The Killing of a Chestnut Tree by Oliver K Langmead

Everyone in England knows Havelock Harper, the celebrated consulting detective, from the cases published in the papers. If any of them read his secret files, they would discover a very different man. His most fantastical cases must never reach the public eye, and nor must the love he shares with his stalwart companion, the formidable Major Sebastian Wright.

The Duke of Farleigh has been killed, and Havelock Harper summoned to the secluded Farleigh Forest to solve his murder. When he and Sebastian arrive, they discover a greater mystery. The trees of Farleigh have begun to speak, writing words into their leaves and bark. The victim is one of those an ancient chestnut, cruelly chopped down.

Why has the forest begun to speak? Why would anyone cut down the Duke? And how can Farleigh’s gentle, quiet paradise survive this crime?

Blog Tour: Finding Arthur Whittle

Hi all! We're taking part in the blog tour for Finding Arthur Whittle today. Follow the jump for an extract and all the details of this exciting read!

Happy #BoookBirthday! 30 July 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there are FOUR books on our lists publishing!

A Reader's Guide to Terry Pratchett by Marc Burrows

Terry Pratchett sold over 100 million books worldwide, was translated into forty languages, and became one of the most widely loved writers of the twentieth century. His work, including the Discworld series, is often praised for its wit and invention, but less often examined for what it really is: one of the most sustained and coherent philosophical projects in modern popular fiction.

From the author of The Magic of Terry Pratchett, the Locus Award-winning first biography of Sir Terry, The Terry Pratchett Reader’s Guide takes Pratchett seriously as a literary figure without taking the fun out of him. Moving chronologically from his earliest short stories through to 1999’s The Fifth Elephant, this first volume charts how an angry young journalist from Beaconsfield turned genre parody into something far more ambitious: a body of work concerned with belief, power, identity, and what happens when enough people believe the same thing at once. A second volume will cover The Truth (2000) through to Pratchett’s final novel, The Shepherd’s Crown.

A reader’s guide written for readers, not academics, complete with jokes and footnotes of its own, each chapter explores a book’s themes, cultural context, and place in Pratchett’s development, tracing the connections between the man, the work, and the world around him.

Whether you’ve read every Discworld novel multiple times or are wondering where to begin, the Readers Guide is a new way to understand what Pratchett achieved: a serious meditation on justice, belief, and what it means to be human — with terrible puns, endless cups of tea, and the occasional joke about bums.

Gingerbread Bones by Lindsay Lovise

They're being hunted…

When sixteen-year-old Georgie and her troublemaking brother are shipped off to the wilderness for their stepmother’s newest reality show, Georgie is convinced it’ll be the worst experience of her life. Two weeks. No phones. Hiking. Camping. Cameras catching every humiliating second.

Then she meets Mack Gray. Tattooed, unreadable, and―among a cast of kids already branded as trouble―he’s the one she’s sure is dangerous.

One night, the counselors are chanting affirmations around the fire. By morning, they’re gone.

But the kids are not alone.

Georgie can feel it, stalking them from the shadows―watching, waiting, picking them off one by one. Whatever it is, it isn’t just hunting.

It’s playing.

And in this game, there seems to be only one ending: no one gets out alive.

Weekly recap - 26 Jul 2026

Happy Sunday, all! Welcome to the weekly recap. 

This week, I reviewed

Just as long as we're Together - classic teen story that still hits today

Here's to you, Rachel Robinson - the companion to the above

and then we screamed - teen anger is visceral 

The Imagitorium - Sarah Beth Durst's new triumph

This week, I read

Gingerbread Bones - a teen horror with a great fairytale link

Tendrils - the follow up to the story based on an 80s cartoon

How to Find a Nameless Fae - fantasy with a great fairytale link

I am the Night - a close look at the creation of the animated Batman show

Sunny Days - a look at Sesame Street and its contemporaries

Apparently I just wanted to read things based on other things this week

Coming up 

It's back to cosy fantasy while I'm on my holiday!

