BOOKS
YA author is set in the glamorous LA restaurant Yerba Buena, where bartender Sara first catches sight of Emilie, who is arranging flowers for the restaurant... and having an affair with the married owner. Their connection is immediate, but the damage they carry will push them apart. Slips from February.
Catherine Mangan One Italian Summer Sphere, 12th, £13.99, TPB, 9780751579871 Lily flees her life in New York after the end of a relationship and attends her friend’s wedding on the sun-drenched island of Ischia, an experience which opens her eyes to new opportunities. From the author of The Italian Escape.
Previews New Titles: Fiction
Ryan O’Connell Just by Looking at Him Sphere, 31st, £14.99, HB, 9780751585445
Début First novel from the writer and
star of Netflix’s “Special” is billed as a hilarious, big- hearted read about the intersection between sex and disability. The author is a gay man who lives with cerebral palsy and his perspective on love, sex, dating, politics, homophobia and ableism is one we rarely see in commercial fiction, says the publisher.
Sarra Manning London, with Love Hodder & Stoughton, 5th, £16.99, HB, 9781529336603 “Grown-up” London-set rom-com which follows Jennifer and Nick from 1986 to 2005 as they meet, then fall in and out of love without ever getting the timing quite right. This is Manning’s second adult novel for Hodder, following Rescue Me. She is also Red’s literary editor. Slips from January.
Louise O’Neill Idol Bantam Press, 12th, £14.99, HB, 9781787635333 Latest from The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize-winning author—and her third novel for adults— is set in the world of online influencers. Samantha Miller, three million follow- ers and counting, goes viral after writing about her sexual awakening as a teenager with her female best friend Lisa. Then Lisa gets back in touch. Her memory of that night does not match Sam’s. At all. BookScan
Clare Pooley The People on Platform 5 Bantam Press, 26th, £14.99, HB, 9781787631809 Pooley’s début The Authenticity Project was a cheery, feel-good read and an Editor’s Choice for me which went on to be a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick and win the RNA début novel award. I would expect similar warmth from this follow- up about an agony aunt whose life is transformed through an unexpected interaction with a stranger on her daily commute. BookScan
Holly Williams What Time is Love? Orion, 26th, £12.99, HB, 9781398706293
Fiona Vigo Marshall The House of Marvellous Books Fairlight Books, 19th, £14.99, HB, 9781914148095 Drawing on the author’s career spent working in small publishing houses, this charts the fortunes of a publishing house teetering on the brink of financial disaster as chief editor Drusilla searches for a legendary missing manuscript.
34 4th February 2022
Début A love story with an interesting-
sounding speculative twist. What would happen if two people—Violet and Albert—met and fell in love at different points in time? The novel explores how their relationship would play out in the 1940s, 1960s and 1980s. Début author Williams is currently a theatre critic for Time Out and the Mail on Sunday, and a book
Sophie Claire An Escape to Provence Hodder Paperbacks, 12th, £8.99, PBO, 9781529350067 When cynical divorce lawyer Daisy unexpect- edly inherits a ramshackle farmhouse in Provence, she sets off for the French countryside to oversee
reviewer for the Observer and TLS.
renovations herself. But local builder Gabriel Laforet is determined to preserve the character of the place, and sparks fly… BookScan
Carley Fortune Every Summer After Piatkus, 10th, £8.99, PBO, 9780349433103
Eve Ainsworth Duckling Penguin, 26th, £7.99, PBO, 9781529157246
Début First adult novel from the four-
time Carnegie Medal nominee tells of lonely Lucy, nicknamed Duckling, whose life changes when her neighbour on a south London housing estate asks her to look after her little girl—and then doesn’t come back.
Katy Birchall The Wedding Season Hodder Paperbacks, 26th, £8.99, PBO, 9781529340907 When Freya Scott is jilted hours before she is due to walk down the aisle, the last thing she wants to do is attend the other seven weddings in her calendar. So her friends devise a series of outrageous chal- lenges to be completed at other peoples’ nuptials by way of distraction. BookScan
Lizzie Byron
Suddenly That Summer Coronet, 26th, £8.99, PBO, 9781529360349 Second adult novel from YA author Tanya Byrne, writing under a pseud- onym, this tells of Nora, whose perfect summer plans change suddenly. Follows Someday at Christmas—“the literary equivalent of a mince pie warm out of the oven,” said Red magazine.
