Best new books to read, from Taylor Jenkins Reid to Emma Janes Unsworth

Florence Knapp’s debut novel revolves around nominative determinism – how someone’s name can set the trajectory of their life.

Set after the Great Storm in 1987, it begins with Cora setting out with her nine-year-old daughter to name her newborn baby boy. Her controlling and abusive husband wants him to be named Gordon, after himself. Her daughter has affectionately nicknamed him Bear, and Cora wants to name him Julian, believing this name will set him free of influence from his father.

The chapters are divided into three sections – Gordon, Bear and Julian – with each following the ramifications of his naming and the boy’s life as it unfolds over the decades. The novel is utterly original, profound and moving in its exploration of how tiny decisions can change the path of your life. Moments of tragedy will make you weep, but the family story of love and resilience is beautiful. It’s a surprising page-turner, too – I read this novel in two sittings.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £9.99, Amazon.co.uk

Listen to the audiobook now:

• Audible: £7.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple books: £9.99, Apple.com

Americanah author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is back with her first novel in 10 years, Dream Count. The story is split into four sections, each following a different woman (testament to her writing, each part could easily stand on its own as a book). Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America who, faced with the isolation of lockdown in the pandemic, Googles and ponders the men who have come and gone in her life. Zikora is her best friend and lawyer, who is struggling with the heartbreak of her partner leaving her before the birth of their child.

Chia’s housekeeper, Kadiatou’s story takes us from Guinea to the US. Raising her daughter as a single mother in America, her dreams come crashing down by an incident that mirrors the real life accusations made in 2011 against Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Then there’s Chia’s cousin and best friend, Omelogor. Extroverted and bad-tempered, she’s richly drawn as a woman of many contradictions. Just like Chia, she is suffering under the same weight of expectation to find a man.

Addressing everything from FGM to the American dream, this wide-reaching and moving novel was thankfully well worth the wait.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £12.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £12.99, Apple.com

Listen to the audiobook now:

• Audible: £12.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple books: £14.99, Apple.com

One of the buzziest debuts of the year, Nussaibah Younis’s Fundamentally is an entertaining and funny novel about a serious subject. It follows Nadia, a young lecturer in criminology who is asked by the UN to lead a deradicalisation organisation, following an article she had written on Isis brides. Newly heartbroken and itching for a change, she accepts the job and is thrown into the chaotic world of international aid.

Nadia soon forms a connection with east Londoner Sara, who joined Isis when she was just 15. The novel follows Nadia’s attempts at Sara’s repatriation, using them to explore faith and friendship, radicalism and racism, and decades of bureaucratic and systemic corruption and hypocrisy. Younis is thoughtful and sensitive on these difficult topics, awarding the story brevity as well as seriousness.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £9.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £12.99, Apple.com

Listen to the audiobook now:

• Audible: £9.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple books: £9.99, Apple.com

Following her acclaimed short story collection, Send Nudes, Saba Sams’s hotly anticipated debut novel has arrived. Gunk opens with Jules in a hospital holding a baby. But the child isn’t hers – the newborn’s mother, Nim, has disappeared. The novel uncovers how Jules ends up with the baby, exploring her time managing a seedy student nightclub on the Brighton seafront, Gunk.

It’s the perfect depiction of university nights out, complete with sours shots and sticky floors. The novel traces Jules’s relationship with her ex-husband Leon, a failed DJ and alcohol and drug addict, and the pair’s relationship with Nim, a new bartender. Sams’s characters are vividly drawn, from Nim’s tragic loneliness to Jules’s desire for motherhood. Parenthood is a running theme, from Leon’s overbearing matriarch to Jules’s parents' desperate desire to understand the path she’s taken. Though the plot is largely conventional, Gunk is a short and easily readable novel, with the structure of flashbacks keeping you engaged.

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa is already a literary phenomenon in Japan, having won the country’s most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa, and been longlisted for the International Booker. Translated by Polly Barton – who translated last year’s hit novel Butter (£8.49, Amazon.co.uk) – this slender novel covers several heavy topics, from pornography to life with a disability, class and wealth.

