On Bee's Bookshelf

Ayesha is just about finding her feet on the London stand-up scene, but when her response to a sexist heckler goes viral, she finds herself drawn into an exclusive group of activists: a sacred circle of change makers, each woman with a specific gift to contribute to the cause.   The circle draws in her friend Yaz too and they are both invited to an intimate hen do, except it's not a hen do – it's a Goddess Retreat. While Ayesha, longing to find her tribe, tries desperately to fit herself into a shape that the women will accept, Yaz treats the entire ‘itinerary’ with open disdain. But the Goddess Retreat is no laughing matter. As the weekend descends into chaos, they’ll need to stick together if they want to get out alive.   The next time someone wonders why feminism needs to be intersectional, I’m showing them this book. This is a searing exposé on the way mainstream, white feminism forgets that women of colour and other women didn’t have the same journey as them, and shows us...

Genre: Speculative Fiction | Crime Thriller | Dystopian Fiction Release Date: Expected 17th August 2023 Publisher: HQ Prosecutor Justine Boucher has only asked for the death penalty once, in a brutal murder case. In doing so, she put her own life on the line. Because, if the convicted are later found innocent, the lawyer who requested the execution will be sentenced to death. Justine had no doubt that the man she sent to the chair was guilty. Until now. Presented with evidence that could prove his innocence, Justine must find out the truth before anyone else does. Her life depends on it. "They'll hate me. Well, half of them will hate me. But a woman can survive hatred. Hatred doesn't kill you. Hatred isn't on the same plane as a lethal cocktail working its way through your veins or two thousand volts of electricity stopping your heart." Okay, now I have a complicated relationship with Dalchers work, I’ve found a lot of her previous writing problematic and struggle...

Genre: Thriller | Horror | Mystery  Release Date: Expected 31st August 2023 Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph Welcome to The Confession Room. An anonymous internet forum where everyone is welcome to come and confess anything they want - affairs, stealing, lying … even murder. Former police officer Emilia always keeps her eyes on the room, always hoping for a clue about the one crime she never solved. But instead, she finds something worse - a confession of murder, and they keep coming. Someone has started a dangerous game, and nobody knows the rules.  Emilia knows she needs to get the bottom of the secrets of the room - before her own name appears.  " That's the true pain of this place. Who will be the survivor? Who will be the victim? And which would you prefer?" A deliriously dark, feverish story about secrets and death that you definitely shouldn’t be reading before bed (even though I did exactly that.) Immediately we are given a glimpse into a horrific series of event...

A catastrophic climate emergency has spawned a one-child policy in the UK, ruthlessly enforced by a totalitarian regime. Compulsory abortion of ‘excess’ pregnancies and mandatory contraceptive implants are now the norm, and families must adhere to strict consumption quotas as the world descends into chaos. Kai is a 25-year-old ‘baby reaper’, working for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning. If any of her assigned families attempt to exceed their child quota, she ensures they pay the price. Until, one morning, she discovers that an illegal sibling on her Ministry hit-list is hers. To protect her parents from severe penalties, she must secretly investigate before anyone else finds out. Kai’s hunt for her forbidden sister unearths much more than a dark family secret. As she stumbles across a series of heinous crimes perpetrated by the people she trusted most, she makes a devastating discovery that could bring down the government … and tear her family apart. One law. One child. S...

Genre: Fantasy | Gothic Fiction | Historical Fiction Release Date: Expected 7th September  Publisher: Random House UK | Vintage Classics The night hides many things . . . Louisiana, 1850. A young girl escapes slavery and is taken in by two mysterious women. Rumoured to be witches, the pair travel only at night, dress in men's clothing and seem to know others' innermost thoughts. But the girl sees the promise of true freedom in their dark glittering eyes: the promise to 'share the blood' and live forever. They name her Gilda. Over the next two hundred years, Gilda moves through unseen spaces: through antebellum brothels, gold-rush bars, Black women's suffrage groups, hair salons and jazz clubs, searching for a way to exist in the world. Her body, powerful against the passage of time, will know both beauty and horror through the women she desires and the blood she craves. But can Gilda truly outrun the darkness of history and face a future where the lives of everyone ...

