On Bee's Bookshelf

It Could Never Happen Here - Eithne Shortall  ⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 03/02/2022 Gender Pioneers - Philippa Punchard  ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: Non-Fiction | Released: 18/08/2022 The Perfect Crime - Anthology  ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: Short Story | Released: 03/03/2022 The Interview - C.M Ewan  ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: Thriller | Released: 17/02/2022 This is Not The Jess Show - Anna Carey    ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: YA | Released: 01/02/2022 Plain Bad Heroines - Emily Danforth  ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 04/02/2021 The Invite - Sheryl Browne  ⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: Thriller | Released: 22/02/2022 The Community - Heidi Visser  ⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: Dystopian Fiction | Release: 01/03/2022 To Love and Be Loved - Amanda Prowse  ⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 11/01/2022   Love The Way They Lie - Linda Smolkin ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 07/12/2021 You Exist Too Much - Zaina Arafat  ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 09/06/2020 Love, Locked Down - Beth Reekles  ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: RomCom | Releas...

Genre: Romantic Comedy | Romance | Fiction Release Date: Expected 3rd March 2022 Publisher: Bookouture It's been 7,305 days. 240 months. 20 years.  Abbie and Matt have been together for two whole decades, since their love story started when she was just seventeen. They were meant to be a fairytale, but they had no idea what would come after the happily ever after happened and they walked away together into the sunset. Their sex life is dead, Abbie doesn't remember the last time she felt any type of spark and Matt is … quite honestly boring and a little bit hopeless. But Abbie isn't willing to settle or just walk away - so she starts Operation Memory Lane - thinking that just maybe if they relive the start, they might be able to find the spark they once had.  But instead of a Spark, Abbie finds everything is on fire - there are things in the past they've both hoped would stay there, and if they're not careful it might just be the thing to make their marriage explode ...

  I love her. She scares me.  Eleven years ago, Zoe found a lost little girl on the side of the road. Her name was Maddie, and she wasn't lost at all. Her Dad had left her there on purpose to lure unwitting victims to him to sate his serial killer habits. But with luck and bit of help, her and Maddie manage to escape his cruel clutches and survive - and soon they have a bond that only people who'd been in that house of death could know. They become a family, and Zoe adopts Maddie in a heartbeat when she realises nobody else is coming for her.  Now, years later, on the surface things look shiny and new - Zoe is married, Maddie has a new baby brother, they have a beautiful home and they're safe. But underneath, neither of them every got over what happened. Zoe loves Maddie, even if she's still traumatised by what her Father did and has been diagnosed with severe emotional disorders. She's Zoe's daughter … but she's also her Fathers daughter.  So when Maddie...

Genre: Fiction | Adult Fiction | Domestic Drama Release Date: 3rd February 2022 Publisher: Atlantic Books | Corvus Everyone knows that Glass Lake is the only school worth going to, and the social hierarchy there is more sacred than the actual Monarchy in this small town. Their annual golf outings, reunions and fundraisers were more important in the diary than your own birthday and missing them isn't an option if you want to be anyone. As usual, everyone is excitedly waiting for the school music with the bravado and budget of a west end hit ... and then the unthinkable happens. Beverly is the Queen Bee of the 'Lakers', and her daughter is a star in the musical who clearly shines brighter than all the other children. But when her 12-year old is caught in the centre of a nightmare scandal that reverberates through the community, she knows she has to do everything she can not only to protect her daughter, but the school, the musical, and the life she's worked so hard to per...

Genre: Romance | Humour | Contemporary Release Date: 1st February 2022 Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group UK Someone in Building C has tested positive for the highly contagious virus that's been sweeping the nation - so as of right now, the whole building is on lockdown with no exceptions.  Imogen is stuck with a one-night stand who's name she can't even really remember and she definitely can't tell her best friend Lucy … who happens to also be locked in building C in Olivia's flat with all her friends for a DIY wedding prep weekend. Serena and Dan have been together for four years, but now that they're stuck together things are becoming different. Isla was wishing she'd spend some more time with new boyfriend and now they're spending the week together for the first time. YouTuber Ethan is stuck too, but his girlfriend Charlotte is locked out of the building and he's realising just how hard it is to be without her.  Five couples, one week, a love st...

  How much control is too much? The world has ended, but humanity remains. After a solar flare decimated the earth, the survivors gather under the strict regime of The Community so they can cling onto life while they rebuild. Every aspect of life is controlled - from food rations, to fertility, even your social standing is decided through a structured and detailed set of levels.  Nora is level 4, but soon she's going to climb the ladder - she's so close to achieving as perfect a life as possible in a dystopian hellscape. She has a great job in The Community, she's engaged and her wedding is going to be the event that opens up so many doors for her. But now, she's pregnant. And she is most definitely not allowed to be pregnant right now.  Nora knows it's wrong, she knows The Community will never allow this -  but she will never be able to escape their shadow until she finds out what's truly hiding the dark.  For fans of the Handmaids Tale, The Hunger Games and Th...

