BOOKSIMO

There are many reasons to bake: to feed; to create; to impress; to nourish; to define ourselves; and, sometimes, it has to be said, to perfect. But often we bake to fill a hunger that would be better filled by a simple gesture from a dear one. We bake to love and be loved. In 1966, Kathleen Eaden, cookery writer and wife of a supermarket magnate, published  The Art of Baking , her guide to nurturing a family by creating the most exquisite pastries, biscuits and cakes. Now, five amateur bakers are competing to become the New Mrs Eaden. There's Jenny, facing an empty nest now her family has flown; Claire, who has sacrificed her dreams for her daughter; Mike, trying to parent his two kids after his wife's death; Vicki, who has dropped everything to be at home with her baby boy; and Karen, perfect Karen, who knows what it's like to have nothing and is determined her façade shouldn't slip. As unlikely alliances are forged and secrets rise to the surface, making...

Move over Jackie Collins, there’s a new blockbuster star in town.’  New!  Magazine Lovers and liars, divas and sinners, welcome to a world of scandal, where one woman will pay the ultimate price. SUSPENSE: Georgia’s  best friend, ballroom dancing sensation Mitzi, has vanished with boyfriend Foster while on holiday in California. Can Georgia get to the truth of their disappearance before it’s too late? SECRETS:  Reality TV star  Nova  could give the Kardashians a run for their money. But while she allows millions of viewers into her fabulous home, she’s unaware what her husband, celebrity mogul Jacob, is up to behind closed doors … SEX: Tanya  is filthy rich, married to a man who adores her but she is restless. And her sexual appetite is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble. SCANDAL: Victoria , once the trophy-wife, has lost her mojo. Determined to get her life and marriage back on track, she’s desperate to inject some excitement i...

Best-selling suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark invites you on a tour of Manhattan's most iconic neighborhoods in this anthology of all-new stories from the Mystery Writers of America. From the Flatiron District (Lee Child) and Greenwich Village (Jeffery Deaver) to Little Italy (T. Jefferson Parker) and Chinatown (S.J. Rozan), you'll encounter crimes, mysteries, and riddles large and small. Illustrated with iconic photography of New York City and packaged in a handsome hardcover, Manhattan Mayhem  is a delightful read for armchair detectives and armchair travelers alike! Well! NYC and mysteries - was all I needed to request this book to review, topped by a picture of the Empire State Building on the cover - pity it is only a e book. When I was a child in the 70s I read a lot of Ellery Queen stories - I loved the cleverness of them and the twists and turns. The stories in this book remind me so much of those stories - the plots are quirky and different and a joy to re...

THEY SAY EVERY FAMILY HAS SKELETONS IN THEIR CLOSET . . . But what happens when you open the door and they won’t stop tumbling out? For Adam and Beth the first secret wasn’t the last, it was just the beginning. You think you can imagine the worst thing that could happen to your family, but there are some secrets that change everything. And then the question is, how can you piece together a future when your past is being rewritten? To be honest I chose to review this book based on the fact that I liked the cover, shallow I know. But sometimes a cover can really make you want to read a book and this is what happened to me. To begin with I thought this was going to be a bit of a pedestrian book with the usual husband cheats, wife finds out etc. Then I got drawn into the wonderful layers that this book has, the insightful writing which just called out to me, yes, this is what it is like, this is what happens in real life.  But then other layers began...

THE INTERNATIONAL  NUMBER 1  BESTSELLER Millie Bird  is a seven-year-old girl who always wears red wellington boots to match her red, curly hair. But one day, Millie’s mum leaves her alone beneath the Ginormous Women’s underwear rack in a department store, and doesn’t come back.  Agatha Pantha  is an eighty-two-year-old woman who hasn’t left her home since her husband died. Instead, she fills the silence by yelling at passers-by, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule. Until the day Agatha spies a little girl across the street. Karl the Touch Typist  is eighty-seven years old and once typed love letters with his fingers on to his wife’s skin. He sits in a nursing home, knowing that somehow he must find a way for life to begin again. In a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes.  Together, Millie, Agatha and Karl  set out to find Millie’s mum. Along the way, they will discover that the young can be wise, that old age is...

From the  New York Times  bestselling author of  No Safe House  comes an explosive novel about the disturbing secrets of a quiet small town.…  After his wife’s death and the collapse of his newspaper, David Harwood has no choice but to uproot his nine-year-old son and move back into his childhood home in Promise Falls, New York. David believes his life is in free fall, and he can’t find a way to stop his descent. Then he comes across a family secret of epic proportions. A year after a devastating miscarriage, David’s cousin Marla has continued to struggle. But when David’s mother asks him to check on her, he’s horrified to discover that she’s been secretly raising a child who is not her own—a baby she claims was a gift from an “angel” left on her porch. When the baby’s real mother is found murdered, David can’t help wanting to piece together what happened—even if it means proving his own cousin’s guilt. But as he uncovers each piece of evidence, David realizes...

Thirty-seven year old Ramie Phillips has led a very successful life. She made her fortune and now she hob nobs with the very rich and occasionally the semi-famous, and she enjoys luxuries she only dreamed of as a middle-class kid growing up in Potomac, Maryland. But despite it all, she can't ignore the fact that she isn't necessarily happy. In fact, lately Ramie has begun to feel more than a little empty.  On a boat with friends off the Florida coast, she tries to fight her feelings of discontent with steel will and hard liquor. No one even notices as she gets up and goes to the diving board and dives off... Suddenly Ramie is waking up, straining to understand a voice calling in the distance...It's her mother: "Wake up! You're going to be late for school again. I'm not writing a note this time..."  Ramie finds herself back on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, with a second chance to see the people she's lost and change the choices she regrets. How d...