Yes, I’m running a bit late flagging this because Here Be Dragons came out two weeks ago – but I didn’t realise until I got the email from the comic book store late last week and then I picked it up at the weekend, so I’m mentioning now for those who might also have missed the arrival of a new Rivers of London graphic novel as we wait for the next instalment in the main series – which appears to be the long trailed Nightingale novella – be still my heart! The timeline in the graphic novels is actually slightly ahead of the books in some ways (and I can’t explain what I mean because: spoilers) which is fun and I just love the art and the humour. I think the writing team for the graphic novels do a really good job of making them seem cohesive and consistent with the novels. And can I just have a moment for how cool this cover is?
Anyway, you should be able to get this where ever you get your comics – but do try and support your local indie if you can.
After last week’s not-new Christmas books, today I bring you some of the new festive books I’ve read so far this year in case you’re in the market for some last minute purchasing and reading before the big day. Because some of you may be more prepared for Christmas than I currently am!
A Holly Jolly Ever After by Sierra Simone and Julie Murphy
This is the sequel to last year’s A Merry Little Meet Cute and is also set in Christmas Notch, Vermont (Hello ticking another state off my 50 States Challenge for the year!). This time our heroine is Winnie Baker a former child actress who managed to keep her career going into adulthood by maintaining her wholesome Christian image. Except now her perfect life has come falling down and now she’s going to reinvent herself in a steamy holiday movie. Her co-star is Kallum, former boyband star and now owner of a regional pizza chain who went viral after a sex tape leaked (and who you may remember from that first book) and who has some history with Winnie that means that it’s all a bit awkward. But when Winnie has trouble faking pleasure on screen she asks Kallum for help with research and you all know where this is going. Sex lessons for reasons is always a fun trope – and obviously it’s extremely not closed door. The premise is bonkers, but it was an entertaining read even if purity culture makes me really angry.
The Christmas Book Club by Sarah Morgan
This is this year’s Christmas Sarah Morgan, and I’m probably cheating by mentioning her again so soon after reminding you about the Snow Crystal series, but this is women’s fiction and those are straight up romances so I’m just going to go with it. This follows four women – three friends approaching their fortieth birthdays and taking a Christmas trip to a quaint inn in Vermont and the inn’s owner, a young widow with a little girl whose husband died while they were renovating the hotel together. Each woman is facing some sort of challenge in her life and the week at the inn will help them figure out what to do next. I think I would have liked less main characters and more focus on each storyline but then I’m often a bit like that and I don’t know which woman I would be happy to lose! This is quite low stress and very festive and perfect for a winter afternoon once you’ve got your presents wrapped!
The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict*
Early in December, crossword setter and grouch Edie receives a parcel in the post containing jigsaw pieces showing a crime scene and a note saying unless she solves the puzzle at least four people will die. Of course she starts investigating with the help of her nephew who is a police detective – until he starts to worry that she’s in danger and tries to shut her out of the investigation. But of course that’s not going to stop her. This is a murder mystery with some hidden clues in there that tie in for puzzlers, *but* don’t be deceived by the festive cover and colour scheme, it’s actually pretty dark. I was expecting/hoping for something Christmassy but with Thursday Murder club levels of grimness or something cozy crime adjacent, but if it wasn’t Christmas it would be a murder mystery with a dark and brooding cover, rather than an arty one. So not really a for me book, but I think it will appeal to a lot of people who like their crime a bit grimmer.
And that’s your lot today – I’ve got a couple more Christmas books I’m going to try and read this December, but who knows if that will actually happen, because I keep getting distracted away to other books!
As I said yesterday, although I should have been reading Christmas books and books that ticked off missing states in my reading challenge, actually last week I was reading a bunch of other stuff, so today’s pick is Sarah Sigal’s The Socialite Spy.
It’s 1936 and Lady Pamela Moore is somewhat unconventional socialite – she’s married but she’s the writer of a newspaper column called Agent of Influence – it’s about fashion and high society. When her editor asks her to interview Wallis Simpson for a puff piece about her wardrobe, she has no idea what will come next. She’s approached by MI5 to keep an eye on Mrs Simpson and Edward VIII and to report on their links to Nazi Germany. As she finds herself moving around in high society and political circles she discovers that things are not quite as she thought they were – but is she putting herself in danger?
My love of 1930s set books is well known and I have a particular soft spot for books and novels about the abdication crisis so this really appealed to me. If you’ve read other books set around this period you can probably figure out who Lady Pamela is going to be meeting and what Wallis is getting up to. This isn’t as good as my all time favourite Gone with the Windsors, but it’s doing something different to that with the thriller/espionage element. But it was still a fun read that stuck pretty closely to what I understand the actual history to be. But of course it did make me want to go back and read Laurie Graham all over again – which I really didn’t need to add to my list at the moment because I have plenty of other books to read.
