Diets, dryathons, dreadful weather and short days … January can be a long month but at least you can allow yourself to totally indulge in great books that will transport you to altogether more exciting places. Why not start with a book you may have missed in 2015 in our ‘picks of last year’?
The only thing better than getting a great new book as soon as it’s published is sneaking a peak before it hits the shelves. This is where you can! Don’t miss:
The Shadow Hour by Kate Riordan. The author of the excellent dual time novel
The Girl in the Photograph has written another heartfelt, beautifully readable novel described by our reviewer as ‘
quite simply gorgeous’. Fans of Daphne du Maurier’s
Rebecca and of authors Kate Mosse and Katherine Webb definitely need to
find out more.
And published ahead of Kate Riordan’s new novel,
The Shadow Hour, is an evocative short story eBook featuring characters from her debut
The Girl in the Photograph. Set in the 1930’s,
it’s called
The Red Letter and features an exclusive extract from
The Shadow Hour. And better still, it’s only 99p!
| Narrow Bed by Sophie Hannah – Chilling and inventive mystery from the queen of psychological crime writing. |
Exposure by Helen Dunmore – A fantastic foray into forbidden love, intimate betrayal, secrets and exposure by the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lie. |
We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman – “Heart-warming”, “Heart-breaking”, “Truly inspirational”, “Extremely uplifting” and “stunning”. (Reader Reviews). |
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| The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon – ‘A mysterious disappearance, an avenue of hidden secrets, two young girls finding out about the world of adults – terrific!’ (Reader Review). |
All the Rage – Courtney Summers (YA) – An astonishing and starkly written novel, examining the shame and silence inflicted upon young women in a culture that refuses to protect them. |
Our Song by Dani Atkins
Beautiful and heart-rending. Be prepared to be totally captivated and moved to tears. |
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This month,
Maxim’s discerning eye has focussed on a superlative selection of ripping yarns and page-turners from the worlds of SciFi, Fantasy and Thrillers. Enough to warm
AND chill you on these winter nights!
There are double agents in Putin’s dacha; puppets with artificial intelligence; shady new lights on JFK’s assassination; murky conspiracies in 1930s Naples; spacefaring spies in a parallel universe and angels descending from above. That should keep you going for a while.
See all of the monthly recommendations here.
Life is full of ups and downs. Uploads and Downloads! Whatever your hardware, we’ve got some cracking
eBooks for the digitally dexterous this month. Our pick of the bunch are:
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle – pitch perfect, stunning, subtle and fearless storytelling that will have you audibly applauding by the final page!
And
No Mortal Thing by Gerald Seymour – Italian organised crime is the backdrop for the latest suspenseful page-turner from Gerald Seymour, still on top of his game 40 years after the publication of
Harry’s Game.
You’ve read everything by your favourite author and you know what you like? But now what? Let us guide you to a whole load of similar authors you’ll love. For instance:
| If you like Gillian Flynn you’ll Love
Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon
A penetrating and intense debut thriller for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. |
If you like Alison Weir you’ll Love
The Queen’s Choice by Anne O’Brien
A wonderful, effortless blend of historical fact and romance, scheming and subterfuge. |
If you like Sophie Kinsella you’ll Love
Strictly Between Us by Jane Fallon
Sharp, feisty and wittily amusing foray into the relationship world. |
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One of ours and your favourites
The Expatriates by Janice Y. K. Lee was one of our staff picks of the week and clearly we hit a sweet spot as you have made it the most downloaded title of last week.
Set in Hong Kong, Margaret, Mercy and Hilary are three expatriate women learning to survive heartache in a different and sometimes difficult world. Janice Y. K. Lee writes with an exquisite, startling intensity, she provokes thoughts and feelings into exploring identity, grief and a fluttering of possibilities.
The Expatriates is wonderfully fascinating, compelling and profound and we highly recommend you read the
free Opening Extract to discover for yourself.
A quick word about a debut novel of harrowing beauty that we think is set to become one of the books of the year. Surely a film deal can’t be far away for Guinevere Glasfurd’s atmospheric and enigmatic
The Words in My Hand.
With shades of
Girl with a Pearl Earring and
The Miniaturist, this 17
th Century tale set against the backdrop of the Scientific Revolution is delightful, playful and beautifully written.
See more here.
Finally, YA readers (well actually anyone who loves deliciously dark, supernatural page-turners with an historical twist) should find out more about Alison Goodman’s debut,
The Dark Days Club. The first of a trilogy set in Regency England that is packed with passion, period detail and devastating demons.
That’s it for January. See you in February for many more hand-picked recommendations.
P.S. If you are someone who likes to keep up to date with Book Awards do check out our
special category. And this month there are the
Costa Award category winners and the overall winner of the
T.S.Eliot Prize for Poetry.
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