The Imagitorium by Sarah Beth Durst

It’s really very impolite to ask anyone to risk life, limb, and extra limbs without giving them a choice.

Shy daydreamer Amelia has been looking forward to this day for as long as she can the day she, as a ten-year-old, finally gets to enter the magical Imagitorium and create her very own imaginary friend.

But when she walks out of the Creation Room with Ruru, a fluffy, bearlike being with butterfly wings who gives excellent hugs, and into a scene of pure chaos, she quickly realizes that something’s gone very wrong. The Imagitorium is so much bigger than anyone outside knows, filled with dragons and sea monsters and candy cyclones, and now it’s starting to fall apart. The Caretaker is missing, and it’s up to Amelia to find her.

Amelia knows that she’s never been a hero, but… maybe she can still help?

and then we screamed by Holly Bourne

Everything was perfect in the small town of Maple Lakes...until the cheerleaders started screaming.

Clover wishes something would happen in her boring high school - so she can spend more time with her crush Brody, covering it for the school newspaper. But she never wished for this...

When cheerleader Abigail starts screaming in the middle of an exam, people laugh. But as more girls start breaking into uncontrollable screaming fits, it's clear something is seriously wrong. The authorities don't have a clue what's happening - so it's up to Clover and Brody to investigate. What they discover is a darkness beneath the perfect veneer of Maple Lakes - and it is spreading fast.

Happy #BookBirthday! 23 July 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there are TWO books on our lists publishing!

Here's to you, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume

Trouble in Rachel's family is spelled with a capital C—for Charles.

From the outside, Rachel looks like the perfect daughter in the perfect family. She’s a straight-A student, a gifted musician, and a good friend. But her older brother, Charles, seems determined to ruin everything. Rachel feels as if it’s all falling apart. Her best friends, Stephanie and Alison, find Charles funny. They urge Rachel to lighten up and enjoy the end of seventh grade. Easy for them to say. Not so easy for Rachel. Not even when Jeremy Dragon, the coolest boy in ninth grade, notices her. Is it possible that perfection isn’t the key to an exciting life?

Just as long as we're Together by Judy Blume

Stephanie and Rachel have been best friends for years, in spite of their differences. Alison is new in town, and immediately becomes an integral part of their group. But is it possible to have two best friends? And how can you call anyone a friend if you can't tell them your most painful secrets?

Weekly recap - 19th July 2026

Happy Sunday, all! Welcome to the weekly recap. 

This week, I reviewed

Natural Selection - boy vs bear has never been so literal

Dead Teenager Movie - horror that's aware of its own tropes

You Only Live Twice - romance that's genuinely different

Alex, by Proxy - a difficult read, but worth it

This week, I read

and then we screamed - Holly Bourne being angry as only Holly Bourne can

The Imagitorium - I can't even talk about this yet

A Reader's Guide to Terry Pratchett - a look at the first half of his career, from schoolboy writings to halfway through the Disc

Coming up 

It'll depend on whether Edelweiss approves me, but I'm hoping for a media themed week!

Alex, by Proxy by Karen Cantor

HARROWING NEW DETAILS IN ‘MONSTER MOMMY’ CASE… SHOCKING INFORMATION SURFACES AS ‘MONSTER MOMMY’ CASE HEADS TO TRIAL… HOW COULD A MOTHER POISON HER SON?

Welcome to sixteen-year-old Alex’s life, ripped straight from the headlines.

Alex is a victim of Munchausen by proxy, but he’s also a witty, sarcastic kid with unusually good crossword skills and a penchant for astronomy. At least he used to be. Now that he’s recovered from years of illness induced by his mother, he sort of has to figure out who he is all over again… And most importantly, he’ll have to decide if he can testify against the woman who gave birth to him.