Emily Henry Book Lovers Penguin, 5th, £7.99, PBO, 9780241995341 Third rom-com from the author of Beach Read and You & Me on Vacation. Nora is a cut-throat literary agent, Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. Each is the other’s worst enemy, until they meet, far from the city, on holiday in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. BookScan
Emily Houghton Last Time We Met Penguin, 12th, £8.99, PBO, 9781529176704 Two decades ago, best friends Eleanor and Fin promised to get married if they were both 35 and still single. They now live on different continents, so when a newly single Fin appears, there’s no way they can keep their promise. Is there? The marketing campaign will focus on partnerships and digital advertising. BookScan
Brenda Jackson Love in Catalina Cove Mills & Boon, 26th, £8.99, PBO, 9781848458598 Vashanti was determined never to return to Catalina Cove after her heart was broken. But when she inherits a B&B she must face the past, and perhaps her future.
Lucy Knott Love Lessons in Starcross Valley Aria, 26th, £8.99, PBO, 9781803281292
Début An “achingly nostalgic début”
says Piatkus of this Ontario-set love story about two people hoping for a second chance.
Reeling from the breakdown of both her 10-year relationship and her parents’ marriage, 35-year-old Marnie books a ticket to Canada, hoping for a life-changing experi- ence. Author Knott is one half of blogging duo The Blossom Twins with sister Kelly.
Sara MacDonald The Long Road from Kandahar HarperFiction, 12th, £7.99, PBO, 9780008245245 Said to be a moving story of friendship between two boys, this moves from the almond orchards of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, where Zamir faces a heartbreaking decision to protect his youngest son from the Taliban, and the Cornish coast, where artist Delphi offers refuge to her troubled grandson Finn. BookScan
the media spotlight will be intense. So she and Ashley lie low in a small California beach town. HQ continues to build Morgan as a “household” brand author, with paperback sales of The Summer Seekers up 35% on the previous book. BookScan
Cherry Radford The Spanish Garden Aria, 12th, £8.99, PBO, 9781801103916 Escaping a media scandal that threatens her TV career, garden designer Andie flees to her grandmother’s old house by the sea in Almeria, southern Spain, where she encounters a brooding ex-flamenco dancer and his oddly silent young son.
India Rigg Love, Loss and Little White Lies Hodder Studio, 19th, £8.99, PBO, 9781529382655
Lilac Mills A Stitch in Time in Applewell Canelo Escape, 12th, £8.99, PB, 9781800323186 New “sweet and heart- warming romance” series set in a fictional village called Sweet Meadow, with themes of kindness, conservation and arts and crafts, says Canelo. BookScan
Sue Moorcroft Summer at the French Café Avon, 12th, £7.99, PBO, 9780008525644 In an idyllic French village, Kat Jenson has found her perfect job—managing a book café—and a dreamy boyfriend. But when she learns her boyfriend is not all he seems, it looks like the start of a difficult summer. Avon will support with a long-lead social media campaign and nationwide PR. BookScan
Sarah Morgan
Beach House Summer HQ, 26th, £8.99, PBO, 9781848458451 When Joanna discovers her high-profile ex-husband has died, leaving behind a pregnant young woman, she knows
Début Milly became a widow at 25 and
is now used to faking a perfect life on Instagram. But one day, sick of pretending, she creates Mizzenial, a new channel inspired by the straight- talking magazines of her childhood.
Heidi Stephens Never Gonna Happen Headline Accent, 26th, £9.99, PBO, 9781472285850 Rom-com. When Emily Wilkinson loses everything after a hair-straightener fire—her flat, her job and her boyfriend (also her boss)—she takes a job as a live-in PA to dotcom millionaire Charles, who needs someone to run Bowford Manor. From the author of Two Metres from You.
Heidi Swain The Summer Fair S&S Adult Fiction, 12th, £8.99, PBO, 9781471195860 The community at Nightingale Square welcome care worker Beth with open arms, and when she needs help to organise a fundraiser for the care home, they all rally round. BookScan
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