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Secrets in the Sky - out 26 February

  Summary How far should you go to keep a secret? No-one ever accused Sophie Campbell of being a coward. From caving trips to rooftop pranks, it appeared nothing could hold her back, especially once she landed a dream job promising travel all over the world. But Sophie ’ s jet-setting lifestyle is not what it seems and she ’ s been spending more time in the quiet English village of Saffron Sweeting than she cares to admit. When her beloved Great Aunt Wol dies suddenly, Sophie loses one of the few people who truly know her. As friends, family and an old flame gather for the funeral, questions soon follow. Worse, Sophie finds herself increasingly attracted to the man most likely to expose her secrets. Can she manage to guard her past, yet finally follow her long-held dream? Featuring both new and familiar characters, this stand-alone romantic comedy is set two years before Saving Saffron Sweeting. With side helpings of British tea, cake and wit, Secrets in the Sky explo

A Murder of Magpies - Judith Flanders

It’s just another day at the office for book editor Samantha Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will deliciously dish the dirt on the fashion industry. But little does she know how much trouble Kit’s book is about to cause. Before it even goes to print. When police inspector Field turns up at the venerable offices of Timmins & Ross, asking questions about an undelivered package that was addressed to Sam, she knows something is wrong. The messenger sent to deliver the package was murdered, and then Kit goes missing. Suddenly, Sam's nine-to-five life is turned upside down and she is propelled into a criminal investigation. Someone doesn't want Kit's scandalous manuscript published and unless Sam can put the pieces together in time, they'll do anything to stop it. This is the first novel from Judith Fl

Here's looking at you - Mhairi Mcfarlane

Anna Alessi – history expert, possessor of a lot of hair and an occasionally filthy mouth – seeks nice man for intelligent conversation and Mills & Boon moments. Despite the oddballs that keep turning up on her dates, Anna couldn’t be happier. As a 30-something with a job she loves, life has turned out better than she dared dream. However, things weren't always this way, and her years spent as the ‘Italian Galleon’ of an East London comprehensive are ones she’d rather forget. So when James Fraser – the architect of Anna’s final humiliation at school – walks back into her life, her world is turned upside down. But James seems a changed man. Polite. Mature. Funny, even. People can change, right? So why does Anna feel like she’s a fool to trust him? This is my third Mhairi McFarlane book and it's from my personal shelf. I have to confess that after I read her first book "You had me at Hello" I was keeping this one - you know just in case there weren't

The Shock of the fall - Nathan Filer

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’ Although I finished this book from my personal shelf a week or so ago I waited until today to publish my review to coincide with Time to Talk Day  on 5 February. Just take 5 minutes out of your day tomorrow to talk about Mental Health, click through the link to find out more about the day. It's not often I enjoy books that win awards, because they are usually trying to be too clever and they lose their message. This book is so different, it really has a message which is told by Matthew who is a young schizophrenic.  The book is so insightful and I guess that comes from the author's time spent as a mental health nurse. You see the world through Matthew's eyes and it all makes sense - how he interprets the world and why to the rest of us it see

What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty

Alice is twenty-nine. She adores sleep, chocolate, and her ramshackle new house. She's newly engaged to the wonderful Nick and is pregnant with her first baby. There's just one problem. All of that was ten years ago . . Alice has slipped in a step-aerobics class, hit her head and lost a decade. Now she's a grown-up, bossy mother of three in the middle of a nasty divorce and her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her. This is her life but not as she knows it Clearly Alice has made some terrible mistakes. Just how much can happen in a decade Can she ever get back to the woman she used to be? This is a book from personal shelf which I’m reviewing. I got this book because I was alerted by eReader  on Facebook when it was at a good price. Today they have an alert on another Liane Moriarty book - The Last Anniversary for £1.19 - which I just downloaded :)  I’ve never read any Liane Moriarty books before, but based on this one – I will be reading m

The Girl in the Photograph - Kate Riordan

When Alice Eveleigh arrives at Fiercombe Manor during the long, languid summer of 1933, she finds a house steeped in mystery and brimming with secrets. Sadness permeates its empty rooms and the isolated valley seems crowded with ghosts, none more alluring than Elizabeth Stanton whose only traces remain in a few tantalisingly blurred photographs. Why will no one speak of her? What happened a generation ago to make her vanish? As the sun beats down relentlessly, Alice becomes ever more determined to unearth the truth about the girl in the photograph - and stop her own life from becoming an eerie echo of Elizabeth's . . . The book begins with a great insight into the social history of the 1930s with a young girl becoming pregnant whilst unmarried. It then continues in this vein with a glimpse of an old country estate in the 1930s told through Alice’s eyes, and in the late 1890s told through Elizabeth’s eyes. I felt there was going to be a great story brewing – with all the dee

Claridges at Christmas - Karen Swan

'This was where her dreams drifted to if she didn't blot her nights out with drink; this was where her thoughts settled if she didn't fill her days with chat. She remembered this tiny, remote foreign village on a molecular level and the sight of it soaked into her like water into sand, because this was where her old life had ended and her new one had begun.' Portobello - home to the world-famous street market, Notting Hill Carnival and Clem Alderton. She's the queen of the scene, the girl everyone wants to be or be with. But beneath the morning-after makeup, Clem is keeping a secret, and when she goes too far one reckless night she endangers everything - her home, her job and even her adored brother's love. Portofino - a place of wild beauty and old-school glamour. Clem has been here once before and vowed never to return. But when a hansome stranger asks Clem to restore a neglected villa, it seems like the answer to her problems - if she can just face