Catalogue Search Results
1) Poor things
Author
Appears on list
Description
Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realised when he finds the drowned body of the beautiful Bella, who he brings back to life in a Frankenstein-esque feat. But his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for his creation. But what does Bella think? This story of true love and scientific daring whirls the reader from the private operating-theatres of late-Victorian Glasgow through aristocratic...
2) Sugar, baby
Author
Pub. Date
2023
Description
This is the story of Agnes, a young woman stuck in a dead-end cleaning job whose life changes when she is introduced to a new profession: sugaring. At first, it seems like the perfect escape - extravagant tasting menus, private jets to Paris and Miami, endless admirers. But it comes as a shock for her religious mother Constance, who came to the UK from St Vincent in her twenties. While Constance's faith starts to be rattled, Agnes must ask herself...
3) Cahokia jazz
Author
Pub. Date
2023
Appears on list
Description
In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on - a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on...
Author
Publisher
Serpent's Tail
Pub. Date
2023
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Description
Arthur and Gwen married young. Twenty years on, Gwen's got it all: wealth, beauty, a famous husband who's the founder of Britain's most successful tech company, stables full of horses, millions of followers on Instagram, an unstable lover, a wayward son, a hoard of secrets, an aching heart, and a cyberstalking blackmailer who calls himself The Invisible Knight. As the Wiltshire town of Abury prepares to celebrate the fortieth birthday of its favourite...
Author
Pub. Date
2024
Appears on list
Description
Izzy is in the Caribbean on the honeymoon-that-isn't after her fiance broke her heart. She's not looking for someone new. But when she meets Charles Miller, a successful writer holidaying alone, the electricity is undeniable. And what does she have to lose? In Ireland, Charles's ex-wife and agent Ariel flits from party to party, glamorous and poised. She's always in touch with Charles. Though they're divorced, they're very close. Ariel wonders if...
Author
Publisher
Zaffre
Pub. Date
2024
Description
You can choose your home, but you can't choose who lives next door. 25 year old Kat Bennett has never felt at home anywhere, especially not in crumbling Shelley House. The other residents think she's prickly and unapproachable, but beneath her tough exterior, Kat is plagued by guilt from her past and looking for somewhere to belong. 77 year old Dorothy Darling has lived in Shelley House for longer than anyone else, and if you believe the other tenants,...
Author
Pub. Date
2024
Appears on list
Description
When Cass is asked by her father to take on an unusual photography project in the Caribbean Island of Dominica, she really can't see a reason to say no. But the remote island has just been hit be a severe hurricane, leaving destruction in its wake. Cass is travelling with Ranulph who is searching for the rare stone carvings her father wants her to photograph. Their hunt leads Cass down a path of bravery and self-discovery, and she soon falls for Ranulph,...
Author
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Description
Andy's story wasn't meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends' spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he's ever truly loved. As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship...
Author
Pub. Date
2024
Appears on list
Description
Jennifer Quinn has a secret. Her love of baking has just won her a spot as a contestant on a primetime TV show. It's only the second time in fifty-nine years that she's kept something from her beloved husband Bernard. She's about to be whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras, timed challenges and celebrity judges. She could be in with a chance of being crowned the best baker in Britain. But, as Mrs Quinn's quiet ambitions turn into unexpected...
Author
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date
2024
Description
Polly Potter is surviving, not thriving. She used to love her job - until her mentor died and her new boss decided to make her life hell. She used to love her partner Chris - until he cheated on her, and now she can't forget. The only place where her life is working is on the pages of the novel she is writing - there she can create a feistier, bolder, more successful version of herself, as the fictional Sabrina Anderson. But what if it was possible...
11) The women
Author
Pub. Date
2024
Appears on these lists
Description
Raised on California's idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, twenty-year-old nursing student, Frances 'Frankie' McGrath has always prided herself on doing the right thing, being a good girl. But in 1965 the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different path for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurses Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced...
12) The wishing game
Author
Publisher
Jo Fletcher Books
Pub. Date
2023
Description
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it's like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a 26-year-old teacher's aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything...
13) Seven exes
Author
Publisher
Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date
2023
Description
Esther's love life isn't living up to expectations and the apps just aren't. She feels unhinged and like she's bumbling into her 30s. Her friends - one happily single, the other solidly involved - think her disastrous love life is funny. But Esther is starting to feel desperate. So when she comes across an old woman's mag article she can't help but take note. It claims every woman has seven exes and one of those will be the one. Esther is appalled...
Author
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Pub. Date
2023
Description
There was only one thing on her mind. I must start a bookshop. Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, divorces her husband, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista...
15) The secret beach
Author
Publisher
Orion
Pub. Date
2024
Appears on list
Description
Twenty years ago, Nikki's long-held dreams are lost forever when a terrible storm rolls into the small seaside town of Speedwell. Ever since that night, Nikki has been keeping a secret. One she knows has the potential to destroy the lives of those she loves most. So when a handwritten note lands on her doorstep, she realises it's only a matter of time before the heartbreaking truth of her past is uncovered. Because if there's one thing Nikki knows,...
Author
Publisher
Orion
Pub. Date
2024
Description
When Evie's father falls desperately ill, she finally returns to the family home on Orkney and the wild landscape she left as a teenager, swearing never to return. Not everyone is happy at her arrival, particularly her estranged sister Liv, their relationship broken after a childhood trauma. As Evie clears out her father's neglected house to prepare it for sale, lonely Evie finds herself drawn to a group of cold-water swimmers led by her old friend...
17) Expiration dates
Author
Publisher
Quercus
Pub. Date
2024
Description
Daphne believes the universe has a plan for her. Every time she meets a new man, she receives a slip of paper with his name and a number on it - the exact amount of time they will be together. The papers told her she'd spend three days with Martin in Paris; five weeks with Noah in San Francisco; and three months with Hugo, her ex-boyfriend turned best friend. Daphne has been receiving the numbered papers for over 20 years, always wondering when there...
Author
Publisher
Manilla
Pub. Date
2023
Description
Hidden in Jinbocho, Tokyo is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books. Twenty-five-year-old Takano has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Ojisan, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoki left him five years earlier. When Takano's boyfriend reveals...
20) Only the brave
Author
Publisher
Macmillan
Pub. Date
2024
Description
In 1930s Berlin, dark days dawn under Hitler's Third Reich. For 19-year-old Sophia Alexander, life will never be the same. The daughter of a respected doctor, Sophia has always believed that her destiny is to look after others, and as the persecution of Jewish families begins, she joins a group of dissidents who are committed to helping them to safety. As war is declared, Sophia answers her religious calling and enters a convent, where she continues...