Recommended for fans of: Oscar Wilde, alternative history, literary historical fiction and ambitious ‘what if?’ novels. There is something irresistible about the premise of John Boyne’s The Weight of Angels. We know what happened when Oscar Wilde chose to pursue the Marquess of Queensberry through the courts: the decision ultimately led to Wilde’s own prosecution, imprisonment and the destruction of the life he had known.

Recommended for fans of: dysfunctional family dramas, dark humour, morally questionable characters and a good old-fashioned battle over money. What happens when your father falls head over heels for a woman whose previous three husbands are all dead? If you’re Cat Farrand, you start digging. Diana Leyland has her sights firmly set on wealthy David and the comfortable future he represents.

Is The HOA by Tanya Smith worth listening to? In this audiobook review, I explore Robin Miles' excellent narration, the slow-burn suspense, and the intriguing premise of a gated community where every resident has something to hide. With echoes of Desperate Housewives, The HOA delivers paranoia, secrets and suburban drama, although its sprawling cast and inconclusive ending prevented it from becoming a five-star listen.

📚 Who will become your new favourite author this year? I always love taking a chance on a debut novel, and 2026 has already introduced some fantastic new voices. I've put together a list of the debut authors I'm most excited about, covering everything from literary fiction and historical novels to family sagas, speculative fiction and psychological drama. If you're looking to discover tomorrow's bestselling authors before everyone else, this week's post on Wordy Witterings is for you.

From sweeping historical fiction to gripping thrillers and thought-provoking literary fiction, the second half of 2026 is shaping up to be a fantastic few months for readers. One of my favourite things about looking ahead to a new publishing season is seeing which authors are returning with long-awaited novels and discovering exciting new books that have already started generating plenty of buzz.

We've just passed the summer solstice, the days are lovely and long, and I finish teaching for the summer in two weeks time. Time to get my summer reading list planned out. I've got a bit of a mixed TBR pile at the moment. Three ARCs from NetGalley, some audiobooks, and quite a few books that have been making a buzz recently - it's time to find out if they match the hype.

Recommended for fans of British social history, richly drawn characters, and novels that bring real historical events vividly to life. I’d heard of the Festival of Britain before reading Our Noble Selves, but I had never fully appreciated its scale, ambition or the astonishing amount of planning that went into it. Kate Atkinson’s latest novel brings this fascinating moment in British history vividly to life, creating such a strong sense of time and place that the Festival itself becomes one of the book’s most memorable characters.

As an English teacher with more than twenty years' experience in the classroom, and having recently completed additional training in teaching learners with dyslexia, I'm always searching for books that combine accessibility with genuine reading enjoyment. Finding the right books for reluctant readers, struggling readers and students with dyslexia can sometimes feel like a challenge. The text needs to be accessible, but the story itself must be engaging enough to make readers want to keep turning the pages.

A house that eats the dead isn’t just a striking premise—it’s the foundation for one of the most original horror novels I’ve read in a while. In The House That Eats the Dead by Max Doty, the familiar haunted house trope is turned on its head, becoming something far more unsettling and thought-provoking. This isn’t a story built on jump scares, but on a creeping moral dilemma: if your home could make anything disappear, what would you choose to do with that power? Fast-paced, darkly inventive, and anchored by a compellingly flawed protagonist, this is psychological horror that lingers long after the final page. If you’re drawn to high-concept fiction with a disturbing edge, this might just be your next read.

Recommended for fans of darkly comic family dramas, offbeat literary fiction, and things spirally spectacularly out of control. If you think your family is complicated, the Flynns might make you feel a little better about it. Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash introduces us to a household that is already teetering on the edge before the novel even really gets going — and from there things only become more chaotic.

Recommended for fans of Anglo-Saxon historical fiction, dynastic rivalry and political intrigue. RomeFather Asser is waiting to die. His idealism has landed him in a papal prison on trumped-up charges of heresy, until salvation arrives in an unexpected form. Cardinal Balotelli also dreams of a better world, free from the ravages of the Norlanders. He has a vital job for Asser, one that could shape the future of Europe.

Recommended for fans of darkly humorous thrillers, social-media-fuelled mysteries, and twisty crime novels in the vein of Janice Hallett and Bella Mackie. Kirby Cornell needs a break from everything: - Her crumbling flat in the sleepy town of Crowhurst (famous for its award-winning sausage rolls and a second-rate serial killer from the 90s). - Her dead-end job. - Her sleazy landlord.

