Reading Groups in Libraries
Reading groups are fun and rewarding and they change the private and personal experience of reading into a shared one.
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Find a favourite this November with our new stock!
Empire of the Dawn | Jay Kristoff
Gabriel de León has lost his family, his faith, and his last hope of ending the endless night – his surrogate daughter, Dior. With no desire left but vengeance, he and a band of loyal brothers journey into the war-torn heart of the Augustin Empire to claim the life of the Forever King.
Unbeknownst to the Last Silversaint, the Grail still lives – speeding towards Augustin’s besieged capital in the frail hope of ending Daysdeath forever. But deadly treachery awaits within the halls of power, and the Forever King’s legions march ever closer. Gabriel and Dior will be drawn into a final battle that will shape the very fate of the Empire, but as the sun sets for what may be the last time, there will be no-one left for them to trust.
Not even each other.
Christmas Fling | Lindsey Kelk
Laura was all set for a quiet solo Christmas – just her, a bottle of wine, and flat-sitting for a stranger. But when the stranger’s parents mistake her for his mystery girlfriend, she’s swept off to the snowy Scottish Highlands with Callum and his whole family.
Between the cosy sleeper train, charming pubs and breathtaking views, this could be the no-strings-attached Christmas of Laura’s dreams. But stranger Callum is hot, hilarious and their ‘fake’ chemistry is off the charts. So is this just a Christmas fling? Or the start of something more?
The Seven Rings | Nora Roberts
Long ago, Arthur Poole built a grand house overlooking the turbulent ocean, in a Maine village that bore his name. Today, Sonya MacTavish lives in that house – a manor that has been cursed for generations. Within its walls, she has witnessed the deaths of seven brides and the thefts of seven wedding rings.
Determined to bring light to this haunted place – to fill it with people, with life and hope, once again – Sonya decides it is time to break the curse and banish a malevolent spirit once and for all. But the enemy in the black dress continues to hover, to come at her in frightening forms.
They may be illusions – but illusions can be powerful enough to wound, even kill. This dark-hearted witch wants to be mistress of Poole Manor, at any cost. And Sonya will need to fight a battle across two realms to finally take possession of the house on the clifftop – and of her own future.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales | Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her ‘Encyclopaedia of Faeries’. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project yet: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm – as its queen.
Along with her former academic rival – now fiancé – the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare, filled with scholarly treasures.
Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world – how could an unassuming scholar like herself pass for a queen?
A Long Winter | Colm Tóibín
One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel’s mother walks out from their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by the people of the town, Miquel and his father are left to fend for themselves.
Together they will be forced to battle the elements, and their resentment of each other, through the long winter. Miquel’s desperate searching for his mother is only interrupted when Manolo, an orphaned servant boy from the next village, arrives to help out in the house.
As Miquel is forced to confront the reality of his mother’s absence, Manolo, with his silences and longing gaze, offers the promise of new love, and another kind of life.
All That We See or Seem | Ken Liu
At 14, Julia Z became infamous as the “orphan hacker,” a teenage prodigy who broke the law and captivated a nation. Now, years later, she’s trying to leave that life behind, hiding in the quiet suburbs of Boston. But her fragile anonymity is shattered when a desperate lawyer bursts into her life, begging for her help to find his wife-a celebrated artist who uses AI to craft shared dreams for thousands of followers and who has been kidnapped by a criminal syndicate.
Against her better judgment, Julia embarks on a harrowing journey across the country, drawn ever-deeper into the shadows of the American dream. As she tracks the criminals, she confronts not only their perilous schemes but also the ghosts of her own past. Resourceful, relentless, and deeply contemptuous of authority, Julia must dig deep into her unique skillset and fractured psyche to uncover the truth – and to hold onto hope when everything around her descends into darkness.
Bog Queen | Anna North
In 2018, a young forensic scientist, homesick and adrift in the North of England, is heading to a coroner’s office to identify a body. But this body, found in a moss-layered bog, is not like any Agnes has ever seen: its bones prove it was buried more than 2000 years ago, yet it is almost completely preserved.
The body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing interests: archaeologists desperate to study the bog, those who want to profit from the land’s resources, a group of neo-pagans who demand the body be returned to its resting place. And underfoot, all along, there’s the land itself: a teeming colony of moss, with its own dark stories to tell.
As Agnes becomes tangled in controversies stirred by her own discovery, she must face the deep history of what she has unearthed.
A Lively Midwinter Murder | Katy Watson
A high society Christmas Eve wedding at a remote Scottish castle sounds like the perfect winter getaway for the three Dahlias and their partners – until a snowstorm hits, cutting them off from the mainland, and civilisation.
