On Bee's Bookshelf

  The One That Got Away - Charlotte Rixon ⭐⭐⭐ Genre: Romance | Released: 02/02/2023 What July Knew - Emily Koch  ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 09/02/2023 Dirt - Sarah Sultoon  ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Political Thriller | Released: 19/01/2023 My (extra)ordinary Life - Rebecca Ryan  ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Released: 05/01/2023 Your Driver is Waiting - Priya Guns  ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Contemporary Fiction | Released: 28/02/2022 Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) - Tess Sharpe  ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ Genre: YA | Released: 02/02/2023 The Silence Project - Carole Hailey ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Speculative | Released: 02/02/2023 The Forcing - Paul E. Hardistry  ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Dystopian | Released: 16/02/2023 Rootless - Krystle Zara Appiah  ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Fiction | Released: 16/03/2023 Her - Mira V Shah  ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Genre: Thriller | Released: 23/03/2023 Total January Reads: 10

Genre: Domestic Drama | Fiction  Release Date: Expected 9th February 2023 Publisher: Random House UK | Vintage July Hooper only knows 18 things about her Mum. She keeps them all written down in a list so she never forgets them, hidden along with her big list of questions - questions she's not sure she'll ever get an answer to because her Father won't let her talk about Mum or else he'll get angry, and that's never good for July. She knows Mum died in a car accident. She knows her face was covered in freckles. She knows she liked diet coke. She used to dance on the table when she was happy. She used to live on Almond Drive and could make her own clothes.  But then, on Julys tenth birthday, she receives a note from a stranger, slipped into her bag and it changes everything. All she thought she knew about her Mum, her life and her death, could all be wrong. As the summer holiday starts and finds herself being given a homework project to research a relative, she takes i...

  1996. Northern Israel. Lola leaves an unhappy home life in England for the fabled utopian life of a kibbutz, but this heavily guarded farming community on the Arab-Israeli border isn’t the idyll it seems, and tensions are festering. Hundreds of miles away, in the Jerusalem offices of the International Tribune newspaper, all eyes are on Israel’s response to a spate of rocket attacks from Lebanon, until cub reporter Jonny Murphy gets a tip from a mysterious source that sends him straight into the danger zone. When the body of an Arab worker is discovered in the dirt of the kibbutz chicken house, it triggers a series of events that puts Lola and the whole community in jeopardy, and Jonny begins to uncover a series of secrets that put everything at risk, as he starts to realise just how far some people will go to belong...  This is no Utopia...  Sarah Sultoon is undeniably the Queen of suspense, and every time I read one of her books I'm proven right. From the very first fe...

Genre: Young Adult | Mystery Release Date: Expected 5th January 2023 Publisher: Usbourne Publishing She wrote the perfect murder. Someone carried it out. Now she's next.  Jesminder never meant to kill anyone. And she didn't, not technically. She's been trying to mind her business and keep out of the way - making sure not to do anything that could jeopardise her scholarship at the Heybuckle School and the future she's worked so hard for. But then, Hugh Henry Van Boren, the heir to a wealthy family and the most popular boy in school is murdered. And all eyes are on Jess when it's discovered the scene where he was found was taken straight from a short story she wrote ... a story only a few people have ever seen. Jess thought it had to be a startling coincidence, until she receives a text thanking her for the inspiration.  Jess didn't kill Hugh, but now she's in the centre of a murder mystery just like the one she wrote about - so she knows how this goes. And wh...

Genre: Speculative Fiction | Science Fiction Release Date: Expected 19th January 2023 Publisher: Pan Macmillan "You never forget your first love and the first person you killed." In a near and uncomfortably familiar future, Britain is ruled by a tyrannical right-wing government that have imposed a new law to keep everyone under control - The Marriage Act.  This new act encourages people to embrace 'traditional' values that had started to feel outdated by luring them into Smart Marriages - that comes with countless benefits and perks, but also gives them the right to watch, to monitor, to interfere, to control the lives and deaths of those who don't conform.  If you don't respect the values of marriage, you'll be evaluated, monitored, tested, maybe even punished. So for the many couples we meet as they try to navigate their own issues along with this terrifying new dynamic, their vows of Death Do Us Part are starting to feel frightening possible.  "The...

