Lovereading Latest: Debuts Books of the Month

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.

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.

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.

What Dies in Summer - Tom Wright

What Dies in Summer
Tom Wright

Format: Paperback - Released: 03/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

May 2012 Debut of the Month. An interesting, challenging and, at times, graphically violent debut exploring coming of age and the loss of innocence. If you have read and liked The Virgin Suicides, The Secret History and I'm Not Scared then this will be worth a read.

Heart-shaped Bruise - Tanya Byrne

Heart-shaped Bruise
Tanya Byrne

Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
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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...

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.

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.

The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller

Format: Paperback - Released: 12/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £7.19 - Saving £0.80 (10%)

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2012. A breathtakingly original rendering of the Trojan War - a devastating love story and a tale of gods and kings, immortal fame and the human heart.

The Hypnotist - Lars Kepler

The Hypnotist
Lars Kepler

Format: Paperback - Released: 12/04/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

When a whole family is murdered in Stockholm, Inspector Joona Linna is brought in to investigate the murky case and soon uncovers an unsettling connection to disgraced hypnotist and medic Erik Maria Bark. With uber-villains in the Thomas Harris mould and a labyrinthine plot, this is set to be the veritable heir to the Stieg Larsson series. Unsettling and gripping.

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.

Jubilee - Shelley Harris

Jubilee
Shelley Harris

Format: Paperback - Released: 24/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.99 - Saving £2.00 (25%)

A joyous, cleverly written, morally minded (but never preachy) novel. Set during a street party for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977 and 35 years later, it explores the real story behind an iconic photograph taken in 1977 that seems to show a racially harmonious Great Britain.

The Waste Land - Simon Acland

The Waste Land
Simon Acland

Format: Paperback - Released: 10/06/2010
Lovereading Price: £8.24 - Saving £2.75 (25%)

Shortlisted for the People's Book Prize for Fiction 2012. Set during the extraordinary historical events of the First Crusade this is an original and compelling debut full of mystery, betrayal, secrecy, romance, humour and suspense. Like Dan Brown’s adventures this one is also on the hunt for the Holy Grail and is also a cracking good story but unlike the Dan Brown this one provides an element of literary learning too. Clashes of good and evil as well as clashes of religion is commonplace as a group of desperate Oxford Dons retell the story of Hugh de Verdon, monk turned knight who sets out to uncover the truth behind the Holy Grail. September 2010 Debut of the Month. The second book in the series, The Flowers of Evil, can be viewed by clicking here. The Waste Land has been shortlisted for the People's Book Prize for Fiction 2012. Simon Acland's book, Angels, Dragons and Vultures has also been shortlisted for the People's Book Prize for Non-Fiction. Click here to find out more and to vote for your favourite.