Bath and North East Somerset Libraries

Adventure

It is the summer of 1812 and Richard Sharpe, newly recovered from the wound he received in the fighting at Salamanca, is given an easy duty; to guard a Commissary Officer posted to an obscure Spanish fort where there are some captured French muskets to repair. But unknown to the British, the French are planning a lightning raid across the River Tormes, and they reckon the obscure Spanish fort, which guards an ancient bridge across the river, will be lightly guarded. Sharpe is in for a fight.

Adventure

The village of Catterby is beholden to no lord or lady. No one believes Lord Salex Nacandro, a sorcerer from far to the north, could be a threat. They’re wrong. Young warrior Kye Beven lacks confidence. Everyone – except Kye’s friend Dyan – questions how he was ever selected to join the ‘Band’, the elite protectors of the village. But when Catterby is menaced by an emissary of Nacandro, Kye reaches for his bow and steps up to the mark.

Fantasy/LGBTQ+

When Tomas O’Lincoln, half-fairy and outlaw, learns that knights from Camelot hunt him in the forest, he fears he must pay for his crimes. Desperate for shelter, the Enchantress sends him on a reluctant quest to find his way to the Fortress Impenetrable, deep in the darkling heartwood. Only behind the high black walls of the Archimago’s castle will Tomas learn a Truth Most Vital and come face-to-face with his destiny. But is it a destiny he wants?

Fantasy

Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food and waterlilies to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone. Messages begin to appear, scratched out in chalk on the pavements. There is someone new in the House. But who are they and what do they want? Are they a friend or do they bring destruction and madness as the Other claims? Lost texts must be found; secrets must be uncovered. The world that Piranesi thought he knew is becoming strange and dangerous.

Fantasy

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe has neither the look nor the voice of divinity, and is scorned and rejected by her kin. Increasingly isolated, she turns to mortals for companionship, leading her to discover a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft. When love drives Circe to cast a dark spell, wrathful Zeus banishes her to the remote island of Aiaia. There she learns to harness her occult craft, drawing strength from nature. But she will not always be alone; many are destined to pass through Circe’s place of exile, entwining their fates with hers. The messenger god, Hermes. The craftsman, Daedalus. A ship bearing a golden fleece. And wily Odysseus, on his epic voyage home.

Horror

If you are looking for a quintessential horror, John Llewellyn Probert certainty delivers. Building on its atmospheric setting the mundane descends into madness. Searching for a new creative outlet, just for herself, Lynda joins Dr Sampson’s choir at the local psychiatric hospital. As she approaches the gates of the gothic monstrosity on a rain lashed evening, she tells herself it’s just her imagination setting her on edge. right? She keeps telling herself that, until she finds she is a prisoner. Something doesn’t want her to leave.

Fantasy/Horror

Pseudo-historian Doctor Hendry is missing. His employers want answers. Paranormal investigators Michael and Walter join the search party to Hendry’s remote Scottish cliff-top home, accompanied by two unscrupulous mercenaries and a deeply sceptical history professor. Among the doctor’s research they find more than they bargained for or can even comprehend, and the rescue becomes a fight for survival.

Fantasy

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable and quiet life. His contentment is disturbed one day when the wizard, Gandalf, and the dwarves arrive to take him away on an adventure. Bilbo finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.

General Fiction

‘The Marble Collector’ tells the story of a woman who discovers a collection of marbles in her father’s belongings. On learning that part of the collection is missing, she embarks on a quest to relocate the missing marbles to complete the collection and also to understand and complete the picture of a man she realises she never fully knew. As she uncovers the story of a damaged childhood, she also comes to understand what is missing in herself. Moving, thought-provoking and uplifting, ‘The Marble Collector’ is a love story between a daughter and her father, and a man and his memories.

General Fiction

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England’s Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort – a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other ‘Bunny’, and are often found entangled in a group hug so tight they become one. But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ fabled ‘Smut Salon’, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door – ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the sinister yet saccharine world of the Bunnies, the edges of reality begin to blur, and her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies are brought into deadly collision.

General Fiction

There was only one thing on her mind. I must start a bookshop. Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, divorces her husband, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married housewife, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju – they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live. A heart-warming story about finding comfort and acceptance in your life – and the healing power of books.

General Fiction/Short Story

In this addictive short story collection, twenty very different women reach a pivotal moment in their lives. A widow is liberated by a new job, but keeps it secret from her family. A date in suburbia has dramatic results. A seamstress takes revenge on an unsuspecting customer, while in France, a mother is promised ‘fantastic news’ – and lets her imagination run away with her. With each story, Jenny Eclair introduces a fascinating new character. And behind each woman lies a gripping tale – of betrayal, of love, of hope and defiance. Funny, heart-breaking, inspiring – and packed with wicked one liners – this wonderful collection shows Jenny Eclair’s exceptional talent for observation at its very best.