The protagonist, Shaka, has myotubular myopathy, a neuromuscular disorder that causes weak muscles and breathing problems. Living in a care home founded by her well-off parents, Shaka has almost no contact with the outside world except studying for an online degree and writing anonymous erotic fiction and Tweets on the side. Longing for the sexual freedom she’s never had, an opportunity arises when a male care worker discovers her online identity and hints at his financial struggles. She offers sex in return for money, a transaction which explores what it means to be powerful (culturally, intellectually and financially) and powerless (physically and sexually). The author also has myotubular myopathy, which gives the book particular insight. Bold and thought-provoking, it deserves every accolade.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £7.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £7.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £7.99, Apple.com

Sarah Harman’s bitingly sharp debut, All The Other Mothers Hate Me, is a hugely enjoyable, addictive ride. It’s no surprise that it’s already been snapped up by Disney+ for a TV adaptation. Razor-sharp in its dissection of school gates culture (think Motherland in a £38k a term school), it follows single mum Florence, the ex-member of a successful girl band, whose 10-year-old son Dylan is the only thing keeping her afloat.

The novel is a crime thriller for those who don’t usually like Richard Osman-style crime thrillers. When Dylan’s rich classmate goes missing, Florence undertakes her own private investigation to try and clear her son’s name after he becomes one of the prime suspects. Funny and full of twists, it’s a real page-turner.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £9.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £9.99, Apple.com

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• Audible: £12.99, Amazon.co.uk

Taylor Jenkins Reid – author of The Seven Husbands of Victor Hugo and Daisy Jones and the Six - has returned with her latest love story, Atmosphere. Set in the Eighties, it’s part good old-fashioned romance and part period piece. The novel opens with a disaster while on a mission in space, with flashbacks detailing the astronaut team’s training on NASA’s US shuttle program. The cohort is the first to allow women into space, including the novel’s protagonists, Vanessa and Joan.

Reid’s intensive research shines through in the passages about NASA and the rigorous training program, but the heart of the novel is in Vanessa and Joan’s relationship. Tension mounts in the present disaster playing out in space, but a different kind of tension builds in the flashbacks, as the women grow closer while being forced to hide their romance. The writing can verge towards the cringeworthy, and the author largely glosses over the era’s pervasive homophobia. Nevertheless, if you love Reid’s previous novels, there’s no doubt you’ll enjoy the readable and romantic story in Atmosphere, too.

Normal People author Sally Rooney has returned with her fourth novel, Intermezzo. Just like her previous novels, the new tome explores messy relationships and the love or loss that can come with them. But this time, they aren’t just romantic, with the novel centring on two brothers in Dublin, 22-year-old Ivan and 32-year-old Peter. Ivan is a socially awkward, local chess star, while Peter is an extroverted but cynical lawyer. On paper, the two brothers couldn’t be more different, but both are grieving the recent death of their father and struggling to convey their complicated emotions.

At the start of the novel, Ivan begins a relationship with Margaret, a woman 16 years older, while Peter is stuck between the love of his life, Sylvie, who’s suffering from chronic pain after a car accident, and his 22-year-old student lover. Written in Rooney’s signature prose with comic moments that lift the tone, it shifts between Ivan, Peter and Margaret’s narration with Joycean-style stream of consciousness sequences. Rooney’s talent is character writing and each line of Intermezzo paints a more vivid picture of Ivan, Peter and their complicated relationship. Joining the ranks of literary characters you won’t forget (see Connell and Marianne), Intermezzo is a powerful, quiet and moving story.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £9.50, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £11.99, Apple.com

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Emma Janes Unsworth explored the chaos of your Twenties in Animals and the confusion of your Thirties in Adults. Now her latest novel Slags takes a look at mid-life.

The book is set against the backdrop of a road trip between two sisters. Sarah is 41, single and child-free and is on a mission to eke out the last of her party years, dating a series of questionable men. Her younger sister Juliette is juggling children, a career and an unfulfilling marriage.

To celebrate Juliette’s birthday, the two embark on a rare sisterly trip around the Highlands in a camper van. The sisters are fiercely loyal and comfortable with one another, but it’s obvious that they are holding back secrets and repressing moments in their shared history.

The chapters flit between the present day and Sarah’s angsty teenage years – at 15, she was madly in love with her English teacher and obsessed with boy bands, sex and the novelty of getting drunk. Juliette, on the other hand. was quiet and studious.

