Romance writer extraordinaire Emily Henry has another brilliant rom-com on her hands, and Jeremy Vine joins the cosy crime world…
Fiction
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry is published in hardback by Viking. Available April 27th
Emily Henry is supremely talented at creating love stories with heft and heart – and for writing sex scenes that don’t make you cringe or skip ahead. Great Big Beautiful Life follows suit: journalist Alice has tracked down former heiress and party girl Margaret Ives on a remote island in Georgia, America, and is hankering to pen the reclusive star’s memoir, when a rival journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winner called Hayden turns up. Obviously, things get heated, professionally and romantically speaking. It’s on a grander scale than Henry’s usual fare as we have Alice’s present running alongside Margaret’s mysterious past, meaning that, at times, you do want a bit more Alice than Margaret. It’s strongest when unfurling Alice and Hayden’s friendship, and examining how they’ve been shaped and constrained by their mothers. Fun, riveting and by the end, surprisingly moving.
8/10
Review by Ella Walker
Murder On Line One by Jeremy Vine is published in hardback by HarperCollins. Available April 24th
BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine has launched himself into the cosy crime genre with aplomb, thanks to Murder On Line One. The first in a brand-new series, it follows grief-stricken local radio host Edward Temmis, who, on losing his job at Sidmouth station, Devon RTE, discovers that someone has been bumping off his loyal listeners, and so, he begins to investigate. Joined by his estate agent Kim Cobden and former love interest, whose mum is a Temmis fan, and Stevie, whose grandmother – another avid listener – died in suspicious circumstances, it’s a gentle mystery that will keep you guessing. Vine really captures the wrenching, disorientating nature of grief, as well as the petty dramas that can overtake small communities, with a convincing payoff at the end. Atmospheric and with lots of charm, you’ll whip through it.
7/10
Review by Ella Walker
The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn is published in hardback by Michael Joseph. Available April 24th
In Fiza Saeed McLynn’s debut novel, The Midnight Carousel, the titular carousel resembles a life marked by movement: always circling, always changing, yet haunted by familiar struggles. Growing up an orphan, Maisie spends her life searching for belonging and acceptance. Spanning 60 years and flitting around the UK, Paris, Chicago, and New York, the book sees Maisie discover new opportunities through luck and intuition, yet the ache for belonging persists. It is through a carousel she stumbles upon, that Maisie finds her place in the world, forming bonds of kinship and love. But it is this same carousel that causes her great pain: she is blamed for a number of mysterious disappearances and gets unwittingly wrapped up in the secret underworld of 1920s prohibition. Layered and suspenseful, this novel reveals its secrets slowly, drawing you in deeper until the very last page.
7/10
Review by Erica Szulc
Non-fiction
Your Superpower: Embrace what makes you different by Tasha Ghouri is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing. Available April 24th
Strictly Come Dancing finalist and former Love Island contestant Tasha Ghouri has written her first personal development book. Rather than a tell-all autobiography, Your Superpower is a guide arranged around key themes that have arisen in her life. At 26, you might assume she’s not lived enough life yet to have much to share, but that wouldn’t be fair. Crucially, it focuses on her experiences of being born deaf and having a cochlear implant fitted, and how those differences are her ‘superpower’. She also shares her struggles with bullying, drinking too much after leaving the Love Island villa, her parents’ divorce and her recent break-up from fellow Love Island contestant, Andrew Le Page. Her parents both write sections of the book, and there are stories from her friends and other (minor) celebs about their ‘superpowers’ too. However, it is a tad repetitive and can make you feel that the only obstacle to overcoming problems is you – a simple-enough message that can trigger quite a bit of guilt. An interesting read for anyone looking for light self-help with a celeb slant.
6/10
Review by Ella Walker
Children’s book of the week
What’s That Noise? by Charlie Higson, illustrated by Nadia Shireen, is published in hardback by Simon & Schuster Children’s UK. Available May 8th
The Fast Show-alumni, comedian and writer Charlie Higson presents his first young-reader picture book, with illustrations from Nadia Shireen, best known for the Grimwood series. Welcome to Bob’s box – the world’s best hiding place, where our young protagonist likes to stake out, making loud and funny noises to make passers-by jump. It may start innocently enough with a cat and a cap, but before long Bob has been joined by all manner of noisy things, including a furry flying fox and a monkey who can yodel. Sheer silliness that will have young readers giggling along and revelling in the opportunity to roar and yelp too, this first foray into preschool fiction is a hit for Higson, and sure to be the start of a popular series.
8/10
Review by Holly Cowell
CHARTS
BOOK CHARTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING APRIL 18th
HARDBACK (FICTION)
1. The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
2. Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
3. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
4. The Cat Who Saved the Library bt Sosuke Natsukawa
5. The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce
6. Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
7. Strangers in Time by David Baldacci
8. Nobody’s Fool by Harlan Coben
9. The Expanded Earth by Mikey Please
10. Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent
(Compiled by Waterstones)
HARDBACK (NON-FICTION)
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and Sawyer Robbins
2. London: The Hidden Corners For Curious Wanderers by Chesher, Jack
3. On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West by Douglas Murray
4. Easy Air Fryer by Jamie Oliver
5. John and Paul by Ian Leslie
6. Spring by Michael Morpurgo
7. Allies at War:The Politics of Defeating Hitler by Tim Bouverie
8. Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It by Emily Hauser
9. 38 Londres Street:On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia by Philippe Sands
10. Fahrenheit-182 by Mark Hoppus
(Compiled by Waterstones)
AUDIOBOOKS (FICTION AND NONFICTION)
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
2. Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
3. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
4. On Democracies and Death Cults by Douglas Murray
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Book 1 by J.K. Rowling
6. Atomic Habits by James Clear
7. The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
8. Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
9. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
10. The Hotel Avocado by Bob Mortimer
(Compiled by Audible)