General Fiction

Olive is many things. Independent. Adrift. Anxious. Loyal. Kind. Knows her own mind. It’s ok that she’s still figuring it all out, navigating her world without a compass. But life comes with expectations, there are choices to be made, boxes to tick and – sometimes – stereotypes to fulfil. And when her best friends’ lives start to branch away towards marriage and motherhood, leaving the path they’ve always followed together, Olive starts to question her choices – because life according to Olive looks a little bit different. Moving, memorable and a mirror for every woman at a crossroads, ‘Olive’ has a little bit of all of us. Told with great warmth and nostalgia, this is a modern tale about the obstacle course of adulthood, milestone decisions and the ‘taboo’ about choosing not to have children.

General Fiction

‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ is a chronicle of Afghan history, and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, and the salvation to be found in love.

General Fiction

Afghanistan, 1975: Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the local kite-fighting tournament and his loyal friend Hassan promises to help him. But neither of the boys can foresee what will happen to Hassan that afternoon, an event that is to shatter their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption.

General Fiction

Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only daughter of a troubled young mother, but with the constant support of her two watchful godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Despite her tricky childhood, she always felt loved and secure. Until, just before her 18th birthday, a tragic event changed her life. 13 years on, Eliza is deliberately living as safely as possible, avoiding close relationships and devoting herself to her job. Out of the blue, an enticing invitation from her godmothers, now both based in the UK, prompts a leap into the unknown. Within a fortnight, Eliza has swapped her predictable routine in Melbourne, for life in the middle of a complicated family in Edinburgh. She finds herself not only hopeful about the future, but ready to explore her past. Her godmothers have long been waiting for her to ask about her mother’s mysterious life – and about the identity of the father she has never known.

General Fiction

Danny Conroy grows up in the Dutch House, a lavish folly in small-town Pennsylvania taken on by his property developer father. Though his father is distant and his mother is absent, Danny has his beloved sister Maeve: Maeve, with her wall of black hair, her delicacy, her brilliance. Life is comfortable and coherent, played out under the watchful eyes of the house’s former owners in the frames of their oil paintings, or under the cover of the draperies around the window seat in Maeve’s room. Then one day their father brings Andrea home: Andrea, small and neat, a dark hat no bigger than a saucer pinned over a twist of her fair hair. Though they cannot know it, Andrea’s advent to the Dutch House sows the seed of the defining loss of Danny and Maeve’s lives.

General Fiction

When Tova Sullivan’s husband died two years ago, she talked her way into a job mopping floors at Sowell Bay Aquarium. Keeping busy helps her cope, which she’s been doing since her 18-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished. 30 and headlining for washed-up band Moth Sausage, Cameron Cassmore has some serious growing up to do. Then the discovery of an old class ring sends him on a mission to Sowell Bay to track down the father he’s never known. Marcellus, a ‘prisoner’ at the Aquarium, wouldn’t lift one of his eight tentacles for his human captors until he forms a friendship with the cleaning lady. Keenly observant, but with time running out, Marcellus deduces that Cameron is a missing key to what happened the fateful night of Erik’s disappearance. Now Marcellus must use every trick his old, invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for Tova before it’s too late.

General Fiction

Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband’s crumbling country estate, The Bridge. With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. But inside her new home lies a locked room, and beyond that door lies a 200-year-old diary and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself.

General Fiction

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her young black babysitter, Emira Tucker, is accused by a security guard of kidnapping the Chamberlains’ toddler at the supermarket one night. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right. But Emira herself is aimless, broke and wary of Alix’s desire to help. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

General Fiction

In 1995 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores is saved from drowning by a shiver of sharks. His family, struggling to make ends meet amidst the collapse of the sugar cane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favour from ancient Hawaiian gods. But as time passes, this hope gives way to economic realities, forcing Nainoa and his siblings to seek salvation across the continental United States, leaving behind home and family. With a profound command of language, Washburn’s powerful debut novel examines what it means to be both of a place, and a stranger in it.

Historical

When Quaker Honor Bright sails from Bristol with her sister, she is fleeing heartache for a new life in America, far from home. But tragedy leaves her alone and vulnerable, torn between two worlds and dependent on the kindness of strangers, and life in 1850s Ohio is precarious and unsentimental.

