Happy 2025, and Happy First Kindle Deals RoundupVia Email! Thanks so much for signing up. I’m very much hoping this new medium for sharing the roundup will be much less tasking on my poor elderly thumbs whilst still being as beneficial as ever for all involved. Keep reading below for a quick outline of how we’re doing this, before we plunge into all 70 (70!) deals on offer.
I’m assuming everyone receiving this will already be familiar with these roundups, in which case you’ll notice little has changed, despite the jump from Instagram. In fact, I’ll probably be able to include even more books, now that the pressure of “Oh God, I’m clogging up everyone’s Story feed” is removed. The titles are still grouped by those I’ve read (and can therefore make informed comments about), those that I’ve heard are good, and those that fall into neither category but just look good.
I’ll still be including each book’s blurb so you can decide whether to click through on the link, although this does mean these roundup posts will be LONG. The links are the book titles. All links to books are affiliate links. If you purchase a title through the link, you won’t pay any more, but I may receive a few pennies as a result of the purchase.
This month (that’s January), some titles from Amazon’s 12 Days of Kindle are probably still included within the wider net of “Kindle deals”. Amazon doesn’t delineate these things particularly well. What that means for you? If you see something you like the look of, buy it now (if you can). There’s a risk that after 6th January, it might be back up to full price.
Off we go!
Quick Links:
The Ones I’ve Read
Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang - 99p
When failed writer June Hayward witnesses her rival Athena Liu die in a freak accident, she sees her opportunity… and takes it.
So what if it means stealing Athena’s final manuscript?
So what if it means ‘borrowing’ her identity?
And so what if the first lie is only the beginning…
Finally, June has the fame she always deserved. But someone is about to expose her…
What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault.
I enjoyed this far, far more than Babel. The writing is fantastic, and I was glued to the plot. There are many good points made about racism and appropriation in literature, plus there’s the rather meta experience of examining just why you’ll find yourself rooting for this rather awful white woman.
Why Did You Stay? by Rebecca Humphries - 99p
Actor, writer and hopeless romantic Rebecca Humphries had often been called crazy by her boyfriend. But when paparazzi caught him kissing his Strictly Come Dancing partner, she realised the only crazy thing was believing she didn't deserve more.
A flood of support poured in on social media, but amongst the well-wishes was a simple question with an infinitely complex answer: 'If he was so bad, why did you stay?'
It’s incredibly brave to dig so deep into a traumtically toxic relationship, even without its ending being splashed over national newspapers, and even without writing it all out in book form. Worth a read, content warning for gaslighting, narcissism, and coercive control.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - £2.29
Greece in the age of heroes. 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.
Bewitchingly beautiful. I adore Circe by the same author, but I think I might love this one a tiny bit more.
The Muse by Jessie Burton - 99p
On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad, she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence, and unlocks a potential she didn't know she had, she remains a mystery – no more so than when a lost masterpiece with a secret history is delivered to the gallery.
The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in southern Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences . . .
Enjoyed this. It’s not The Miniaturist, but it’s evocative and intriguing.
The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary - 99p
Addie and her sister are on an epic road trip to a friend's wedding in rural Scotland. But, not long after setting off, a car slams into theirs. The driver is none other than Addie's ex, who she hasn't seen since their traumatic break-up two years earlier.
Dylan and his best mate are heading to the wedding too, so Addie has no choice but to offer them a ride. And with four hundred miles to go, they can't avoid confronting the very messy history of their relationship . . .
Will they make it to the wedding? And, more importantly, is this really the end of the road for Addie and Dylan?
It’s my strong opinion that The Flatshare is the best O’Leary, but this is also quite cute and fun.
The Weekend by Charlotte Wood - 99p
Sylvie, Jude, Wendy and Adele have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three.
These women couldn't be more different: Jude, a once-famous restaurateur with a spotless life and a long-standing affair with a married man; Wendy, an acclaimed feminist intellectual; Adele, a former star of the stage, now practically homeless.
Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for one last weekend at Sylvie's old beach house. But fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.
Loved this. The ending took my breath away.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - 99p
Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.
And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough.
Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar.
This has the honour of being the first audiobook I ever listened to. It was a phenomenon back in the day. If you’ve never read it, here’s your chance.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley - 99p
New Year, the Loch Corrin Estate: in a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather.
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider
The victim.
Not an accident – a murder among friends.
Perfect vibes for reading in dark and dismal January, tbh.
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry - £1.89
London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Along with her son Francis - a curious, obsessive boy - she leaves town for Essex, in the hope that fresh air and open space will provide refuge.