As Alex awaits the trial, his friends convince him to start a podcast as a way to tell his story. Together, they create “Lethal Lullaby.” The podcast brings Alex closer to his old life—hanging out with friends, cracking jokes, having fun… At the same time, new memories surface and disturbing revelations come out, forcing Alex to acknowledge that the podcast could be making things worse. It seems like he’s got deeper issues than he’d like to admit–and this time, he can’t blame them on his mom.

Day by day, Alex’s mental health crumbles, until he can no longer distinguish between truth and fiction. Should he trust himself to testify? And if he gets up there, what version of the truth will he share?

You Only Live Twice by Autumn Allen

Barely one week into senior year of high school, Boston native Zakiyyah is making her 2012-2013 Get Free Plan.

Step one: quit high school. (PSA: There are other ways to get to college!)

Step two: live like it’s Ramadan year-round.

As she gets deeper into her Plan, she starts to wonder if there’s someone out there who would be a good companion. To everyone’s surprise, Zakiyyah decides she wants to get married. But there are some complications.

Problem one: she’s never met a guy she liked. Zakiyyah’s family (reluctantly) and friends (eagerly) agree to support the search.

Problem two: what’s the secret to choosing a good life partner?

Enter Musa, by way of mutual friends. With marriage in mind, Zakiyyah and Musa get to know each other, progressing from email to instant messaging to phone calls. Things are going well… thrillingly well… until tragedy strikes Boston. In a moment of heightened emotion and stress, Zakiyyah and Musa have their first major disagreement.

Zakiyyah can call the whole thing off. But with or without Musa, what does it mean to live on her own terms?

Happy #BookBirthday! 16 July 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there are FIVE books on our lists publishing!

Dead Teenager Movie by Cethan Leahy

She loved scary movies… until she had the starring role.

A spree of murders is haunting Cork city, leaving behind stories of ghost parties and dismembered janitors, of dead diner owners and folkloric entities.

Die-hard horror buff April ignores it all for one perfect weekend of debauchery with Carl and his group of rich, hot and dangerously irresistible friends.

Together, they head to the West Cork countryside for an unforgettable trip before college begins. But in a remote mountainside house with views to die for, the dream party turns into a nightmare. Because some stories don't stay stories. And someone, or something, inside the house wants more than fear. They want blood.

Natural Selection by Clare Edge

When it comes to boys and bears, always choose the bear.

The girls of Riverside are raised to grin and bear it. Until three of them can’t anymore.

Megan Lawless (aka Outlaw): Riverside born and raised. Lettered in volleyball, basketball, and track. HATES Kevin Johnson, but tolerates him for her best friend, Megan.

Megan Deloria: Outlaw’s ride or die. Riverside royalty and soon to be valedictorian. Shoo-in for the homecoming crown alongside her boyfriend, Kevin.

Meghan Bach (aka Bee): Moved to Riverside last year. Still the “new girl.” Pulls tarot cards daily. Just wants to forget what happened last summer at that party with Kevin.

And then there’s Kevin Johnson: Riverside’s Golden Boy. Only scared of two things—the dark and bears. Soon, he’ll be scared of three more.

Because Megan, Megan, and Meghan are done with Kevin, and they’re about to teach everyone in their tiny rural town the new natural order: Predator, meet prey.

Weekly recap 12th Jul 2026

Happy Sunday, all! Welcome to the weekly recap. 

This week, I reviewed

Moss'd in Space - Firefly vibes, botany based tech

Where Lost Girls Go - is it a cult? Is it not a cult?

Unsilent Heart - Death takes a vacation. Or, more accurately, dies.

Not with a Bang - family struggles with issues during apocalypse

This week, I read

Dead Teenager Movie - teen dances on the edge of meta awareness

 Alex, by Proxy - a Munchasen's victim attempts to understand why

just as long as we're together AND Here's to You, Rachel Robinson - reissues of Judy Blume's classics

Coming up 

Teen angst, cosy fantasy and mystery.