Genre: Thriller | Crime | Romance Release Date: 20th July 2023 Publisher: Bonnier Books "My name is Saffy Huntley-Oliver, and I kill bad men." Meet Saffy; Heiress, Cover girl, Philanthropist, Serial killer. When she isn’t doing charity in the conventional sense, she does her own brand - by killing bad men and making the world a little bit safer. She’s never had a problem with men - until Jon. The only problem is she doesn’t want to kill him, she wants to date him. But inserting herself into the life of a disgraced true-crime podcaster who investigates serial killers isn’t quite as simple as she’d hoped - especially when they both find themselves caught in a murder investigation with a chance to catch a new kind of bad man… "You can call me many things, many of them punishable by life imprisonment and/or death: I am a killer, a stalker, a blackmailer, a desecrator of corpses, a burglar, a thief , a liar, a narcissist, a sociopath  and I have a low-ley shopping addiction t...

  Our loved ones protect us. So what if you woke up one day to find yours gone? Your mum, your friends, your freedom - all gone. And the one person you trust may be hiding a terrible secret. Welcome to Arrietty’s life. “I wanted the truth. I needed answers. And yet, if I did this, I’d lose another part of myself. Already, I felt like a shadow. A girl living a half life.” Abby Davies’ work has been pitched as “thrillers with feeling” and that is absolutely on point. She creates dark, edge-of-your seat, anxiety inducing thrillers but there is always a deeply emotional layer to her writing that just creeps up on you in an authentic and painful way. Our main character, Arietty was spectacular, I adored her voice. It was descriptive and rich, giving us vivid world building from the darkest alleys to beautiful scenery and she meandered but never rambled. There was just something captivating about her from the first few lines — both a softness and a strength that made her compelling. On t...

Genre: Literary Fiction  Release Date: Expected 31st August 2023 Publisher: Headline | Wildfire 'I clean the offices and bathrooms and lobby five nights a week, but my actual job is to take care of everyone. They need so much help.' At night, in a corporate office block in an unnamed metropolitan city, a cleaner begins her shift. As she cleans Sad Intern's desk, she throws away some of her more alarming health supplements, and leaves her healthy snacks instead. Mr Buff's desk is immaculate, but he seems to have a secret smoking habit - not conducive to his fitness journey - which she's going to help him kick. She confiscates the knitted coaster that attractive, sensitive Yarn Guy has given to Cola Woman - someone who clips her nails in the office doesn't deserve his gifts. But tonight, while scrolling through your emails, she'll discover the secret you've been hiding - the one that will threaten her job, and the jobs of everyone she takes care of. And yo...

Genre: Science Fiction | Romance | LGBTQ+ Fiction Release Date: Expected 29th August 2023 Publisher: Rebellion | Solaris  Nev Bourne is a hotshot programmer for the latest and greatest tech invention out there: SavePoint, the brain implant that rewinds the seconds of all our most embarrassing moments. She’s been working non-stop on the next rollout, even blowing off her boyfriend, her best friend and her family to make SavePoint 2.0. But when she hits go on the test-run, she wakes up the next day only to discover it's yesterday. She's falling backwards in time, one day at a time. As things spiral out of control, a long-lost friend from college reappears in her life claiming they know how to save her. Airin is charming and mysterious, and somehow knows Nev intimately well. Desperate and intrigued, Nev takes a leap of faith. A friendship born of fear slowly becomes a bond of deepest trust, and possibly love. With time running out, and the whole world of SavePoint users at stake, ...

  Genre: Graphic Novel | Non Fiction | LGBTQIA+ Release Date: Expected 19th October 2023 Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers It’s simple fact that sex and gender aren’t always the same thing. And when we look into it, gender is a bit strange, isn’t it? Who decided what random set of traits were feminine or masculine? How can a hobby or appearance make me less or more of anything? And considering we created genders, who gets to tell us what ours are? Gender Is Really Strange is a brilliant, beautifully illustrated graphic story that delves into both the science and the social elements of gender in an accessible, engaging way — starting off by getting us involved in thought activities and asking us to be aware of ourselves and our relationship to gender. In just 40 pages, this is a quick read but it is full of knowledge and food for thought — giving real examples and scientific evidence to show historically how sex and gender have evolved, as well as diverse cultural and social as...

  In Defence of Witches is a powerful book that takes the archetypes of witches and shifts the narrative — Author Mona Chollet takes these images of the independent woman, the childless woman, and the old hag and shows how these categories not only inflicted pain and death on our ancestors but are still used to categories, demonise and ostracize  women even today. Set in four sections, the first three dealing with one stereotype and our final one that paints a horrifying picture showing the wider implications of witch hunts in the modern world from the demands to never age, the vilification of childless women, the deep offence people take at a woman who is independent and outspoken and the dangerous dismissal of women's  healthcare. Each section is clearly laid out into headings that is easily accessible and readable with references from literature to history to pop culture that is clearly not only well-researched but deeply passionate. This searingly sharp novel explores...