Historical

Champagne, 1940: Inès has just married Michel, the owner of storied champagne house Maison Chauveau, when the Germans invade. With war on their doorstep, danger and tension mount and it isn’t long until Michel turns his back on his marriage and begins secretly hiding munitions for the Résistance. Inès is terrified they’ll be exposed, but for Céline, the half-Jewish wife of Chauveau’s chef de cave, the risk is even greater, for rumours abound of Jews being shipped east to an unspeakable fate. When, in a desperate big to find some meaning in the ruin, Céline makes a dangerous decision to follow her heart, it leads to Inès’ reckless involvement with a Nazi collaborator, and soon they risk the lives of those they love and the champagne house that holds them together.

Historical

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii’s brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den. Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father’s death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii’s infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others. But Amara’s spirit is far from broken. By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learnt that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her?

Historical

Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper – despite the displeasure of Achilles’s mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

Historical/LGBTQ+

1617. The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardo is thrown into a vicious storm. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant. Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet has been summoned to bring the women of the island to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa encounters something she has never seen before, independent women. But where Ursa finds happiness, even love, Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs.

Non Fiction – Psychology and Self Help

What do you want, when no one is watching? What do you want, when the lights are off? What do you want, when you are anonymous? When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet for many reasons – some complicated, some not – so many of us don’t talk about it. Our deepest, most intimate fears and fantasies remain locked away inside of us, until someone comes along with the key. Here’s the key. In this generation-defining book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous letters of hundreds of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous letter). ‘Want’ reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous.

Non Fiction – Health and Wellbeing: Depression

Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can’t be normal. But if she’s so hopeless, why can she always summon a desire for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her conversations with her psychiatrist over 12 weeks, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse.

Non Fiction – Biography

In each other Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith found kindred spirits and pursued their mutual dreams. Telling the story of two innocents who shed sheltered lives and braved the city in search of art and freedom, this work – part romance, part elegy – is about friendship in the truest sense.

Non Fiction – Psychology and Self Help

All Lina wanted was to be desired. How did she end up in a marriage with two children and a husband who wouldn’t touch her? All Maggie wanted was to be understood. How did she end up in a relationship with her teacher and then in court, a hated pariah in her small town? All Sloane wanted was to be admired. How did she end up a sexual object of men, including her husband, who liked to watch her have sex with other men and women?

Romance

When Emma sees The Guesthouse at Lobster Bay for sale online, she knows it is exactly the peaceful haven and fresh start she needs to recover from a recent trauma. Yet the moment she picks up the keys, Emma’s dream of owning a successful guesthouse begins to unravel.

Romance

When Summer Preston’s professor issues her with an ultimatum, she finds herself on an unexpected collision course with hockey captain, Aiden Crawford. Summer hates everything about hockey, for good reason, but she isn’t going to let that stand in the way of her becoming a sports psychologist. Aiden loves being the hockey captain, except when his team’s reckless mistakes risk jeopardizing their entire season. When coach puts him forward for a research paper as punishment, he has no choice but to accept. Summer can’t stand his blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn’t understand her uptight, scheduled one. They are off to a rocky start, and provoking each other – it turns out – is what they do best. But losing isn’t something either of them does well. Maybe there’s a way for both of them to win?

Romance

What might have been? This tantalising question propels a woman on a cross-country adventure to reunite with the men she had loved and let go. Madison Allen is a renowned, career-driven photographer. Sifting through old photos in her fashionable New York fire-house apartment, she reflects on what could have been. She’d had three men in her life who were very important to her in different ways, but it was the fourth love, her job, which always won in the end. Consumed by old memories and with a forced pause in her demanding schedule, Maddie embarks on a road trip. She hopes to answer questions about the men she’d loved and might have married in the years after she was left alone with three young children. As Maddie sets off to reconnect with her past in Boston, Chicago and Wyoming, she hopes to learn that the decisions she made long ago were the right ones.

Romance

Publicist Kate Sinclair’s life in London is everything she thought she wanted: success, glamour and a charming boyfriend. Until that boyfriend goes behind her back and snatches a much sought-after promotion from her. Heartbroken and questioning everything, Kate needs to escape. From candles and cosy nights in to romantic late-night walks through the beautiful cobbled streets of Copenhagen, Kate discovers how to live life ‘the Danish way’. Can the secrets of hygge and happiness lead her to her own happily-ever-after?

Romance

Nadia gets the 7.30 train every morning without fail. Well, except if she oversleeps or wakes up at her friend Emma’s after too much wine. Daniel really does get the 7.30 train every morning, which is easy because he hasn’t been able to sleep properly since his Dad died. One morning, Nadia’s eye catches sight of a post in the daily paper: To the cute girl with the coffee stains on her dress. I’m the guy who’s always standing near the doors. Drink sometime? So begins a not-quite-romance of near-misses, true love, and the power of the written word.