On arrival, they hear rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming lives, has returned to the coastal parish of Aldwinter. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist, is enthralled, convinced that what the locals think is a magical beast may be a yet-undiscovered species. As she sets out on its trail, she is introduced to William Ransome, Aldwinter's vicar, who is also deeply suspicious of the rumours, but thinks they are a distraction from true faith.
As he tries to calm his parishioners, Will and Cora strike up an intense relationship, and although they agree on absolutely nothing, they find themselves at once drawn together and torn apart, affecting each other in ways that surprise them both.
One of my favourite ever books. If you aren’t a fan of slow movers, it may well not be for you. But if you delight in the journey and adore buckets of atmosphere and weirdness, please, please, go ahead.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - £2.29
In the economic boom following the Second World War, Cyril Conroy's real estate investments take his family from poverty to enormous wealth. With it he buys the Dutch House, a lavish mansion in the Philadelphia suburbs. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
Danny Conroy grows up in the opulence of the Dutch House. Though his father is distant and his mother is absent, Danny has his beloved sister Maeve: Maeve, with her wall of black hair, her wit, her brilliance. The siblings grow and change as life plays out under the watchful eyes of the house's former owners, in the frames of their oil paintings.
Then one day their father brings home Andrea, a new stepmother. Though they cannot know it, her arrival to the Dutch House sows the seed of the defining loss of Danny and Maeve's lives: exiled from the house and tossed back into the poverty from which their family rose, Danny and Maeve have only each other to count on.
Another that could be said to be quite slow. It’s glorious, though. So rich. I couldn’t put it down.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel - 99p
Lives separated by time and space have collided, and an exiled Englishman, a writer trapped far from home, and a girl destined to die too young, have each glimpsed a world that is not their own.
Travelling through the centuries, between colonies on the moon and an ever-changing Earth, together their lives will solve a mystery that will make you question everything you thought you knew to be true.
Yet another that I’m happy to say is one of my favourites ever, and another that could be deemed a bit weird. It’s life-affirming and brilliant.
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall - 99p
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to follow world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.
If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower, or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here.
Genuinely, brilliant. It might sound dull: it’s not. I learned so much from this book.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - £2.09
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 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.
SO bizarre, and yet SO wonderful. It’s gained huge popularity, for a very good reason.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee - £2.09
Yeongdo, Korea, 1911. Teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a fisherman, falls for a wealthy yakuza. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant – and that her lover is married – she refuses to be bought.
Facing ruin, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle minister passing through on his way to Japan. Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country where she has no friends, Sunja will be forced to make some difficult choices. Her decisions will echo through the decades.
I finished this towards the end of 2024, and I’m so glad I read it. It’s not the best decade-spanning epic set in Korea examining the impact of the Japanese occupation, but it’s still extremely good.
One Day by David Nicholls - 99p
5th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.
So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that?
And every year that follows?
A modern romantic classic, surely? If you’re one of the few who’ve never read it…have at.
Never Greener by Ruth Jones - 99p
When Kate was twenty-two, she had an intense and passionate affair with a married man, Callum, which ended in heartbreak. Kate thought she'd never get over it.
Seventeen years later, life has moved on - Kate, now a successful actress, is living in London, married to Matt and mother to little Tallulah. Meanwhile Callum and his wife Belinda are happy together, living in Edinburgh and watching their kids grow up. The past, it would seem, is well and truly behind them all.
But then Kate meets Callum again.
And they are faced with a choice: to walk away from each other . . . or to risk finding out what might have been.
Sooo…according to my GoodReads, I’ve read this. I don’t remember it. BUT. It was in the first few months of 2020, so it’s likely PandemicTrauma booted it from my memory.
Natives by Akala - 99p
From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers - race and class have shaped Akala's life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.
Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right, Natives speaks directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.
Fantastic. Kind of essential reading, really.
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult - 99p
In all thirteen years of Anna's life, her parents have never given her a choice: she was born to be her sister Kate's bone marrow donor and she has always given Kate everything she needs.
But when Anna is told Kate needs a new kidney, she begins to question how much she should be prepared to do to save the older sibling she has always been defined by. So Anna makes a decision that will change their family forever - perhaps even fatally for the sister she loves.
The first Picoult book I ever read, way back in 2005, and possibly the first book I ever read where the ending left me as gobsmacked as it did.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell - 99p
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.
Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.