Genre: Thriller | Mystery | Crime Release Date: Expected 3rd August 2023 Publisher: Pan Macmillan Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things. Twenty years after a baby is stolen from her push-chair, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth. Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning up mess and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything. Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door . . . and their intentions aren’t good. With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that b...

Genre: Short Story Collection | Fiction | Literary Fiction Release Date: Expected 17th August 2023 Publisher: Faber & Faber "Just because an experience is common, it doesn't make it any less painful to go through." A beautiful collection of five short stories that invoke an entire range of emotions in a dazzling, highly conceptual and striking way. A young boy watches his first football match with his dad and tries to summon magic, a sentient Welsh  seahorse tries to understand love and loss for the first time, a bitter, below average height office worker tries to fix his life, a conversation between lovers leads to them realising how their childhoods have shaped them, a young vampire gets their internet cut off by their mother — each of these stories paint a hauntingly evocative portrait of aspects of the human condition and the ways we uncover ourselves and learn more about who we are. Each is a snapshot of a life, a transient moment of self-exploration and discover...

  The wealthy, powerful Snæberg clan has gathered for a family reunion at a futuristic hotel set amongst the dark lava flows of Iceland's remote Snæfellsnes peninsula. Petra Snæberg, a successful interior designer, is anxious about the event, and her troubled teenage daughter, Lea, whose social-media presence has attracted the wrong kind of followers.  Ageing carpenter Tryggvi is an outsider, only tolerated because he's the boyfriend of Petra's aunt, but he's struggling to avoid alcohol because he knows what happens when he drinks … Humble hotel employee, Irma, is excited to meet this rich and famous family and observe them at close quarters … perhaps too close…  As the weather deteriorates and the alcohol flows, one of the guests disappears, and it becomes clear that there is a prowler lurking in the dark. But is the real danger inside … within the family itself?  Eva is back with a sinister sequel to the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series. So if you’ve not pick...

Genre: Fiction | Feminist Fiction | Romance Release Date: Expected 3rd August 2023 Publisher: HarperNorth Charlotte Thomas is polite. Manners cost nothing, her mother always said … yet there’s a fine line between diplomat and doormat. But every woman has their breaking point and Charlotte has just found hers. It wasn’t because she said sorry to her boss for challenging his terrible idea for a staff social, or because she apologised to the drunk girl who spilled espresso martini all over her favourite top. And it wasn’t because she agreed to go on a second date with the world’s most boring man to avoid hurting his feelings. Maybe it was all of these, or maybe it was when she realised she ended every email with the fateful words:  No Worries If Not. With the help of her best friend and housemate Mush, Charlotte declares she’s apologising no more. No more saying sorry for just doing her job, or speaking her mind or simply taking up space. So when she finds her space being invaded by a...

Genre: Retelling | Reimagining | Fiction Release Date: Expected 3rd August 2023 Publisher: Bonnier Books | Manilla Press Was the greatest love story of all time a lie? The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life. Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realises that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life. With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way? "I cannot think of love or life, surrounded by and mocked by death on every side. It makes me see th...

Genre: Thriller | Crime Release Date: Expected 3rd August 2023 Publisher: Penguin | Michael Joseph 17 year old Abigail and her family have been devout members of the New America Baptist Church for as long as she can remember. Every day is the same, she plays the role of the good daughter; obedient, modest, quiet. Until her life goes up in the smoke — a fire burns down her family home, taking her parents with it and she is left alone.  But was she the victim, or the villain in this? An innocent bystander or a masterful liar? Or is nothing so simple. "Turns out that this is where you go after you die - a body bag." Dark, compelling and powerful — this searing thriller delves into the twisted world of religious coercion and cult mentalities, and the ripples of death and decay that they can send out into the world. This story was slow, drawn-out and quiet. It did take me a while to get into but soon the mystery and horrific circumstances become very intriguing — Abigail telling u...

Genre: Fiction | Romance | Contemporary Fiction Release Date: Expected 3rd August 2023 Publisher: Atlantic Books | Corvus One house. Three strangers. A second chance at happiness. Tessa's life as an activist and volunteer worker takes a hit after a fall. At the ripe young age of 69, she's no longer able to live alone and decides to take in two lodgers for free. After the recent death of his brother, Conn is riddled with grief and determined to make amends. A free room seems too good to be true - until he meets the other lodger. Chloe arrives at Tessa's house to deliver a package and leaves with a room. But she takes an instant dislike to Conn, who refuses to say where he disappears to at night. With everyone so busy keeping their own secrets, the mysterious package is forgotten. It's addressed to Tessa's daughter who's been missing for 10 years - and only the contents of the package have the answer to what happened... "You need to stop thinking about yourse...