If you like the Royal Spyness series, this will probably work for you as well – it’s got slightly more peril than those so, but it’s in quite similar sort of area in a way. I think there’s a chance we could get a sequel to this – which I would happily read, just to see what Sarah Sigal does with Pamela next.
I read The Socialite Spy via Kindle Unlimited – which of course means that it’s not on Kobo (at the moment anyway) but I can see the paperback also available on Waterstones too – with some click and collect availability.
Quite a strange week in books: I know I need to read Christmas books and books that will help me tick off the last few states in my 50 states challenge, and yet here I am reading hustorical crime and girl’s own. What am I like…
One ebook and one book bought. Restraining myself in the hopes of getting more books this time next week…
Bonus photo: the ice rink in Hannover square on Tuesday night – I didn’t skate, I justdrank mulled wine and caught up with a friend while watching other people skate!
*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.
I’m taking a break from the usual schedule today as there’s one week to go before Christmas and I thought it was time to recommend some books for your last minute gift buying. And as Him Indoors has been grousing at me this week that he couldn’t get any of the books I wanted in store when he went in to Waterstones, I’ve tried to keep it simple and easy for you and stick to stuff that should be easily available.
I’m going to start with Murdle, because I can think of several people in my life who would like it. It’s a book of murder mystery puzzles – there’s a hundred in it and there’s also a second book of even more Murdles with a hundred more. If you have a puzzler in your life – and it turns out I’m turning into one (daily routine now includes a sudoku, a mini crossword, a bigger crossword and NYT’s Connections puzzle, plus their history quiz once a week) then this would be a good stocking filler for you. I’ve seen it in every bookshop I’ve been into this year.
If you’re buying for an occasional reader, who likes their TV, I know it sounds basic, but I’m going to suggest the books and authors who have been turned into the big adaptations this year. So depending on what you know they’ve watched, it could be one of Taylor Jenkins Reid‘s other books if they’ve seen Daisy Jones and the Six, because she has enough that you have options beyond the one that’s been adapted or Bonnie Garmus’s Lessons in Chemistry because that’s her only one so far. There’s also the fifth volume of Heartstopper which has just come out, and would be perfect for people who have been watching that on Netflix. Alice Oseman also has some tie-in titles as well as other novels if you know that you have someone you’re buying for who is into Heartstopper.
R F Kuang’s Yellowface has been the buzzy book of the autumn season – I’ve read it and I didn’t love it, but I know people who have and it’s definitely one that’s going to generate discussion and turn up at bookgroups, so if you have someone who is in a book club, that wouldn’t be a bad bet. The risk of course is that they’ve read it already, which also applies to Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow which is in paperback now – but Zevin also has other books that you get buy if you think your person has read that one. Kuang’s other books are epic historical fantasy type novels, so if you have someone who liked Yellowface but doesn’t do fantasy then you might want to try something like the new Emma Kline, The Guest. I read Kline’s The Girls and enjoyed it, but I haven’t read this (yet) because just the description makes me stressed and anxious, but has had good reviews and gets on the people who read this enjoyed that lists for Yellowface (and vice versa).
On the non-fiction front, there’s lots of memoirs out this year from celebs of various eras – so you could do the Britney Spears for people who were teenagers when she burst onto the scene, there’s another Miriam Margoyles for people who enjoy her on chat shows, there’s Patrick Stewart for the Star Trek/X-Men fans, Billy Connely for the comedy fans and 900 pages of Barbra Streisand’s long awaited memoir for those film and musical watchers that can face something that heavy – and it doesn’t have an index so you can’t even skip to the bits you’re most interested in!
There is also a crop of books written by podcasters and personalities of various kinds – so if you know what your giftee is into on that front there are plenty of options – from Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO book, through Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Tools for a Life and cookbooks galore.
Hopefully there are enough ideas here for you – if not, just go to a bookshop and have a little wander – you might be amazed what you find!
Have a great Sunday – and good luck with the final pre-Christmas stretch!
Here we are with the pre-Christmas book haul. The Judi Dench was a whole saga, because the first copy went missing in the post and I didn’t think Simon at Big Green Books would have another one, but I got really lucky and he had a return. Which I got delivered to my parents’ house just to be safe! Then there’s a little batch of career novels which I treated myself to, another of the Edward Marston ship mysteries and two books from Foyles last week because I can’t help myself! Now depending on the amount of books I get for Christmas you may get a Christmas special books incoming, but I’m not sure yet, so I’m reserving the right to change my mind and bundle it all into January!
I’m reading this year’s Sarah Morgan Christmas book at the moment, so I’m using it to take the opportunity to remind you about her O’Neil Brothers/Snow Crystal books – which are pretty Christmassy all in – and a pretty decent price at the moment. In a slightly bonkers twist, the Kindle omnibus is more expensive than buying them individually, but if you just want the Christmas ones, you can do both of those for about £6.50 all in.
