On Bee's Bookshelf

Twelve years ago, the six of us were young and carefree, getting ready to celebrate Christmas. We had the house to ourselves: no parents, nobody telling us to behave. We just had to look after  Seffie , my friend  Gabby’s  little sister. We thought she was tucked up safely in her lilac pyjamas, sleeping through the music. We were wrong. The next morning, when we went to wake her, her bed was empty. She was never seen again. And no one ever found out why…    Twelve years later, I receive a call from Gabby, inviting me to spend Christmas at her remote Scottish lake house. None of us have spoken since the night that Seffie disappeared, and part of me knows I shouldn’t go. But Gabby says we need to be together to help us move on. Yet as soon as I arrive, it becomes clear that she has another reason to bring us all together. She claims one of us knows what happened to her little sister. And, as a snowstorm traps us in the house, she’ll stop at nothing to get to the t...

Sloane Price knows there are worse things than the end of the world, so when the zombie apocalypse happens, the opportunity to escape her violent home life offers no relief. She’s already lost the one thing that matters most—her sister—and now seems like the perfect time to give up. But when she inadvertently ends up barricaded in her high school with five other teens, their desperate and volatile bids for survival force a series of impossible decisions. As the days creep by and the dead close in, Sloane must confront everything she thought she knew about life, death, survival, and sacrifice and—once and for all—make a choice. Looking for a book that's gonna throw you directly into the eye of the storm and keep you dizzy right until the end? You'll love this. This is not a test is a breathtakingly compelling take on a zombie apocalypse, full of a subtle horror that looms overhead with every page; the fear of the undead just outside the door being not quite as scary as the human...

After a breakdown and the loss of her job, Mattie moves into a house inherited from an aunt she never knew existed, hoping to find peace and stability. But the house holds more than she expected —it has a sitting tenant, and secrets that refuse to stay buried. As Mattie unravels the tangled threads of her family’s past, she discovers the shocking truth about her mother, her birth, and the sister no one ever spoke about. Just as she begins to settle in, an unknown enemy launches a sinister campaign to drive her out of the home she’s grown to love. With her past and present about to collide, can Mattie find the strength to rebuild her life. Some houses are haunted, but not always by evil spirits. The Sitting Tenant throws us right into the fray with Mattie as they're released from hospital and get a fresh start with a mysteriously inherited family home, a curiously eccentric late aunt to discover, family secrets to unravel and a new collection of worries to think about as the voices ...

Jessica Williams loves Christmas: the food, the drink, the fairy lights, the opportunities to take out all the miserable people who ruin the festive season for others. And what better cover for her murderous intentions than taking a job as Mrs Claus at the Ellsbury Christmas Market grotto? After all, who would possibly think Mrs Claus could stab a man through the eye with a Phillips-head screwdriver? Fearne Dixon hates Christmas. As the long-suffering wife of the Ellsbury Christmas Market’s manager, she’s sick to the back teeth of it and it’s still only November. But then the bodies start piling up, an old rival arrives back in her life, and Fearne reaches breaking point. "When someone is writing a list of people they think could be guilty of garrotting a man with a strand of Christmas lights, they are not going to think of Santa's wife, are they? And trust me. No one ever figured out it was me." Well this slayed (Sleighed?) - but that's exactly what I've come to ...

Hanna Stevens has perfected the art of being fine.   After her mother’s death and a breakup that leaves her shattered, pretending becomes easier than processing. At least, until she meets Milo at her best friend's engagement party. The "doesn't do dating" groomsman sits at the top of her list of people to stay the hell away from, but when he witnesses one of her weaker moments, he can't help but offer himself as a distraction.  Friends with benefits never backfires, right? As Milo and Hanna get closer, they’re both forced to admit they aren't as fine as they're pretending to be.  With her best friend’s wedding on the horizon—to her ex’s brother, no less—Hanna is juggling a grief that won't give up, an ex who won't give way, and a groomsman who won't give in. Hanna must decide if she's willing to fight for a real shot at love and risk facing yet another loss, or if she'll settle once again for the safety of “fine.” "I think you'...

Dressed in a white tunic and adorned with candles, a teenager is found dead on the island of Lidingö, his skill smashed in. Twenty-three years earlier, a young girl was also found murdered in the same place, in the same garments, traditionally intended to celebrate Saint Lucia. At the time, the victim's boyfriend was convicted of her murder, which he has always denied.  Was he innocent? Has the real culprit struck again? But why now?  Commissioner Aleksander Storm, with the unexpected help of French policewoman Maïa Rehn who recently moved to Sweden, stubbornly attempts to untangle the bizarre case and, in the process, uncovers a long-buried secret that holds the key to a deeper, darker mystery that will put everyone at risk… The lidingö mysteries saga continues with Gustawsson's latest offering of another atmospheric, twisted gothic crime thriller. Set against the same beautifully frozen, isolated backdrop as the prior, it has all the dark, devilish things I loved about ...

Helsinki, 1982. Recently divorced postal worker Ilmari Nieminen has promised his daughter a piano for Christmas, but with six days to go – and no money – he's desperate. A last-minute job offers a transport a valuable antique sofa to Kilpisjärvi, the northernmost town in Finland. With the sofa secured in the back of his van, Ilmari stops at a gas station, and an old friend turns up, offering to fix his faulty wipers, on the condition that he tags along. Soon after, a persistent Saab 96 appears in the rearview mirror. And then a bright-yellow Lada. That's when Ilmari realises that he is transporting something truly special. And that's when Ilmari realises he might be in serious trouble… Oh, look, another Antti Tuomainen book that I’m going to rave about. Predictable, right? But that is entirely his fault for being so consistently on the pulse and entertaining.  While on the surface this has all the classic elements that I love about a Tuomainen story — a painfully desperate ...

The invitation arrives out of the blue. In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood. Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary. With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater. And everyone here is lying. "I am not just a girl in a college sweatshirt. Beneath my surface there is darkness and strength. Maybe madness. But maybe magic." Despite not being a fan of it in real life, I just love it when writers lie to me. When they confuse me, make me distrustful of everything I'm ...