January 2026
My Husband's Wife - Alice Feeney
Read the best -selling book before you see the award winning film!
A compelling and beautifully written reimagining of Hamnet Shakespeare. Just read it and enjoy!
Claire
The untold love story that inspired Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece. On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help.
Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.
Hamnet tells the powerful story of Agnes and Will, and of the son whose life has been all but forgotten, but who inspired one of the greatest plays ever written.
My Husband's Wife - Alice Feeney
This had me gripped from start to finish!!
A compelling tale about lies, deception and identity that had me hooked from the first page. Several times I gasped out loud as the twists kept coming... nothing is as it seems!
Claire
Eden Fox, an artist on the brink of her big break, sets off for a run before her first exhibition. When she returns to the home she recently moved into – Spyglass, an enchanting old house in the pretty seaside village of Hope Falls – nothing is as it should be.
Her key doesn’t fit. A woman, eerily similar to her, answers the door. And her husband insists that this stranger is his wife.
One house. One husband. Two women.
Someone is lying. Six months earlier, a reclusive Londoner named Birdy, reeling from a life-changing diagnosis, inherits Spyglass. This unexpected gift from a long-lost grandmother brings her to Hope Falls.
But then Birdy stumbles upon a shadowy London clinic that claims to be able to predict a person’s date of death, including her own. Secrets start to unravel and, as the line between truth and lies blurs, Birdy feels compelled to right some old wrongs.
The Barbecue at No. 9 - Jennie Godfrey
Jennie is a wonderful storyteller and this nostalgic and engaging read took me right back to my teenage years! The story is set within a neighbourhood community, and Jennie gradually introduces each of its inhabitants. She writes with her trademark warmth and humour and I was completely invested in the lives of her characters. The reader follows the events of the day as secrets are revealed and the truth is discovered. A story with heart, friendship and hope!
Publishes 12th February
Claire
It's the summer of 1985 and the residents of Delmont Close are preparing a neighbourhood barbecue to watch the biggest music event in history: Live Aid.
A day like no other that will end having reached millions and changing the lives of all who attend. House-proud Lydia Gordon, whose idols are Princess Di and Delia Smith, is determined to put on a show that will impress everyone - with her posh garden and state-of-the-art television, and her sweet husband and two children, Hanna and David. But as the guests flood into number nine, so do all of the secrets that have been kept in the close.
Rita, a new neighbour from Australia, is hoping for a fresh start but harbours a shocking event in her past; Steve, a young Falklands veteran, battles his own demons; and Mr Wilson is surely too good-looking to ever be trusted. But as the hours count down to the last performance of the night, it's Lydia who faces the heart-breaking truth that her immaculate home and flawless family might not be so perfect after all. And if each of their neighbours is guilty of hiding something, so are the Gordons at number nine ...
Friends of Dorothy - Sandi Toksvig
Humourous and wise, Friends of Dorothy covers so many social injustices, homophobia, misogyny, racism, ageism, with a laugh out loud tale of courage and tenacity. An easy, light hearted read, it is full of warmth and likeable characters you can really care about.
Alan and Claire
After much searching, the happily married young couple, Amber and Stevie think they have found the perfect spot in Grimaldi Square. Despite the rundown pub across the way, the overgrown garden and a decidedly nosy neighbour, number 4 is the house of their dreams. Stevie, a woman who has never left anything to chance, has planned everything so nothing can spoil their happiness.
But upstairs in their new home, seated on an old red sofa is the woman they bought the place from - eighty-year-old foul-mouthed, straight-talking, wise-cracking Dorothy - who has decided that she's not going anywhere. It turns out that Dorothy will be only the first in a line of life-changing surprises.
Frankie - J.M. Gutsch
Narrated by Frankie the cat this is a moving story which begins with despair, but ends with hope. Frankie meets Richard when the latter is struggling, grieving the loss of his partner and finds himself in a very dark place. Slowly, we see the redemptive power of Frankie upon Richard's life with the blossoming of their unlikely friendship. This made me laugh and cry - it's a unique and special book and one that will stay with me.
Trigger warning - mention of suicide
Claire
Meet Frankie the cat. He’s a stray who belongs to no one, and that’s just how he likes it. Until one day, everything changes.
He crosses paths with Richard. Richard isn’t doing so well. Grieving the loss of his partner, he’s turned his back on hope and is ready to end it all.
But his plans are halted when Frankie the cat is injured on his doorstep. Frankie needs help. But then, so does Richard.
What Richard doesn’t know is that Frankie is no ordinary cat. It’s an unlikely partnership. But it might be exactly what they both need .
. . ---Sometimes in our darkest hour, a pet companion is just what the doctor ordered.
What Does it Feel Like? - Sophie Kinsella
I read this after hearing about Sophie Kinsella's passing. A gutsy write and a life affirming read. Sophie as Eve gave me a new appreciation of the small things in life and how important it is to treasure each moment. Moving and heartfelt.
Claire
Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband, never far from her side, explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumour growing in her brain. As Eve learns to walk, talk, and write again — and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children — she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights and always buying that dress when she sees it.
Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief. This extraordinary novella is a celebration of life.
From Number One bestselling author Sophie Kinsella, an unforgettable story – by turns heartbreaking and life-affirming – of a renowned novelist facing a devastating diagnosis and learning to live and love anew. ‘What Does It Feel Like? is fiction, but it is my most autobiographical work to date.
Eve’s story is my story.’ — SOPHIE KINSELLA
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Thriller, adventure horror and mystery books all in one. This is the great gothic tale that stretches from Eastern Europe to Whitby to London and back again.
Brilliantly written, it's told through a series of diary entries and memoranda, giving it different voices and perspectives.
A thrilling and gripping tale!
Alan
When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival .
'There he lay looking as if youth had been half-renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey, the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst the swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated. It seemed as if the whole awful creature were simply gorged with blood; he lay like a filthy leech, exhausted with his repletion.'Thus Bram Stoker, one of the greatest exponents of the supernatural narrative, describes the demonic subject of his chilling masterpiece Dracula, a truly iconic and unsettling tale of vampirism.
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