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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. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7263/The-Last-Summer-by-Judith-Kinghorn.html

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. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7353/In-One-Person-by-John-Irving.html

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. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7289/The-Light-Between-Oceans-by-M.-L.-Stedman.html

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. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7381/Seating-Arrangements-by-Maggie-Shipstead.html

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... ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7280/The-Playdate-by-Louise-Millar.html

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... ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7095/The-Underside-of-Joy-by-Ser%C3%A9-Prince-Halverson.html

The Red House
Mark Haddon

Format: Hardback - Released: 10/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £12.74 - Saving £4.25 (25%)

Family, that slippery word, a star to every wandering bark, and everyone sailing under a different sky. After his mother's death, Richard, a newly remarried hospital consultant, decides to build bridges with his estranged sister, inviting Angela and her family for a week in a rented house on the Welsh border. Four adults and four children, a single family and all of them strangers. Seven days of shared meals, log fires, card games and wet walks. But in the quiet and stillness of the valley, ghosts begin to rise up. The parents Richard thought he had. The parents Angela thought she had. Past and present lovers. Friends, enemies, victims, saviours. And watching over all of them from high on the dark hill, Karen, Angela's stillborn daughter. The Red House is about the extraordinariness of the ordinary, weaving the words and thoughts of the eight characters together with those fainter, stranger voices - of books and letters and music, of the dead who once inhabited these rooms, of the ageing house itself and the landscape in which it sits. Once again Mark Haddon, bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and A Spot of Bother , has written a novel that is funny, poignant and deeply insightful about human lives. ]]> http://www.lovereading.co.uk//book/7396/The-Red-House-by-Mark-Haddon.html