This is out this week and is a Pride and Prejudice retelling set on the set of a musical version of Pride and Prejudice. It’s also got different titles if you’re in the UK or US. Here it’s Enemies to Lovers, elsewhere it’s The Stage Kiss. I’m not going to lie, this didn’t entirely work for me, on account of both the hero and heroine being very mean at times, and being inside Darcy’s head in the early stages not making me like him more! But I know that I’m picky when it comes to P&P retellings, so I mention it anyway because I know the are a lot of people on the look out for Lizzy and Darcy in as many forms as possible. Eligible is still the best one though!
It’s starting to feel proper Christmassy now, so it’s time for the festive reading recommendations. And I’ve broken it down into two again this year – the new releases for Christmas 2023 and books from previous years that I’ve read this year.
So lets start with Jeevanki Charika’s Picture Perfect, which has a heroine who needs to find her inspiration as a photographer again after a bad break up and a hero who needs someone to take on a group holiday to make his ex jealous and try to win her back. This is a fun and festive (New Year not Christmas!) fake relationship romance that sees the two characters become better versions of themselves as they pretend to be in a relationship. I found Vimal’s perspective to be quite stressful to read because of his issues with reading social cues (I was going to say social anxiety but I’m not quite sure that is quite what it is) but I really liked Niro as a character and I loved her passion for photography and the way that pretending to be Vimal’s girlfriend gave her the confidence to stand up for him and to come out of her shell. You might remember that Charika’s previous book Playing for Love was a BotW in 2022 and this has characters in common with that.
I did a series post about Susan Mallery’s Happily Inc series a couple of weeks back, and Home Sweet Christmas this is a twin storyline Christmas romance set in another one of Mallery’s quirky small towns – this time Wishing Tree, the Christmas themed-town which is frankly bonkers, but still seems to work some how. One storyline has Camryn, who has moved back to the town that she grew up after the death of her mum and is newly responsible for her younger half sisters and the family’s gift wrapping business (just go with it). She’s trying to work out what her life and future looks like now and whether she wants to risk a relationship again. She starts a definitely temporary relationship with Jake, whose family own the local resort. The other has River, new to town and trying to find her place and put down some roots. Her friends persuade her to put her name in the hat for the town’s Snow Queen – and soon she’s doing events with Dylan, a hot local carpenter. Some of this really worked for me, but Jake’s mom crossed the boundary from strangely well informed and well placed and into manipulative and meddling and it really messed with my enjoyment of the rest of the book. I think there was probably too much plot on each story for them to both go into one book, but it was still a fun, easy Christmas read.
And finally let’s go for some classic crime, with another British Library Crime Classic holiday collection – this time A Surprise for Christmas. It’s got G K Chesterton, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham along with several other names you might recognise from other BLCC books. I’m not usually a big short story reader, but at Christmas I do quite like them, and it’s a nice way to find new authors to watch out for in the BLCC collection – I think that’s how I found Christiana Brand, but I wouldn’t swear to that.
Yes, I’m cheating because I finished this on Monday, but as ever they’re my rules and I’m allowed to break them if I want and nothing else on last week’s list qualifies for a variety of reasons. So here we are.
It’s 1957 and Henry and Effie are on honeymoon in Cape May, New Jersey. They’re staying at Effie’s uncle’s house, where she spent some of her childhood summer holidays. Except the season is over and the place is deserted. Or nearly deserted. Staying at the house down the street is Clara, now a beautiful socialite but formerly one of the children Effie used to sometimes play with. With her are her lover Max and Alma, Max’s half sister. Over the course of their trip, under the influence of a lot of gin, Effie and Henry’s marriage will be tested and the pattern of their lives will be set as they run riot through the town, swept up in the glamour and decadence of their new friends.
This has been sitting on the tbr pile for some considerable time, but this weekend I felt in need of something a bit different. The cover has a blurb that compares it to The Great Gatsby, and I can sort of see why – Clara’s world is a heady alcoholic world of yachts by day, illicit wanderings by night and gallons of alcohol. Effie and Henry are the outsiders – from Georgia compared to the other three’s big city sophistication and the reader can see that they’re heading for trouble and heartbreak.
The narrative follows just Henry and his actions, which is a little frustrating because I wanted to know what Effie was thinking and doing, but given that the author is a man, possibly for the best as I didn’t always love the way the sex scenes were written as it was so maybe I would have liked the book less if I’d been given more of Effie’s inner life. So, not perfect but I still read it in just over 24 hours so it’s very readable despite that. It’s not really Rich People Problems, because Effie and Henry definitely aren’t rich, but it is Rich People Problems-adjacent – in that the rich people are the ones who are causing the problems!
This was Chip Cheek’s debut – and I’d read more from him if/when it appears. I had my copy of this in the NetGalley backlog (!) but it’s on offer on Kindle and Kobo for £1.99 at the moment which is a pretty good deal. I can’t say I remember seeing it in bookshops, but I’m also not sure I ever specifically looked for it and it’s had a couple of different covers now too. Anyway, worth a check if you’re at a shop with a fairly decent literary fiction selection.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 