Unsworth’s characters are as alive on the page as ever, with the themes of sexual identity, growing up and sisterly love resonating with readers.

With signature wit, the celebrated American writer and director Miranda July explores female reinvention, sexuality and menopause in her latest novel All Fours. Shortlisted in the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025, the novel follows a 45-year-old woman who sets out on a road trip from LA to New York. Instead, she ends up in an unconsummated affair with a handsome man in a motel room much closer to home (just 30 minutes, in fact). They dance, they talk, they share sexual fantasies, and three weeks later, she’s thrown back into her married, child-rearing life. Is this enough for her anymore?

July breathes fresh life into a well-trodden theme - how creative and sexual freedom are at odds with the traditional trajectory of a woman’s life. Her protagonist breaks free of convention to have her cake and eat it, too. Hilarious, profound and unhinged in the best way, there’s a reason why so many women love this novel.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £9.50, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £11.99, Apple.com

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Sophie Hughes’ translation of Vincenzo Latronico’s Italian novella Perfection is a hilariously deadpan account of an expat couple, Anna and Tom, living in Berlin as digital nomads. The book opens with an artful description of their Neukölln flat that’s full of house plants, tasteful Scandi-style furniture and zeitgeisty records from the likes of Radiohead on display. Meanwhile, their social media is a series of carefully curated posts attending gallery openings with arty friends, attempts at cooking and cultured city breaks.

The author paints a soulless picture of projected taste, with the couple’s lives embodying the gentrification of the city. Despite busy social lives, successful careers, financial stability and possession of all the “right” objects, the couple are suffering from ennui with true happiness always slightly out of reach. Despite the author’s matter-of-fact writing, his sociological observations shine through in this sharp, thought-provoking book.

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• Kindle: £6.99, Amazon.co.uk

Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett is a unique portrait of a family. It’s told through the first-person narrative of a gay immigration lawyer in New York, as well as in third person through his mother, who runs a rural women’s retreat in Vermont. The two live parallel lives. Burying his guilt about a tragedy in his childhood, Peter has no personal life, investing his time and emotions in thankless work on asylum cases. The state is increasingly hostile, and the people he represents are growing ever more desperate. Then, a case of an Albanian young man disowned by his family for being gay forces Peter to face up to his past.

Anne is struggling with guilt, having once been a priest married to an all-American man before leaving him for a woman in a midlife revelation about her sexuality. Now running a women’s retreat, her counselling mirrors Peter’s legal work, but the two are in silent warfare over the demons of their past. A quietly powerful novel that stays with you, this book explores the story of a mother and son’s bond and the reality of the asylum system in America and beyond.

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• Kindle: £10.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025, Mahloudji’s debut is an interesting lens into the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and its aftershocks. It tells the story of three generations of women in a once illustrious family in Iran. Spanning from the 1940s up to the present day, it tells the story of five women, beginning with Elizabeth. The elderly matriarch of the family during the revolution, Elizabeth decides to stay with her husband in Iran and sends her two daughters, Seema and Shirin, to America. It also explores the lives of Elizabeth’s grandchildren, Niaz and Bita. Niza stays with her grandmother in Iran while Bita is a law student who feels generational guilt for the country her parents left behind.

While the themes are heavy (Mahloudji reveals the complexities of modern-day Iran and the women’s decisions to stay), the writing is captivating and often comical, with each character richly drawn. It’s a powerful story of one family and their country.

Both Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut Fleishman is In Trouble and its Apple TV adaptation were critically acclaimed. The writer had a lot to live up to with her follow-up, Long Island Compromise. A satire of the wealthy, it tells the story of a rich, multi-generational Jewish family in Long Island, New York. It begins with an engrossing account of the kidnapping of factory owner Carl Fletcher in 1980 by men holding him to a ransom of $250,000. The impact of this traumatic week-long ordeal reverberates down his family. His sons are both dysfunctional in adulthood: Beamer has a fierce addiction problem (both with drugs and his weekly dominatrix), while Nathan has crippling anxiety and spends his inherited millions on various life insurance schemes. Meanwhile, Carl’s daughter Jenny is just as lost and aimless.

