Holiday Reads - Page 1

Antoinette's world has fallen apart: her husband, the man she has loved for as long as she can remember, has died tragically in an accident. But is he really who she thought he was? At his funeral, she sees a woman she has never met before. It is in that instant that everything she has ever known is turned upside down. Phaedra loved George too and just had to attend his funeral. As she sits before his wife, she knows that what she is about to reveal will change all their lives forever. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to reveal the truth. But what if the truth is harder to bear than the tragedy... Santa Montefiore's The Summer House is a great summer read full of love and romance.

Written by national treasure Michael Palin, The Truth tells the story of Keith Mabbut, a man currently at at a crossroads in his life. When he is offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to write the biography of the elusive Hamish Melville, a highly influential activist and humanitarian - he seizes the chance to write something meaningful. His search to find out the real story behind the legend takes him all the way to Orissa and the environmental hotspots of India. The more Keith discovers about Hamish, the more he admires him - and the more he connects with an idealist who wanted to make a difference. But is Hamish really who he claims to be? A wonderful portrayal of an ordinary man on an extraordinary adventure, this hardback is warm, witty, original and surprising!

The sequel to A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness's Shadow of Night continues the story of historian Diana Bishop, a woman descended from a line of powerful witches, who along with long-lived vampire Matthew Clairmont has broken the law of dividing creatures. The fragile coexistence of witches, daemons, vampires and humans has been dangerously threatened. Seeking safety, Diana and Matthew travel back in time to London, 1590. But they soon realise that the past may not provide a haven... This is a book that will appeal to fans of fantasy and romance and fans of the original are sure to fall for Diana and Matthew once more in this stunning, richly imagined, epic tale.

Please note that this hardback has 580 pages and not 336 as advertised in our recent catalogue.

Maeve Binchy's novels are full of love, laughter and life and have been charming readers for the past 30 years. Our collection features some of her most recent and most admired writing, from The Copper Beech - a memorable portrait of a small Irish town whose untroubled surfaces masks the passions, rivalries and jealousies beneath - to The Return Journey - a spellbinding collection of stories about love, loss, revelation and reconciliation. A bestselling author, this compilation is a must for fans of romantic fiction.

In The House By The Sea, ten-year-old Floriana is enchanted by the beauty of the villa just outside her small village. One day, Dante, the son of the villa's powerful owner, invites her in. Many years later, the owner of an ailing hotel on the Devon coast advertises for an artist in residence to teach guests how to paint. The man she hires soon begins to heal the conflict in her family. But this mysterious figure is not who he seems, and has his own agenda. Spanning four decades and many hundreds of miles, Santa Montefiore's captivating novel is complex and irresistibly compelling.

In a ghostly estate outside Dublin that is half-built, half-inhabited and half-abandoned, two children and their father have been found dead. The mother is on her way to intensive care. The murder squad's star detective Scorcher Kennedy is given the case and at first he and his rookie partner Richie believe it to be straightforward. But there are too many inexplicable details and the evidence is pointing in two directions at once. Poignant, compelling and beautifully written, In the Woods author Tana French's Broken Harbour combines tense and thrilling psychological crime with atmospheric storytelling in Broken Harbour.

Written by international bestselling author Richard North Patterson, Fall From Grace is a hardback thriller full of suspense. Adam Blaine has returned to his childhood home of Martha's Vineyard, New England, to bury the father he despised so much. Reunited with his equally relieved and long-suffering family, he soon becomes aware of the suspicious circumstances surrounding his father's death - a death that is born of a long-hidden truth and an extremely chequered family history. Adam finds himself executor of the will and has to face three possible explanations for the tragedy, while also having to confront his own past. This tense novel has been praised by the likes of Linda Fairstein.

Intelligent fiction for the modern woman, the Adele Parks Collection is full of warm, moving and heart-breaking tales full of relevance and resonance. The three books featured in this set act as the perfect introduction to the extremely popular and talented author and are all very different, but equally well perceived. Love Lies is a contemporary tale of Cinderella's quest for her own happily ever after, while Game Over is the story of not looking for Mr Right. Tell Me Something is a book that describes the tricky situation of a crumbling marriage, fussy mother-in-law and an unwanted ex.

