Book Review: The Last Party (DC Ffion Morgan #1) by Clare Mackintosh

“At midnight, one of them is dead.
By morning, all of them are suspects.”

The first book in the DC Ffion Morgan series by Clare Mackintosh and set to be released on 4th August, The Last Party is set on New Year’s Eve, when Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbours. But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.

On New Year’s Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbours, friends and family, and Ffion has her own secrets to protect. With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead, but who finally killed him.

Book Review: The Night They Vanished by Vanessa Savage

“A family with a secret. A past about to catch up with them.”

Set to be released on 5th May, The Night They Vanished by Vanessa Savage follows Hanna who has barely spoken to her family since the tragedy that rocked their lives fourteen years ago – a tragedy which they held Hanna responsible. But then she sees her family home listed as the scene of a horrific crime. Number of victims: three. Date of crime: today. Frantic, Hanna tries to contact her family, only to find they have disappeared. To find them, Hanna will have to confront what happened all those years ago. And the person determined to make her pay for it…

Book Review: Breaking Point by Edel Coffey

“An innocent mistake. A lifetime of guilt.”

Set to be published on 20th January, Breaking Point by Edel Coffey follows high-flying Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a successful medical career, a caring husband, and an enviable life. She truly has it all. But when – on the hottest day of the year – her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realizes she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car and it is too late to save her. As the press closes in around her, Susannah is put on trial for negligence. It is plain to see that this is not a trial, it’s a witch hunt. But what will the court say?

Book Review: The Anniversary by Laura Marshall

“Some are dying to remember. Some would kill to forget.”

Set to be published on 5th August, The Anniversary by Laura Marshall is set in the small town of Hartstead where, 25 years ago, a local man raged through the town, shooting eleven people dead at random. Cassie Colman was only four when Travis Green killed his last victim: the father she never knew. Cassie has spent her life trying to escape her past, but she is forced to return home when her mother starts forgetting even the basic details of hers. Then a strange discovery amongst her mother’s possessions calls into question everything Cassie thought she knew about the murders all those years ago. And on her quest for answers, Cassie realizes the past is a complicated thing. Some can’t remember it, some don’t want to. And some will do anything to ensure it stays buried…

Book Review: Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

“You can save hundreds of lives. Or the one that matters most.”

Set to be released on 22nd June, Hostage by Clare Mackintosh is a claustrophobic thriller set over twenty hours on one aeroplane flight. Mina is trying to focus on her job as a flight attendant, not the problems of her five-year-old daughter back home, or the fissures in her marriage. But the plane has barely taken off when Mina receives a chilling note from an anonymous passenger, someone intent on ensuring the plane never reaches its destination. Someone who needs Mina’s assistance and who knows exactly how to make her comply. It’s twenty hours to landing. A lot can happen in twenty hours.

Book Review: Legacy by Nora Roberts

Set to be released on 25th May, Legacy by Nora Roberts follows Adrian Rizzo who was seven when she met her father for the first time. That was the day he nearly killed her–before her mother, Lina, stepped in. A decade later, Adrian has created her own line of fitness videos, following in her mother’s ambitious footsteps but intent on making her own way in life. But when Adrian starts receiving death threats, she can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling. Year after year, they keep arriving. They continue after she returns to Maryland and becomes reacquainted with Raylan, her childhood crush. Sometimes it even seems like nothing will come of the terrifying messages. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins…

READALONG: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

“So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s going to be really hard; we’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, every day. You and me… every day.”

Nicholas Sparks‘ first novel, originally published in 1996, The Notebook tells a story in an old notebook, which is read to an elderly woman by a sad stranger. It is the story of Noah and Allie, who fell in love but were kept apart for many years. When Allie shows up on his doorstep, exactly as he has held her in his memory for all these years, Noah has one last chance to win her back. Only this time, it’s not just her parents in the way – Allie is engaged and she’s not a woman to go back on her promises. But she cannot stop thinking about the boy who stole her heart years ago. And so begins an extraordinary tale of a love so strong it turns tragedy into strength and endures everything . . .