Half a World Away


Mike Gayle - 2019
    She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back.When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever.By turns funny and moving, Half a World Away is a story that will stay with you long after you read its final page.

Can You Keep a Secret?


Karen Perry - 2017
    A night that shattered so many friendships - and left Rachel's father dead. Now Thornbury Hall is up for sale, and the old gang are back there, together again. A weekend to say goodbye to the old place, to talk about the past. But twenty years of secrets aren't given up lightly. Some won't speak about what happened that night. While others want to ensure that no one does. Surviving the weekend is going to depend on whether you can keep a secret . . .

Family for Beginners


Sarah Morgan - 2020
    She’s lonely. Orphaned as a child, she’s never felt like she’s belonged anywhere…until she meets Jack Parker. He’s the first man to ever really see her, and it’s life changing.Teenager Izzy Parker is holding it together by her fingertips. Since her mother passed away a year ago, looking after her dad and little sister is the only thing that makes Izzy feel safe. Discovering her father has a new girlfriend is her worst nightmare—she is not in the market for a replacement mom. Then her father invites Flora on their summer vacation…Flora’s heart aches for Izzy, but she badly wants her relationship with Jack to work. As the summer unfolds, Flora must push her own boundaries to discover parts of herself she never knew existed—and to find the family she’s always wanted.

Magpie


Elizabeth Day - 2021
    The rest she’ll take.Marisa may have only known Jake a few months, but she has never felt this certain about anyone. When he asks her to move in with him and they start trying for a baby, she knows she has finally found the steadfast love and support she has been looking for all her life.But their relationship is tested when they take in a lodger, Kate, who has little regard for personal boundaries and seems to take an uncomfortable interest in Jake – as well as the baby they are hoping to have.Why is Kate so obsessed with the couple? And, more worryingly, why doesn’t Jake share Marisa's concern?In her determination to find the answers, Marisa risks losing everything she holds dear…Magpie is a tense, twisting, brilliantly written novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.

Girl A


Abigail Dean - 2021
    She doesn't want to think about growing up in her parents' House of Horrors. And she doesn't want to think about her identity as Girl A: the girl who escaped, the eldest sister who freed her older brother and four younger siblings. It's been easy enough to avoid her parents--her father never made it out of the House of Horrors he created, and her mother spent the rest of her life behind bars. But when her mother dies in prison and leaves Lex and her siblings the family home, she can't run from her past any longer. Together with her sister, Evie, Lex intends to turn the House of Horrors into a force for good. But first she must come to terms with her siblings - and with the childhood they shared.

The Keys To The Garden


Susan Sallis - 1999
    When Lucy married Len on a golden July day, Martha tried hard to make the best of things. Len was a good man who would make Lucy happy. They wouldn't be living far away. And the arrival of grandchildren was something she anticipated eagerly. Unexpectedly, Len's job took the newly married couple overseas, where their first child was born. But sorrow, not joy, came with Dominic's birth. On their return, Lucy's best friend, Jennifer, as flighty as Lucy was conventional, was anxious to provide her own kind of consolation... Martha, who was experiencing unlooked-for and at first unwelcome changes in her own life, clung fast to the maternal bond that meant so much to herself and Lucy. Everything she had come to depend on was overturned, however, before Martha was able to find her own kind of happiness in a very different existence. One of Susan Sallis's most poignant and involving novels, The Keys to the Garden explores the mother-daughter relationship with a rare insight.

She Knows


A.J. Wills - 2021
    . .When Sky stumbles across a lost diary, she can’t resist looking inside, hoping it contains some scandalous tittle-tattle or lurid gossip.Instead, she discovers something she was never supposed to read.Something that brings back the appalling memories of her mother’s tragic death.It’s clear the owner of the diary is in terrible danger and desperately needs help.Is this finally an opportunity for Sky to atone for her mother’s murder?Or has her desire to redress the wrongs of her past clouded her perception of what’s really going on?After all, you shouldn’t believe everything you read…

The Last Act of Adam Campbell


Andy Jones - 2020
    Particularly when it's your last.Adam had a good life: a job he enjoyed, a nice house, a loving partner and a bright six-year-old daughter. Then he cheated on his partner. Then she kicked him out of their home. And then he was given approximately twelve months to live.Despite the devastating news, Adam is determined to turn his life around before it finally runs out. Help comes in the form of an ex-junky, a cantankerous train driver, a nun experiencing a crisis of faith, and a teenager intent on losing her virginity - all living on borrowed time, all desperate to feel alive before their time is up.Praise for Andy Jones:'What happens the morning after the night before, when the night before was when you did the most reckless thing of your life? I loved Andy Jones's stylish portrayal of four people who make way too much history in one night, and just couldn't put it down until I found out the fate of each of them' Catherine Isaac'Andy Jones continues to be one of my favourite authors' Bella Magazine

Winging It


Anna Jefferson - 2020
    Why does everyone look like they’re smashing motherhood when she’s barely made it out of the house? She’s usually covered in sick, eating yet another beige freezer dinner, and relying on wet wipes to clean the baby, herself and the house. And coffee. All the coffee. Surely she can’t be the only new mum totally winging it?Emily’s about to discover that when you’re starting a family, what you really need are your friends...