Recommended for fans of closed-room murders, reality television and complicated romances. Hazel and Marc were paired together on revolutionary new reality TV show Love Synced, in which AI matches hopeful lovers based on its perceptive algorithms. But when it came time to say I Do on camera, Hazel couldn’t go through with it, leaving her perfect match at the altar, his family furious and the whole TV production in jeopardy.

Genre: Cosy fantasy, Witchy fiction, Mystery Recommended for those who like a dual timeline, sisterhood and all things witchy ‘Every story needs a happy ending. And you can’t have yours until you find the bookstore.’ 1692. On the outskirts of Salem, a bookstore stands covered in overgrown vines. Inside, a young woman hides a linen-wrapped journal under a loose floorboard and runs away, panicked by the sound of hounds barking in the distance.

Genre: Crime thriller, Suspense, Women's Lit Recommended for those who like page-turners, an alternative perspective, and strong female protagonists. It’s a baking hot summer in 1960s California and three women have formed an unlikely friendship. From the outside, Beverley, Elsie and Margot lead idyllic lives, but behind the false smiles and glittering pools lies the truth: their husbands are some of the country’s most notorious convicted killers.

Recommended for those who enjoy fashion, cocktail hour, and a focus on interesting older characters A careening Porsche Boxster. A spray of shattered glass. The next thing 79-year-old fashion designer Norma McKinsey knows, she’s lying helpless in a hospital room. Kevin, her son, sits by her hospital bedside—but only in her imagination. The real Kevin is an addict she hasn’t seen in twenty-five years.

It's Top Ten Tuesday, but this week we've been challenged to write a non-bookish blog. Something that you may not know about me, is that I review for Amazon. I'm not quite sure how this came about - possibly through leaving book reviews on Amazon and lots of you lovely people saying that the review was useful? Who knows! One afternoon, I received an email, inviting me to join the Amazon Vine review programme.

Recommended for fans of Hercule Poirot, 'Rumpole of the Bailey', and cosy murder mysteries. The Inner Temple, 1901: a warren of shaded courtyards and ancient buildings that has formed the heart of legal London for hundreds of years. A place where tradition is everything, the police enter only by consent, and murder is only to be found in the case archives.

'Top Ten Tuesday' is hosted by Jana at www.thatartsyreadergirl.com. Each week, we're given a topic as a prompt for our bookish blogs. This week's top ten is a genre freebie, and I'm going with my top ten books from the Historical Fiction Genre. 1. 'The Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follett It's a huge book, but it left me leaving so much more.

There's a big difference between being able to read, and reading for pleasure. As a teacher of English, I don't just want my students to have the ability to read the words in front of them, but to get engrossed in a story, to care about the characters, to be able to see the world from a different perspective... all the things that I want to do myself when I read.

ALT: a woman in a green dress stands in front of a sign that says " why "

Recommended for readers who like their history with sabres, sass, and a side of subversion. There’s something deliciously satisfying about a book that lets women be wild, willful, and wonderfully unrepentant. Bonny & Read is a tale of two such women— Rebels. Pirates. Women. —who leap off the page with sabres drawn and secrets simmering. It’s not just a story of high seas and higher stakes; it’s a love letter to freedom, identity, and the glorious mess of being unapologetically yourself.

Recommended for: literary scholars, poetry fans, those who enjoy novels with a slower pace. A pair of young scholars investigate the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time. Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story.

Heathers meets The Stepford Wives in this creepy and fr…

Life on our planet as you've never seen it before A te…

Recommended for: Fans of Stephen King and Grady Hendrix, those who enjoy a demonic possession and those who can cope with stories about creepy kids. To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddy and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: ‘Can I go inside your heart?’ When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.

Alt: two cats in a stroller with the words is that monday coming on the bottom

Podcast Episode · #AudioBookClub · 31/03/2025 · 16m

There’s always something fascinating about a book that reimagines a classic, particularly when it does so in a way that reclaims a silenced voice. Percival Everett’s 'James' is not just a retelling of 'Huckleberry Finn’ but rather a complete reframing, pulling focus from Huck and placing it where it should have been all along: with James (formerly Jim), the enslaved man whose story was never truly his own.