On Bee's Bookshelf

Meet Puck: the nonbinary, thirty-year-old mastermind behind  Homewreckers , a dating show that puts troubled couples through hell—with a little help from their exes. Used to being the one pulling the strings, it shocks Puck when their life undergoes a plot twist of its own and their college roommate Mia announces her engagement to her ex’s best friend, Damon. Having only recently broken up with longtime-boyfriend Zander, and never having had much in common with Damon (who lovesick Lena has always pined after), Mia’s news leaves her friend group reeling—and Puck’s mind whirling. When they arrive for a week of wedding festivities at an upscale resort in the Appalachian forest, Puck immediately sees that Mia’s marriage will lead to misery, and takes it upon themself to save their friends by rearranging the couples—without anyone finding out. But as Puck comes up against a type-A maid of honor hell-bent on making this wedding happen, it becomes clear that they will have to deliver the ...

  If you want a very strange little book to read, this is for you. It's written as a short series of letters, written right to you, turning up at the new lovely house you've just moved into with your partner. The person who lived there before wants to warn you, to tell them about how the thing that inhabits that beautiful house started haunting them, how they managed to get away - but they're not sure if you will, honestly.  In just fifty pages, it sets a perfectly creepy, tense atmosphere, drawing in the classic essence of a ghost story with unique storytelling and a never-ending sense of dread and fear. It's a simple, short no-nonsense ghost story that is a brilliant way to spend twenty minutes of reading and then a few hours of checking dark corners.  "Dear friend, This is no chain letter, hoax or prank. It is a sincere warning about your home and the entity which dwells within. Your home has been haunted for quite some time. I am sorry that I could not personal...

Laura and Dee haven’t spoken since the day they buried a body together. It was supposed to be the best summer of their lives. A break from university, from parents, from wasting their time on Irish boys with farmer’s tans. They’d imagined flirting with Ryan Phillippe on a New York rooftop. Instead, with summer jobs waitressing at a country club on Long Island, pickings are slim. Mikey is a bully. Marco is off limits. Jose is angry. Mr Haight is a sleaze. Josh is too keen. And Other Josh… he’s something else entirely. It’s a miracle only one of them ends up dead. Dee is pretty sure she didn’t mean to kill him. Laura, to her credit, never asked. Not until she sends an email, out of the blue, more than twenty years later. It’s finally time to mend the biggest heartbreak of that summer; Laura wants her best friend back.   Have you ever said you’d help your best friend bury a body? Yeah, me too. But what happens afterwards.  Our Deadly Summer is a love letter to friendship and sist...

Ella has grown up at The Last Page, a charming local bookstore in New York City where she now works. Her first kiss was in the women’s health section. A boyfriend dumped her in comedy. The owner is like a second father to her and has begun training her to take over the store. So when he unexpectedly dies and his estranged grandson is left everything in the will, Ella is devastated.  Henry doesn’t know the first thing about running a bookstore. With his aging mom back in Tennessee, he plans to stay in New York just long enough to ensure things are running smoothly and then head back home. What he never could have counted on was the beautiful, funny bookseller who loves The Last Page more than any place in the world—and who sees him as the villain who’s come to ruin her life. But when it becomes evident that the store is in deep financial trouble and Henry and Ella are both at risk of losing everything, they have no choice but to put their differences aside and team up—despite the in...

  Ash has met her perfect match. So has CJ. Unfortunately for them, it’s the same man. Mid-thirties and feeling the pressure, they’re ready to fight for him. Even if it means sabotaging each other. As Ash and CJ turn up on each other’s dates, ruin one another’s chances, and accidentally end up spending an awful lot of time together, their friends begin to wonder. Are they fighting over the same guy? Or are they fighting their feelings for each other? "I want you to be in love with me as well. I think you might be. But if you're not, it's ok. I offer you my love with no conditions." Sometimes, I like to be surprised with a book. Sometimes, I want to know exactly what’s happening — and every time I open a book by LJW, I know I’m for something sweet, steamy, a little silly and full of sapphic love and it always hits the right spot.  CJ and Ash are dating the same man, and they’re determined that they’re going to win. Would I fight over a man I’ve just started dating? Hel...

Parents should pass down stories, not spirits…  Avery and Carlos Tam have built their lives on logic, not legends. Carlos, the host of a hit reality show that exposes paranormal hoaxes, has made a name disproving the supernatural. But when they travel to his ancestral home in the Philippines, darkness clings to every corner. The mirrors are shrouded. The housekeeper won't stay in the house alone. And no one will speak of the tragedies the family has seen. Then a brutal car crash leaves Carlos trapped in his own body—silent, helpless, and utterly vulnerable. As Avery tends to him, the house begins to stir. It watches. It listens. And it speaks—in a voice only Carlos can hear—offering a twisted kind of comfort.  And as the lies buried by Carlos and his family begin to surface, Avery must confront the truth: if the past won't rest, their future may never begin. Some inherit memories. Others inherit monsters. " Old houses have history. Over the years and many families, they ca...

