Lovereading Latest: Relationship Tales

A Rural Affair - Catherine Alliott

A Rural Affair
Catherine Alliott

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

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 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.

The Kingdom of Childhood - Rebecca Coleman

The Kingdom of Childhood
Rebecca Coleman

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

What might have been a clichéd story of a frustrated middle aged mother and a teenage schoolboy is cleverly sidestepped in this excellent debut. Instead we have dark disturbing story, driven by illicit passion and a past secret that quickly infects and corrupts. We loved it and think you won’t be able to stop talking about this controversial, unsettling and fascinating story.

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...

The Summer of Secrets - Alison Lucy

The Summer of Secrets
Alison Lucy

Format: Paperback - Released: 17/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.24 - Saving £1.75 (25%)

An ill-fated marriage leads to a disastrous honeymoon but years later the repercussions of the holiday see three young women seeking a potentially dangerous truth. Great escapist summertime reading. Perfect for fans of Veronica Henry and Tasmina Perry.

Summer Daydreams - Carole Matthews

Summer Daydreams
Carole Matthews

Format: Paperback - Released: 24/05/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.24 - Saving £1.75 (25%)

What if you had always dreamed of something more ...? Nell McNamara has a happy life: her boyfriend Olly adores her, their four-year-old daughter Petal is the centre of their world and Nell has a steady job in the local chip shop. When the chippy needs a makeover, Nell jumps at the chance to unleash the creativity fizzing inside her. Inspired by what she can achieve - and encouraged by the best friends a girl can have - Nell is determined to try something new. Waving goodbye to the chip shop, she starts up a new business making her own line of must-have handbags, which are soon flying off the shelves! It seems Nell's dreams are finally coming true, but her success doesn't come without a price. Before too long, Nell has to ask herself if it's really possible to have it all ...

White Wedding - Milly Johnson

White Wedding
Milly Johnson

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

It's the day they've always dreamed about. But will it turn out to be a nightmare ...? Bel is in the midst of planning her perfect wedding when disaster strikes and everything she thought she knew is turned on its head. Can she hold it all together and, with the help of her friends, and a mysterious man she meets unexpectedly, turn disaster into triumph? Bel's best friend, ice-cream parlour owner Violet, is engaged to Glyn, who is besotted by her although Violet fell out of love with him long ago. But however trapped she feels in the relationship, she can't quite say the words, 'I don't want to marry you anymore.' Then, just when she's about to give up and resign herself to married life, she finds love in the most surprising of places. Will duty rule her heart or will she allow herself to be swept off her feet? Their childhood friend Max was planning a quick registry office do with her fiance Stuart until she sees a TV programme about traveller brides and becomes determined to have the most extravagantly glitzy wedding ever. But in all the excitement has she lost sight of what's really important? Does she want the wedding more than she wants the groom? And as all three friends find the dress of their dreams at the White Wedding bridal shop, its owner, the lovely Freya, guarantees that her gowns will bring them happiness - though maybe not quite in the way they expected ...

All For You - Sheila O'Flanagan

All For You
Sheila O'Flanagan

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

The new fabulously addictive read from the No. 1 bestselling author As TV's favourite weather forecaster, Lainey is good at making predictions. But what she doesn't foresee is that her own life is about to hit a stormy patch. With a string of failed relationships behind her, surely history isn't about to repeat itself with her beloved Ken? To add fuel to the fire, her estranged mother announces that she's returning to Dublin. Deanna has always been dismissive of Lainey's choices - particularly in men. And Deanna's lectures are the last thing Lainey needs now. Yet is there more to her mother than she knows? Uncovering some long-concealed family secrets, Lainey begins to reassess her life. Is the happy-ever-after she's always dreamed of really what she wants after all?

That Summer at Hill Farm - Miranda France

That Summer at Hill Farm
Miranda France

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

Farmer Hayes loves the land - but hates farming. His neglected wife Isabel adores her three children, but is temperamentally unsuited to life as a wife and mother. The Smith sisters have not spoken to one another for forty years, farm-hand Mikey dabbles in pyromania, while neighbour Mr Payne has fled the city, only to find a greater threat to his karma in the hedgerows of Middle England. And after one incendiary summer, all of their lives will be different...It was originally published with the title Hill Farm .

The Saturday Supper Club - Amy Bratley

The Saturday Supper Club
Amy Bratley

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

Wanted: four amateur cooks to compete in a supper club contest Rules: four strangers, four weeks, four houses, four dinner parties You might win: a cash prize You might lose: your heart Eve had her world torn apart three years ago, when the love of her life Ethan disappeared, and she never found out why. But now, her life is rosy. With a lovely new boyfriend, Joe, and a cafe opening on the cards, things finally seem to be falling into place. until she agrees to take part in a supper club competition for a local newspaper. Eve is cooking the first dinner and who should turn up on her doorstep expecting a three-course meal, but her long lost love Ethan?