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By What Sarah and Lou Read
New in paperback - books we love

If, like us, you sometimes get excited about a book but decide to wait for the paperback, here's our handy guide to which new releases we've loved and would really recommend. (Plus a few we're intrigued by even though we've not read them). Buy now!

Tom Lake: The Sunday Times bestseller - a BBC Radio 2 and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick
Ann Patchett
£9.99 £9.49

Soldier Sailor: 'Intense, furious, moving and often extremely funny.' DAVID NICHOLLS
Claire Kilroy
£9.99 £9.49

The Other Half: You know how they live. This is how they die. 'The Bullingdon Club meets Knives Out' Evening Standard
Charlotte Vassell
£9.99 £9.49

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv: Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2023
Andrey Kurkov
£9.99 £9.49

Trespasses: The most beautiful, devastating love story you’ll read this year
Louise Kennedy
£9.99 £9.49This blew Lou away, her favourite book so far of 2023.

Amy and Lan: The enchanting new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Outcast
Sadie Jones
£9.99 £9.49

The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings: An Escapist Mystery for Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid
Joanna Nadin
£9.99 £9.49OUT IN JUNE This shimmering heat-haze of a book is the perfect holiday read. Sun-drenched and nostalgia-soaked, it moves between the 1980s and now but the biggest character in a book full of big characters is Cornwall: holiday houses, skinny-dipping, boats and beaches. It’s the story of Daisy and the glamorous young clique which orbits her, who descend on Cornwall for a holiday, and Jason, the down-at-heel local boy who longs to be one of them, until tragedy strikes. There are echoes of The Great Gatsby, The Talented Mr Ripley and The Scapegoat in Jason’s story - an outsider who becomes entangled in the lives of people he idolises. When the characters are thrown together unexpectedly for a reunion in Cornwall, thirty years after the original holiday, betrayals, lies, secrets and, ultimately, the truth are uncovered. Full of teenage angst, longing, jealousy and the uncertainty of trying to find out who you really are, it asks who is authentically themselves and whether we are all really playing a part. (Sarah)

Without Warning and Only Sometimes: 'Extraordinary. Moving and heartwarming' The Sunday Times
Kit de Waal
£10.99 £10.44

The Perfect Golden Circle: Selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club 2022
Benjamin Myers
£8.99 £8.54OUT IN MAY: Crop circles and friendship from one of Sarah's favourite current authors.

Devotion
Hannah Kent
£9.99 £9.49OUT IN MAY: I enjoyed this lyrical love story set in the early 19th century from the author of Burial Rites. It divides neatly into three sections. The first is set in the forests of Prussia where the heroine, Hanne, lives in a community of devout Old Lutherans who are waiting for permission to leave for the colonies to escape religious persecution. The second covers the six month voyage to South Australia and the third follows the community as they settle and try to build a new life in a hostile environment. Each section feels authentic, clearly well-researched but in an unobtrusive way. The focus on nature grounds each segment clearly which works well. The love story is tender, mystical and believable. There were thoughtful themes of faith and religion, superstition and suspicion, nature and nurture. The suppression of emotion, desires and self-expression in the name of God is well-articulated. The twist is clever, although there is a bit at the end of the book which reminded me a little too much of another story (I won't say which because ... spoilers!) A beautifully written and compassionate book which introduced me to a part of history that I hadn’t really thought about before. (Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the advance review copy) (Sarah)

Shrines of Gaiety
Kate Atkinson
£9.99 £9.49OUT IN APRIL: You can’t go wrong with Kate Atkinson and her latest tour de force (freshly out in paperback for those who eschew hardbacks) is a doozy. Intelligent, accessible, tightly plotted with detailed characters, she ticks all the boxes for an immersive read. This is almost a best-of with a bit of everything she does well thrown into the mix – there’s a dour detective, gutsy women and a period setting, between the wars in a London of seedy clubs and brash glamour. (Sarah)

Bad Relations
Cressida Connolly
£9.99 £9.49Part historical, part coming-of-age novel, part family saga, this is the story of one family whose branches spread out and then come together again. Connolly (author of the brilliant After the Party) does bohemian upper-middle class very well but in this book she introduces the Australian part of the family and deals with them in just as nuanced a way. The heart of the book is the Summer that Aussie Stephen spends with his English second cousins in Cornwall. It’s set in the 70s and is a lovely evocation of teenage crushes, parties, languorous hot summer days and shifting loyalties. Either side of the central part of the book the story moves back in time to the Crimea and forward to the present day. Connolly captures perfectly the ambiguities in every story when viewed from a different time, the secrets, the loose-ends and the differing interpretations that can be put on people’s actions when they are no longer there to explain their motivation. At heart her story is about what remains as a memorial to people when they die. Tender and touching. (Thanks to Viking Books/Penguin and Netgalley for the advance review copy) (Sarah)

