On Bee's Bookshelf

There is so, so much more to British culture than football violence, queueing and imported tea. There are so many beautiful traditions and tales that are lost to time; back to the Cymrian, Celtic, Scots and pagan roots of the British Isles — stories of goddesses who were revered, respected, feared and loved but forgotten whether by force or time.  No Fair Maiden reclaims these stories, reminding us that there’s a reason we call it Mother Earth At the authors own admission, while the stories included were researched, there is also a storytelling element so the way these old folktales and legends are presented within so I’d encourage any reader to keep researching any tales that resonate. Willis tells each tale in a manner that almost requires a crackling bonfire to accompany it, told with wonder and awe, with beautiful rich storytelling that captures that magnificence these legends once held.  We go between beautiful telling of these stories, to deeply personal anecdotes about ...

In the crumbling seaside town of Hawksbridge, Shona finds kinship with the eccentric Gifford family living illegally in a derelict building. Their stories of survival give her the courage to paint again-until she discovers a body wrapped in carpet, and everything starts to unravel. Richard knows her secrets. He's documented every shameful detail of her childhood, from the fire she set at fifteen to the deaths that followed.  Now he's weaponizing that knowledge, jeopardizing her relationships and her future. But Shona has learned something important from the misfits of sometimes the only way to break free is to embrace the darkness you've been running from. As New Year's Day dawns, Shona faces a choice that will define who she really is. Because some shadows can't be escaped-they can only be owned. "I have no idea what you intend to do, And then your shoulders slump, 'It's not worth it, is it, Shona? You're immune to slaps, cigarette burns, insults. ...

Welcome to Pay to Stay, Los Angeles’s premier minimum-security facility where the privileged serve time Friday to Monday only.  But this New Year’s weekend, seven inmates—including a driven campaign manager, a disgraced nurse, a party girl, and one mysterious male transfer—discover their abusive guard dead, wrapped in an ironic “Community Payback” vest. Now they must solve his murder before their cushy arrangement becomes a permanent stay in maximum security. As a storm rages outside and the power fails, alliances shift within. With police knocking at their door and an emotional support iguana named Nacho as their witness, these inmates hustle to collect evidence and plan a killer party—all while dodging suspicion. Because someone in this concrete block is a murderer. And everyone is a suspect. But as New Year’s Eve approaches and bodies pile up, these unlikely allies discover that in Pay to Stay, some debts can only be paid in blood. "Is this seriously happening? We're going ...

Hazel and Marc were paired together on revolutionary new reality TV show Love Synced, in which sophisticated AI matches hopeful lovers based on its perceptive algorithms. But when it came time to say I Do on camera, Hazel couldn't go through with it, leaving her perfect match at the altar, his family furious and the whole TV production in jeopardy. Now all she wants to do is fly home. Instead, she's trapped in a tiny isolated airport that's been ground to a halt amidst a massive snow storm... with her ex and his obnoxiously rich family sitting at the gate with her. But when they start turning up dead, a jilted lover is the least of Hazel's worries – there's a serial killer to catch first. I have come to have unreasonably high expectations from L.M. Chilton since the first time I was sent a copy of their work and they've never let me down. I'm happy to say, the streak continues. I Think We Should Kill Other People is a wickedly clever murder mystery; high con...

I’m a slut for mythology and the Odyssey saga has always been one of my favourites — but I’m also one of those people who thinks the women written into these stories, characters that have become timeless icons of literature, were never given the respect they deserve.  That’s why I adore Rosie Hewlett so much; she identifies the way that women read these stories, the way we recognise things in these characters that the men writing them couldn’t understand, the way we can see them as more than a wife, a witch — and she raises the voice we already heard. And seeing as she already killed it with one of my most loved women in ancient lit, Medea, I was so excited to read her reimagining of Penelope, a mighty, clever, fair queen who is written off as anything but the patient, loyal wife of Odysseus and the often forgotten 'rebellious handmaid' Melantho.  Immediately I was drawn in by the thoughtful, descriptive prose that set the tone, the time, the atmosphere so well with a heavy mi...

I'm excited to share a little sneak peek at an upcoming release from my favourites over at Orenda Books - The Bone Mother  will be released this July, following up from the magnificent Crow Moon:  Want to know more? 👇 Martha Strangeways has settled into a quiet life in Strathbran, after the horrific events that traumatised the village a year earlier. But all this is turned upside down when her friend at Glasgow CID, DI Derek Summers, calls on her to help with a disturbing case: a human ear, with an unusual Celtic earring, has been found next to a railway line in the Highlands. And when the body of a young woman wearing matching jewellery turns up at a landmark church shortly after, the mystery deepens. Why has she been laid out in a ritualistic fashion? Does her trek along the little-known Cailleach Way have anything to do with her death? And who is running the Facebook Group where she posted details of her journey to the shrine of the Bone Mother goddess? As Martha tries to ...