Sci Fi

In the violet wastes, Snow is hunted; a bounty that brings everyone on his trail, including Hirald, an enigmatic woman, who is pale and deadly. What does she want from him, and who is she? Blood will be spilt on the violet sands, and truths will be revealed.

Sci Fi

The planet Wanda V has been abandoned ever since the Gates collapsed, generations ago. Scraping together funding and borrowed equipment, scientist and archaeologist Hala ventures into the ruins. Alone on the desolate planet, Hala finds there may be more truth in the myths of invading gods than anyone suspected. Can Hala escape? And what does this self-proclaimed deity want?

Sci Fi

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.

Sci Fi/Thriller

The world has been destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. But, on the island, all is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists. Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it. But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it.

Thriller

When a career criminal claims he saw a basement gallery full of gory crime scene photographs on his last job, DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is sceptical. But some of the details are too familiar to ignore. A raid turns up nothing, so the higher-ups insist Heck drop it, but his instincts are telling him the photographer is hiding something. Investigating alone could get Heck in trouble in more ways than one.

Psychological Thriller

They say every marriage has its secrets, but no one sees what happens behind closed doors. And sometimes those doors should never be opened. Sal and Charlie are married. They love each other but they aren’t happy. Sal cannot leave, no matter what Charlie does – no matter how much it hurts.

Thriller

Two weeks before her wedding, a stranger stops Amy in the street and warns her she’s in danger. Then that night, Matt, her fiancé, doesn’t come home. Desperate, Amy calls the police – but when Matt fails to emerge, she’s forced to call off her wedding day. Then another man is reported missing, by a woman called Fiona – a man meeting Matt’s description, who was about to leave his fiancé for her. He was supposed to be moving in with her – but instead, he’s vanished. Amy refuses to believe Fiona’s lover can be her Matt – but photos prove otherwise, and it soon becomes clear that Matt has been leading a double life. As the police dig deeper, two conflicting, yet equally plausible stories emerge from two women who allegedly have never met. The wedding day never happened. But the funeral might.

Psychological Thriller

This is a tense psychological thriller that explores the tormented world of a serial killer. A killer is on the loose in Bradfield, and clinial psychologist Tony Hill is brought in to investigate.

Thriller

Matt Logan is an MI5 agent for the British government. Working on the frontline of counter-terrorism in the UK he’s trained to protect its citizens against all threats. When two brothers known operationally as ‘Iron Sword’ and ‘Stone Fist’ are suspected of plotting a major terrorist event, Logan and his team work undercover to track them down. If they fail, an attack will be unleashed that will rock the country to its very core. Frustrated by always needing to obey the rules, Logan yearns for a way to break through the red tape that hinders their progress. His wishes seem to come true when he is offered the chance to join a new, deniable outfit known as ‘Blindeye’. Then devastating news reaches Logan, throwing his world into turmoil. But one thing remains certain, he will join the team and become their fiercest, most ruthless operative.

Thriller

When no one knows you exist, you don’t have to play by the rules. Meet former MI5 officer Matt Logan, now part of a totally deniable government organisation known as ‘Blindeye’, with full licence to do whatever it takes to neutralise threats to the UK’s national security. When intelligence comes through that the Kremlin plans to launch a terror attack in London, Logan and the team set in motion a surveillance operation on a billionaire Russian oligarch who may be connected with the incoming threat. As they dig into the man’s life, they soon discover a network of incredibly dangerous individuals whose plans could tear the nation apart. Battling personal demons of his own, Logan must defend his country from a terrifying enemy, or die trying.

Psychological Thriller

‘Summerwater’ is a devastating story told over 24 hours in the Scottish highlands, and a searing exploration of our capacity for both kinship and cruelty in these divided times. On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents. A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a retired couple reminisce about neighbours long since moved on; a teenage boy braves the dark waters of the loch in his red kayak. Each person is wrapped in their own cares but increasingly alert to the makeshift community around them. One particular family, a mother and daughter without the right clothes or the right manners, starts to draw the attention of the others. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls.

Thriller

1958. An alternate Marrakesh. The Cold War wages on and with the launch of Sputnik, Russia is conquering space at last. Young Saif’s mission: escort an undercover British agent to the Deputy Security directorate. Evading high tech Russian surveillance devices, Saif borrows a grand taxi and heads to the pick-up point. But the agent – aka ‘The Lighting Rod’ – is the one man guaranteed to make a dangerous situation more perilous. The race is on to escape the Russian secret service and deliver the spy safely into British hands.