This has fair rocketed itself into the realm of a beloved classic. I don’t know anyone who’s read it and not loved it. Now’s your chance to prove me wrong (although, don’t, because it’s great).
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano - 99p
Best friends and sisters, the four Padavano girls bring loving chaos to their close-knit Italian American neighbourhood. William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So, when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano, it's as if the world has lit up around him.
With Julia comes her family: Sylvie, the family's dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. But when darkness from William's past begins to block the light of his future, it is Sylvie, not Julia, who becomes his closest confidante. The result is a catastrophic rift that leaves the family inhabiting two sides of a fault line.
I read this around this time last year. It’s tender and gorgeous, and (I imagine, only child) is so realistic of large families and the tensions and love between siblings.
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier - 99p
Lady Dona St Columb seems to revel in scandal: she is involved in every intrigue of the Restoration Court. But secretly, the shallowness of Court life disgusts her, and in her heart she longs for freedom and honest love. Retreating to Navron, her husband's Cornish estate, she seeks peace and solitude away from London. But Navron is being used as the base for a French pirate, an outlaw hunted all over Cornwall.
Instead of feeling fear, Dona's thirst for adventure has never been more aroused; in Jean-Benoit Aubéry she finds a sensitive man who would, like her, gamble his life for a moment's joy. Together they embark upon a quest rife with danger and glory, one which will force Dona to make the ultimate choice: will she sacrifice her lover to certain death, or risk her own life to save him?
An all-time great. Du Maurier is my favourite author of all time, and this is maybe my…third? favourite of hers. Which still means it ranks probably in my top 20 of all books of all time.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid - 99p
Carrie Soto is the greatest player the world has ever seen.
But six years after her last match, she watches a young British tennis player steal her world record - and Carrie knows she has to go back and reclaim her rightful place at the top. Even if the world doesn't believe in her. Even if it almost breaks her.
This is a story about the cost of greatness and the burden of fame.
The fight for a place in history is about to begin . . .
I love a glossy trashy TJR. This is a nice easy read.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones - 99p
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of the American Dream. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. Until one day they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit.
Devastated and unmoored, Celestial finds herself struggling to hold on to the love that has been her centre, taking comfort in Andre, their closest friend. When Roy's conviction is suddenly overturned, he returns home ready to resume their life together.
Fantastic book, although, obviously, hardgoing at times.
A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater - 99p
For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned while at his kitchen table, soaked in a fisherman’s hut in Reykjavik, sitting calmly in a moss garden in Japan or sheltering from a blizzard in a Vienna Konditorei.
These are the small moments, events and happenings that gave pleasure before they disappeared. Miso soup for breakfast, packing a suitcase for a trip and watching a butterfly settle on a carpet, hiding in plain sight. He gives short stories of feasts such as a mango eaten in monsoon rain or a dish of restorative macaroni cheese and homes in on the scent of freshly picked sweet peas and the sound of water breathing at night in Japan.
This funny and sharply observed collection of the good bits of life, often things that pass many of us by, is utter joy from beginning to end.
I adore Nigel’s writing, and got this in hardback to devour over my birthday day in bed last year. It’s not particularly substantial, but is a joyous read. Take advantage of the 99p offer for sure.
The Ones I’ve Heard Good Things About
Wahala by Nikki May - 99p
For years, Nigel Slater has kept notebooks of curiosities and wonderings, penned Ronke wants Happily Ever After and 2.2. kids. She's dating Kayode and wants him to be 'the one'. Her friends think he's just another in a long line of dodgy Nigerian boyfriends.
Boo has just what Ronke wants - a kind husband, a gorgeous child. But she's frustrated, unfulfilled, and desperate to remember who she used to be.
Simi is the golden one with the perfect lifestyle and a career. No one knows she's crippled by impostor syndrome and tempted to pack it all in each time her boss mentions her 'urban vibe.' Her husband thinks they're trying for a baby. She's not.
When the high-flying, charismatic Isobel explodes into the group, she seems to bring out the best in each woman. But the more Isobel intervenes, the more chaos she sows, until Ronke, Simi, and Boo's lifelong friendship begins to crack. How close to the edge will she push them?
The Guilty Feminist by Deborah Frances-White - 99p
Why do we find it so hard to say 'No'? How can feminism be more inclusive? What can rom-coms tell us about taking charge?
The Guilty Feminist will challenge you, reassure you and empower you to see the world differently.
From inclusion to intersectionality, #MeToo to men's rights, rom-coms to pornography, Deborah Frances-White tackles urgent questions for the modern woman. Featuring interviews with activists, businesswomen and all-round inspirations, The Guilty Feminist examines how women can abandon their guilt, say No (when they mean it), say Yes (when they want to), and to change the world - and ourselves - for the better.