  Connor is twenty-four, brilliant, broken, and out of control. He's the swaggering frontman of The Ossians, a Scottish indie band on the brink of signing a major record deal. Desperate to make their mark, they head off on a two-week winter tour across the cities and hinterlands of Scotland – a last-ditch attempt to find fame, purpose, and themselves. But the tour soon spirals into a surreal, chaotic odyssey. From seedy bars and snowbound towns to a final, defining Glasgow gig, the band hurtles through a whirlwind of seagull massacres, botched drug deals, a mysterious stalker, radioactive beaches, bomb-testing ranges, epileptic fits, riotous Russian submariners, deadly storms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings. You know sex, drugs, rock n’roll. But what about seagulls, dead bodies and Russian submariners?  The Ossians is a gritty, chaotic coming of age tale about young Connor, the singer of a Scottish indie band on the edge of glory. Their tour is full of youth...

For twin sisters Isabel and Verity, the sisterhood rules were shattered when Verity had an affair with Izzy's husband. Unforgivable, right? Devastated by her sister's betrayal, Izzy casts Verity into social Siberia. But when their mother goes missing, Verity and Izzy are forced to come together again to find her. And then the estranged sisters' problems only get bigger. Their mother has a new younger lover and where there's a will… he'd clearly like to be in it. Can they stop their mother making a dreadful mistake? And in doing so find a way to bury the pain of the past?   “‘Ah, but autumn is just as beautiful as spring … so much has been written and sung about beautiful young women, but why doesn’t anyone write sonnets or symphonies about the beauty of older women? Nor spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face’”  I’ve been aware of Kathy Lette for a while now because she is a prolific writer and now I’ll definitely be picking up s...

What’s worse than regretting a one-night stand? Being snowed in with her. Since losing her wife six years ago, Colby has perfected the hermit lifestyle: secluded Minnesota cabin, golden retriever, weekly cupcake run. Zero complications. Until a chaotic, pink-haired vet tech arrives for a house call and—in one reckless moment—Colby lets someone in. It was supposed to be one night. Then the blizzard hit. Josie is a serial hobbyist who’s perfected the art of avoiding rejection. Pilates, painting, pickleball—anything but feelings. So being trapped in a cabin with no distractions and a gorgeous woman who clearly regrets last night? Personal nightmare. But a lot can happen in a week. Stolen glances turn into lingering eye contact. Awkward silences become late-night conversations. And when the snow stops, both of them have to face the question they’ve been avoiding: what if the biggest risk isn’t opening your heart to someone, it’s letting her walk away when the roads finally clear? Dana Hawk...

How to Kill a Witch  is not a “good” book.  It didn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy or anything. It’s powerful, intense, moving and important.  And I absolutely loved it. Delving into the Scottish Witch Trials, this is a book that encapsulates the demonisation and persecution of women throughout history, exploring how women who dared to think, who had connections with nature, who asked big questions were accused of witchcraft and murdered. They used the word executed, as though it the slightly legal charge of execution softens the blow - but they were murdered, for no other crime that being a woman who dared to be seen.  It uses an eclectic, vibrant collection of storytelling methods, from digging up old accounts and transcripts, to recreations of events based on research, and the writers own thoughts, told in a slightly sarcastic guide on how to catch and kill your own witch - a style not for everyone but worked for me mostly. It’s well segmented, focusing on specific...

 Living in exile in Venice, the disgraced Lord Byron revels in the freedoms of the city.  But when he is associated with the deaths of local women, found with wounds to their throats, and then a novel called The Vampyre is published under his name, rumours begin to spread that Byron may be the murderer…  As events escalate and tensions rise – and his own life is endangered, as well as those he holds most dear – Byron is forced to play detective, to discover who is really behind these heinous crimes. Meanwhile, the scandals of his own infamous past come back to haunt him…  Rich in gothic atmosphere and drawing on real events and characters from Byron's life, Dangerous is a riveting, dazzling historical thriller, as decadent, dark and seductive as the poet himself… I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Essie Fox is a queen of a gothic literature. I loved her ghostly retelling of Wuthering Heights recently, and Dangerous is taking her own spin at the scandalous true l...

Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He’s in his mid-thirties; she’s twelve years younger. He’s long abandoned his ambition of becoming a novelist and now works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. 'Lead copywriter,' he corrects himself.  Joey lives paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck’s luxury flat—a world away from Joey’s cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey’s imagining a future between them, and Chuck’s moving on from a major change in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new. Two tortured, unlikable artists at different phases of giving up; one who left their dreams behind for a corporate job, and one still holding onto the bohemian mess of a barista/poet life.  Despite their very different lives, Joey and Chuck find something in each other that they need, even if they aren't really sure what that is yet. Both of them have fallen prey to the chaos of mode...

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.”...