Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters

Two girls, who know nothing of each other, are thrown together in their teenage years.  Sue has been raised by villains and thieves in what amounts to a "den" in the backstreets of London. She knows poverty and hardship, but, despite losing her own mother as a baby, knows she is loved by Mrs Suckersby, the brains of the criminal operation.

Maud has grown up under the care of her uncle, in a manor house in the countryside, totally isolated from the real world outside their estate. Maud has also lost her mum, but she is neither loved nor cherished by her uncle, who uses his niece to further his strange literary research.

Enter the handsome and enigmatic Gentleman.  He has a devilish plan to wheedle his way into Maud's life and heart, in pursuit of the family fortune which she will inherit on her eighteenth birthday, and Sue is a crucial part of his plan.

Sarah Waters is a master story-teller, and this tale is one of those rare books that I just couldn't wait to get back to, and was grateful for a long read (500 pages).  Bed-time got earlier and earlier as I was drawn deeper into the plot!  The relationship between the two girls is heart-warming, but at the same time that I was celebrating their friendship I was feeling Sue's guilt at being part of Maud's imminent downfall.

I really liked Sue, and I just wanted the Gentleman to disappear so that the girls could just settle into a quiet and peaceful existence together, giving and getting exactly what each deserved in their young but troubled lives.

But that wouldn't have made for much of a tale, would it?  Instead, Waters weaves a dramatic spider-web of deceit and betrayal, which leaves the reader heartbroken over the potential fate of both girls. And even though we learn early on in the story about Gentleman's dastardly deed, that's really just the start of the plot twists. 

- Jeanette

Paperback, £8.99. Find it in the Fiction section!

All the Things we Do in the Dark, by Saundra Mitchell

“Nooo! I forgot my book. What am I going to read while I eat my lunch?!”

“You’re in a book shop – just pick something!”

“Fine! This one!”


Ah, a love story for the ages: a human and their book, reluctantly meeting in a flurry of hunger and desperation. Alas, we did meet, and that’s what truly matters! So here we go…

Ava has been through enough. Like, from childhood, she’s been through enough pain and fear for a lifetime. She’s dealing with far more than what should have been her lot; anyone’s lot, for that matter. But there are bad people out there, and because of bad people, Ava knows how to protect herself. Her mother knows how to protect her. So does her best friend, her tattoo artist, her… well, that’s about it really. Those are all the people.

But Ava literally strays down the wrong path one day, and she finds a dead body. She names her Jane Doe, and she is her friend. Not the alive Jane Doe; the dead Jane Doe. Jane was hurt too, just like Ava was. Ava can tell. Jane Doe was lucky enough to die from her pain. Ava is left behind to live with the hers.

In protecting Jane from further humiliation, grief, and anguish, Ava doesn’t tell a soul about her. Not even her best friend or her mother or her tattoo artist.

And as if finding a dead body weren’t frightening enough for a trauma-riddled teenager, she also falls in love in the same week. The world is bonkers, and it keeps surprising Ava. And things only get more twisted from there.

A member of our book club describes certain books as “Soul Books”. I suppose that is a play on soulmate, and frankly, it is perfection. And in grabbing this book at random one day, I found my third Soul Book*.

There are short breaks in this story for poetry. The prose is its very own special poetry. It is lyrical, immeasurable, unemulated; it has clarity and irreverence and power that I have been needing to drink down like a thirsty peasant. At times, I just had to put the book down, shut my eyes, and think about nothing. Just to give myself a chance to catch up.

This book is deceptively powerful and an emotional ride. Approach with caution, and with open arms. I’ll certainly be keeping it close for a while.

*The other two are “The Fault in our Stars”, by John Green; and “I’ll Give You the Sun”, by Jandy Nelson.  

- Sian

Paperback, £7.99. Find it in the Young Adult section!

*Content warning: assault, sexual trauma, flashbacks

Moonfleet, by J Meade Faulkner

Moonfleet is a lovely quick read for an adult, and I imagine it to be a spell binding adventure for younger readers. With the chapters being relatively short, it makes an ideal bedtime chapter book for tweens.

This story has a similar vibe to Treasure Island, with its young protagonist John Trenchard, like Jim Hawkins, beginning the story parentless and living in a costal Inn. Stories of pirates and smugglers fill John’s head, and before long he is caught up in his own adventure.

My favourite part of this story was the code-breaking and treasure hunt element, which really made me feel I was on that journey with John, which helped me become invested in the narrative… as if pirates weren’t enough!

There’s plenty of action to capture the attention of young readers, with twists and turns to keep it fresh, and injustices to make your blood boil. It’s the sort of book that – if you were to read it young - would stick with you and make you want to revisit it. As an adult, it makes you want to go and explore the places mentioned in the story and imagine your own pirate filled adventures.

- Anara

Paperback, £3.99. Find it in our children's section!

Take Me With You When You Go, by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven

This book is an epistolary - which in this case means it is formed entirely of emails - a fact which, initially, put me off picking up the book. I'm not necessarily sure why it put me off, since every epistolary I've read has been wildly successful and engaging. Alas, I gave in and I really enjoyed it.