When Carl’s mother and glue of the family dies, the Fletchers must grapple with their collective trauma and the possibility that money won’t fix all their problems. Engrossing and darkly comic, this book will see you growing to despise and love the Sucession-style characters in equal measure. The TV rights have already been snapped up, of course.

Read the ebook now:

• Kindle: £10.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £10.99, Apple.com

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• Audible: £12.99, Amazon.co.uk

A romantic comedy with a surrealist twist, The Husbands follows Lauren, a single, thirtysomething woman who returns to her two-bed flat in South London one evening to find she has a husband. If that wasn’t unexpected enough, she then discovers that if she sends her husband into the attic, he’ll be replaced by a new one. With every new husband who descends from the magic attic, Lauren finds she also has a new life, habits and sometimes even career.

Over the course of more than 200 husbands at a near-daily rate, the book becomes a satirical and smart dissection of swipe-right dating, as Lauren sends the husbands she finds minor faults with back into the attic to start afresh with a new one (if only life was that easy).

From needy and aloof husbands to cheating or just plain weird husbands, Gramazio’s descriptions of the various partners are a riot to read. Lighthearted, utterly unique and hilarious, this fresh debut is the perfect escapism going into the new season.

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• Kindle: £4.99, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £4.99, Apple.com

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• Audible: £11.37, Amazon.co.uk

An addictive sci-fi romantic comedy, Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time is set a couple of years in the future, when the British goverment have got their hands on a time-travel portal. As part of an undisclosed mission, they’ve brought back five “expats” from history. Among the time travellers is Commander Gore, a 38-year-old Navy officer from the 19th Century who was part of Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition to the Arctic. In real life he died in 1847, but in Bradley’s genre-bending tome he’s forced to acclimatise to the 21st century, while our nameless narrator, a disaffected civil servant, is assigned as Gore’s “bridge” to help him settle in.

Grappling with everything from aeroplanes, dating apps, the British Empire and iPhones, what follows is a part girl-meets-boy (or Victorian-Arctic-explorer) love-story and part thriller. Laugh-out-loud funny and a suprisingly powerful meditation on the climate crisis, it’s above all exciting, fun and a good old-fashioned page-turner that you’ll recommend to all your friends.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £5.49, Apple.com
• Kindle: £5.49, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple books: £9.99, Apple.com

An engrossing thriller and important historical reckoning, Percival Everett’s James retells Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. It begins in 1861, when Jim learns he will soon be sold to a new owner in New Orleans, meaning he’ll be separated from his wife and daughter. To escape his fate, he flees the village to a nearby island on the Mississippi River, where he runs into Huck Finn, a boy who has faked his own death to escape his violent father.

Hatching a plan, the unlikely duo begin a dangerous journey along the Mississippi River in search of the freedom they’ve heard lies north. Though their odyssey plays with the original Huckleberry Finn (the characters of the Duke and King make an appearance), Everett makes the story entirely his own, showing how Jim adapts to survive. For example, Jim’s outward speech is the same as in Twain’s novel, but in James, it’s a calculated code-switch to make white people feel superior. The constant jeopardy makes it a real page-turner, but the thriller aspect is balanced by the emotional and horrifying reality of slavery in the American South. James just fell short of winning last year’s Booker Prize, but after reading it, you might agree with us that it should have won.

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• Apple Books: £7.99, Apple.com
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• Audible: £11.37, Amazon.co.uk

The winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital is a philosophical meditation from space. The book follows a day in the life of a team of six astronauts on the International Space Station. The team conduct scientific experiments with the mundanity of day-to-day life on Earth, but all against the backdrop of 16 sunrises and sunsets, glaciers, mountains, and total weightlessness.

As a cyclone gathers pace on Earth and news of the death of the mother of one of the astronauts reaches them, conversations and thoughts turn to human fragility, the meaning of life, the passing of time and their fears and dreams. At just 130 pages and with beautiful prose, Harvey’s book is short but sweet, serving as a love letter to Earth and humanity.

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• Apple Books: £5.99, Apple.com
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• Audible: £11.37, Amazon.co.uk

Andrew O’Hagan (author of the beloved book Mayflies) is back with his latest novel: Caledonian Road. A vast state-of-the-nation novel that jumps between characters and social worlds, the book’s near-700 pages contain Dukes and Duchesses, drill groups, refugees, journalists, students and more – painting a vivid picture of post-pandemic, post-Brexit Britain.

