Category: female friendship
+ family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friendship, grief, loneliness, loss, love, relationships, review
Preloved by Lauren Bravo
Gwen’s life has stalled. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the country and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around herbaceous borders and the council’s wheelie-bin timetable. Above all she’s lonely. But then, isn’t everyone? When Gwen’s made redundant from a job she drifted into a decade ago and never left, she realises it’s time to … Read More Preloved by Lauren Bravo
+ adventure, cosy mystery, crime fiction, Dogs, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friendship, love, murder, mystery, relationships, review, secrets, sisters
Barking Up The Right Tree by Leigh Russell
When Emily’s boyfriend walks out, she is devastated. As she is puzzling over what to do with the rest of her life, she is surprised to learn that her great aunt has died, leaving Emily her cottage in the picturesque Wiltshire village of Ashton Mead. This inheritance comes with a condition: Emily must take care of her great aunt’s pet. Not knowing what to … Read More Barking Up The Right Tree by Leigh Russell
+ child abduction, childhood, crime fiction, family, female friendship, fiction, friendship, grief, kidnapping, lies, loss, marriage, motherhood, obsession, Psychological fiction, review, secrets
The Silent Midwinter by Jamie-Lee Brooke
Kate processes the mail day in, day out at Standington Prison. With her home life turning stale, she spends her days obsessing over the correspondence between an inmate and his girlfriend. Who is sexy Anna West and what does she see in a cold-blooded killer? Kate also suspects her husband of having an affair. Harper, her stepdaughter, is full of teenage angst and resentment … Read More The Silent Midwinter by Jamie-Lee Brooke
+ dystopia, female friendship, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, reading, review, writer
End Of Story by Louise Swanson
Too much imagination can be a dangerous thing. It has been five years since writing fiction was banned by the government. Fern Dostoy is a criminal. Officially, she has retrained in a new job outside of the arts but she still scrawls in a secret notepad in an effort to capture what her life has become: her work on a banned phone line, reading … Read More End Of Story by Louise Swanson
+ abuse, crime fiction, dark humour, female friendship, fiction, friendship, kidnapping, lies, love, mental illness, murder, psychopath, review, secrets, serial killer, thriller, vigilante, writer
The Skull Keeper by Mariëtte Whitcomb
Best friends on social media, Allysa and Morgan share a love of three things: thriller novels, true crime, and keeping secrets from each other. As soon as Allysa asks Morgan to be her plus one at a funeral, Morgan jumps on the first available flight. Burying the dead might unearth the truth about what happened to Allysa’s brother twenty years earlier. She’s never believed … Read More The Skull Keeper by Mariëtte Whitcomb
+ childhood, depression, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friends, friendship, grief, loss, love, marriage, mental health, motherhood, review
Em & Me by Beth Morrey
A mother. A daughter. A secret waiting to be uncovered. The day that Delphine stands up for herself is the day that changes everything… For too long, Delphine has been unable to let go of the past, obsessed with protecting her daughter, Em, and clinging to a secret that has cast a shadow over their lives. When a chance encounter offers a way out, … Read More Em & Me by Beth Morrey
+ Catholic Church, crime fiction, family, female friendship, fiction, fifties, friendship, illegitimacy, Ireland, loss, love, motherhood, murder, police drama, rape, religion, review, serial killer, sisters, sixties, thriller
Blood Mothers by Gaye Maguire
Some debts can only be paid in blood. A rich socialite is found hacked to death in her Dublin home. It’s the beginning of a killing spree that leaves five apparently unconnected people brutally slain. Kate Hamilton, a brilliant and ambitious detective sergeant, is assigned to the case and soon uncovers the connection between the victims – they were all involved in an illegal adoption … Read More Blood Mothers by Gaye Maguire
+ crime fiction, female friendship, fiction, lies, marriage, murder, review, secrets, serial killer, thriller, writer
Trust Only Me by McGarvey Black
From her home office in rural Connecticut, self-published thriller author Jillian Samuels dreams of writing a bestseller. Her tall, dark and handsome chef husband Teddy, and her BFF, Natalie, a glamorous PR woman always in six-inch heels, cheer Jillian on when her new book, The Soul Collector, is accepted by a New York agent. By night, she writes about serial killers. But then her … Read More Trust Only Me by McGarvey Black
+ family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, fifties, forgiveness, friendship, grief, literature, loss, love, marriage, motherhood, museum, pandemic, relationships, review, World War Two
Dark Enough To See The Stars by Beth Duke
The long-awaited sequel to bestseller and book club favorite It All Comes Back To You has arrived! Violet Glenn. Everybody loved her. In 1946, that included her boyfriend’s best friend, Sam Davidson. Ronni Johnson wrote a book about Violet. It changed her life. Now she’s back working as a registered nurse at Fairfield Springs, loving her patients and her job. She doesn’t have another … Read More Dark Enough To See The Stars by Beth Duke
Six Days by Dani Atkins
Two people. One love story. Six days.He loves me… He loves me not… He loves me… Gemma knows that she and Finn are destined to be together. They are soulmates. But then, on their wedding day, he never arrives at the church. Gemma is convinced Finn wouldn’t abandon her like this, even though he has disappeared once before. But back then he had a … Read More Six Days by Dani Atkins
+ abuse, alcoholism, brothers, childhood, domestic noir, family, fantasy, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, folklore, forgiveness, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, grief, haunting, List, literature, loss, love, music, paranormal, piano, relationships, review, secrets, sisterhood, sisters, slavery, suffragette movement, supernatural, superstition, tradition, whimsical
My Top 4 Books of 2022
It’s approaching the very end of 2022 and it’s time to reflect on my absolute favourite books of the year. Last year it was hard but this year is even harder. There were instant standouts again – about 10 of them but I had to cut it down to four. I have tried to include a mix of genres but failed yet again. I read … Read More My Top 4 Books of 2022
+ female friendship, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, haunting, paranormal, psychic, review, supernatural
The Haunting of Highdown Hall – Psychic Surveys #1 by Shani Struthers
If you sold your soul to the devil, could you ever get it back? The latest in a long line of psychically-gifted females, Ruby Davis can see through the veil that separates this world and the next, helping grounded souls to move towards the light – or ‘home’ as Ruby calls it. Not just a job for Ruby, it’s a crusade and one she … Read More The Haunting of Highdown Hall – Psychic Surveys #1 by Shani Struthers
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