When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman - 99p
This is a book about a brother and sister.
It's a book about childhood and growing up, friendships and families, triumph and tragedy and everything in between.
More than anything,
it's a book about love in all its forms.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - £1.99
Texas, 1934. Elsa Martinelli had finally found the life she'd yearned for. A family, a home and a livelihood on a farm on the Great Plains. But when drought threatens all she and her community hold dear, Elsa's world is shattered to the winds.
Fearful of the future, when Elsa wakes to find her husband has fled, she is forced to make the most agonizing decision of her life. Fight for the land she loves or take her beloved children, Loreda and Ant, west to California in search of a better life. Will it be the land of milk and honey? Or will their experience challenge every ounce of strength they possess?
From the overriding love of a mother for her child, the value of female friendship and the ability to love again - against all odds - Elsa's incredible journey is a story of survival, hope and what we do for the ones we love.
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn - 99p
This is the story of an old English manor house by the sea, with crumbling chimneys, draping ivy and a library full of dusty hardbacks. It's the story of the three children who grow up there, and the adventures they create for themselves while the grown-ups entertain endless party guests.
This is the story of a whale that washes up on a beach, whose bones are claimed by a twelve-year-old girl with big ambitions and an even bigger imagination. An unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, fiercely determined to do things differently.
But as the children grow to adulthood, another story has been unfolding in the wings. And when the war finally takes centre stage, they find themselves cast, unrehearsed, into roles they never expected to play.
They raised themselves on stories. Now it's time for them to write their own...
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton - 99p
When lockdown led busy professional Chloe to leave the city and return to the countryside of her childhood, she never expected to find herself custodian of a newly born hare. Yet when she finds the creature, endangered, alone and no bigger than her palm, she is compelled to give it a chance at survival.
Raising Hare chronicles their journey together and the challenges of caring for the leveret and preparing for its return to the wild. We witness an extraordinary relationship between human and animal, rekindling our sense of awe towards nature and wildlife. This improbable bond of trust serves to remind us that the most remarkable experiences, inspiring the most hope, often arise when we least expect them.
Part of Your World by Abby Jiminez - 99p
After a wild bet, Alexis Montgomery has had her world turned upside down. The cause: Daniel Grant, a ridiculously hot carpenter who's ten years younger than her and as casual as they come - the complete opposite of sophisticated city-girl Alexis. And yet their chemistry is undeniable.
While her ultra-wealthy parents want her to carry on the family legacy of world-renowned surgeons, Alexis doesn't need glory or fame. She's fine with being a 'mere' ER doctor. And every minute she spends with Daniel and the tight-knit town where he lives, she's discovering just what's really important. Yet letting their relationship become anything more than a short-term fling would mean turning her back on her family and giving up the opportunity to help thousands of people.
Bringing Daniel into her world is impossible, and yet she can't just give up the joy she's found with him either. With so many differences between them, how can Alexis possibly choose between her world and his?
Not In Love by Ali Hazelwood - 99p
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on; the financial stability she yearned for as a kid; and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.
Free Love by Tessa Hadley - 99p
It's 1967 and London is alive with the new youth revolution. In the suburbs, meanwhile, Phyllis Fischer inhabits a world of conventional stability. Married with two children, her life is both comfortable and predictable.
But when Nicky - a twenty-something friend of the family - visits one hot summer evening and kisses Phyllis in the dark of the garden, something in her catches fire. Newly awake to the world, Phyllis makes a choice that defies all expectations . . .
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld - 99p
Liz and Jane Bennet are good daughters. They’ve come home to suburban Cincinnati to get their mother to stop feeding their father steak as he recovers from heart surgery, to tidy up the crumbling Tudor-style family home, and to wrench their three sisters from their various states of arrested development.
Once they are under the same roof, old patterns return fast. Soon they are being berated for their single status – and for two successful women in their late thirties, it really is too much to bear. That is, until the Lucas family’s BBQ throws them in the way of some eligible single men . . .
Block, Delete, Move On by LalalaLetMeExplain - 99p
The sad truth is that when it comes to modern dating, there are a whole host of challenges and hurdles to overcome. From ghosting and negging to gaslighting and abuse, this book teaches you what to look out for, to make sure that you're not accidentally dating men with toxic traits who secretly hate women, or who just want to have sex and run.