Campbell Flynn is a well-known working-class art historian who now mixes with the upper echelons. As both his material and mental state become increasingly fragile, O’Hagan pays just as much attention to the wider cast of characters, from Milo, a young computer hacker, to Flynn’s publically disgraced old university friend and bitter sitting tenant (the book even comes with a cast list so you don’t lose track). A novel that’s just as much about the city of London and the fall of a man as it is a biting satire on modern society, class and politics, Caledonian Road is a masterful feat of storytelling.

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• Kindle: £9.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: £20.99, Amazon.co.uk

A New York Times bestseller, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People follows a woman who accidentally gatecrashes a Rhode Island wedding. Phoebe Stone is a professor who has found out her husband has been having an affair. Recently divorced and depressed, she decides to book into the coastal luxury hotel that she dreamt of going to with her husband.

Upon arrival, she realises the entire hotel has been booked out for a wedding party, and as Phoebe is in her finest dress, she’s mistaken for one of the guests. While the bride fears this stranger could ruin her carefully planned big day, Phoebe worries that her solo trip and the secret reason behind it is entirely spoiled. But among the chaos, an unlikely friendship blooms between the two troubled women. Laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly moving, you’ll have the most fun tearing through Espach’s charming novel.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £8.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

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• Apple Books: £9.99, Apple.com
• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Part whodunit, part dark exploration of motherhood, Holly Bourne’s novel So Thrilled For You follows a group of university friends who reunite at one of their baby showers. Now in their 30s, they’re all leading very different lives. Steffi is feeling judged about her happy, child-free lifestyle; Charlotte is desperate to conceive; Lauren is finding out that motherhood is not all it’s cracked up to be; and Nicki doesn’t even want to be at her own baby shower. This melting pot of tension comes to a head over one sweltering hot weekend. Then, someone starts a fire at the house, and everyone becomes a suspect. Pacy and funny, thanks to smart writing and relatable characters, there’s a touch of Agatha Christie as we follow the police putting together the facts. Documenting both the highs and lows of motherhood and female friendships, you’ll tear through the domestic thriller.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £7.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £7.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Apple Books: £9.99, Apple.com
• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Having penned more than 20 novels, you know you’re in reliable hands with Anne Tyler. Her latest title, Three Days in June, is a short novel (just 176 pages) that can be devoured over a lazy weekend.

The protagonist, Gail, is single, socially awkward, and has just lost her long-standing job as assistant mistress at a school. To make matters worse, her ex-husband, Max, has arrived on her doorstep requesting a place to stay during their daughter’s wedding, while the bride herself has discovered that her fiancée has been keeping a secret.

Taking place over three days during the nuptial celebrations, the quietly profound novel is infused with Tyler’s signature wit, astute human observation and humour. The author has a talent for evoking chemistry between people and writing characters that feel alive on the page. You’ll find yourself rooting for Gail and Max to find a happy resolution to their messy history.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £7.99, Apple.com
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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Natasha Brown’s new book, Universality, explores similar themes to her critically acclaimed debut Assembly (£8.99, Amazon.co.uk). The short novel – just 156 pages – opens with a viral longlead expose written by down-on-her-luck freelance journalist Hannah. The whodunit-style piece investigates a gold bar used as a weapon in a brutal attack on a Yorkshire farm. Connecting the dots between an amoral banker landlord, a divisive newspaper columnist and a radical faction of anti-government activists, Hannah conducts a deep dive into the identity of the attacker.

Well-structured, the second half challenges Hannah’s account and questions what we can take at face value. Detailing the aftermath of the viral long read (from think pieces to potential lucrative screenplay adaptations), this witty social satire explores the power of language, power and the complexities of truth.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £8.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £7.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

After the runaway success of Coco Mellor’s Cleopatra and Frankenstein in 2022, the author’s follow-up, Blue Sisters, has a lot of hype. It mostly delivers. Swapping hedonistic lovers in her first novel for grieving siblings in her second, the book follows three sisters grappling with the loss of their fourth sister in an accidental overdose.