Best friends Benny and Joy host a beloved 'comedy survival' podcast, gleefully finding life-affirming humour in near-death experiences. When Benny arrives at Joy and her husband's home one morning to record, he finds shattered glass and an empty house. With Joy missing and the hours ticking by, not even their most devoted fans could guess the terrible secrets they have hidden from the world - and from each other. If Benny wants to find Joy in time, and clear his own name, he'll have to solve the highest stakes survival story yet. You know when a book tries to be too many things and it ends up just not doing any of them well? That didn't happen here. TSMSYL is a love story, mystery, crime drama - 368 pages of emotional distress with a beautiful result. We're introduced to our two leading characters on Day Zero before everything changed, switching perspective between Benny and Joy to give us a real rounded feeling of their lifelong relationship, seeing them as peo...

But his gamekeeper sees something different when he looks at me. Sir Clifford Chatterley turned me into a vampire to prove a theory — that feral creatures like me could be domesticated, civilised, and made acceptable for his aristocratic world. He keeps me chained and starved, drowning my hunger in silver and ash while he moulds me into the perfect Progeny wife. Oliver Mellors doesn't want to tame me. He wants to unleash me. In the dark woods beyond Wragby Hall, he teaches me to hunt. To feed. To feel. He shows me that the wildness my husband is trying to suppress isn't shameful — it's my power. Between the lord who wants to break me and the vampire who wants to free me, I discover a hunger that has nothing to do with blood. And everything to do with taking back what's mine. My body. My desire. My rage. You know the story. But you don’t know  my  story. “When I was human, they told me desire was a sin. Now I am a monster, I live to be sinful. I think maybe you do, too.”...

A small town, a dark past. Jenna Willcot is a spunky, disabled, horror fanatic who visits rural Montana for a stay at a horror-themed rental cabin. Jenna has struggled with severe anxiety for years, hardly ever leaving the house. This vacation will test her limits, and, she hopes, open her back up to the world. But she is about to find out her dream vacation is built on a nightmare. 25 years earlier, the Bitter Butcher massacred 11 people in the small town of Marion, on the land where Jenna’s vacation cabin now sits. Her arrival coincides with the beginning of a new massacre as a body is discovered outside town. It quickly becomes clear that this is no isolated incident, as further killings occur, each with their own connection to the original massacre. Jenna starts seeing slashers around every corner and must team up with locals Erica and Jamie. Together, they will struggle to survive this killing spree while unearthing secrets connecting the town’s shameful history to slashers past a...

Nearly everyone died the first night  they  came… Two years ago, monstrous beings tore through Britain, leaving few survivors. Now Sara and her family live on the run, relying on scraps of folklore and fading pagan rituals to stay safe from the eldritch creatures they call "witches". While her mother grows increasingly paranoid, Sara longs for something more than fear. Then a strange girl appears in the garden of their current camp. Her name is Parsley, and she cannot remember where she came from or why she's there. Despite her family's suspicions, Sara feels drawn to her. But when Sara's younger brother is taken by the Witches, she and Parsley must cross desolate moors full of merciless terrors to get him back. As their bond deepens, so do the dangers they face—and Sara begins to question whether anything is truly as it seems. "Why would anyone ever go toward a hole like that? They wouldn't; it's just not in human nature to run toward danger that dar...

Megacorporation UniView is poised to cement their reputation as “the most trusted name in AI.” After pioneering self-driving and HR bots, UniView is now barreling toward an audacious new launch. That is, if they can pull it off in time. Enter Noah. A down-and-out copywriter reeling from a midlife crisis, he isn’t the typical hire for a groundbreaking tech company full of brilliant engineers and run by a cutthroat CEO. But Lex, UniView’s Head of HR and one of their greatest successes, makes no mistakes—her algorithm ensures it. UniView’s latest venture—a bot named Quinn that creates revolutionary personalized advertising—needs expert training. Noah needs to teach Quinn—who is a much better student than he ever could have hoped for—the finer points of consumer motivation and the art of writing a catchy tagline. But when corporate competitors force UniView to accelerate their timeline to market, guardrails around the AI loosen just as Quinn is learning a bit too much.   " Are you ali...

