Good morning everyone and happy Monday. I realised I hadn’t done a reading update recently and wanted an excuse to show off our lovely tree!
🎄 Last – Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton
I’ve just finished Happy Bloody Christmas and I really enjoyed it. An easy to read, hilarious festive mystery which I’ll be recommending to everyone. Review coming soon!
🎄Now- Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey
I’m currently reading Our Last Wild Days which I started yesterday and am already half way through. It’s absolutely brilliant and very gripping so I’m excited to read more today.
🎄Next- The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gillmore
I’m then hoping to read The Christmas Tree Farm which I’m really looking forward to as I’ve loved the previous two books in the series. I’ve seen a few people on here say it’s the best one yet which is just adding to my excitement!
I’m off today and I’m hoping to start wrapping some presents while watching a Christmas film this morning. I’m undecided whether to go for Love Actually an old favourite or try a friend’s recommendation in The Holiday. I’m then hoping to read some more of Our Last Wild Days which I might have mentioned I’m really loving so far!
Good morning everyone and happy Saturday. The lovely Ben & Susan are back with another fabulous Silly Stack. This month it’s Polar Bears (white) and Chillies (red).
🌶️The Cleaner by Mary Watson 🐻❄️The Unwilding by Marina Kemp 🌶️ Witchcraft For Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix 🐻❄️By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult 🌶️ Above Us The Sea by Ania Card 🐻❄️The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins 🌶️Death At The Sign Of The Rook by Kate Atkinson 🐻❄️The Map Of Bones by Kate Mosse 🌶️How To Sleep At Night by Elizabeth Harris 🐻❄️The Proof Of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe 🌶️Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd
Unusually for me I’ve actually read 2 of these, Death At The Sign Of The Rook and The Blue Hour both of which I highly recommend. The rest are tbr but I’m hoping to get to a few of them this month especially The Cleaner as it’s out next month and Miss Beeton as it’s set at Christmas.
We’ve got a busy day today. The youngest two have swimming first thing and then my daughter is helping her friend’s brother’s party while my youngest son is going to a bowling party. We’re then hoping to put the Christmas tree up before enjoying mulled wine with a Christmas film.
I’ve tagged a few people on Instagram who might want to join in but, as always, no pressure.
Good morning everyone and happy Friday. I was lucky enough to get this gorgeous book post recently.
The Fisherman’s Gift sounds wonderful and I’m very excited to read it soon. The fudge didn’t last long though I can honestly say I was helped by three very enthusiastic kids!
Huge thanks to the lovely Ellie Pilcher and Harvill Secker for sending.
Out 6th March 2025 and you can find out more about the book below ⬇️
Book Synopsis:
The sea stole him from her. Could it bring him back?
Winter, 1900. A little boy washes up on the beach of a small fishing village in Scotland, barely alive. He bears an uncanny resemblance to teacher Dorothy’s son, lost to the sea many years before.
When the village is snowed in, Dorothy agrees to look after the child until he can be returned home. But, as the past rises to meet the present, long-buried secrets in this tight-knit community start to come to light. And Dorothy finds herself thrown together again with the reclusive fisherman Joseph, after years of keeping their distance.
Bursting with tension and tenderness, this is an exquisite love story that delves into the griefs and hopes that can lie behind village gossip.
About The Author:
Julia Kelly has been longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Prize, the Exeter Novel Prize, PenguinWriteNow, and the Bath Novel Award. In 2021 she won the Blue Pencil First Novel Award. Having grown up in a house without television, Julia read anything she could lay her hands on, and as an English teacher, she has tried to pass on her love of stories to the next generation of readers and writers. Since becoming a wheelchair-user, Julia has learned to appreciate even more fully the journeys the written word can take us on. She lives in Herefordshire with her partner and between them, they have raised five wonderful children. The Fishersman’s Gift is her debut novel.
From the author of the Legends of Thezmarr series, Iron & Embers by Helen Scheuerer is the first book in The Ashes of Thezmarr series. Perfect for fans of The Witcher and The Bridge Kingdom, Iron & Embers is filled with a sizzling enemies-to-lovers romance, dark magic and a world of assassins and warriors.
Alchemist. Poisoner. Storm wielder.
Wren Embervale, alchemist-turned-assassin, finds solace in only one thing: seeking vengeance for the death of her friends from wars past. But when an unknown form of alchemy is used to attack a king of the war-torn midrealms, Wren is charged with finding a cure for the strange new poison. Offered a place at the ancient alchemy academy of Drevenor, she must claim her spot by conquering the Gauntlet – a gruelling series of deadly trials that could cost her sanity, or her life.
