I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
This workplace comedy sees socially awkward Jolene receive access to her hated colleagues’ work emails because of an IT error. With redundancies looming, she realises the power this gives her. But the more she learns about her workmates, the harder it is to hate them. Can she keep living her life between the lines of an email, or is she ready to experience the world she’s avoided?
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
A lack of travel during lockdown was the inspiration for Gareth Brown’s first novel. While New York-based bookseller Cassie is finishing her shift, a favourite customer dies suddenly. She finds a book among his possessions – with a sinister handwritten message to Cassie at the front – which, she soon discovers with the help of best friend Izzy, can transport her anywhere, simply by walking through the nearest door. But some doors should never be opened…
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
This novel blends love story, time travel and state-of-the-nation commentary. A disaffected civil servant in near-future London is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new department gathering ‘expats’ from across history to test the limits of time travel – and finds love with a Victorian explorer who, historically speaking, died on an Arctic expedition.
The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold
The author is currently an undergraduate studying English who can often be found working at her local independent bookstore or daydreaming about living in outer space. Her debut is set after an apocalyptic storm. It follows teens Liz and Maeve as they fall in love and fight for survival in an abandoned bookstore, just weeks before another storm threatens the end of the world.
How To Get Away With Murder by Tam Barnett
In London journalist Tam Barnett’s first book, a darkly comic thriller set on the Wirral, our protagonist is obsessed with true crime, but now there’s a murderer on the loose. Of course, some people might wonder if it’s her. Is she an innocent soul with an unhealthy fascination, or a deadly psychopath? It’s the killer question. After all, she’d love to know how to get away with murder…
The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
British Malaya, 1930s, and discontented housewife Cecily is seduced by a Japanese general and the glorious future he is promising for ‘independent’ Malaya. Becoming his personal spy, she unwittingly alters the fate of her country by welcoming in a punishing form of dictatorship under the Japanese in World War Two. Forward to Japanese-occupied Malaya, 1945, and now her family must survive it. Can she face up to her past to save her children? Or is it too late?