It will empower you to use your voice and walk away if you spot warning signs in relationships, by highlighting the red flags and the types of fuckboy that you might run into when dating, as well as the green flags and signs that indicate a healthy partnership.
This is not a dating book that promises to find you a person to love; instead, it will help you spot the troublesome ones before it is too late. It will help you to recognise that you possess spectacular buff ting energy and that it's perfectly possible to be contentedly single.
A Spell of Winter by Helen Dumore - 99p
Cathy and her brother, Rob, don't know why they have been abandoned by their parents. Alone in their grandfather's decaying country house, they roam the wild grounds freely with minds attuned to the rural wilderness. Lost in their own private world, they seek and find new lines to cross.
But as the First World War draws closer, crimes both big and small threaten the delicate refuge they have built. Cathy will do anything to protect their dark Eden from anyone, or anything, that threatens to destroy it.
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld - 99p
Quiet, bookish Alice Blackwell never dreamed of being First Lady. Much less to a President whose politics she doesn't believe in. On perhaps the most important day of her husband's presidency, Alice looks back on the strange and unlikely path that led her to the White House, and to a decision - both treacherous and long overdue - that could jeopardise everything.
Taking inspiration from real life, AMERICAN WIFE is a remarkable portrait of a woman caught between her feelings for her husband, her country, and herself.
Strong Female Character by Fern Brady - 99p
A summary of my book:
1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it.
2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc.
3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed.
4. Homelessness.
5. Stripping.
6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns.
7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc.
8. REDACTED as too spicy.
9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax.
10. REDACTED as too embarrassing.
Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood - 99p
Pigs might not fly but they are strangely altered. So, for that matter, are wolves and racoons. A man, once named Jimmy, lives in a tree, wrapped in old bedsheets, now calls himself Snowman. The voice of Oryx, the woman he loved, teasingly haunts him. And the green-eyed Children of Crake are, for some reason, his responsibility.
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar - 99p
Cyrus Shams has always been lost. He’s grown up tangled in the mysteries of his past – an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter, and his mother, whose plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby. Now, newly sober and maybe in love, he’s headed for an encounter that will transform everything he thought he knew. Can a final revelation change the truth of Cyrus's life?
I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait - 99p
For Alice and Hanna, saint and sinner, growing up is a trial. There is their mother, who takes a divide-and-conquer approach to child-rearing, and their father, who takes an absent one. There is also their older brother Michael, whose disapproval is a force to be reckoned with.
There is the catastrophe that is never spoken of, but which has shaped everything . . .
As adults, Alice and Hanna must deal with disappointments in work and in love as well as increasingly complicated family tensions, and lives that look dismayingly dissimilar to what they'd intended. They must look for a way to repair their own fractured relationship, and they must finally choose their own approach to their dominant mother: submit or burn the house down. And they must decide at last whether life is really anything more than (as Hanna would have it) a tragedy with a few hilarious moments.
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes - £1.79
Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings.
Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.
All Fours by Miranda July - 99p
A semi-famous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country from LA to NY. Thirty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami - 99p
In Heaven, a fourteen-year-old boy is tormented for having a lazy eye. Instead of resisting, he chooses to suffer in silence. The only person who understands what he is going through is a female classmate, Kojima, who experiences similar treatment at the hands of her bullies. Providing each other with immeasurable consolation at a time in their lives when they need it most, the two young friends grow closer than ever. But what, ultimately, is the nature of a friendship when your shared bond is terror?
How To Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent - 99p
He was following me. That guy from the nightclub who wouldn’t leave me alone.
I hadn’t intended to kill him of course. But I wasn’t displeased when I did and, despite the mess I made, I appeared to get away with it.
That’s where my addiction started…
I’ve got a taste for revenge and quite frankly, I’m killing it.
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara - 99p
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love as they please (or so it seems).
In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father.
In 2093, in a world torn apart by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him – and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearance.
What unites these characters, and these Americas, are their reckonings with the qualities that make us human – fear, love, shame, loneliness – and the longing to find a place in an earthly paradise.
The Cloisters by Katy Hays - 99p
Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its collection of medieval and Renaissance art.
Drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, Ann happy to indulge some of their more outlandish theories, including the museum's curator who is fixated on tarot and the real possibility of predicting the future.
But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.
Into the Storm by Cecelia Ahern - 99p
It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the rain. The boy survives, but Enya’s life splinters in two. Trapped in a loveless marriage, the storm propels her to break free. But even in the remote country town that becomes her sanctuary, Enya is haunted by the night in the rain. Beneath the boughs of an ancient tree that tells a thousand stories, can she find the courage to face her own?