  "Children are begotten, not designed." Susan has been desperate for a baby for so long, and now she’s finally pregnant and can start the family she’s always wanted. Unfortunately, it’s not her husband Steve’s… , it’s the result of a one night stand but it could be the answer to all her dreams. After all Steve is the daddy to her beautiful child, but not the father.  In a future where humanity is achieving technological greatness, genetic engineering and DNA science is slowly being widely legalised has made it possible for couples to have the perfect baby, without even having sex. Humans can be truly perfect despite the unthinkable risks they face. Now, the risks are becoming terrifying day by day, some babies being born without deadly genetic diseases, and some completely destroyed, victims of  devastating “off-target” effects. Something is happening, something terrible and all she can do is hope that her secrets can stay hidden while she prays her own baby doesn’t turn...

Genre: Literary Fiction | Adult Fiction  Release Date: Expected 3rd February 2022 Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Mathilda has been stuck in Limbo - since her Father suddenly died and her partner left her without warning she's been frozen in place, living in a world of confusion, despair and shame. But even after burying her beloved father, destroying everything she could find that belonged to her ex, moving back in with her friend and trying her best to move on - she's still stuck. She's running out of ideas and her friends have some unorthodox, bordering ridiculous suggestions about how to get her life moving again that she's desperate enough to try. She never used to believe in superstition, but now it seems like she really is cursed - now the question is if she's breaking the curse, or her own heart. "At first there was drama and morbid excitement-all the morose trimmings that come with the early stages of mourning and grief." An unflinching, unapolo...

  Genre: Mystery | Thriller | Adult Fiction Release Date: 22nd February 2022 Publisher: Bookouture Everything is perfect.  Kaitlin is standing at her party wearing her perfect new engagement ring, from her perfect new fiancé Greg, who is finally going to meet her best friend after their sudden whirlwind romance. He is everything she could have ever wanted, he's a true gentleman, who dotes on her daughter with her ex and has started to heal the wounds left by that last bitter relationship … he even planned their elopement to surprise her.  So when he starts acting weird around her best friend Zoe, she doesn't think much of it. And when Zoe disapproves right away, she knows her mind will change. Then the two of them seem to get into a tense argument at the party too, and something seems weird. But she loves him, so she's sure there's an explanation. But then Zoe disappears. She's missing, and the police have no leads and Kaitlin starts to see things that were...

Genre: Romance | Adult Fiction | Contemporary | Romantic Comedy Release Date: Expected 14th February 2022 Publisher: Bookouture Abby is going to die on a cold park bench at stupid o'clock Monday morning in with 2% phone battery. Okay, that might be a bit dramatic but that's how she feels. Rather than being home in Manhattan with her fiancé, she's returned to her small hometown in Ireland single, unemployed, homeless and a little hopeless. So when a man offers to help her get home, she can't help but think maybe a handsome stranger is exactly what she needs to cheer her up … but he isn't a stranger at all. He's Luke, the boy next door. The boy she grew up with … and he has definitely grown. But like everyone else, he still thinks she's a successful Manhattanite who's getting married soon. Can she finally admit the truth to everyone, and herself, if that means she might finally get to know the boy next door? " I'm not having a breakdown. I have li...

Genre: Literary Fiction | Speculative Fiction  Release Date: 3rd February 2022 (Re-release) Publisher: Faber & Faber They are everywhere, but they are invisible. They are calculating, cruel and absolute. They burn books and silence music. They do not tolerate people who choose to live alone or differently. They do not tolerate resistance, and they will show no mercy to anybody who even thinks about not doing things how they demand.  But our narrator thinks, and creates. As they move around the shadows of the counrtyside with other artists and thinkers who would be destroyed if caught by them. But still, they persevere, and silently hope for their creation to one day outweigh the destruction. "Destruction doesn't count. One can always create again." There is an unsettling and striking symmetry in the story of They and its author Kay Dick. When this novel was first published in the 1970's, it seemed the world just wasn't ready for it and it was pulled from print...

Genre: Literary Fiction Release Date:  10th February 2022 Publisher: Europa Editions In the post-Marcos era, the Philippines have been plunged into darkness and turmoil, political division is rife and society has reached a breaking point. But even with all of this, sisters Lali and Pilar have miraculously found love - unfortunately with the same man. Their loyalties to each other, to their family, to their fight against the regime, are all being tested and this may be the point of no return for them both.  Both are seeking their place in this ever-changing world; a world that is corrupt, bloody and violent. But how far can they go to find it? And how will they truly know once they have?  This stunning novel was a passionate, fiery tale of love and hate, brimming with visceral, rich detail that transports the reader into the pages instantly. Told through perspectives of both sisters, the similarities and growing differences between them is apparent and intricately wri...

