Readers Recommends - 10 April 2023

Reader's Recommends is our weekly live session, streamed live on Facebook, where we recommend the best, the popular and the latest Reads from all genres and WHY you should read them! 

Each week our representative, Thomas Bulpin, is joined by a few representatives from different publishing companies. In this week's edition we have a pre-recorded session with Thomas and Bradley Lutz from Jonathan Ball publishers, highlighting 3 months of exciting titles releasing in April, May and June.

Alice sees a thousand different emotions and knows exactly what everyone around her is feeling, every single day. But it's the dark thoughts, the sadness, the rage. These are the things she can't get out of her head. The things that overwhelm her. 

Finding your way is never a simple journey... Where will the journey to find herself begin?

The Close by Jane Casey

The manipulation, secrets and lies of Jellicoe Close are deeper than Maeve and Josh had anticipated. As they investigate, they uncover a sinister criminal network that has been operating in the Close for decades. Each resident is implicated in some way, and those with something to hide will go to any lengths to keep it that way.

Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion - the treasure trove of scents.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.

Nemesis by Wilbur Smith

A FIGHT FOR HONOUR. A QUEST FOR REVENGE.

Paris, 1794. Paul embarks on a journey of revenge and honour, determined to make the world pay for what it has taken from him. But as he navigates a web of deceit, will Paul be able to protect the people he loves or will his quest for revenge cost him everything?

Cape Town, 1806. Adam must battle against a powerful force, fuelled by corruption and greed. He has no choice but to fight for what he believes in – justice and honour. But as the odds stack against him, will Adam have the courage to face his villainous adversary? 

Hang the Moon by Jeanette Walls

Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the charismatic Duke Kincaid, born into a life of comfort and privilege. Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.

Yellow Face by Rebecca F. Kaung 

So what if June edits Athena's novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song--complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn't this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That's what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

The Prophet & the Idiot by Jonas Jonasson

Armed with the terrible knowledge that the atmosphere will collapse on the 21st of September 2011, self-taught astrophysicist Petra meets Johan, a doomsday prophet, and Agnes, a widow of 75 who has made bank living a double life on social media as a young influencer. Together, the trio race through Europe as they plan to make the most out of the time they have left, in more ways than one. But of course, things rarely go to plan, even the end of the world… 

Where are the Children Now? by Mary Higgins Clarke 

A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind. While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new step daughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with - or worse.

Charlie might work at her dad’s company but that doesn’t make her life easy. She’s the kind of person who always goes the extra mile for a client, remembers colleagues’ birthdays and arranges the cake. And yet her dad still favours her sister.

So Charlie shouldn’t be surprised when her dad brings someone in to manage her and the team. But what does surprise her is that the new boss is her the man who she went out with years ago and could never stop thinking about. 

Charlie wants to hide under the desk… but then she realises she doesn’t have to. Because William doesn’t seem to remember her at all.  

Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton's life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her.

Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who's been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Cooper's assault is uncannily linked to Sara's.

And it seems the past isn't going to stay buried forever …

Rachel Hore Backlist
The Love Child 
A Beautiful Spy
The Memory Garden 
One Moonlit Night
Last Letter Home
A Gathering Storm 

Non-Fiction
Memoirs of a Clumsy Potato by Sami Hall 
Future of Geography by Tim Marshall

In this gripping book, bestselling author Tim Marshall lays bare the new geopolitical realities to show how we got here and where we're going, covering the new space race; great-power rivalry; technology; economics; war; and what it means for all of us down here on Earth.