Yet the biggest threat of all might come from the man assigned to protect her – Torj Elderbrock, the silver-haired war hero who has hated her since she assassinated his last charge. Their shared history ignites a simmering tension that threatens to consume them both. With peace between the kingdoms as fragile as ever, and enemies lurking around every corner, Wren will discover whether love can truly heal all wounds – or if it is in fact the most lethal poison of all . . .
Set five years after the events of the Legends of Thezmarr series, Iron & Embers by Helen Scheuerer is the breathtaking first instalment in an epic new fantasy romance trilogy.
My Review:
Iron & Embers is a gripping, fast paced, absorbing read from a fantastic new romantasy series.
Firstly I loved the world the author has created in this book and I really enjoyed exploring it alongside the characters. I loved learning more about the different parts of Thezmarr but my favourite part was definitely the academy that Wren attends. It seemed to be a mix of Hogwarts with the magical elements and the Zodiac Academy for the brutality of some of the lessons which made for a really interesting read.
The story is told from the point of view of both Wren and Torj which helped me get to know both of them. I started off not liking Wren and feeling sorry for Torj but that completely flipped as the story continued. It was lovely to see Wren change from quite a prickly character who’s determined to do everything herself to a more lovable character who has a group of friends which I loved to see.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more in the series. The book is very gripping and I quickly found myself drawn into the story with the fast pace making it hard to put down. The romance side of the book is a bit of a slow burn and I did groan out loud at one point at Wren & Torj constant skirting around each other as I just wanted them to get together. The ending was very surprising and not at all how I expected the book to end but I think sets up the story nicely for the next book in the series which I’ll definitely be reading. I’m now excited to go back and read The Legends Of Thezmarr series which is set in the same world.
Huge thanks to Book Beat and Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the read-along and for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Helen Scheuerer is the fantasy author of the bestselling series, The Oremere Chronicles, the Curse of the Cyren Queen quartet and The Legends of Thezmarr. Her work has been highly praised for its strong, flawed female characters and its action-packed plots.
Helen’s love of writing and books led her to pursue a creative writing degree and a Masters of Publishing. She has been a full-time author since 2018 and now lives amidst the mountains in New Zealand where she is constantly dreaming up new stories.
Good morning everyone and happy Wednesday. Here are some of the books on my tbr list this month and as it’s Wednesday I’ve made it wonky cos…why not!
🎄 Happy Bloody Christmas by Jo Middleton 🎁Letters From The Ginza Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda 🎄 Butter by Asako Yuzuki 🎁Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao 🎄And He Shall Appear by Kate Van Der Borgh 🎁Burn After Reading by Catherine Ryan Howard 🎄The Cleaner by Mary Watson 🎁The Favourites by Layne Fargo 🎄The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gillmore 🎁The Eights by Joanna Miller 🎄Death In The Arctic by Tom Hindle 🎁So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne 🎄Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey 🎁Ink Ribbon Red by Alex Pavesi 🎄Every Moment Since by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen 🎁 Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lemon
I don’t seem to do very well with sticking with these piles and at this stage I’ve probably cursed these books to never be read now 🤣 December is a busy month so I’ve tried to choose books that I think will grip me.
I had a busy day yesterday which ended with a really lovely bookclub. It was nice to catch up again and enjoy mince pies with mulled wine. I have to go pick up some Christmas cards for the kids as my daughter’s been nagging me. I’m then hoping for a quiet morning reading before working this afternoon. It’s getting busy in the bookstore in the run up to Christmas so work is very exciting atm. Just a polite message if you’re in an Indie bookstore and a bookseller has spent ages giving you suggestions – it’s polite to then not turn round and say thanks you’ll get them on Amazon….. Happened twice yesterday and so disheartening!
What books are you hoping to read this month? Do we have any in common?
Good morning everyone and happy Tuesday. I’m a huge fan of translated fiction and here are three books I want to read soon!
🩵 Letters From The Ginza Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda 💙The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang 💛 Butter by Asako Yuzuki
I’m hoping to choose a translated book for my April book club choice at Rossiter books so I’ll be reading these soon. My colleague has already chosen Butter for one of her books club choices later next year so it’s between the other two. I’m currently reading and loving The Rainfall Market so I’m leaning towards that book but it would be good to support a smaller publisher with the Stationery Shop. Butter has been getting lots of hype recently as it won the Books Are My Bag Awards prize for fiction and Waterstones has announced it as their book of the year so im very intrigued!
