On Bee's Bookshelf

  It started out as Paradise. It turned into Hell. Love was just six years old when her father left the community and their family behind. Uncle Saviour had created a paradise of peace and harmony, so even without her Father she knew she would always have a home with him. He was enlightened, awakened in ways most people couldn't even understand. But she understood him, loved him and followed him without doubt.  That was over thirty years ago... Now everything is different. When Lilys children go missing in the dead of the night, the only clue left for DI Ottoline is a trampled mask found abandoned in the woods. She is desperate not to let another child be lost in the echo, and the search for answers leads her and Lily back decades ... to a quiet little commune with a lot to hide.  "It wasn't a cult. It was a community. A good place where good people came together and lived in harmony." Told over the span of decades, The Cult follows Lily, her husband and the police...

  "I used to search for that haunted house every October until that haunted house became my own." Becca has a beautiful life. She's been married to Mitch for 21years, they have two wonderful sons and they're just about to move into a new city again. So when they find a beautiful, newly restored home that's sat vacant for over a year they can't believe their luck - but soon Becca starts to wonder if the house was ever really empty at all. It starts off with a feeling, an inkling that someone is watching her, then a strange vibe from otherwise lovely neighbours. But then the strange, the unusual, and the terrifying start to happen and she realises they're not alone at all - and they're all in danger.  "Some don't even make it through the haunted houses; the terror seems too real to them." Chilling right from the first few lines, Vacant has a sense of dread that seeps through every single page and chills down to the bones. Full of brilliant ...

  Genre: Literary Fiction | Speculative Fiction Release Date: Expected 7th July 2022 Publisher: Harper Collins UK "The measure of your life lies within"  On a morning just like any other, a small wooden box appears on the doorstep of every household on the planet - from mansions to maisonettes, shacks to tents, every adult has one. Inside, just a name and a piece of string that will tell you how long you have left to live.  In that moment, the whole world is changed. Dreams suddenly seem impossible, people taking things slowly are realising they've run out of time, people's faith is failing and society as we know it is collapsing. The ' short-stringers ' and ' long-stringers ' are divide and the young wait for the boxes to arrive. Would you open the box if you could? And what would do once you did? "When we think about the greatest love stories ever written, we aren't judging them by their length." The Measure is truly a one-of-a-kind rea...

  "The Afternoon light fractured through the broken lower pane in the glass kitchen door." The Broken Pane is about loss and family when families are broken. Finding yourself in the pieces of memory. About a young woman and her search for answers. In her early twenties, Tam rushes to her childhood flat only to be confronted by a tragic discovery. Anchored by the weight of family lore, she struggles to come to terms with her loss. As her life spirals, she sets off to find the one person who may hold the answers: her mother. Tam’s travels take her far from a home which was more broken than she had ever realised. Walking the line between reliable memory and unreliable narrator, Charlie Roy’s debut novel invites you to consider whether you are shaped by your past ― or if you shape your past yourself? The Broken Pane is a striking debut, in that no-mans land somewhere between hope and despair. As we go on a journey of self-discovery with Tam, we look back into her past and how it ...

  "We connect on a different plane to everyone else and we communicate in ways people will never know, no matter how far we are apart." The Porlock family understand the impossibility of understanding life all too well. Now, on a snowy Easter Sunday the family, all but one, gather in their 128 year old Victorian home for the last time before it's destroyed. The family try not to focus on the screamingly obvious absence in the room and they begin to think and reflect on their lives up until that very moment. And as they do, time closes in around them and they listen as long-forgotten and silenced voices of the past begin to whisper and then shout their truths, demanding to be heard. An ethereal, world-bending exploration into human nature and the mysteries of life - about possession and loss. Using excerpts and multiple points of views, Parrish weaves together an intricate, complex web of thoughts that provoke thoughtful introspection.  Full of mystery, we unravel the trut...

Genre: Fiction Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph UK | Penguin UK Release Date: Expected 28th December 2021 In the darkness we all need a little light . . . After Mike loses Pia, his partner of seventeen years, their best friends Vicky and Zaza try to help pick up the pieces. But though Pia's gone, she left a plan. A list of loving instructions to help Mike and her friends come to terms with their loss. And they're each going to need it. Just-engaged Zaza fears committing any further. Vicky has lost sight of herself, overwhelmed by the demands of marriage and motherhood. While Mike just feels all the colour has gone from his life. But when the list sends them trekking to Peru, where high mountains and sweltering rainforests push them to the brink, all they have to guide them is their faith in Pia and in themselves. Soon they learn anything is possible when you're walking on sunshine. Walking on Sunshine is a heartbreakingly beautiful story about hardship and friendship - fu...

