter, and felt that bit more patient and grateful.” And as you finish reading this journey through the under-side of joy, you are left feeling its polar opposite – pure unadulterated joy. And how many books can deliver you that! Happy reading. Sarah Ritherdon, Publishing Director, HarperCollins _____________________________________________________________________________________ A few Lovereading members have been lucky enough to get to read this novel ahead of publication. Scroll down to see what they think...

Black Heart Blue - Louisa Reid

Black Heart Blue
Louisa Reid

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.24 - Saving £1.75 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. Stunning, shocking, sad and incredibly touching. This debut tackles the horrors of domestic violence head on with beautiful writing and two amazing voices. Twin girls, one beautiful, one disfigured; one dead the other dealing with what is left. We are pretty sure you will read it in one sitting then want to share the book with someone else.

Never Coming Home - Evonne Wareham

Never Coming Home
Evonne Wareham

Format: Paperback - Released: 15/03/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

March 2012 Book of the Month. Winner of the 2012 Joan Hessayon New Writers' Scheme Award. A debut from an exciting new talent. A well written contemporary romantic thriller, set in London, Italy and the US, which will keep you guessing all the way through. The author has been a finalist twice in the American Title competition, run by RT Book Reviews Magazine and Dorchester Publishing of New York.

Dreams of Joy - Lisa See

Dreams of Joy
Lisa See

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

Set in 1950s China during Mao’s brutal ’great leap forward’ this heart-rending story of a mother's love is a gripping and mesmerising read. And with the research the author has done, an education as well. This book can be read as a ’stand-alone’ but it follows on from where Shanghai Girls left off.

That Summer in Ischia - Penny Feeny

That Summer in Ischia
Penny Feeny

Format: Paperback - Released: 03/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. With intrigue, lost friendships and set on a sun-drenched Italian island, this is one of these stories that you just want to keep on reading. 25 years after a small island community was rocked by the kidnap of a young boy, a daughter returns to hunt for the truth about what really happened to her mother in the summer of 1979. A perfect holiday read.

The Time of My Life - Cecelia Ahern

The Time of My Life
Cecelia Ahern

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

Touching, warm, funny and poignant and a must for all of her fans. Cecelia Ahern's new novel has Lucy Silchester's Life as a central character (in fact he is a grumpy middle-aged man) who is out to sort out his charge and will not take no for an answer...

An Inventory of Heaven - Jane Feaver

An Inventory of Heaven
Jane Feaver

Format: Hardback - Released: 17/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

The few years Mavis Gaunt spent in the village of Shipleigh, Devon, as a wartime evacuee - away from London and her parents' loveless marriage - were sufficient for her to conceive of the place as a heavenly retreat. But it is not until her twenties, with nothing left to keep her in the city, that Mavis decides to head back. Frances, Tom and Robert Upcott are reclusive siblings from a local farm. When Mavis returns to the village, she and Frances strike up an unlikely friendship. As they grow closer, Mavis is drawn into the sequestered life of the farm and begins at last to enjoy a sense of belonging. But a tragic sequence of events one winter's day is set to turn her heaven into a living hell. Mavis is seventy when Eve and her young son Archie turn up unexpectedly in the village. The tentative friendship that develops between them prompts Mavis to put together a collection of memories and treasures: her inventory. In revealing the truth of what happened at the Upcott farm, she is able to answer Eve's questions about the past, and in summoning them, finally to lay her own ghosts to rest.

Her Giant Octopus Moment - Kay Langdale

Her Giant Octopus Moment
Kay Langdale

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

When a surrogate mother pretends the pregnancy has miscarried, and bears a daughter - to whom does the child belong? To her runaway birth mother, or her deceived father and his wife? Scout, born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, is kept by her biological mother, Joanie, who has deliberately deceived both the clinic and Scout's intended parents by claiming to have had a miscarriage. When this deception comes to light ten years later, a compelling moral dilemma unfolds as Joanie makes her situation worse in the eyes of the law and social services by going on the run. Scout is a resourceful, anxious, perceptive child. She craves normality in the face of her mother's restlessness and unaccountability. She is loyal to her mother, and loves her deeply, despite being aware of her inconsistencies. Will the Family Court make the right decision for this vulnerable and determined little girl?