Our self care ritual could never truly be complete without a good book to devour. Hot off the press, these are the titles we’re most looking forward to in February – and we can guarantee you’ll love them too.
1. The Bass Rock, Evie Wyld
From award-winning author of All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld returns with The Bass Rock, a simmering, eerie tale of passion and madness. Through the lives of Sarah, a young woman accused of witchery; Ruth, a newly-wed and stepmother and Viv, middle-aged yet still seeking; Wyld examines the intersections between gender and power across the centuries.
2. Grown Ups, Marian Keyes
A new classic from the queen of contemporary fiction. The Caseys are a glamorous happy family. At least, that’s what they believe. Until one careless remark at a birthday party, with the entire family present, results in secrets being spilled. In the subsequent unravelling, every one of the adults finds themselves wondering if it’s time – finally – to grow up?
3. The Last Day, Andrew Hunter Murray
A high-concept, utterly original debut thriller which envisages a world on the edge of catastrophe.
It’s 2059 and the world has stopped turning. One half suffers an endless frozen night; the other, nothing but burning sun. Only in a slim twilit region can life survive. In an isolationist Britain, Ellen Hopper receives a letter from a dying man containing a powerful and dangerous secret people will kill for.
4. Riptides, Kirsten Alexander
Riptides is a gripping family drama about dreams, choices and consequences from the author of the acclaimed Half Moon Lake. Abby Campbell and her brother Charlie are driving to their father’s farm on a dark country road when they swerve into the path of another car, forcing it into a tree. In the heat of the moment, Abby and Charlie make a fateful decision. Soon the truth is like a riptide they can’t escape, as their terrible secret pulls them down deeper by the day.
5. Happy Ever After, C. C. McDonald
An intelligent, compelling psychological thriller from an exceptional new voice. Naomi seems to have the perfect life. But the reality is she and her husband are drifting apart and struggling to conceive their second child. Then Naomi meets Sean at her daughter’s nursery. Looking for a connection, she joins him at a swimming lesson with their children. That day, Naomi makes a terrible mistake. Weeks later, Sean has disappeared without a trace. As she begins to piece her life back together, it becomes clear that someone else knows her secret. Someone who wants to make sure she never forgets what she did at the pool.
6. Money School, Lacey Filipich
‘Time poor’ is the catch phrase of our era. Lacey Filipich, founder of Money School, is here to teach us how to take control of our money and time so we can build the lives we really want. There is an alternative to working your butt off for decades and retiring when you’re worn out: it’s called financial independence. Imagine: the freedom and flexibility to work if, when and where you like, go travelling, spend time with family or start that business you’ve been dreaming of. With enough time and a way to earn, it’s achievable for most people through the power of passive income.
7. Unfree Speech, Joshua Wong
The urgent, first book from global phenomenon Joshua Wong – leader of the Hong Kong protests, Nobel prize nominee and TIME, Forbes and Fortune world leader. Composed in three parts, Joshua chronicles his path to politics, collects the letters he wrote as a political prisoner under the Chinese state, and closes with a powerful and urgent call for all of us around the world to defend our democratic rights.
8. Miss Austen, Gill Hornby
A wonderfully original, emotionally complex novel set in 1840. Twenty three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury, and the home of her family’s friends, the Fowles. She knows that, in some dusty corner of the sprawling vicarage, there is a cache of family letters which hold secrets not be revealed. Then one day she faces a stark choice: protect Jane’s reputation or leave the contents of the letters to go unguarded into posterity.
Image: Pexels, Penguin Books
