On Bee's Bookshelf

Bette loves Mei, but Bette and Mei are on a break, so Bette can catch-up on the decade of dating experiences she missed before she came out. So Bette is (reluctantly) on a dating odyssey: a quest to have lots of casual sex with lots of hot women and come back to Mei more experienced and more certain about what she wants. And now she has new friend Ruth as her queer dating guide, she can't possibly fail. It's just three months, then she'll be back with Mei. It's the perfect plan … isn't it? Experienced was a breath of a fresh air - a tender explorations of self discovery, with steamy sweet romance and a lot of fun. It’s a coming out and coming of age story about a young queer woman finding her place in the world on her own time and learning the many different ways love can manifest in her life. Between the meaningful friendships that change your life, the sweetest romance and the hottest sex that left me a little hot under the collar and reminded me just how stunning...

Sisters Cleo and Robyn may be close in age but their attitudes to life could not be further apart. While Cleo's a fully-fledged adult with a family, a business and a signature scent, Robyn is still waiting for the instruction manual to Adult Life and success is keeping her houseplant alive. Skating by at her job as an estate agent, she's adept at avoiding housework, ignoring admin, and evading her mother's anxious questions about her love life. But then Robyn's fired in the most publicly humiliating way imaginable - and her chaos catches up with her. Although Cleo steps in to give Robyn a temporary job in her cleaning firm, it comes with very firm instructions: Robyn must BEHAVE RESPONSIBLY. And that includes meeting the high standards of Jim, her enigmatic supervisor. But when Robyn learns to navigate the catastrophic kitchens and judgemental dogs of total strangers she learns some unexpected truths about her own messy world. No one's life is spotless... "I am...

Ginny is about to turn 32. It’s a year she’s been thinking about for a long time. Sixteen years ago she crossed paths with a psychic who made some key predictions about her thirty-second year… Three bad things: A heartbreak, a loss of independence, and a death. Three good things: A life-changing trip, reconnecting with someone, and meeting her soulmate. The issue is that Ginny is due to get married in a month… but it’s all nonsense, obviously. But when some of those pesky predictions start coming true she starts to wonder what might happen next… "The trouble with spending half your life with six psychic predictions hanging over your head is that your friends never let you forget about it." Lucy Vine just writes books that girls want to read — they’re full of real women, beautiful friendships, and such relatable chaos that makes it feel like it could’ve happened to you or your friends. I fell in love with Ginny right away - her humour, her wit, her slightly chaotic energy, her...

Lauren, Saskia, Dominica, Farah and Tansy have been friends since nursery. They wonder if that was the last time they all actually liked each other. Reunited as bridesmaids at Tansy's spiritual hen party in the woods, it doesn't take long before old grudges begin to surface. Not to mention the secret they've been hiding for twenty years. But what starts as a weekend of macramé and contraband vodka ends in murder when Tansy chokes to death on a poisoned cacao drink. As the body count keeps climbing, the friends realise that one of their group must be the killer - and if any of them want to make it down the aisle, they need to watch their sash-covered backs. If you go out to the woods today, you’re in for a big surprise! A hen party turns deadly in this excitingly dark thriller; mixing the best parts of a locked-room mystery, small town drama and modern contemporary storytelling to make something so much fun despite all the murder and other nasty surprises. There was a specia...

Theo has one dream – to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar – and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect. As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realizes that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why. As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy online platform called The Shield. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim. A mystery wrapped in another mystery wrapped in an eccentric retro package - thi...

It's Natwest's last day before he leaves for university, and there's only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house - which still hasn't arrived. He won't leave town without it. Any alternative is too distressing to consider ... This is the story of twenty-four hours in the life of NATWEST, and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. And yet it's also the story of a MIDDLE-AGED DENTIST who dreams of being a respected artist - but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a TORTURED IMAM involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; and an OCTOGENARIAN mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a TROUBLED TEENAGER whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious EX-BOYFRIEND, and his CLASS-TRAITOR MOTHER and  her  CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND, and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past. How To Lea...

Noor has no interest in getting married (much to the aunties' distress). Growing up she saw first-hand how divorce tears families apart... But then, she falls in love. Soon, Noor’s engaged and planning an intimate wedding that feels perfect for her and her fiancé Dan. But when Noor discovers her mother Leena also has grand plans for the Big Day, their once-close relationship starts to unravel. Noor can’t understand why Leena is determined to have an elaborate Desi celebration when their lives have been anything but traditional. And after a lifetime following other people’s dreams, Noor is determined not to back down. As Leena and Noor clash over every point on their to-do lists, it begins to look like there will be two weddings and only one bride. And when family secrets shake the women’s bond further, will there even be a wedding at all? "When your life has not gone according to plan from an early age, you live in fear of it happening again, and because you know things can go...

The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby . . . When I tell you John Mars has snuck up on me; damn! I’ve always enjoyed his writing, but recently his talent for crafting the most twisted versions of reality is honestly concerning and I can’t get enough of it. The Family Experiment i...

Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues investigate the murders of men with a history of abuse towards women … as a startling, horrifying series of revelations emerge. When neatly packed male body parts wash up by the River Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues begin a perplexing investigation. As the murdered men are identified, it becomes clear that they all had a history of abuse towards women, leading Riley to wonder if it would actually be in society's best interests to catch the killers. But when her best friend Carla is attacked, and the police show little interest in tracking down the offender, Chastity takes matters into her own hands and as a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity's own moral compass … and put everything at risk. "'I wish', she says, 'that one day, guys like that would get to feel for themselves the fear they cause people. Just once, just one fucking t...

Would you want to know what your colleagues say behind your back?  Jolene certainly doesn’t. She’s riddled with anxiety, depressed, and hates her coworkers. The less she knows about them, the better.  So when a catastrophic IT f*ck up grants her access to all of their emails and private messages, she’s initially horrified. The last thing she wants is to be privy to their sad discussions about dying desk plants and marital troubles. That’s until with job cuts looming, she realises the power this new-found knowledge gives her.  But as she digs deeper and deeper into the private lives of her colleagues, Jolene uncovers a lot more than she bargained for… And the walls she’d so carefully built start crumbling down. Welcome to a new kind of corporate espionage in this darkly funny and tragically relatable tale of modern day working culture. From the very first page the social awkwardness was almost paralysing, cutting into those strange traditions and unspoken rules of the offi...