The emails are between siblings Bea and Ezra, after Bea runs away from home. Being a few years older than Ezra, Bea feels she's ready to escape their disastrous and terrifying home life... and leaves Ezra behind. About which Ezra is livid. He's stuck behind with their dangerous step father and clueless mother; stuck with Bea's ex-boyfriend, the latter of whom believes Ezra knows more about Bea's whereabouts than he's letting on. 

And to be fair, he does. Nobody knows that Ezra is in touch with Bea, nor does anyone know that she has gone looking for their biological father. It's all a bit of a mess, really.

This story definitely had me on the edge of my seat at times, willing these helpless teenagers to find sanctuary, acceptance, and contentment, despite the awful adults surrounding them. It gets you thinking about connection and identity; about how distant those things may feel if you don't know where you came from, or who loves you. Who wants you. Who lied about those things.

A solid young adult drama, with a real depth and gripping plot development. There's a lot to learn from these young characters, even as an adult. 

- Sian

Paperback, £7.99. You can find this in the Young Adult section!

Stranger in the Shogun's City, by Amy Stanley

Stranger In The Shogun's City focuses on the daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno. Born in 1804 in Japan's snow country, she defied convention by running away from her family to Edo, which we now call Tokyo, following her third divorce. Through the letters she sent home, we see her forge her own path in life.

Woven around Tsuneno's story is the history of Edo and Japan at the time. The world was changing and soon Japan would also be changing. The people featured are also gone, which is a sobering thought, but I love that part of them now lives on through the pages of this book.

Overall this was a really interesting and compelling book. Whilst this is essentially a history book, the narrative following Tsuneno and her family added an additional human element. You become invested in her life and want to know how she fares. Considering all that is left of her are the few letters she sent home, and some of the replies, Stanley manages to build up a rounded picture of her personality and impulsive temperament. 

That being said sometimes I felt that Stanley overplayed the "she might have" narrative. The fact is that we don't know a lot of what Tsuneno was thinking, and whilst it is interesting to speculate, there were a few chapters where I felt we were given too many options of what she might have thought, and I found it grating.

But that is a minor grumble really. Overall, this was incredibly well researched, as demonstrated by the extensive notes and bibliography, and is a love letter to Edo, a place which no longer exists. 

I would like to read more from Stanley and would especially like to learn more about her research into Tsuneno and Edo.

- Jenny, @budgetbooklover on Instagram 

Paperback, £9.99. Find it in the History section!

Small Pleasures, by Clare Chambers

Living in London and working for a newspaper in the 50’s, Jean could have been the typically written assertive go-getter woman journalist. But instead the reader meets a gentle soul in Jean. Jean cares for her mother and has to fit in with her way of living, leaving her little freedom. Both the reader and Jean can quite easily see her life stretching into that dull horizon of servitude.

However, Jean grasps at the most intriguing story to investigate: a real-life immaculate conception. Through Jean we learn Gretchen’s story and meet her family. Gretchen seems to have it all: the nice home, a devoted and loving husband, and a wonderful - possibly Godsent - daughter. But things don’t seem to quite add up. 

This story captures the reader from the beginning, with a clip of a newspaper article, which, by the middle of this intriguing tale, I had all but forgotten. As I read, I grew more intrigued by Gretchen’s behaviour than the origins of her conception, although that thread of the story is interesting, and comes into play further down the line.

It’s Chambers's characters and their interactions that really clinch it for me. You become Jean's unseen best friend, and you root for her, and you feel divided over which outcome you want to see: her finding the truth or publishing a mind-blowing article.

- Anara

Paperback, £8.99. Find this in our Fiction section!

[This story does bring up some issues that people with particular triggers may wish to avoid however these instances I felt were dealt with very gently and not in great detail.]

The Shadows of London series, by Maureen Johnson

“The Name of the Star” starts with Rory’s move from the United States to a boarding school in London, just as a Jack the Ripper copy-cat starts committing murders around the city. It draws a media frenzy to her neighbourhood, and under the most unlikely circumstances, Rory finds herself in the middle of the chaos. The weirdest people start popping up, and danger seems to be as common as cottage pie in the school canteen.

I don’t normally read a lot of fantasy, so this good old fashioned ghost story is the most wonderful palette cleanser when I just want that perfect mix of the familiarity of studying for A Levels in dreary British weather, crossed with the unsettled world of the supernatural, and heart-stopping conflict. And Rory makes the most wonderful protagonist: curious, funny, intelligent, independent, reckless, and just a little bit odd. There is light and dark in every person you meet in this series, and it keeps things unpredictable and gripping the whole way through.

I’ve only described the first book in this series to you: “The Madness Underneath” and “The Shadow Cabinet” are just as thrilling, and prove that Maureen Johnson’s ability to add nuance, depth, and tension in a fantasy story world is, well, fantastic. Rory finds herself in dangerous company, dragged into things far beyond her expectation or comprehension, and we – ourselves – start to wonder where life ends and death begins. The end of the third book leaves us in such a state of high stakes, mystery, and genuine fear, the fact that we are still waiting for the fourth instalment is killing me.

If you’re looking for a quick but compelling series to power through, here is your sign to pick this up. You won’t be disappointed.

- Sian

Paperback, £7.99. You can find this in the Young Adult section!