The Ones That Just Look Good!
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center - 99p
Emma has big dreams, though she hasn't let herself think about them in years. Until her big break comes along: the chance to re-write a screenplay with her hero, Charlie-freaking-Yates! Even better: it's a rom-com - Emma's dream come true.
Charlie is a Hollywood legend. He's also, as it turns out, kind of a jerk. He's written the worst rom-com Emma's ever read - and it turns out Charlie doesn't believe in love at all...
But Emma's not going down without a fight. To help Charlie write the perfect rom-com, she needs to make him understand true romance. But the more she tries to teach him about love, the more real it all starts to seem . . .
This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart - 99p
Lucy Waring, a young, out-of-work actress from London, leaps at the chance to visit her sister for a summer on the island paradise of Corfu, and what's more, a famous but reclusive actor is staying in a villa nearby.
But Lucy's hopes for rest and romance are shattered when a body washes up on the beach and she finds herself swept up in a chilling chain of events...
Wisteria by Adalyn Grace - 99p
Blythe Hawthorn has never let anyone tell her what to do . . . and she's not about to start now.
Headstrong and passionate, she won't be ruled by society, or by her overprotective father, and certainly not by the man she's bound herself to, no matter how insufferable he is. She's determined to be a thorn in his side for the rest of her days, even as he ensues that her life in his palace is anything but the decadent fairytale she imagined.
But as Blythe discovers a new side of herself linked to his past, she'll have to decide if she's willing to let an unexpected spark ignite . . . and discover the real truth about who she is inside.
The Smallest Man by Frances Quinn - 99p
My name is Nat Davy. Perhaps you’ve heard of me? There was a time when people up and down the land knew my name, though they only ever knew half the story.
The year of 1625, it was, when a single shilling changed my life. That shilling got me taken off to London, where they hid me in a pie, of all things, so I could be given as a gift to the new queen of England.
They called me the queen’s dwarf, but I was more than that. I was her friend, when she had no one else, and later on, when the people of England turned against their king, it was me who saved her life. When they turned the world upside down, I was there, right at the heart of it, and this is my story.
The Secret Diary of An Arranged Marriage by Halima Khatun - 99p
Meet our British-Bengali protagonist, a spirited, acerbic woman on a quest for Mr Right. But in a world where tradition and modernity collide, her journey to find love takes a delightfully unexpected turn.
Young, free and single, our heroine finds herself caught between two worlds, never fully fitting in with her English friends or her Asian community. As time ticks away, she embarks on a dual mission—her own dating adventures and the rollercoaster ride of an arranged marriage hunt orchestrated by her larger-than-life family.
From her adorable yet overbearing mum to the army of pretend aunties and profiteering opportunists, everyone becomes invested in finding her the perfect match. With humour and wit, she embraces the chaos of this unconventional approach to love, never quite sure if her ideal partner lies within the boundaries of tradition or if she'll discover something entirely unexpected.
The Moonlight Market by Joanne Harris - 99p
Orphaned, lonely, and lost in his photography work, Tom has no intention of falling in love. And yet, love finds him in the shape of beautiful Vanessa, who lives a dangerous double life in the heart of London's King's Cross.
Tom's pursuit of Vanessa leads him to discover an alternate world, hidden amongst the streets and rooftops of London - and inhabited by strange and colourful beings. In this mysterious realm, two ancient factions - one of night, one of day - have waged war for centuries over a forbidden love and a long-lost prince of sun and starlight.
But when Tom finds a secret market that appears only in moonlight, where charms and spells are bought with memories, he starts to wonder whether he's been here before...
The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim - 99p
Ji-won's life is in disarray. Her father's affair has ripped her family to shreds, leaving her to piece their crappy lives back together.
So, when her mother's obnoxious new white boyfriend enters the scene, bragging about his flawed knowledge of Korean culture and ogling Asian waitresses in restaurants, Ji-won's hold over her emotions strains. As he gawks at her and her sister around their claustrophobic apartment, Ji-won becomes more and more obsessed with his brilliant blue eyeballs.
As her fixation and rage grow, Ji-won decides that she must do the one thing that will save her family... and also curb her cravings.
Rabbits by Hugo Rifkind - £1.99
Tommo has just moved to a prestigious boarding school. A product of the middle class, and with new-found independence thrust upon him, he finds himself invited into fading crumbling country houses.