The First Mistake


Sandie Jones - 2019
    With her second husband, she has a successful business, two children, and a beautiful house.HER HUSBAND: Alice knows that life could have been different if her first husband had lived, but Nathan's arrival into her life gave her back the happiness she craved.HER BEST FRIEND: Through the ups and downs of life, from celebratory nights out to comforting each other through loss, Alice knows that with her best friend Beth by her side, they can survive anything together. So when Nathan starts acting strangely, Alice turns to Beth for help. But soon, Alice begins to wonder whether her trust has been misplaced . . .The first mistake could be her last.

In a Cottage In a Wood


Cass Green - 2017
    Isabelle forces a parcel into Neve’s hands and jumps to her death in the icy Thames below.An unexpected gift...Two weeks later, as Neve’s wreck of a life in London collapses, an unexpected lifeline falls into her lap – a charming cottage in Cornwall left to her by Isabelle, the woman on the bridge. The solution to all her problems.A Twisted secret...But when Neve arrives, alone in the dark woods late one night, she finds a sinister-looking bungalow with bars across its windows. And her dream home quickly becomes her worst nightmare – a house hiding a twisted secret that will change her life forever…

The Cliff House


Amanda Jennings - 2018
    Some friendships are made to be brokenCornwall, summer of 1986.The Davenports, with their fast cars and glamorous clothes, living the dream in a breathtaking house overlooking the sea.If only… thinks sixteen-year-old Tamsyn, her binoculars trained on the perfect family in their perfect home.If only her life was as perfect as theirs.If only Edie Davenport would be her friend.If only she lived at The Cliff House…Amanda Jennings weaves a haunting tale of obsession, loss and longing, set against the brooding North Cornish coastline, destined to stay with readers long after the final page is turned.‘A beautiful, stirring story of loss and obsession’ Lisa Jewell

The Stepmother


Ros Carne - 2021
    When her husband Michael tells her he has shocking news, at first, she thinks the worst – he’s been having an affair. It would explain why he’s been so distant. Instead, he reveals that the daughter he abandoned twenty years ago is coming to stay.Kate is blindsided by the sudden arrival of Imogen mere hours later. Her new stepdaughter is beautiful but troubled and seems wary of her own father. All the same, Kate is pleased to find herself connecting with Imogen, until one day, Imogen reveals a disturbing secret to her stepmother, making her swear never to tell a soul.With Kate already keeping secrets of her own, she worries her marriage will crumble under the weight of another. But perhaps it’s not Imogen’s intrusion Kate should be worried about. Perhaps it’s Michael’s past she should have been looking at all along…A completely addictive thriller that will keep you guessing into the early hours of the morning. Perfect for fans of The Stepdaughter, Shalini Boland and K.L. Slater.

The Dead Ex


Jane Corry - 2018
    She's just finishing a session when the police arrive on her doorstep--her ex-husband David has gone missing. Vicki insists she last saw him years ago when they divorced, but the police clearly don't believe her. And her memory's hardly reliable--what if she did have something to do with it?Meanwhile, Scarlet and her mother Zelda are down on their luck, and at eight years old, Scarlet's not old enough to know that the "game" her mother forces her to play is really just a twisted name for dealing drugs. Soon, Zelda is caught, and Scarlet is forced into years of foster care--an experience that will shape the rest of her life . . .David's new wife, Tanya, is the one who reported him missing, but what really happened on the night of David's disappearance? And how can Vicki prove her innocence, when she's not even sure of it herself? The answer lies in the connection among these four women--and the one person they can't escape.

The Last Piece of My Heart


Paige Toon - 2017
    But, after numerous rejections from publishers, she accepts an alternative proposition: Nicole Dupre died leaving behind a bestselling novel and an incomplete sequel, and the family need someone to finish it. Bridget is just thankful to have her foot in the publishing door. But as she gets to know Nicole’s grieving family, and the woman behind the writing, Bridget’s priorities begin to change …