Cally Taylor - Heaven Can Wait - 15th October
‘What would I do without you, Lucy Brown?’ he said, and kissed me softly. I held his face in my hands and kissed him back. I felt that life just couldn’t get any more perfect. And I was right, it wouldn’t. By the end of the next day, I’d be dead.
Lucy is about to marry the man of her dreams - kind, handsome, funny Dan - when she breaks her neck the night before their wedding. Unable to accept a lifetime’s separation from her soulmate, Lucy decides to become a ghost rather than go to heaven and be parted from Dan. But it turns out things aren’t quite as easy as that. When Lucy discovers that Limbo is a grotty student-style house in North London she’s less than thrilled.
Especially after meeting her new flatmates: grumpy, cider-swilling EMO-kid Claire; and Brian, a train-spotter with a Thomas the Tank Engine duvet and a big BO problem. But Lucy has a more major problem on her hands - if she wants to become a ghost and be with Dan she has to complete an almost impossible task. How the hell does a girl like Lucy find a girlfriend for the dorkiest man in England? IT geek Archie’s only passions are multi-player computer games and his Grandma. But Lucy only has twenty-one days to find him love.
And when she discovers that her so-called friend Anna is determined to make a move on the heart-broken, vulnerable Dan, the pressure is really on…
Jessica Ruston - Luxury - 15th October
Sexy, smart New Yorker Logan Barnes knew how to take what he wanted to get where he wanted to be. But you can’t win the girl, make the money and live the high life without picking up enemies along the way…
There’s only one enemy who matters, and that’s the friend Logan betrayed years ago – Nicolo Flores. He got mad, but better still he got even, waiting in the wings to pull the plug on Logan and see his fortunes come crashing down.
Now Logan’s back, in London with a perfect wife, perfect family, and the perfect jewel to crown his rebuilt hotel empire: a stunning island getaway for the truly über-rich. Nicolo’s crazy to find a way to crush him again – but with gambling, addiction, sex and scandal all knocking on the Barnes’ family door, maybe they’ll destroy themselves before he even has a chance to…
Patricia Scanlan - Coming Home - 22nd October
Two sisters…two very different lives. Alison’s American dream is in tatters. Her highflying career is on the skids in the financial meltdown. Her Upper East Side apartment is now way beyond her means . But pride prevents her from telling her family back home just how bad things are.
Olivia is fraught trying to juggle family, career, preparations for Christmas and organize a surprise party for their mother’s seventieth birthday. How she envies, and sometimes resents, her sister Alison and her life of excitement and affluence in New York. Coming home is the last thing Alison wants to do, especially now that she’s met a rather attractive, sexy, down to earth neighbour who doesn’t believe in ‘non exclusive dating’ unlike her wealthy boyfriend, Jonathan. But family ties are strong.
Alison and Olivia sort their differences, the party throws up a few surprises and Christmas brings changes for Alison that she could never have imagined before coming home.
Amy Silver - Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista - 22nd October
Cassie Cavanagh has never minded being ‘just a PA’. In fact she’s quite content with her lot. She has a city job she kind of enjoys - after all she is indispensable, you know. She has a boyfriend who showers her with gifts - what more could a girl want? And she earns enough to (just about ) finance the luxuries she’s become used to.
But Cassie hadn’t banked on being made redundant. Nor had she pictured her boyfriend leaving her for an older woman! Nor had she ever imagined needing to take financial advice from her student flatmate. Reluctant to embrace the art of being thrifty, if Cassie’s going to survive the recession in style, she’s a lot to learn about budgeting.
And even more to learn about herself…
Harriet Evans - I Remember You - 29th October
Heartbroken Tess Tennant is leaving London and moving back to her picture-perfect home town to take up a teaching job. It’s time for a fresh start, one with warm stone cottages, friendly locals in oak-beamed pubs and of course Adam, her best friend since childhood.
But something isn’t right in the town: Adam is preoccupied with a new girlfriend and the past is looming large again. So by the time she has to take her class on a trip to Rome, Tess is feeling reckless. Swept off her feet by a mysterious stranger, she finds herself falling in love. But her magical Roman Holiday is about to turn into a nightmare! Back in Langford, as autumn creeps towards Christmas, Adam is gone and everything has changed.
Tess has to decide, once and for all, where she belongs and who with.
Julia Williams - Last Christmas - 29th October
Catherine Tinsall is gearing up for Christmas – in the middle of summer. As the Writer in Chief on Happy Homes magazine, she is putting together a ‘perfect Christmas’ competition, to remind readers of the festive season’s true meaning.
In the sleepy Shropshire village of Hope Christmas, Marianne Mistletan enters with the suggestion that her village’s nativity play be held in the ancient chapel of Fitzcross Manor, home to the St Nicholas family. Catherine is completely entranced by the idea, and Marianne to her delight finds that she has won.
Waiting in the wings to help Marianne organise the set design is the cool and charismatic Joe Carpenter, who may or may not be just what she wants for Christmas. Meanwhile, for Catherine, the Happy Homemaker image is wearing thin, as her fifteen-year old marriage appears to be in trouble.
Then tragedy strikes and Catherine is forced to reassess her priorities, and work out what the perfect Christmas really means. And overseeing it all, is the figure of John St Nicholas, lord of the manor and perhaps, for some, a Christmas angel! For anyone who’s wondered whether Christmas is over-priced hype, think again
Sara Shepard - All the Things We Didn’t Say - 29th October
Emotional, issue-led fiction perfect for all fans of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and Jodi Picoult Tragedy came as if so often does: a teenage party, emotions running high, followed by a horrific car crash. A girl is left dead and a boy is forced to leave his home town, with a secret that he will carry with him forever! Years later, when Summer’s mother disappears one summer, she is left with her father who is going slowly crazy.
Obsessed with an accident from years ago, he slowly descends into mental illness. And as he becomes more disorientated, he reveals small fragments of a secret that has been hidden since his youth, a secret that changes everything. Summer supports her father as much as she can but eventually realises that she has to escape. She finds refuge with her great-aunt, Stella. Feisty, fun-loving, and dying of cancer, Stella holds parts of the family secret. Slowly, things fall into place for Summer - or at least so she thinks!
This is a story of the importance of family, of the damage a lie can do, and of how nothing is ever what it seems.
Marian Keyes - The Brightest Star in the Sky - 30th October
At 66, Star Street in Dublin, someone is watching over the lives of the people living in its flats. But no one is aware of it – yet…
One of them is ready to take the plunge and fall in love; another is torn between two very different lovers. For some, secrets they want to stay buried will come to light and for others, the unveiling of those secrets will have tragic consequences.
Fate is on its way to Star Street, bringing with it love and tragedy, friendship and heartbreak, and the power to change their lives in the most unexpected of ways…
Since November 2009
Ben Grant has just been dumped by his 29th girlfriend. Not only that but he is also having to face his thirtieth birthday which is rapidly approaching. Desperate to find the perfect woman, like his friend Ash who is having an arranged marriage with Priti, Ben sets out to find himself his perfect bride.
Posted in 2009 Releases, Book Reviews, Rating: 5/5 | No Comments »
and 
Jessie O”Neill’s sister Andrea is due to get married to the love of her life, but Jessie just can’t be happy for her. Jessie’s marriage to her husband seems to be over, but Jessie can’t admit her failure to her friends and family, leaving her spiralling out of control into the depths of despair and depression. 
The paperback copy of Cecelia Ahern’s magical novel 