Genre: Historical Fiction  Release Date: Expected 11th November 2021 Publisher: Random House UK | Vintage Nobody knows yet that she is a murderer... On a cold night in 1850, a young police constable finds a baby abandoned in the dark. After delivering her safely to the foundling hospital, he tries to find her again only to find out she'd been sent away to live with a foster family in the countryside and left with nothing but a name - Lily. As Lily grows, she finds she isn't quite happy with the expectations everyone seems to be placing on her - being quiet, subservient and grateful for the suffering she's had to endure. She can't wait to be released into the world, and Lily soon finds herself living in the basement of a prominent wig maker and becoming their best employee ... but then she meets Sam. Sam had always kept a watchful eye on her over the years, when he could. He'd never been allowed to visit, but he was always there, just needing to know she's okay. ...

  Genre: Literary Fiction Release Date: Expected 22nd March 2022 Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing It all started with a Sheep. Or ended, depending how you look at it. Aina and Whitney had lived their quiet lives at Long Sky Croft, the small Island where they served their exile, for twelve long years, tethered to the spot by the threat of death if they don't take a pill three times a day to survive. But the day the Warden was finally meant to come and free them, everything went wrong. Their supplies were faltering, ships were washing up on the shore, and nobody came for them ... except one sheep. And sheep can't swim, can they? Realising they are hopelessly alone, Aina starts to think of a way back to the family and the life they left behind - and soon starts to suspect they're not as alone as she thinks, and that might be even scarier. Metronome was an atmospheric, slow moving tale but every moment was full of a strange kind of wonder. I was drawn in by the simplistic beaut...

  Genre: Mystery | Thriller | Domestic Thriller | Psychological Thriller Release Date: Expected 19th November 2021 Publisher: Bookouture  Sam is finally marrying his childhood sweetheart, Lauren, and his mother Georgie couldn't be prouder of him. He'd grown into a caring, compassionate man nothing like his abusive father. She can't wait for Lauren to officially be the Daughter she'd always wanted and to have even more family to love. It really was Happily Ever After.  Until it wasn't. Just three months later, she gets a call from Sam telling her Lauren was dead. As the investigation starts, she can't help but feel there's something not quite right about the way Lauren died. Sam won't even look her in the eye, and she's starting to notice things about him, about his marriage that she didn't see before. So when she gets a chance to do a little investigation of her own while looking after their empty home, she finds out her daughter-in-law wasn'...

  "Wingmen are the team of supporters that each of us curate. They're the cheerleaders that egg on a person to reach their potential. They're the friends that can be called day or night, when a shoulder to cry on is essential. They're the people to phone when one is rushed to hospital and needs a toothbrush and a change of underwear."  If you were to describe Tilda in one word, it'd be safe. She's never taken risks, or been spontaneous, and it's worked so far for her. She's always had a plan. But now she's trying to jump start her life after her plans fell apart and searching for the courage to take a leap. Bea is falling in love. Or at least, she thinks she is anyway. But she isn't sure if she wants him or just wants someone.  And ever since Stewart lost his estranged Father, he's given up. Given up on himself, on his work, on most things actually. He says losing his Dad is the reason behind it all - is it, or is it just an excuse to ...

  Genre: Fiction | Womens Fiction | Romance Release Date: Expected 18th January 2022 Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Landmark Nora Hughes is overworked and underpaid - but she's so close to her dream job she can almost touch it. When she applied for the editorial assistant job at Parsons Books, one line in the advert made it seem like it was made for her - must love books. But five years later, she's no closer to being an editor, and the company has slashed her already meagre salary. So when her old boss who works for a rival publisher offers her some part time work, she tries to juggle it all and maybe even steal some authors along the way.  But when she tries to convince best-selling author Andrew to come sign at her new publisher, unexpected feelings make things even more complicated and Nora doesn't know how much longer she can balance everything in her life before it all comes crashing down.  Nora is the perfect encapsulation of of twenty-something woman lost in the world, tr...

  Genre: Fantasy | Romance | Adult Fiction | Contemporary Fiction Release Date: Expected 25th January 2022 Publisher: Kensington Books In the small town of Zenobia, cousins Gwen, Milo and Trudy are living quietly under the radar, out of sight of the Grand Council of Witches. The cupcake coven, or the cousin coven come from a long line of witches, but have been eternally banned from practicing thanks to their ancestor casting spells that caused disaster.  So when Gwens adopted sister, Tannith, sends the three cousins a letter saying she is running away and has bewitched one of their partners to run away with her, they think their problems couldn't get any worse. But amongst all the panic, a batch of enchanted cupcakes have gone astray, someone may be a rabbit now, and the entire town is acting rather odd ...  They're going to need a miracle to get out of this mess ... or a little magic. A Letter to Three Witches is an enchantingly good contemporary rom-com with a magical t...

  Genre: Fiction | Contemporary | Romance | LGBT+ Publisher: Riverhead Books Release Date: 27th October 2020 "It's not a waste, is what I'm saying. There are no wastes. Either nothing is a waste, or everything is a waste." Benson and Mike have been together for four years, and they've been a good four years so far. They love each other … but recently they've been wondering if that's a good enough reason to stay together.  In a strange twist of fate, Mike sets off for Osaka to find his estranged dying Father at the same time his slightly abrasive Mother, Mitsuko, flies to Houston to visit and ends up being temporary roommates with Benson while they wait for him to return. In Japan, Mike is learning every day about his past, his family and himself on the journey of a lifetime while back home, Benson is thinking about starting his next Journey alone... "The thing about a moving train is that, sometimes, you can catch it." On the surface, Memorial is...