I’m off this morning and I’m meeting my mum for coffee at hers as she’s having to wait in to receive a parcel which happens to be my Christmas present (very intrigued). I’ve then got to go shopping as we’re having mince pies and mulled wine at our bookclub tonight. I’m then working which is always fun before hosting our bookclub tonight which I always love. There’s some great girls who come so it’s always great to catch up.
Find out more about the books below ⬇️
Do you like translated fiction? Any recommendations for me?
Letters From The Ginza Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda
From the publishers of the international bestseller Days at the Morisaki Bookshop comes a new book about the beauty of humble objects, the power of writing, and reconnecting with those you have lost.
Write a letter, heal your heart . . .
Hidden away in a corner of the Ginza neighbourhood is a venerable stationery shop. To venture inside is to find everything your stationery-loving heart desires, from the most delicate paper to fountain pens that fit exactly to the shape of your hand to gorgeously coloured inks. The shop owner intuits your every need, inviting you to take a seat at a small wooden table on the top floor, where you’ll find the words flowing, helping you unlock repressed memories, secret longings and your own mysteries.
To this shop comes a young company employee, uncertain in his career and needing a connection back to his past; the hostess of an elegant club; the vice-captain of a high-school archery team, an ageing businessman and a formerly homeless sushi chef. With impeccable manners and a warm demeanour, the shop owner helps each of them with more than just their stationery needs.
The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang
On the first day of the monsoon an old ramshackle building appears. This is The Rainfall Market. Inside you will find magical bookstores, hairdressers, perfumeries and anything your heart desires.
But you cannot enter without an invitation.
Serin, who lives in a small flat with her mother and dreams of a bigger, better life, can’t believe her luck when she receives a ticket inviting her to step inside The Rainfall Market.
Once inside she will have the opportunity to swap her life for a new one. A better one.
Accompanied by Isha the cat and followed by a mysterious shadow, Serin tentatively steps inside. There she is told she has just one week to choose the perfect life and find true happiness.
However, there is a catch.
If she doesn’t find her dream life, she’ll be trapped inside the market forever . . .
Butter by Asako Yuzuki
The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story, and translated by Polly Barton.
There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.
Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?
Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer”, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.
Good afternoon everyone I hope you’re all having a good day? I wanted to do a little appreciation post for the lovely @indie_thinking today. These are some of the books they’ve sent me recently.
❤️The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji 🧡Forest Of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha 💛I Bet You You’d Look Good In A Coffin by Katy Brent 💚 It’s Complicated by Philippa Found 💙Every Moment Since by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen 🩵Homesick by Silvia Saunders 💜 Murder On The Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood 🩷The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard
They all look amazing and I can’t wait to read them soon. Thanks so much to the lovely Mel and team for sending me all the books you do it’s so appreciated.
I was lucky enough to watch the recent @4thestatbooks showcase online last week and there are some equally fantastic books coming next year!
Have you read any of these? Any I should bump up my list?
A deeply powerful collection of poems about life in Gaza by award-winning Palestinian poet, Mosab Abu Toha.
Barely 30 years old, Mosab Abu Toha was already a well-known poet when the current assault on Gaza began. After the Israeli army bombed his house, pulverising a library he had painstakingly built for community use, he and his family fled for their safety. Not for the first time in their lives.
Somehow, amid the chaos, Abu Toha kept writing poems. These are those poems. Uncannily clear, direct and beautifully tuned, they form one of the most astonishing works of art wrested from wartime. Here are directives for what to do in an air raid and lyrics about the poet’s wife, singing to his children to distract them. Huddled in the dark, Abu Toha remembers his grandfather’s oranges and his daughter’s joy in eating them. Here are poems to introduce readers to his extended family, some of them no longer with us.
Moving between glimpses of life in relative peacetime and absurdist poems about surviving in a barely liveable occupation, Forest of Noise invites a wide audience into an experience that defies the imagination ― even as it is watched live. This is an extraordinary and arrestingly whimsical book, that brings us indelible art in a time of terrible suffering.
Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza, winner of the Palestine Book Award 2022 and the American Book Award 2023
My Review:
This book by award winning Palestinian poet @mosababutohapoet is hard hitting, emotional and very thought provoking. Through him we walk the streets of Gaza to see what life was like before the current assault on Gaza and what it’s like now. We experience what life is like for the survivors living with their memories of Gaza and the refugees who have fled from the bombardment.
I thought this was a very special book and I often found myself tearing up as I read. It’s awful to realise everything that people have suffered and continue to suffer as the assault continues. The poet doesn’t try to spare the readers feelings as he gives us a snapshot glimpse of life there and quite vivid descriptions of his experiences of war.