  An out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime—sitting soundlessly in a lecture theatre, zipped into a large leather bag—to aid a professor’s psychological experiment. What could possibly go wrong? In Luke Kennard’s audacious new novel, a penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr. Blend’s students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own—in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag?—and the actor’s childhood friend forms a vision for monetizing this new situation . . . "The question of what to do with my weekends now that I am gainfully employed as a black bag is a tricky one." Kennard writes books that should be pretentious, but just...

Yana, a vampire hunter, rides into Koprivci promising salvation. The village’s curse has endured for many years and rumour has it that Anka – whose parents died on the night of her birth – is to blame. But enduring the villagers’ suspicion is the least of Anka’s worries; now she has reached womanhood, she can no longer avoid the odious marriage that seems to be her only option. When animal corpses start to appear in the village square and eggs filled with blood are found in the chicken coops, panic rises. The villagers look to Yana for hope. She knows all about the monsters that stalk the night, monsters that only she can vanquish. But Yana is a liar. And monsters come in all different forms. Yana and Anka become unlikely allies in hatching a plo t to save both Koprivci and Anka from their fates. But then their plan takes on a horrifying life of its own... "Was that how demons felt? Clawing at the walls of the world, desperate to cross? The movement between was jarring, the passag...

Meet Barri Brown. Respected teacher. Upstanding citizen of Guernsey. Down for a bit of law-breaking. Barri is preparing for a year’s paid maternity leave but there’s a catch:  She isn’t pregnant. With seven foam bumps, a wardrobe full of smock dresses and a great pregnancy heist planned, all Barri has to do is blag it until she can disappear for good, without getting caught and being sent to prison for fraud. Child’s play. But can she  really  get away with telling the mother of all lies? "It's good for the soul to jump aboard a hare-brained scheme every now and again." It's time for the mother of all lies in this tumultuous, messy comedy drama as one woman risks everything to just have a god damn break. Meet Barri, our eccentric main character who doesn't look like she'd commit maternity fraud but … that's the plan.  Did she mean to? not exactly.  Is that a bit shady? absolutely.  Is this some kind of breakdown? probably.  But do I find myself not onl...

Natalie chose James carefully, because he's different from all the men she'd loved before. Calm. Competent. Kind. And there are three very good reasons she needs to be so careful. Their names are Marc, Luca and George. Natalie prefers not to think about what they did to her. Let alone what she had to do to them. Except now, on a night they are meant to be celebrating how happy they are together, Natalie and James are lying in separate bedrooms. She is asking herself how she could have been foolish enough to let yet another man hurt her like this. Slowly, Natalie realises she’s already holding a knife. But she's not going to do anything with it.  She’s not . "I want to know why my childhood fucked me up so much more than everyone else's fucked them; I want to know where the blackouts come from; I want to know if James will be my next victim; I want to feel confident that he's definitely not." Well damn, looks like the competition is heating up for our favou...

What are ghosts, really? Are they the souls of the dearly departed, a warning from the great beyond, a manifestation of our subconscious desires and fears - or something entirely unexplainable? In this mesmerising collection of eight newly translated short stories, we meet brand new ghost stories with lives (or deaths) of their own. They're full of wonder and whimsy, playing with the concepts of ghosts to explore different aspects of life from self-reflection, loss, love and identity. Each story has it's own style, but the same contemplative, warm voice flows through every one. These tales are strange, with beautifully vivid writing and lyrical, poetic wording that were a pleasure to read. Sunwoo paints each story in rich detail, whether the setting is ordinary or extraordinary, keeping each tale short but their core ideas still shining through without having to interpret or think too hard (although you may anyway) Some of the tales bordered on the longer side of what you'd...

Dutiful and hard-working, Rhea Wolfe lives a simple, if mundane, life with her pet parrot in small-town Alabama. Sure, she may not love her desk job working for an insurance agency. And her on-again-off-again relationship with the local mechanic may not have the fiery passion she’s read about in her favourite books. Still, things are stable, which is more than she can say about the two hopelessly immature younger sisters who rely on her. But when Rhea’s estranged grandmother dies, leaving her everything—including a magical heritage Rhea never knew she carried—she finds herself in Arcadia Falls, the quaint mountain town her mother made her swear to avoid at all costs. While the defunct video store she’s also inherited needs a serious upgrade, Rhea’s lucky that resident handyman Hunter Blakely is more than happy to help—and more than easy on the eyes. If only he wasn’t the grandson of her grandmother’s sworn enemy in witchcraft. Yet as Rhea makes plans for the bookstore of her dreams, sh...