Holiday hot list
The Road Trip Beth O’Leary Quercus, £8.99
A 400-mile road trip to a wedding gets off to a stressful start for Addie and her sister when a car accidentally crashes into the back of theirs. The driver turns out to be Addie’s ex-boyfriend whom she hasn’t set eyes on since their traumatic split.
He and his pal are heading to the wedding too and, as their car’s too damaged to drive, Addie reluctantly offers them a lift. This moving love story will make you laugh and cry.
The Beloved Girls Harriet Evans Headline, £8.99
When high-flying barrister Catherine vanishes on the eve of her wedding anniversary, her family and friends are mystified because it’s so out of character.
Is her disappearance linked to a tragedy that unfolded 30 years earlier? This atmospheric page-turner, partly set in a country mansion in the wilds of Exmoor, is storytelling at its finest.
Mad About You Mhairi McFarlane HarperCollins, £7.99
When her boyfriend proposes, Harriet is appalled, so she breaks up with him and moves into a house-share with journalist Cal but they get off to a bad start and slide downhill from there.
Mhairi McFarlane excels at blending serious issues with witty one-liners that make you laugh out loud.
Songbirds Christy Lefteri Manilla Press, £8.99
Nisha works as a maid, doing the cooking, cleaning and childcare in her boss’s Cyprus home, but for the last decade she has only had snatched phone conversations with her own young daughter in Sri Lanka. Then she vanishes. A beautifully told tale of domestic workers who cross the world in search of freedom only to find themselves trapped.
Orphans Of The Storm Celia Imrie Bloomsbury, £8.99
Unbeknown to young mother Marcella, her unscrupulous former husband plans to flee France for the US with their sons onboard the Titanic.
Based on a true story, this is a gripping read about her courageous quest to rescue her missing children against the odds.
Still Life Sarah Winman Fourth Estate, £8.99
In 1944, British soldier
Ulysses meets sixty-something art expert Evelyn in a Tuscan wine cellar as bombs fall around them. Evelyn has come to save paintings and Ulysses is enthralled by her musings on art and love which resonate throughout his life.
After he is demobbed, his wife wants a divorce. With an unexpected legacy, broken-hearted Ulysses takes root in Florence, rebuilding his life in this hopeful novel.
How To Kill Your Family Bella Mackie The Borough Press, £8.99
Grace has never met her millionaire father and is shocked to discover he rejected her mum’s dying wish that he should get to know his daughter.
Dead-set on revenge, she devises a plan to murder him and five members of his family – but will she get away with it?
Dark, droll and shocking, Mackie’s fiction debut is stylishly executed.
Frontline Hilary Jones Welbeck, £8.99
This sweeping historical drama set during the First World War follows the lives of two idealistic teenagers who head to the frontline in 1914 and come face to face with the brutality of war.
Sensitive readers may recoil from graphic descriptions of battlefield surgery but the debut novel from Good Morning Britain’s resident doctor is well researched and compelling.
One Night On The Island Josie Silver Penguin, £7.99
Dating columnist Cleo is bemused by her editor’s idea to send her to a remote island to marry herself – a notion inspired by Emma Watson who once claimed to be happily “self-partnered”.
On arrival, Cleo finds a grumpy photographer staying at the cottage booked for her – and there’s no boat back for a week.
A wonderfully romantic tale, with a stunning setting and loveable characters.
Great Circle Maggie Shipstead Penguin, £8.99
Troubled Hollywood star Hadley Baxter is cast as Marian Graves, an aviator who overcame great odds to fly planes, only to vanish on a round-the-world flight in 1950.
As Hadley starts researching Marian’s life story, she uncovers the fascinating secrets of a rebellious heroine. Engrossing, ambitious, and beautifully written.
Klara And The Sun Kazuo Ishiguro Faber, £8.99
In this moving tale, Klara is an “Artificial Friend”, a humanoid robot-cum-servant in the not-too-distant future.
She goes to live with teenager Josie and her mother, trying to help Josie recover from ill health, and we learn about the sacrifices people now make to survive. The novel asks if, when we can programme robots to think and feel like humans, we have a duty to treat them like humans.
The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller
Penguin, £8.99
Elle is a happily married mother of three but she has cheated on her beloved husband Peter with her childhood sweetheart Jonas.
And there’s a revelatory reason why Elle has succumbed to Jonas after all these years. Elle rewinds to 1981, unspools her dysfunctional family history, and wonders if it’s too late for them to have the future they always dreamed of. It’s a gripping family saga.
Sorrow And Bliss Meg Mason W&N, £8.99
Martha’s life has been derailed by depression and her marriage has imploded but this is her wryly funny account of her broken life.
Now back living with her parents, Martha describes life with the dysfunctional pair, and her complicated feelings about her sister Ingrid’s brood of children.
Then a family secret is unearthed, giving Martha a new perspective. Can she find her way back to the people she loves? Meg Mason’s debut novel is tender, dark, and sharply funny.