‘But of all things, losing the only photo of my grandfather under the rubble of my house was a real disaster.’
‘Sir, we are not welcome anywhere. Only cemeteries don’t mind our bodies.’
If you have any interest in the ongoing Gaza assault or wish to understand more about what is happening there then I urge you to read this book. If you just appreciate good, poignant poetry than I highly recommend this book
Huge thanks to @indie_thinking and @4thestatebooks for sending me a copy of this book.
About The Author:
MOSAB ABU TOHA is a Palestinian poet, short-story writer, and essayist from Gaza. His first collection of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and won the Palestine Book Award, the American Book Award, and the Walcott Poetry Prize. Abu Toha is also the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which he hopes to rebuild. He recently won an Overseas Press Club Award for his “Letter from Gaza” columns for The New Yorker.
Good morning everyone and happy Friday. I absolutely love historical fiction, especially if it teaches me something new. Here are some of the fantastic looking historical fiction books that are coming out next year!
❤️The House Of Barbary by Isabelle Schuler 🧡 Rooms For Vanishing by Stuart Nadler 💛The Golden Hour by Kate Lord Brown 💚Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll 💙Hold Back The Night by Jessica Moor 🩵The Blackbirds Of St Giles by Lila Cain 💜The Eights by Joanna Miller 🩷The Manual Of Good Wives by Lola Jaye
All of these are tbr but I’m hoping to read some of them soon! The Black Birds Of St Giles is out in January so I’ll be reading that one next. Hold Back The Night has been out in hardback for a while but it’s coming out in paperback next year which is why I’ve included it!
I’m off today and so is my older son as he has a TE day. I’m looking forward to spending the day with him especially as he had a horrible incident at school yesterday where another kid ruined his lunch so he couldn’t eat it so lots of cuddles today. I really need to do some more of my proof reading course and catch up more on my Iron & Embers read-along as I’m a bit behind.
What book(s) are you looking forward to reading next year?
The House Of Barbary by Isabelle Schuler
Beatrice has been lied to her whole life.
Beatrice Barbary has been raised to believe that while education will set her mind free, there are some questions better left unanswered.
Her life is in disarray.
But when her father, one of the most powerful men in Bern, is brutally murdered in their own home, she is left reeling, unprotected and vulnerable.
Her future uncertain.
Plunging head first into the mysteries surrounding her father and her own upbringing, Beatrice discovers The Order of St. Eve and the violent secrets they have been hiding her entire life.
It’s time for her to take control.
Will she be able to right the wrongs of her father, or will the Order silence her first?
Set in a city at breaking point, Beatrice’s story toes the dangerously thin line between retribution and revenge, and the choice we must make when confronted by evil.
Rooms For Vanishing by Stuart Nadler
Each member of the Alterman family is certain they are the only one to have survived the war. But their story is one of maybe-lived lives, parallel worlds and possibilities, and one populated by ghosts . . .
In the summer of 1938, Sonja is lifted onto a Kindertransport train that will take her from Nazi-occupied Austria to London. She leaves behind her parents, Fania and Arnold, and her baby brother Moses. She is the only member of her family to survive.
In 1966, her mother Fania works as a massage therapist in Montreal, a place that has provided her safe haven after she lost her entire family in the war.
In 2016 Vienna, Arnold lives out the last of his days in the city he has always called home.
And in 2000, while Moses awaits the birth of his grandson in New York, he is visited by the ghosts of his past.
Surely none of these realities co-exist, and yet they seem to be drawing closer . . .
Moving between Vienna and Prague, London and Montreal, New York and Miami, Stuart Nadler’s Rooms for Vanishing is the story of a family blown apart by war. Spellbinding and profound, it explores what might happen when grief and hope collide, in a masterful reimagining of the lost possibilities of history itself.
The Golden Hour by Kate Lord Brown
The Golden Hour is an epic dual timeline story which interweaves glory-seeking desert archaeologists, priceless treasures, Nefertiti’s tomb and the decadent cabarets of WW2 Cairo with restless expat lives in bohemian Beirut.
Archaeologist Lucie Fitzgerald’s mother is dying – she’s also been lying. As her home, the ‘Paris of the East’, Beirut, teeters on the brink of war in the ‘70s, Polly Fitzgerald has one last story to tell from her deathbed. It’s the story of her childhood best friend Juno and their life in 30s Cairo. Lucie travels home to be with her dying mother and discovers the truth about her family, Juno’s work and their shared search for the greatest undiscovered tomb of all – Nefertiti’s.
