On Bee's Bookshelf

  Genre: Literary Fiction  | Adult Fiction Release Date: Expected 1st July 2021 Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group UK / Virago CW: Death, Illness, Swearing, Sexual Content, Mentions of IRA/Terrorist Acts. Aspiring filmmaker Charlie finally found a story worth writing - the history of her own dying father and his former life in Ireland. With her best friend and partner Laura, they finally created something they were proud of ... until it was over. Laura has gone on to do amazing things, their former bohemian lifestyle forgotten while Charlie is stuck in one place and dabbling in amateur porn to make things meet while her Mother berates her for not doing something with her life. But when she and Laura are invited to a film festival in her familial home of Clipim, she gets to leave things behind for just a moment and learn more about the place of her families history - but soon enough she's learning more than she ever wanted to know and it's too late to back out.  Scenes of...

Genre: Romance | Romantic Comedy | Womens Fiction Released: Expected 30th June 2021 Publisher: Bookouture Content Warnings: Mentions of Death and Illness.  Grace Callaghan knows a thing or two about getting her heart broken in the worst possible ways. And in the last three years since she lost Tom, she's learned a lot ... " 1) Wine is the answer. Some serving size suggestions include: a glass the size of your head, an Olympic-sizedswimming pool. Best served chilled, and with a straw. 2) Friends with benefits is always an option. Be prepared for side effects such as the guy saying 'baby', crying out his ex's name and preferring to keep his socks on. 3) Going 'out out' helps banish the blues. It may involve breaking into replica ships from the fifteenth century, screaming 'Aye-aye Captain!' and accidentally falling off the plank. 4) Karaoke makes everything better. Best enjoyed singing Enrique Iglesias, followed by an extra-large serving of fries....

Genre: Adult Fiction | Thriller | Mystery Released: Expected 24th June 2021 Publisher: Pan Macmillan Previously published as Welcome to Wherever You Are Content Warnings: Racism, Guns, Drugs, Alcohol, Graphic Violence, Rape, Assault, Death. The tourists that cover the golden sands of Venice Beach, Los Angeles are dreaming of suntans, holidays and Hollywood - full of people who come together from all over the world to have fun.  But for eight perfect strangers an unassuming seafront hostel full of free beer and complimentary cockroaches, the only thing that will bring them together is secrets. And even with the sun shining outside, there are things following them in the shadows that they're still running from. And they'll do anything to escape them. There's a difference between tourists and travellers - someone who's been travelling for long enough can always tell. Whether they're trying to find something or running away from something, there's something keeping ...

  Genre: Romance | Romantic Comedy Release Date: Expected 30th June 2021 Publisher: One More Chapter | Harper Collins Content Warning: Some sexual imagery, mentions of death, mentions of cheating. Lottie Watt loves book club - until she has to make a very sudden and not graceful exit for not following the rules. So now she wants to bring the fun back to book club and decides to start her own - where the fun, the cake and the laughter is far more important than rules, where you can read ' books we'd want to take on holiday, and books that take us on holiday.' And so, The Beach Reads Book Club is born and have their first meeting at Books By The Bay, a very cute bookshop cafe that was reluctantly offered by Matthew Steele, the gorgeous but slightly prickly owner and his family. As far as first meetings go, it's one for the history books.  But as the pages start to turn, Lottie starts to learn that maybe Matt isn't so scary after all, maybe he's just got another st...

  Genre: Poetry Release Date: Expected 26th September 2021 Publisher: CLASH Books The Smallest of Bones is unique collection of small poems with a chilling and somewhat ethereal undertone throughout. Covering topics such a love, relationships, and heartbreak in such a shattering tone, then jumping into the subjects of sexuality, queerness, gender  and identity and of course death, ghosts and bones.  "If you strip me down to my bones, am i yours?" This collection was intimate peek into the thoughts and soul of somebody on a journey of painful self acceptance and reflection. In a dark, constantly moving style that isn't for everyone - it isn't written in perfect stanzas and is in that beautifully disjointed modern style that feels more like a trailing, confusing thought than a standard poem but so much more visually enchanting. Jumping between hauntingly beautiful and viscerally crude and raw, this was difficult and dark at times - especially if you're sensitive to ...

Genre: Romance | Romantic Comedy | Adult Fiction Release Date: Expected 18th June 2021 Publisher: One More Chapter | Harper Collins Translated from French Content Warning: Explicit Sexual Imagery, References to suicide, physical violence.  Sarah and Max live different lives in different worlds. She's hardly ever left her village and the quiet bookshop she spends all her time running - so there's no way she should ever have met Max. An actor with the whole world in front of him and adoring fans desperate to just look at him would never have even looked at the little book shop until he got into just a bit too much trouble and got stuck with community service helping Sarah repair the struggling store. Pretty soon, Sarah realises that nothing she could've read would help her prepare for this. As her peace and quiet is shattered and Max becomes more abrasive by the second, she's starting to think they're never going to be on the same page about anything unless he can lea...