Genre: Adult Fiction | Based on True Stories | Romance Release Date: 3rd February 2022 Publisher: Pan Macmillan  "I'm looking for a book I'm fairly certain doesn't exist. I want something that will put into words how I'm feeling right now - a sensation I have no vocabulary for." Heartsick isn't a story, exactly. It's a striking retelling of three true-life accounts of heartbreak and the many unspoken lows and highs that accompany it.  Claire is excited for her future with Maggie, for the life they've been making for themselves, but she can't help but feel that instead of growing old together, they're growing apart instead. Patrick is still trying to find himself while trying to find someone to love, and then he meets Caitlin - but he just can't tell if she feels the same way about him. Ana has a picture perfect life; a strong, happy marriage and three beautiful children, and while she has no logical reason to she finds herself falling i...

  Genre: Adult Fiction | Romance Release Date: 3rd February 2022 Publisher: Headline | Headline Review Two people. One love story. Twelve hours to tell it... Steve doesn't know what Pippa was doing when she got into the traffic accident that led to tonight. As his wife lies unconscious in the hospital, all he can hear is the beeping and clicking of the machines keeping her alive. Sitting by her side, he tells her all the reasons he loves her, all the reasons he needs her to come back and just praying she can hear him. Pippa might not be able to hear him, but somewhere in her mind, fragments of memories start to play. She remembers meeting a stranger who slowly became her friend, her partner and the love of her life. She remembers getting in her car earlier that night … and that's it.  Can she find her way back to him?  "The past is a foreign land, Pippa. The future is an unknown quantity. All we have is no w. This." A beautiful, moving love story - poignant and so ver...

  Genre: Thriller |  Adult Fiction  Release Date: 28th January 2021 Publisher: Harper Collins UK Lux and Nico didn't have a luxurious life. They sleep on a mattress in a shared apartment with his work mates and are saving up enough money to finally repair their boat, their home hopefully. So when a travelling pair of girls offer them $50,000 to sail them to a small island off the coast of Hawaii, it's too good an opportunity to pass up. It's a legendary island - one that's got a dark history of ship wrecks and death but it's beautiful and empty.  But not as empty as they'd thought. There's already people there. It could be the ultimate adventure - or the ultimate nightmare. And when people start dying, Lux knows they're not all leaving the Island together like they'd thought … " It's just the chance to talk to a boy. How can a thing as small as that change your life?" Blood, murder and betrayal... but at least the sunset looks beautiful...

  " People don't realise that, for you, the pain is just as fucking excruciating as it was that first day - all day, every single day." Alexander Blix is the Detective Inspector for Oslo Police District, and he's good at what he does. He doesn't make mistakes. But when he misses a call from Officer Sofia Kovac, who thinks she might have made a disturbing connection between several open murder cases, it might be one the biggest mistakes he ever makes. Because before he can call her back, she's dead. Shot in the back of the head. And upstairs, her housemate, Blix's own daughter, Iselin, barely made it out alive. But as Iselin fights to shake the terror, Alexander is being interrogated for the murder of the person who hurt his daughter along with crime journalist Emma Ramm who saw the whole thing unfold. It's only been four days since that bloody night, but he's already starting to wonder if he killed the right person. And if he didn't, they could...

Genre: Romance | Fiction | Science Fiction Release Date: Expected 8th February 2022 Publisher: St Martins Press  " Be more particular ... on the back were just two words - The Arc." When Ursula is handed a a business card by a beautiful woman in a steam room, she doesn't know what to think. It claims to be The Arc - the most sophisticated, elite matching service that claims one match with their methods is all you'll ever need.  At 35, Ursula has been thinking about retiring from romance - she's successful, has loving friends, and knows herself inside out but every time she's tried the dating world, she's found herself completely underwhelmed. She wants someone to evolve with, who loves and hates the things she does, who understands that cats are magical beings and has liberal, feminist values without being performative. Some might say she's too particular, but not the Arc. They say that know 'relationship architecture' - and through science, ps...

  Genre: Fiction | LGBT+ | Romance Release Date: June 2020 Publisher:  Catapult Here, she exists. Now, in Brooklyn, she's been accepted into her dream writing programme and living with Anna, her first serious girlfriend. But to many, her true self doesn't exist. Her own Mother doesn't know she has a girlfriend, and she's still too afraid to even look at Anna too lovingly in public. But living a half life for so long has taken its toll, and soon she finds herself acting out, chasing all her longings, desires and desperations. Her fantasies leak into reality and the boundaries begin real and pretend start to blur as her life and her relationships slip away from her. Realising she is becoming untethered, she seeks help to stop the destructive obsessions that have taken over her life. She's looking for something, something to heal the pain of her past, something to bring her home, something to make her finally feel like she can exist truly as herself.  "I turned an...