It's the early nineties and the elite he is now surrounded by is struggling for relevance. Alienated from the mainstream, and running low on inherited wealth, his peers have retreated into snobbery and fatalism. Initially awed by their poise and seduced by their hedonism, Tommo gradually becomes aware of sinister undercurrents and a suppressed rage that threatens to explode into violence.
In this world, half-remembered traditions mix with decadence and an awful lot of small dead animals. And sometimes, not just animals. When Tommo's friend Johnnie's brother is found dead, a shotgun at his feet, he realises there are secrets that everyone knows, but no one speaks about, or even acknowledges. And those secrets can no longer be hidden.
Private Rites by Julia Armfield - 99p
It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.
Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.
As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.
My Friends by Hisham Matar - 99p
Khaled and Mustafa meet at university in Edinburgh: two Libyan eighteen-year-olds expecting to return home after their studies. In a moment of recklessness and courage, they travel to London to join a demonstration in front of the Libyan embassy. When government officials open fire on protestors in broad daylight, both friends are wounded, and their lives forever changed.
Over the years that follow, Khaled, Mustafa and their friend Hosam, a writer, are bound together by their shared history. If friendship is a space to inhabit, theirs becomes small and inhospitable when a revolution in Libya forces them to choose between the lives they have created in London and the lives they left behind.
Family Meal by Bryan Washington - £1.79
Growing up , TJ was Cam's boy next door. When Cam needed a home, TJ's parents - Mae and Jin - took him in. Their family bakery became Cam's safe place. Until he left, and it wasn't anymore.
Years later, Cam's world is falling apart. The love of his life, Kai, is gone: but his ghost keeps haunting Cam, and won't let go. And Cam's not sure he wants to let go, not sure he's ready. When he has a chance to return to his home town, to work in a gay bar clinging on in a changing city landscape, he takes it. Back in the same place as TJ, they circle each other warily, their banter electric with an undercurrent of betrayal, drawn together despite past and current drama. Family is family. But TJ is no longer the same person Cam left behind; he's had his own struggles. The quiet, low-key, queer kid, the one who stayed home, TJ's not sure how to navigate Cam - utterly cool, completely devastated and self-destructing - crashing back into his world.
When things said - or left unsaid - become so insurmountable that they devour us from within, hope and sustenance and friendship can come from the most unlikely source. Nourishment has many forms: eating croissants, sitting together at a table with bowls of curry, sharing history, confronting demons, growing flowers, showing up. This is a story about how the people who know us the longest can hurt us the most, but how they also set the standard for love, and by their necessary presence, create a family.
Life Lessons From Historical Women by Eleanor Morton - 99p
Take a tour of the past and uncover stories of the women whose lives and achievements have shaped our modern world. In Life Lessons from Historical Women, Eleanor Morton celebrates the ordinary women whose decisions and accomplishments in their everyday lives resonate with us today.
Taking inspiration from the thriving self-help genre, Morton reasons that the greatest lessons can be taken from the female forebears who have come before - women whose actions inspire purpose, creativity and rebellion... without a side of pseudo psychology and judgement...
Busy Being Free by Emma Forrest - 99p
What happens when your story doesn't end the way you thought it would?
When you realise - after getting married and having a baby - that you chose wrong?
When the life you dreamt of becomes something you must walk away from?
And when you then find yourself not lonely, but elated - elated to be alone with yourself?
Coasting by Elise Downing - 99p
Elise was spending a lot of time crying on buses. She had just graduated from university; she had a shiny new flat, her first proper job and a budding relationship - and they were all making her utterly miserable. Sitting at work one day, she hit upon the obvious solution:
Run 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain, carrying her kit on her back.
Six months later Elise set off, with absolutely no ultra-running experience, unable to read a map and having never pitched a tent alone before. Over the 301 days that followed she developed a debilitating fear of farmyard animals, cried on a lot of beaches and saw Britain at its most wild and wonderful.
Coasting is about putting one foot in front of the other, even when it feels impossible, and trying to enjoy it too. With heart and humour, Elise explores the thrill of taking risks and putting your trust in total strangers, and learns some home truths along the way.
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver - 99p
When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive - the friendship of two like-minded, pitch-black souls who just happen to enjoy killing other serial killers.
Stalking across the country, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.
But as their friendship develops into something deeper, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their new-found romance.
Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?
Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler - £2.29
On an otherwise ordinary day, 26-year-old American expat Adelaide Williams walks into a London hospital and asks for help. Something's not right. She doesn't feel like herself any more.