From the cities to the deserts, this transporting and moving story of a lost generation transformed by war is a study of great love and sacrifice in all its forms.
The Golden Hour is the perfect novel for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Victoria Hislop.
Nephthys by Rachel Louise Driscoll
Sister. Rival. Protector. The spellbinding story of a forgotten daughter and a forgotten goddess.
Quiet and reserved, Clemmie is happy in the background. Although her parents may overlook her talents, her ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at the Egyptian relic parties which have made her father the toast of Victorian society.
But at one such party, the words Clemmie interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. The beautiful and dangerous glyphs she holds in her hands will change her life forever.
Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Egypt on a mission to save what remains of her family. The childhood game she used to play about the immortal sisters, Isis and Nephthys, has taken on a devastating resonance and it is only by following Nephthys’ story that she can undo the mistakes of the past. On her journey up the Nile she will meet unexpected allies and enemies and, along with long-buried secrets and betrayals, Clemmie will be forced to step into the light.
Hold Back The Night by Jessica Moor
From the Observer debut novelist of the year, comes a blistering, heart-wrenching new novel of complicity and atonement, delving into one nurse’s experience of the little-known history of conversion therapy and the heart-breaking betrayal of the AIDS crisis.
March 2020. Annie is alone in her house as the world shuts down, only the ghosts of her memories for company. But then she receives a phone call which plunges her deeper into the past.
1959. Annie and Rita are student nurses at Fairlie Hall mental hospital. Working long, gruelling hours, they soon learn that the only way to appease their terrifying matron is to follow the rules unthinkingly. But what is happening in the hospital’s hidden side wards? And at what point does following the rules turn into complicity – and betrayal?
1983. Annie is reeling from the loss of her husband and struggling to face raising her daughter alone. Following a chance encounter, she offers a sick young man a bed for the night, a good deed that soon leads to another. Before long, she finds herself entering a new life of service – her home a haven for those who are cruelly shunned. But can we ever really atone?
The powerful and captivating new novel from the celebrated author of KEEPER and YOUNG WOMEN, HOLD BACK THE NIGHT is Jessica Moor’s most powerful and commercial book to date. A darkly compelling character-led novel, drawing on themes of complicity and betrayal, it is bursting with talking points and absolutely perfect for reading groups.
The Blackbirds Of St Giles by Lila Cain
Some things are earned. Some things are worth fighting for…
It’s 1782, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance.
But the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.
The underworld labyrinth is run by Elias, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free.
Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…?
The Eights by Joanna Miller
They knew they were changing history. They didn’t know they would change each other.
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world’s most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms on Corridor Eight. They have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Beatrice, politically-minded daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way – and her own friends – for the first time. Socialite Otto fills her room with extravagant luxuries but fears they won’t be enough to distract her from her memories of the war years. And quiet, clever, Marianne, the daughter of a village vicar, arrives bearing a secret she must hide from everyone – even The Eights – if she is to succeed.
But Oxford’s dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.
The Eights is a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination, courage, and what it means to come of age in a world that is forever changed.
The Manual For Good Wives by Lola Jaye
Everything about Adeline Copplefield is a lie . . .
To the world Mrs Copplefield is the epitome of Victorian propriety: an exemplary society lady who writes a weekly column advising young ladies on how to be better wives.
Only Adeline has never been a good wife or mother; she has no claim to the Copplefield name, nor is she an English lady . . .
Now a black woman, born in Africa, who dared to pretend to be something she was not, is on trial in the English courts with all of London society baying for her blood. And she is ready to tell her story . . .
From the author of The Attic Child, Lola Jaye, comes The Manual for Good Wives, a dual narrative historical novel about love, generational trauma, second chances and hope.
Good morning everyone and happy Friday. I was incredibly excited to receive a copy of Our Last Wild Days yesterday. I was a huge fan of this author’s last book Talk Bones so I can’t wait to read this one.
Huge thanks to the lovely Alison Barrow and Doubleday for sending me a copy of this book I’m looking forward to reading it soon.
Our Last Wild Days is published on the 24th April 2025 and you can find out more about the book below.
What was your last wild day?
Book Synopsis:
‘There is nothing like it. The way the world gets real quiet when a gator’s nearby…And then the water, suddenly boiling as that black head surfaces and the ancient reptile erupts into the air hissing like a devil…The way the crack of the rifle seems to come from deep inside Cutter. The way she feels it in her throat; she knows she’s a good killer – and yet. She is stalling…’
The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…
About The Author:
Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. They live in Bordeaux with their wife.
Over The Rainbow Blog 