  Genre: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Fiction Publisher: Europa Editions  Release Date: Expected 14th October 2021 Dorothy, or DoDo to her friends, is having a miscarriage. But honestly, it's more of an inconvenience in her mind than it is a trauma - life is traumatic enough as it is after all. But as the weeks pass by, she finds herself still feeling the side-effects that she was assured would pass within days. Struggling with her own mind, with knowing that refusing Motherhood is a feminist right but still feeling like a failure as well. Unable to confide her deepest thoughts in anyway, not even her two therapists, Dorothy searches for answers and meaning in places she'd never thought to look before.  "Dorothy could not be sure if she meant to imply that a life of mourning was an exercise in nobility or a pathetic waste, or both, or neither." The Life of the Mind is an unapologetically, shamelessly vivid and brutally blunt exploration into womanhood and motherhoo...

  "The Longing has been standing for a hundred years amidst all that Mother Nature and the sea gods have to throw at her, and I daresay she'll stand a hundred more."  1998. Liv arrives on a remote Scottish Island at the Lighthouse, known as the Longing, that she's been commissioned to paint with her three daughters, desperate for a new start for her family. She's trying to escape the past and find a new home, some light in their lives. But all she finds is darkness, as just a short time later her daughter Luna is found abandoned, her family nowhere to be seen. 2021. Twenty long years later, Luna returns to the Island of Lon Haven, the island that took everything from her, in search of the truth. She's grown up alone, and despite having a life and a family of her own, strange and unusual occurrences draw her back to the Lighthouse again. But Luna soon finds her family disappearing isn't the only mystery around the Longing. It was once the site of a brutal a...

  Genre: Adult Fiction | Womens Fiction Release Date: Expected 3rd March 2021 Publisher: Random House UK | Transworld Publishers | Bantam Press CW; Death, Car Accidents, Hospitals, Blackmail.  Beth has never stuck at anything. She still lives in her parents house, drives a rusty old vauxhall and never stays at a job for more than a few months. She's still waiting for her life to start ... but like her car, it just doesn't.  But when a tragedy strikes her family and she suddenly finds herself the sole carer of her teenage neice and toddler nephew, she doesn't have a choice. Can she really look after a family when she can't even look after herself most days?  With her overbearing parents, (platonic) best friend Jory, and a new friend in their 83-year old neighbour Albert, Beth moves into her sisters house and is determined that this time, she's going to step up.  "I wanted to move to London and be a journalist, or run my own business. Instead, I became a serial j...

  Genre: Thriller | Domestic Thriller | Mystery Release Date: Expected 14th October 2021 Publisher: Canelo Abby and Rob have just moved into their perfect new house in London, ready to start a new chapter in their lives together. She still needs to find a new job here, sure, but she's got plenty to keep her occupied in the meantime.  Life is good. And it looks like it's going to get even better when she meets Sienna, her first real friend here, and her charming husband Greg. But Greg is almost too charming, and one fateful night alone together leaves them with the fallout of a mistake they can't take back. Abby is desperate to talk to Sienna about what happened, but she can't risk spilling secrets when Greg knows some of her own. So when he goes missing, there are bigger problems. Is he going to tell? Has he run away from his life? Or is something even more sinister happening just out of sight? "How do we know who we really are until we're pushed to the limit?...

  Genre: Science Fiction | Romance | Young Adult Fiction Release Date: Expected 7th December 2021 (Previously published in different formats) Publisher: Chicken House Lydia doesn't have much to be happy about right now. Her Brother is dead, her Father has vanished and her Mum is present in body only. At school, she's unpopular and shunned and it's not much better at home. The one thing she has is Henry. He started as a line of code she wrote with her Father years ago, and now he's her best friend, her confidant, and her proudest achievement.  But now he's smarter, more capable than any AI in the world. He's more alive than most people, in fact. And as Lydia and Henry realise they can do almost anything, live their wildest dreams or enact their cruellest revenges, they don't stop to realise that everything comes with a price ... and the agent following them around definitely has one in mind.  "My AI wanted to come to school with me so much he hacked my p...

"That's how it works, right? Life-changing holiday, life epiphany?" Always, in December, Josie sends a letter to someone she knows can never read it. It's not just the snow makes December cold for Josie, but the haunting memories of the life that was taken away from her two decades ago. And to top it all off, she's just discovered her boyfriend cheated on her and she's being made redundant after the new year. Right now, all the bright lights and festive music just remind her how alone she is. Max knows what it's like to feel alone. Finding him stuck on his own in London just days before Christmas, he's surrounded by people celebrating but feels completely alone. But this year, on Josies' usual trip to the postbox, her and Max collide and knock each other off course in the most remarkable ways. They've got a chance to rewrite their stories ... and this is only the first chapter of theirs.  "Well, maybe you're not going to find yourself....