For the past year, she's been dating Rory Hughes, the charming man she met when she was least expecting to fall in love. Does he respond to texts? Honour his commitments? Make advance plans? Sometimes, rarely, and no, not at all. Despite everything, Adelaide is convinced he's The One.
But when tragedy strikes unexpectedly, their relationship crumbles, and Adelaide realises she doesn't want to live without him. Because how can you move on from a love that's changed you forever?
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly - 99p
In the sweltering summer of 1997, strait-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba - a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress.
She was quickly drawn into Biba's world, and for a while life was one long summer of love.
But every summer must end. By the end of theirs, two people were dead - and now Karen's past has come back to haunt her . . .
The Painter’s Daughters by Emily Howes - 99p
1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot through the muddy fields that surround their home. But there is another reason they are inseparable: from a young age, Molly has had a tendency to forget who she is, to fall into confusion, and Peggy knows instinctively that no one must find out.
When the family move to Bath, Thomas Gainsborough finds fame as a portrait artist, while his daughters are thrown into the whirl of polite society. Here, the merits of marriage and codes of behaviour are crystal clear, and secrets much harder to keep. As Peggy goes to greater lengths to protect her sister, she finds herself falling in love, and their precarious situation is soon thrown catastrophically off-course. The discovery of a betrayal forces her to question all she has done for Molly - and whether any one person can truly change the fate of another . . .
Just For Today by Nell Hudson - 99p
It was a time of drinking too much and staying out all night. Of boozy al fresco dinners, sneaking into private clubs and midnight strolls on Hampstead Heath.
It was a time of friendship, of falling in love and being young. A time when you felt that anything could happen.
But the party can't last forever, and for Joni and her friends, sunrise promises something darker than any of them could have imagined, as they face the one undeniable truth: it's not if the party ends; it's how.
This Love by Lotte Jeffs - 99p
When Mae and Ari meet their final year at the University of Leeds, their connection is magnetic. Mae, stubborn and no stranger to breaking hearts, needs Ari's bright light to guide her out of her self-centred ways; Ari, vibrant, charming and reeling in the aftermath of a scandal in New York, clings to Mae as his grounding anchor.
As the years sweep by, the two traverse the tumult of life: toxic partners and hidden secrets, the heavy weight of grief, and a complicated, unignorable desire to start a family . . . If they can hold onto one another in the face of the relentless past and the inevitable future, they might discover how to build something beautiful out of their expansive, boundary-breaking love.
Fluke by Brian Klaas - 99p
In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas deep-dives into the phenomenon of randomness, unpicking our neat and tidy storybook version of events to reveal a reality far wilder and more fascinating than we have dared to consider. The bewildering truth is that but for a few incidental changes, our lives - and our societies - would be radically different.
Offering an entirely new perspective, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and random events. How much difference does our decision to hit the snooze button make? Did one couple's vacation really change the course of the twentieth century? What are the smallest accidents that have tilted the course of history itself?
The mind-bending lessons of this phenomenon challenge our beliefs about the very workings of the world. From the evolution of human biology and natural disasters to the impact of global events on supply chain disruptions, every detail matters because of the web of connectivity that envelops us. So what if, by exploding our illusion of control, we can make better decisions and live happy, fulfilling lives?
Eve Bites Back by Anna Beer - 99p
Ever since Sappho first put stylus to papyrus, women who write have been labelled mad, undisciplined and dangerous. Funny and provocative, Eve Bites Back offers an alternative history of English literature. Placing the female contemporaries of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton centre stage, Anna Beer builds a vibrant new canon through Restoration wits, scandalous sensation novelists and medieval mystics.
Delving into the lives and work of eight pioneers – Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Aemilia Lanyer, Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, Mary Wortley Montagu, Jane Austen and Mary Elizabeth Braddon – Beer uncovers the struggles and triumphs of these gamechangers, ground-breakers and genre-makers.
Thanks for reading, hope you found something to make the cold January days better! Personally, I’ve purchased The Eyes Are The Best Part, Rabbits, Butcher & Blackbird, Adelaide, This Rough Magic, My Friends, Just For Today, Coasting, and Eve Bites Back. I already own a fair few of the others though…yes, they’re waiting to be read. Along with dozens of others. Erk.
If you know anyone you think might also benefit from these monthly posts, share my link with them!
Ooh nice round up to start the year! I love When god was a rabbit and The four winds! I remember liking Oryx and crake (read as part of the maddadam series). All very well narrated audiobooks too. Thanks for this, and I must say I like the new format ♥️
Excellent round up. I got Martyr! & Private Rites - they’ve both been on my radar for a while, so thank you!