  Genre: Fantasy | YA  Release Date: Expected 20th July 2021 Publisher: Uproar Books After living her whole life with chronic anxiety and OCD, Cassandra is used to thinking the worst; to thinking there's death and destruction around every corner. Therapy helped teach her to cope and her Father has been as supportive as he could be but nothing has been the same since she lost her mother.  This time it's different though and she knows it. Colin, the boy next door and her newly found friend is going to due. It's happened once before, her visions becoming devastatingly real and now it's happening all over again.  Desperate to cheat death and save Colin from his untimely death, Cass finds herself enrolled in an Organisation of Scryers and Soothsayers, for people like her, that promise to help to her find a way to change the things she sees. But as she desceneds further into their world of magic she learns that changing fate and cheating death always comes with a price - a...

Genre: Anthology | Short Stories Released: Expected 24th June 2021 Publisher: Unbound There is a distinct difference between books about autistic people and books by people with austism. Typically, neurodivergent people are portrayed in the arts and the media in a very certain way, a way not curated by neurodivergents themselves - Mainspring brought together this group of authors to try and increase the representation of neurodivergent people in the arts. Typically people with Autism are represented as being unimaginative, as not being literary, but if you still think that you should definitely give this a read. While I love seeing more representation in the literary world - this is a book review after all, and this collection of short stories made to highlight the underrepresented and underappreciated is a selection of absolutely brilliant fiction in a wide variety of styles and genres.  A Conversation of Sparrows - Jon Adams ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fifty-five year old gardener has been struggl...

 Genre: Romance Release Date: Expected 3rd February 2022 Publisher: HQ What are those flowers called? Bethan is new in town when she sees the note in the window opposite. She's slowly picking herself up and trying to build a better life for her and her son but now she's doing it completely alone. For now, the only company she has is her colleagues from the Garden Centre and the people she sees from her window.  Lachlan spends a lot of time looking through the window too. Stuck at home after an accident brought his military career and the rest of his life to a grinding halt and filled it with physiotherapy appointments and lonliness. But now, something bright and colourful comes into view - some flowers on his new neighbours windowsill. And he realises he could use a little colour in his life... The Start of Something is a beautiful story about trust and chance - this was the perfect meet-cute that really could only happen in a novel. A silly, love-at-first sight kind of story ...

Genre: Romance | Romantic Comedy Release Date: Expected 11th November 2021 Publisher: Random House UK, Cornerstone As a columnist specialising in swoon-worthy love stories, Laura knows a potential romance when she sees one. But sadly, she's had a serious lack of them in her own life.  When a work trip takes her back to the place her favourite love story began - her parents. Searching for inspiration for a one-of-a-kind story on the Isle of Jersey, she feels the romance in the air. So when she accidentally ends up with the wrong suitcase at the airport she can't help but wonder. This bag, with a battered copy of her favourite book, sheet music of her favourite artist, and thoughtful presents for the mystery owners mother seems like the beginning of her very own meet-cute.  Determined to find the owner, she enlists the help of a grumpy cab driver turned tour guide with a lovely beard and sets about the Island in search of a great story and true love -- but the course of true lov...

  Genre: Adult Fiction | Romance Release Date: Expected 7th September 2021 TW: Drugs, Alcohol, Cheating, Dementia/Alzheimers If you were to see Jane Osbourne, you'd think her life was perfect. She's the PTA chair, the envy of the other mothers at her daughters prestigious private school. She's got a charmed and stable marriage to Dan, a very attractive and successful surgeon who is perfect. That's what you'd see anyway, but it's far from the truth. She's stressed out, her daughter is constantly in trouble and worst of all, Dan has been living a double life for the last eighteen yers with his secret boyfriend and Jane is trying to keep up their perfect appearances for the sake of his career and the life they've created together. But pretending to live a lie isn't easy and soon, she has to figure out if her false stability is really worth her happiness - or she's going to snap. I'll be honest - I always feel awkward when a storyline like this p...

  Genre: Womens Fiction | General Fiction | Thriller Release Date: Expected 2nd September 2021  TW: Pregnancy, Fertility Issues, Mentions of serious illness and sexual assault.  Marisa and Jake are the perfect couple and they're very much in love. Even though she hasn't known him for very long, Marisa has never been more sure of anything before and she can't wait for her own Happy Ever After now they're moving in together and starting a family. But when they decide to take in a lodger, Kate - things get weird. At first it just seemed like she had a polite interest in them, but soon her interest in Jake especially shifts into something uncomfortable and concerning. Kate is slowly becoming obsessed with Marisa's boyfriend and her unborn child but Jake doesn't seem to think Kate is doing anything wrong at all. Either she's losing her mind or something very bad is happening right in her own home. Marisa has everything she's ever dreamed of - and now she need...

Genre: Fiction  Release Date: Expected 3rd June 2021 Publisher: Canongate Asha has her entire life planned out - she's going to finish her PhD, run her own lab and become on the most sucessful computer scientists there is. But after a chance encounter and very unplanned, very quick romance with her former crush Cyrus, the plan changes.  Asha, Cyrus and their friend Jules are dreamers, and they set their minds to work reinventing social media and using it to bring happiness and meaning to people all over the world by bringing hope and belief not in a higher power but in humanity itself. And when they get accepted into Utopia, an elite exclusive group for only the most innovative technical minds, their dream is about to become very real. But while Asha is working hard in the background making the algorithms and code that will jumpstart their platform, she doesn't see that she's drifting further and further into the background while Cyrus' charm thrusts him further into th...