Not with a Bang by Temi Oh

When the world finally ends, will you see it coming? Will you be prepared?

In the summer sky, a celestial object is fast approaching, due to slingshot around the Earth and disappear again. And everyone has their own theory on what it is – a meteor, a planet, aliens?

Meanwhile, the Minton family is in crisis. Briar Minton can't stop thinking about the girl who went missing six months ago. Investigating her disappearance takes her down a rabbit hole, deep into the world of a cult and the extraterrestrial intelligence they claim is communicating with them.

At the same time, her father Marcus is becoming more unhinged after losing his job as a policeman, becoming obsessed with doomsday prepping and forcing his wife and four daughters along for the ride. He is completely convinced, and maybe even a little bit hopeful, that the apocalypse is imminent.

As the celestial object approaches, the Mintons reach breaking point.

Can they find their way back to each other, at the end of the world?

Unsilent Heart by Conrad Walters

A novel about death that’s full of life

Something strange is happening in Australia. People who should be dying, aren’t – even a tourist dismembered by dingoes. The non-deaths create havoc across the country, but sixteen-year-old Nick Hartford just feels relief. His terminally ill grandfather can now live forever.

But Nick soon realizes eternal life can bring eternal suffering.

Determined to help his beloved grandfather, Nick investigates a phenomenon that traps people between life and death, leaving them unable to communicate with the living or join the dead. What he discovers is linked to the last person to die: a reclusive neighbor who may be Death himself.

As his grandfather’s condition worsens, Nick and three classmates race to unravel the mystery. Their urgency grows when he learns one of those friends could be next to enter the chasm between living and dying.

Darkly funny and deftly paced, Unsilent Heart is a coming-of-age novel about what death adds to life, the demands of loyalty, and how to find love when time is short.

Happy #Bookbirthday! 9th Jul 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there are THREE books on our lists publishing!

Where Lost Girls Go by Kody Keplinger

There are many reasons why five girls have ended up living with Sol in a cabin in the Kentucky mountains. But the girls don't talk about what has brought each of them here or who they were before. They have become sisters and are grateful to have a place to call home. 

Iris knows she owes everything to Sol. He has promised to keep them safe from their pasts. All he asks in return is for their loyalty, which Iris freely gives. With her sisters and Sol as her family, she feels happier than she has in a long time. 

Until a new girl arrives and everything changes. Sol christens her Rose and the sisters are quick to welcome her. Iris is drawn to Rose, but as they grow closer, Rose has Iris questioning things about this life in the woods. When Sol notices, he challenges Iris to prove her commitment to their family. 

Her sisters tell her that she should be willing to do anything for the man who saved her. But with each new ask, Iris realizes there is more to Sol - and her sisters - than she knows and some secrets should stay buried deep.

Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorne

Her starship gave her freedom.

But could it also become a friend?

Torian thought she was getting a bargain: a century-old alien starship, abandoned and covered in moss. It was her ticket away from a smuggling past and her overbearing ex . . . ah, ex-captain, Amelia. But the moss has a mind of its own.

As the ship’s ‘organic computer,’ Moss is lonely, snarky and harbouring serious abandonment issues. And when Torian journeys onward, she encounters the immortal alien who built the craft, then just left it behind – with Moss inside. The ship he’s now accusing Torian of stealing. Charting a new course across the galaxy, Torian finds an unexpected ally in Amelia, who might help her find the safe haven she craves. Torian can pilot a starship. But can she uncover ancient secrets and connect with a computer that just wants to belong?

Weekly recap - 5 July 2026

Happy Sunday, all! Welcome to the weekly recap. 

This week, I reviewed

Ukrainian Spiritual Traditions - a beautiful mix of recipes, stories and beliefs

It's for your own Good - survival thriller with teens

If we Survive the Night - zombie survival with teens

Highlander - the novel of the original 80s movie. So eighties.