Empress Josephine's family has been called to Napoleon's court for the terrible news that he intends to divorce his barren wife of thirteen years and take a younger bride. For Josephine's daughter Hortense, this means she is free to leave her husband (Napoleon's brother), having given the Bonapartes three heirs. As she looks for love, she must support her mother through the terrible grief of Napoleon's betrayal. For Napoleon's new wife, it is a terrible duty she must take on in her father's name and she can find nothing in common with her new husband. An unlikely friendship with Hortense brings her much comfort in this time of unhappiness. But Napoleon's sister, Pauline, believes it is yet another woman stealing her brother's attention and affection. Having spent years attempting to control his power and influence, she must fight harder and dirtier if she is to win... Michelle Moran's dazzling The Second Empress is packed with the drama of love, betrayal, romance and period detail and is sure to appeal to fans of both historical fiction and romance.

Written by Frances Osborne, the bestselling author of The Bolter, Park Lane is set in Edwardian London and tells the story of housemaid Grace Campbell and Lady Beatrice - two young women of very different social standing who both dream of breaking free from tradition and obligation. They know that suffragettes are on the march and that war looms, but at 35 Park Lane, Lady Masters insists that life is about service and duty. The book expertly delves inside one of London's most exclusive residences where the walls between two social worlds are crumbling and the lives of these two women are about to collide in a way they could never have imagined. This gripping and tense hardback brilliantly captures a deeply fascinating period of British life in which the normal boundaries of behaviour were overturned and the social hierarchy could no longer be taken for granted.

A collection of ten romance novels that are delightfully frothy yet remain well written and true-to-life, this set of ten Katie Fforde books is ideal for those who love romantic fiction and is great light reading for fans of Jill Mansell and Harriet Evans. Introducing you to Fforde's gently witty view of the world, each book develops an unforgettable heroine who is normally unlucky in love, such as the green fingered Perdita and the dizzy PA Jenny. Will they manage to find their man? Tales of love that are consistently Sunday Times bestsellers.

Jackie Collins is one of the world's bestselling authors and continues to write blockbuster novels that thrill existing fans and attract new ones. This collection brings together three of her best books - Hollywood Wives: The New Generation, Goddess of Vengeance and Drop Dead Beautiful - all packed with the sex, glamour, power, passion and plotting you've come to expect. Perfect examples of why she's sold more than 400 million copies worldwide, these novels confirm there really is no one who writes these kinds of books better!

The twelfth True Blood book from Charlaine Harris, Deadlocked continues the adventures of cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse - and the vampires and shapeshifters are still not getting on with each other. Sookie and Area Five investigator Bill find themselves having to solve the murder of a woman whose body has just been found in Eric Northman's front yard. Sookie believes that this time the dead girl's fate has nothing to do with her, but she is wrong. She has an enemy far more devious than she'd ever expect - and this enemy is aiming to make Sookie's world come crashing down.

Dr Kay Scarpetta, a consultant pathologist, follows the forensic trails left by murderers in search of the truth in Patricia Cornwell's thrilling reads. A reluctant heroine, Scarpetta is a brilliantly drawn character who immediately engages her audience and has them hooked every step of the way. With her state-of-the-art knowledge of forensics and investigative techniques, Cornwell's novels are taut, tense, often frightening and among the very finest of the genre. Unputdownable crime fiction from a talented bestselling author!

A BAFTA award-winning Danish television series, the novel version of The Killing from David Hewson is based on Soren Sveistrup's original screenplay and is just as addictive. Detective Sarah Lund is looking forward to her last day as a detective with the Copenhagen Police department as she prepares to move to Sweden to be with her fiance, but everything changes when nineteen year-old student Nanna Birk Larsen is found raped and brutally murdered in the woods outside the city. Lund has to put her plans to relocate on hold as she leads the investigation along with detective Jan Meyer. Soon a link between city hall and the murder comes to light and the case takes a different turn. Over the course of twenty days, there are many suspects as violence and political intrigue cast their shadows over the hunt for a killer. Meanwhile, Nanna's family are struggling to cope with this sudden loss. A fascinating book based on an acclaimed television show that was shown on the BBC.