Which, of course, is when the dead body of one of the other guests turns up in the snow outside the family chapel. A dead body wearing a wedding dress and a stolen diamond necklace. The Dahlias were ready for mulled wine, roaring fires, and romance this Christmas.
Now, they’re on the hunt for another murderer. And if their suspicions are right, it looks like the wedding may be off.
Other People’s Houses | Clare Mackintosh
The Hill is the kind of place everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular.
Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There’s no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead – and why?
As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors.
The Last Murder at the End of the World | Stuart Turton
Dyslexia Friendly Edition
The world has been destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. But, on the island, all is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.
Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.
If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it. But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it.
Damned | Genevieve Cogman
1794. Eleanor, former English maid, is a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel – and now a promising mage. With a vampire plot thwarted in Paris, the League’s next daring rescue is that of the Pimpernel’s beloved wife, Lady Marguerite, imprisoned in her London townhouse on unjust charges of treason and espionage.
But Lady Marguerite’s captivity is only the first threat from the League’s vampiric enemy. With the King known to be ill, possibly mad, England is not as it should be. Vampires conspire to take control over the whole country whilst challenging Eleanor and the League at every turn. But then, using her growing magical powers, Eleanor uncovers a devastating, centuries-old secret.
It is one so steeped in blood, that it will change not only England, but the entire vampire world, forever.
To Clutch a Razor | Veronica Roth
When someone in Dymitr’s family dies, he’s called back home for the Empty Night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay.
The secret Dymitr is keeping from them makes returning home downright dangerous, but if he wants to get his hands on a book of curses that might appease Baba Jaga’s blood lust, he has no choice. And when that same funeral brings ferocious creature-of-legend Niko to town for his own bloody purposes, Dymitr’s charade becomes impossible to maintain.
Family gatherings can be brutal. Dymitr’s might just be fatal.
The Clock House Murders | Yukito Ayatsuji; translated by Ho-Ling Wong
The remote Clock House is filled with priceless timepieces from across the world. It is also rumoured to be haunted by the spirit of a dead girl.
A team of ghosthunters visit the mansion to investigate, but their stay has barely begun when one of them is gruesomely murdered, and the survivors realize that they are trapped inside the house with a killer. As the murderer’s bloody spree continues, the team are picked off one by one.
Can the brilliant detective Shimada Kiyoshi crack the enigma of the Clock House before all those inside have been slain? And can you guess the solution before he does?
A Dream So Wicked | Tessonja Odette
A vicious rivalry. A forbidden desire. A curse only her enemy can break.
After twenty years stuck in a fae convent with no word from whoever abandoned her there, Briony Rose is all out of hope. But when her parents suddenly claim her and reveal she’s a lost fae princess, she’s burdened with the weight of a kingdom on the brink of collapse. To secure her family’s precarious position, she must marry a wealthy human stranger. Thorne Blackwood stands to gain from her plans. But to accomplish their goal, they must cooperate on one task: pair Briony with a husband who will make her parents proud.
It should be easy. Thorne has connections while Briony has wit and beauty. What neither of them expects is the forbidden desire that burns in their darkest hearts.
A standalone novel set in the same world as ‘The Fair Isle Trilogy’. Journey back to Faerwyvae or begin your adventure with this enchanting tale.
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart | Christina Henry
On an otherwise ordinary street in Chicago, there is a house. An abandoned house where, once upon a time, terrible things happened. The children who live on this block are told by their parents to stay away from that house. But of course, children don’t listen.
Children think it’s fun to be scared, to dare each other to go inside. Jessie Campanelli did what many older sisters do and dared her little brother Paul. But unlike all the other kids who went inside that abandoned house, Paul didn’t return – and the disappearance of her little brother broke Jessie’s family apart in ways that would never be repaired.
Ever Since We Small | Celeste Mohammed
Here is an intricately woven tapestry of stories where survival, resilience and self-discovery are passed down through generations of an Indo-Trinidadian family.
Celeste Mohammed’s second novel-in-stories, ‘Ever Since We Small’, is a family saga which covers a sweeping landscape from the days of the British Raj in India, to multicultural modern Trinidad. Written in a blend of Standard English and several flavours of Trinidad kriol, the book follows the bloodline of a young woman, Jayanti, after her decision to become a girmitiya, an indentured labourer in the Caribbean.
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Do you speak English as a second language? Want to practise and learn more English in a supportive group? Then our conversation groups could be for you.