The Quickening - if you're a Highlander fan, you know why this one is here

Labyrinth Illustrated Novelisation - a sneaky addition I absolutely had to get in as soon as possible!

This week, I read

Not with a Bang - family drama in the middle of an implausible apocalypse

Natural Selection - teen girls chose the bear over the boys

Labyrinth - see above

Coming up 

It's all teen adventure for the next while!

TBR check in 

I'm feeling a bit ambitious, with 50 titles on my TBR! Fantasy is still far and away my busiest category, but there's a good mix below that with horror, mystery, romance and sci fi all showing up.

Labyrinth by Liz Braswell and Andrea Guardino

Enter the labyrinth in this illustrated novelization of the classic film that will transport you to a world where nothing is what it seems . . .

Welcome to the realm of the Goblin King, where walls are doors, doors will lie to you, up is sometimes down, and left is rarely right. Join Sarah in her hero's quest through the Labyrinth with her band of adventurous new friends as they make their way to the castle beyond the Goblin City in this illustrated movie adaptation the whole family can enjoy. This brand-new edition, adapted by New York Times bestselling author Liz Braswell, brings Jim Henson's iconic story to life with vibrant art by Andrea Guardino featuring all the imaginative characters and creatures that call the Labyrinth home.

The Quickening by Claire McGowan

Your body. Their Choice.

The Hope Party's new laws have transformed Great Britain: the countryside rewilded, children's rights prioritised, and births on the rise. But freedom is fading.

Karen has learned to navigate this new world, keeping her head down as her fertility is constantly monitored. As her husband's career thrives, while hers stalls. As her son is drawn into misogynist groups. Like everyone else, she's too frightened to speak up.

Until her teenage daughter reveals a life-changing secret: she's pregnant. With abortion and contraception banned, her future has gone up in flames. But Karen won't let this happen - Charlotte is going to have the life she lost.

Karen turns to her sister Isobel, a doctor who's initially reluctant to help. But when they learn Charlotte's pregnancy is ectopic and life-threatening, the stakes skyrocket. The three women go on the run, getting deeper into danger with every hour that passes. With powerful enemies on their tail, they will risk everything in a desperate fight for freedom, and for life.

Highlander by Garry Kilworth

'There Can Be Only One'

The battle rages across the centuries, from the wind-scoured Sahara to the wild Russian steppes to the rocky crags of Scotland. And only one Immortal can survive.

MacLeod is the Highlander. A Scottish clan warrior from the 16th century, he was taught the deadly arts by an ancient mentor, who then suffered the only wound that can end an Immortal's life: decapitation.

Now, seven lifetimes later, MacLeod faces the final test. The Kurgan, his ancient adversary, has tracked him all the way to the streets of New York City.

The fight will be the same: blade to blade. Only the outcome is in doubt. Will the Highlander win? Or will the Kurgan's scimitar stop him with a blow that will plunge the earth itself into an era of darkness and chaos?

Happy #BookBirthday! 2 July 2026

Happy Thursday! This week there are FIVE books on our lists publishing!

If We Survive the Night by Jo Salazar

Sixteen-year-old Quinn is used to being told that what she feels inside isn't quite right. After getting kicked out of multiple foster homes and narrowly escaping juvenile detention, she's undergoing therapy at a residential treatment center for "troubled" girls. Looking for a night of freedom, Quinn sneaks onto the roof with her best friend Keisha, and what she sees changes everything…

She witnesses the start of the zombie apocalypse.

As zombies, or "carriers" as the news calls them, infiltrate the treatment center, escape becomes crucial. Quinn and Keisha make a pact to leave together, but several unexpected complications screw up their plans.

As the girls battle the carriers and wrestle with their doubts about each other, Quinn realizes she has never felt more alive. Maybe this is exactly the kind of world she was built for. And part of thriving in this cutthroat environment means cutting off the dead weight – even if that means putting other lives at risk…But even if she's willing to sacrifice everything, can anyone really outlive the apocalypse?