On Bee's Bookshelf

  Well, that's another year done. And I think I can speak for all of us when I say - thank god that's over! This has been a tough year for all of us, but while being stuck at home, one of the things that managed to get me through was sitting at the window with something to read - transporting myself somewhere else entirely. Especially at times like this, it's so important to appreciate the arts, and the artists that make our lives that much more enjoyable, that get us through the tough times and the good times - artists are really an invaluable part of our lives. I've managed to totally smash my reading challenge for this year - currently I'm up to 124 out of 100 books!  And this year has been a wonderful year for literature, I've discovered so many new books this year that have firmly cememented their place on the favourites shelf from now on, so let's take a quick look back at my top five books from 2020.  In Five Years (March 2020) This book honestly open...

  Genre: Thriller / Mystery Release Date: Expected 5th January 2021 It's always a risky business when you're retelling one of histories greatest tales -  but Hawkins is one of the few authors who has actually managed to not just pull it off, but pull it of spectacularly. Taking one of the literary worlds most famous love triangles, this modern reimagining of Jane Eyre is set deep in southern america with it's own unique flair and style but still managing to give that uneasy sense of familiarity.  Our heroine, going through her life under the moniker of Jane, has always tried to blend into the background of life and forget the life she's left far in the past. Here in the Thornfield estates, Jane is a dog walker for the rich and the even richer - the polar opposite of her life. After Eddie, one of the most reclusive residents of the estate almost hits her with his very expensive car, an apology coffee takes a turn for something much bigger. Eddie is all alone in his big e...

  Release Date: Expected 19th January 2021 Genre:  Psychological Thriller  TW: Mentions of Abuse / Suicide / Death / Mental Illness  Viviennes life isn't what she wanted - after tragically losing her parents, feeling an odds with her own body and never quite achieving the status she craved - she meets Dr Ashton Buchanan. He is everything a woman could want - stunningly gorgeous, rich, successful and now, all hers. She becomes perfect for him - the perfect soulmate, the perfect wife. She needs to have him. After the wedding that every six-year old girl has dreams about, they have the perfect marriage. But in hindsight ... maybe not. It starts off with unexplained bruises, a mysterious note, and some ghosts of the past, but eventually it all starts to unravel around the happy couple - and neither of them want that to happen.   The Newlyweds keeps the reader at a cold, detatched arms length - which at times made it very difficult to find something to relate t...

  Release Date: Expected Expected 9th February 2021 Genre: Contemporary Fiction / LGBT  Marty doesn't think he's the protagonist in anyones story. But now he's getting his own story. After months of meticulous planning, he's heading across the world to London to stay with his cousin under the guise of reauditioning at his dream music school ... but he isn't coming back. With an overly religious family who can't quite accept him, questionable friends and anxiety that is almost crippling him, there's nothing for him there. After a deadly combination of jetlag and infatuation leaves him crushing on his cousins best friend within minutes of arriving, Marty is finally ready for adventure. He's got his Oboe, he's got a cute boy, a team of musicians who are slowly becoming friends ... and a glimmer of hope that might finally be in sight. But boys suck, families suck, and anxiety sucks, so it's not going to be easy. 'As Far As You'll Take Me...

  Release Date: Expected 11th January 2021 Genre: Romance / Fiction The Callaghan sisters are back for their third installment - following up from the success of ' Has anyone seen my sex life?' and 'Can I Give my Husband Back?', we're now following Beth Callaghan and her husband Will, trying to deal with the very abrupt switch from being a vibrant party girl, always found at a music festival with flowers in her hair to a very sleepy mum wearing last weeks pj's. As if that's not confusing enough, her beautiful little boy Joe has been scouted to model for Kimmie, the newest rap sensation and surprising candidate for best friend. With life going a million miles an hour, Beth finds herself in new territory in more ways than one, with a new band of friends around her she'd never imagined. It's not all fun and games though, when your main focus in life is keeping a new little person alive, how do you keep a relationship going? What about friendships? Or ...

  Genre: Young Adult / Romance Release Date: 25th November 2020 TW: Mental Illness / Drug & Alchohol References / Sexual References / Self-Harm / Accidents Caroline wanted the things that everybody did in highschool. The grades, the friends, the cute boyfriend - ideally her best friends adorable brother Skip. But that was never going to happen with their pastor father looking over them.  Then Cody Kirby walks into the picture during a class project. The image of popularity and confidence, part of the 'circle' - but suspciously nice. And now all of a sudden she is crushing hard on a boy who she'd only ever said a few sentences to - the first one being "What song will we play at our wedding then?" They were the last people in town you'd imagine becoming best friends - but they have one very real thing in common - they're both pretending to be happy.  Caroline is plagued by loss, doubt, and underlying issues and Cody is slowly crackng under the pressure o...