Not only are they grieving, but both are fighting personal battles. The youngest, Lucky, is a 26-year-old model in Paris who relies on drugs and alcohol to escape the noise of her mind; the middle child, Bonnie, has given up a successful career in boxing to be a bouncer in an LA bar; and Avery, the eldest, is having an affair with a man while her wife pines for them to have a child. If you can get over the cliché and slightly cringey characters, the sisters’ stories are gripping enough to sink your teeth into.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £4.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £4.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk

Roxy Dunn’s debut novel explores womanhood, relationships and what happens when your life takes an unexpected direction. Told from the point of view of 34-year-old Margot, who has found herself single once again, each chapter tells the story of a man she’s dated.

From her first relationship at the end of school to the longer partners who have helped shape her, each one teaches her something new about herself and what it is to be a woman. Fertility is a theme that runs through the book, with Margot’s biological body clock a ticking time bomb in each relationship as she gets older. But there’s plenty for men to relate to; Dunn’s writing perfectly captures the exciting beginnings and achingly sad ends of relationships. You won’t be able to put it down.

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• Kindle: £6.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: £11.37, Amazon.co.uk

Catherine Newman’s debut We All Want Impossible Things (£9.19, Amazon.co.uk), made us cry and laugh simultaneously – and her second novel, Sandwich, is just as heartfelt and charming. Rachel (affectionately known as Rocky) is in her mid-fifties, and her family has escaped to the picturesque Cape Cod every summer for two decades. Pitching up annually at the same rustic beach town rental, the house, landscape, and beaches are full of memories and nostalgia.

Her kids are now adults yet young enough to still need her, while her parents are still alive and healthy, leaving Rocky feeling sandwiched between the two generations (giving the book its title). But this blissful balance on holiday is soon disturbed by harboured secrets.

Whether it’s considering her now-foreign body as she goes through menopause or losses in the past, Rocky’s inner monologue reveals both the pains and joys of mid-life, as well as the passing of time. Full of warmth and hilarity, it makes you nostalgic for family holidays and sun-soaked days.

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• Kindle: £2.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Apple Books: £7.99, Apple.com
• Audible: £11.37, Amazon.co.uk

Fans of Zadie Smith’s kaleidoscope approach to storytelling will love Oisin McKenna’s debut, Evenings and Weekends. Set in London over a June weekend in 2019, it follows a series of interconnecting characters over that blisteringly hot summer before the pandemic. Maggie is 30 years old, pregnant and broke, while her partner, Ed, is trying to run from his secretive past involving Maggie’s best friend Phil.

Falling for his housemate Keith while stuck in a dead-end office job, Phil lives for the weekend while his mother, Rosaleen, has just been diagnosed with cancer and is travelling to London to tell Phil. As all their lives convene over one Saturday night, secrets, fears, hopes and harsh realities come to the forefront. Mckenna’s writing is intoxicating and intimate, with the characters so richly drawn you’ll ponder about them long after the final page.

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £5.99, Apple.com
• Kindle: £5.99, Amazon.co.uk

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• Audible: £11.37, Amazon.co.uk
• Apple Books: £4.99, Apple.com

The third entry in Yarros’ Empyrean series, Onyx Storm continues the romantasy themes from books one and two in a tumultuous tale of love and sacrifice. For those not familiar with the series, it revolves around the college of Basgiath where cadets – if they're brave enough – learn to become dragon riders. Onyx Storm picks up with the protagonist where Iron Flame left off (*spoilers ahead*), in Violet Sorrengail's second year after we discovered that Xaden Riorson, her boyfriend and former wingleader, had begun to turn venin. The plot follows the pair as they navigate the search for a cure, all the while learning more about their magic (termed signets, in Yarros' world) and working to defeat the hoards of venin descending on the realm.

Yarros keeps readers enthralled from pages one through 500 and mixes her renowned spicy scenes perfectly with a whole host of tales awash with friendship, battle, humour and discovery. And, of course, it wouldn't be Yarros without the inevitable cliffhanger to tie it off. Guess we'll be waiting another two years...

Read the ebook now:

• Apple Books: £12.99, Apple.com
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• Audible: 99p, Amazon.co.uk