I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: the whip-smart domestic comedy you won't be able to put down
Rebecca Wait
£10.99 £10.44OUT IN APRIL: A glorious, perceptive novel about dysfunctional families and how they make one susceptible to manipulation from other people. It’s bitingly witty, beautifully observed and utterly absorbing. I loved the main characters – people-pleaser Alice who never feels comfortable in social situations, her rebellious twin Hanna who couldn’t be more different, and their older brother Michael who smothers his feelings under a starchy and hectoring exterior. Chapters on their controlling mother Celia allow us to see in heart-breaking focus how patterns repeat themselves in families. It's a novel about life - its disappointments and failures, and whether it is essentially tragic or comic. What could be depressing is lifted by a mordant wit. One of my top reads of the year. (Sarah)

The Exhibitionist: The Times Novel of the Year 2022
Charlotte Mendelson
£9.99 £9.49A brilliant family saga with a familiar structure (big get-together, tensions arise, secrets come out) but a fresh and distinctive take on family dynamics. The Hanrahans seem to live an enviable life: a rambling house in North London, an artistic couple and their bohemian brood, big family gatherings, professional success. The Exhibitionist of the title is Ray, to whom we are introduced in the first sentence as he pronounces ‘Tolstoy was an idiot’. The book centres around a weekend where his family and friends will descend for a private view for his latest exhibition. Charlotte Mendelson has a precise, elegant style, laced with sharp wit. The wordplay reminded me of Jilly Cooper, in the best possible way – this is no bonkbuster although Mendelson is rather good on the frisson and sensuality of illicit attraction, along with the yearning and ache that accompany love that cannot be fulfilled. She is also excellent on the agonies and ecstasies of being a parent: Lucia recalls her daughter, ‘beloved Jess, at whose shape, her fully grown survival she longs to marvel, whose scent she wants to carry around her neck in a little bottle for head sniffs.’ Correspondingly, there are poignant moments when Lucia catches herself saying the wrong thing to her children and instantly regrets it, the eternal lot of a mother, trying to keep everyone happy and maintain equilibrium. As you discover that the house itself is crumbling and rotting around the family’s ears, it becomes clear that the lives of those inside are in a similar state. Unlike say The Corrections though it is a fun book to read, despite the desperate unhappiness it describes. This is down to the style and artistry of Mendelsohn’s writing. It did take me a while to get into, probably because there are a lot of characters and introducing them all slows the tempo down. It’s only really by the middle that I felt the book hit its stride and pulled me in. Rest assured that, if you stick with it, you will be richly rewarded. (Thanks to Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the advance review copy) (Sarah)

Fix the System, Not the Women
LAURA BATES
£9.99 £9.49Another brilliant book by the driving force behind the Everyday Sexism project. In the wake of Wayne Couzens, Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard, accusations of ‘Fatal Attraction’ style distraction by female MPs, the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US, it couldn’t be a better time for an examination of the systemic prejudice at the heart of our key institutions. This looks like a thorough and enraging round up of the sexism built into the structures which govern our lives. Bates is concise, clear, eloquent and articulate in the face of what can feel like a mounting tide of misogyny. She’s as good for teens getting to grips with society as for older people struggling to put into words the frustrations of being a woman today. (Sarah)

The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil
Tina Brown
£10.99 £10.44Fascinating, well-rounded examination of the royal family from eminent journalist Tina Brown. (Sarah)

Housebreaking
Colleen Hubbard
£9.99 £9.49A quirky, darkly funny and surprisingly touching debut novel about families, friendships and rebuilding your life. The characters, even the minor ones, are perfectly drawn and jump to life off the page. The dialogue is raw and revealing. Hubbard has mastered the art of 'showing not telling'. It's an atmospheric, hopeful read, revealing of the complexities and misunderstandings of family life. (Lou)

Idol
Louise O'Neill
£8.99 £8.54A thoroughly enjoyable psychological thriller which keeps you guessing right up until the end. O’Neill is a master at keeping up the suspense. Who is telling the truth? Who is lying? And how much of what we remember is true anyway? Full disclosure: this is not my sort of book. It's a glossy, commercial, melodramatic psychological thriller - think The Girl on the Train, or anything by Liane Moriaty or, at a pinch Elizabeth Day. BUT if you are a fan of any of the above, I think you'll love it. As a beach read or a guilty pleasure, it's very well done. Influencer, wellness-guru and social media star, Samantha Miller, finds her world unravelling when her confessional essay about a formative sexual experience is disputed by her childhood best friend. As she scrambles to salvage her reputation, she travels back to the small town she grew up in to confront old friends and enemies. There are some serious themes here: trauma, the dynamics of friendships, the power of social media and the ethics behind turning yourself into a brand, which are introduced rather than explored, as well as #metoo and the potential weaponizing of personal trauma. There’s a lot of flinging open of closets and picking out off-the-shoulder soft cashmere jumpers and suede boots. The dynamic between Sam and her team, and particularly her manager, is well done and O’Neill has a good grasp of the business behind modern wellness brand sensations like Goop and the cult of personality. I can completely see this being picked up for TV. (Sarah)