Genre: Adult Fiction | Womens Fiction | Romance Release Date: Expected 2nd February 2023 Publisher: Aria & Aires Natasha 'has it all'. A successful career at a big newspaper, a recent deal with a literary agent, a wonderful marriage to the handsome and caring Thom. But something is missing - from her career, her marriage and herself. She's been so caught up in her high flying life that she hasn't left the city and gone back home in ages - until her hometown falls prey to a deadly terrorist attack at their football stadium and she finds herself running back; to the town she used to know all too well. She had to know if he was safe - if Benjamin was safe. Her Benjamin, who she hadn't seen in almost two decades. Who she never forgot about for a moment. The boy whose life was ruined and destroyed by their relationship. The boy who loved her more than anyone else did.  And now, the reason she's putting everything on the line all over again.  "On another leve...

Genre: Adult Fiction | Drama Release Date: Expected 19th January 2023 Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph  Things are not so amazing for Grace Adams right now. She's jobless, loveless and hopeless. Her husband is divorcing her, her sixteen year old daughter wants nothing to do with her, her sister won't stop calling and her day just keeps getting worse.  And now she's had it. She's done. When she abandons her car in the gridlocked traffic that was trapping her, it looks like the start of a breakdown - but it's something else entirely. She's not breaking down, she's breaking out and she's going to get back everything she's lost. She's going to get to her daughters sixteenth birthday. She's going to fix her marriage with Ben and be a better partner. She's going to finally face all the warnings that have been screaming at her all these years, trying to tell her that she's losing control of her life. Because Grace Adams was amazing. And she...

Emily never thought she was anything special, but she never expected to be entirely average. But while watching a documentary about the average human - she sees herself reflected back at her. Everything - her hair colour, her diet, her blood type, her sexual history, her blood type. The only thing even remotely unique about is that she's a twin - but since she lost Claire when they were just children, she can't help but think Claire would be disappointed with how much she's wasted her life away being average.  Claire would've been much more. So now, Emily is going to be too.  She makes a commitment to herself - a list of things she needs to be and the things she'll do to get there.  Nothing will get in her way - especially not something so average as falling in love before you're 30, so you can get married at the average age. Emily is going to be extraordinary from now on.  "Because it's one thing feeling like you're going insane. It's quite ano...

Genre: Young Adult | Romance | New Adult Fiction Release Date: 5th January 2023 Publisher: Hachette Childrens Group | Hodder Childrens Books  Jordy doesn't know what's coming for him.  He thinks life has taken a pretty good turn - he's minor celebrity since his sister married the prince of a small country, known as a humanitarian and heartthrob worldwide. But he's still the same Jordy underneath. Maya still has to see him everywhere she looks despite not even being on the same continent anymore, after he gaslighted her, cheated on her and ruined her life two years ago. Skye is reeling from the first boy she ever let into heart ghosting her and never knowing why. So when Maya and Skye along with several other ghosts from the past get invited to take part in the reality dating show Second Chance Romance, both of them know exactly what to do.  They're both looking to heal - but Skye is hoping for a romantic reunion, to win and get back together, whereas Maya is look...

The town of Rye is quiet and quaint - but it holds secrets. The secrets of the people who lived there, the people who died there, the people who disappeared there, the people who've escape there - and now those secrets and threatening to destroy  everything.  Teddy moved to Rye to escape the life he'd been desperately trying to leave behind, but finds himself drawn to a mysterious antique shop that everyone has warned him to stay away from. Everyone is scared of Berry & Vincent and it's skeletal owner, but Teddy can't stay away and needs to know more. Ada and her young son are came to Rye to escape from the troubles of their own lives too, looking for a place to belong. But even here, she finds herself once again on the outside looking in.  Teddy and Ada are both searching for something they don't quite understand, and in places they definitely shouldn't be looking. Soon enough, this pretty little town they call home is anything but, and the dark depraved gh...

Years ago when I started reviewing, I'd usually try and pick a book of the year. Then it was a top three, then a top five, eventually it got to be a top twenty because I just couldn't pick - there's so many amazing works of literature out there by amazing authors. So this year, let's take a look at the books this year that for me were undeniable, five star reads that need to be shouted about!    Thirty Things I Love About Myself - Radhika Sanghani  Genre: Adult/Womens Fiction | Released January 2022 The Woman Who Came Back to Life - Beth Miller Genre: Adult Fiction | Released January 2022 The Arc - Tory Henwood Hoen  Genre: Romance | Released February 2022 The High House - Jessie Greengrass  Genre: Literary Fiction | Released  March 2022 Metronome - Tom Watson Genre: Literary Fiction | Released March 2022 Yinka, where is your Huzband? - Lizzie Damiola Blackburn Genre:Womens Fiction | Released March 2022 Impossible - Sarah Lotz Genre: Romance | Released...