Release Date: Expected 2nd February 2021 Genre: Biography This is the type of story that honestly leaves me struggling to describe, let alone be able to rate; because how can someone truly form an opinion or leave a certain amount of stars on the sheer facts of someone elses life? Prison from the Inside Out has been described as a book and a act of trust; we are being told the authors truth and life story - and it's something that should be heard. in 1991, William Elmore shot a gun towards a parked car - protecting a friend that he believed to be caught up in a drug deal gone awry. Two years later, the very friend he was trying to protect testified that he purposely was attempting to kill a passenger in that same van who unfortunately passed in hospital not long after, William knew he shouldn't have shot the gun, he was honest about the things he'd done, but he wasn't a murderer - and he believed the courts would find this so strongly that he took to the stand to fight ...

  Release Date: 6th April 2020 Genre: Young Adult / Fiction I'm not really sure what I just read - and I mean that in a wonderful way.  'Life is Big' follows an 11-year old girl named Alma-Jane, the happiest girl in the world who is very close to dying due to a terminal condition and her brother Ayrton a mathematical genius with a cyber alter-ego  and very good big brother. Together, the two of them decide to declare war against Death and run away to Oxford to examine the brain of Albert Einstein himself (who apparently, spends his afterlife baking and playing scrabble) At the same time, Death and his own little brother Obituary Man, or O.M. for short, are getting a little bit sick of their jobs and the constant stream of souls needing ferrying off. This entire book was one giant puzzle that I wasn't sure I'd solved - it read like some type of dreamscape sequence where nothing quite fit together until you figured out one more thing. This was odd, it was unique, and ...

  Genre: Fiction/Comedy  Release Date: Expected April 2021  Bells Walker is a normal 40-something suburban mum. Husband, Two Kids, Place-holder job writing for the local gazette. Until one very bad day. Her IUD has failed and she's now dealing with an  'advanced maternal age' pregnancy, her husband Harry doesn't make tenure at the university, and on top of all that she has no idea how she's going to tell her overly judgemental mother and adolescent children. Now the whole family, baby bump included, move to Dutchess Country for Harrys' new job - to the beautifully named town of Pigkill. With a house that's falling apart, her children miserable and nothing to do - Bells gets back to writing. But not about wonky pavements this time! Under the brilliantly named moniker of the Country Dutchess, Bells starts dishing all the secrets about the residents of Pigkill, about her real thoughts about marriage and parenting, about anything she wants to say under the secur...

  Genre: Young Adult / LGBT / Non Fiction Release Date: Set for release June 2021 Lois Shearing is an activist and advocate for Bisexual rights and visibility - previously having being published in a number of high-profile platforms including The Independent, Into and Openly. Lois is also the founder of the #DoBetterBiUs campaign and the Bisexual Survivors Network - so I was very interested in hearing what she had to say in her debut book release.  'Bi The Way' is the perfect reading material for anybody with questions about bisexuality, from a personal or ally perspective. Delving into all aspects of bisexual lifestyle, from trying to figure things out, coming out, dating, bisexual erasure and identity - talking openly and honestly about subjects that have been regarded as confusing and taboo in most of mainstream media.  Shearing tackles the common misconceptions and stereotypes that shroud bisexuality and smashes the way that they have been shown for far too long, offe...

  Release Date: Expected 6th December 2020 Genre: New Adult / Romance TW: This book deals with issues including mental health / anxiety / gaslighting / cheating / sexual content / drug abuse / alchohol misuse. There are minor spoilers in this review. Can I just start out by saying - how pretty is the cover art for this book? Logan is a serial relationship junkie, but he was a damn good boyfriend. At least that's what Leilani thought anyway. He was romantic, understanding, a feminist, and he was pretty hot which definitely helped.  Until he wasn't anymore. After Leilani's panic disorder and mental health takes a rapid decline, she's struggling with not only panic attacks but trying to combat her reliance on prescription medication. However, Logan isn't okay with this - he decides if they want to be together, she needs to 'get her act together in the next month' or it's done. So what should Leilani do? Of course she wants to get better, but now she has an ...

  Release Date: 20th February 2020 Genre: Short Story / Thriller 'The Donor' is a short story written for the Reading Agency Quick Reads 2020 Collection - check out their website for more information on this years books!  Lizzies daughter has been dying for her whole life - after finally making it through cancer treatment, her heart was failing quickly. But now, thanks to a precious heart transplant she finally has the chance to live. Meg can be just another fourteen year old girl and go to school, eat too much chocolate and be mad at her parents.  The whole family is eternally grateful to the stranger who saved Megs life, so when a letter turns up from the young boys mother asking to meet ... how can she say no? Karen lost her son and her husband in a tragic accident, and seeing her own childs heart keeping Meg alive brings them closer than anyone. Most definitely too close. In just over a hundred pages, somehow this story still managed to pack in twists and turns that I...