A sharply-witted and tender portrait of a young girl's quiet rebellion and her refusal to be broken.

Set in 1960s Bradford, The Mercy Step follows Mercy, a precocious young child facing a world far too big for her small body. She lives with her Windrush-generation parents in a crowded household where her mother's attention is stretched between church and family, and her father's temper is something to be endured or avoided.

Feeling like an outsider within her own home, Mercy retreats into books and the companionship of her beloved doll, Dolly, while learning early how to navigate the flaws and failings of the adults around her. Yet Mercy is nothing if not resilient. Armed with humour, style and fierce imagination, she quietly begins to plot her escape from a traumatic childhood.

A raw and deeply affecting novel of childhood, family and survival in 1960s Britain.

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2026 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION.

You knew I’d write a book about you someday.

Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules.

In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever.

Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.

Written with the superb wit and emotional sensitivity fans and critics of Lily King have come to adore, Heart the Lover is a deeply moving love story that celebrates literature, forgiveness, and the transformative bonds that shape our lives. Wise, unforgettable, and with a delightful connective thread to Writers & Lovers, this is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

Jess needs a fresh start. She's broke and alone, and she's just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn't sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn't say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up - to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? - he's not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother's situation, and the more questions she has. Ben's neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it's starting to look like it's Ben's future that's in question.

The socialite - The nice guy - The alcoholic - The girl on the verge - The concierge

Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they're not telling.

Sheldon Soleskin should be having a horrible day. Even though he’s been unexpectedly transferred to a new school right before the holidays, has only one day to set up his new classroom, and just discovered his twin sister's been hiding an invitation to his ex-boyfriend’s Christmas Eve wedding, he’s still ready to take on the world with a smile on his face and a skip in his step.

Theo Berenson just wants to be left alone to his custodial duties. But when the chipper new first-grade teacher needs help moving furniture the Sunday after Thanksgiving, he's forced to do something he detests ... help. To make matters worse, Theo's overbearing parents are coming for Hanukah in a few weeks, and he's told them he has a boyfriend. Except he doesn't. Because who would want to date an oaf like Theo?

Working together, these opposites discover they might be able to help each other out. Agreeing to be each other’s dates, they become friends as they practice for their upcoming events. But when all the rehearsing starts feeling a little too real, and both men's pasts come roaring back to haunt them, will they be able to pull off the ultimate holiday masquerade?

LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL is the story of two friends who ordinarily would remain uncelebrated. It finds a value and specialness in them that is not immediately apparent and prompts the idea that maybe we could learn from the people that we overlook in life. Leonard and Hungry Paul change the world differently to the rest of us: we try and change it by effort and force; they change it by discovering the small things they can do well and offering them to others.

Wren Embervale knows her duty demands a crown, even if it means a strategic betrothal to the influential Lord Darian Devereux. Their arranged marriage promises the formidable army she needs to wrestle her kingdom from the clutches of the tyrannical usurper, Silas. Yet Wren’s heart still belongs to Torj Elderbrock, her soul-bonded Warsword.

Torn between her pragmatic alliance and the visceral pull of her bond with Torj, Wren must navigate a treacherous landscape of courtly intrigue and looming war. As Silas’s shadow alchemy tightens its grip on the midrealms and a creeping poison steals Torj’s strength, Wren’s carefully constructed facade begins to crack . . .

Can Wren play the dutiful fiancée to secure her throne while her body and soul yearns for the warrior who would lay down his life for her? Or will the tangled threads of political necessity leave her kingdom – and her heart – in ashes?

From Helen Scheuerer, the Sunday Times bestselling author of Iron & Embers, discover Silver & Smoke, the blistering finale to the Ashes of Thezmarr series. Perfect for fans of romantasy.

KAI

I'm a single dad and starting pitcher for Chicago's MLB team. I'm stretched too thin, but I don't want help raising my son.

Each of his previous nannies only lasted a few weeks before I let them go. Now, my coach is putting his foot down by hiring the one person I can't fire-his daughter.

Miller Montgomery is the last woman I should fall for. Too wild, too young, and too unattached.
Chicago is just a quick stop for her. I thought I'd be counting down the days until she left, but summer feels too short when I start thinking about forever.

MILLER

As a high-end pastry chef who recently won the most prestigious award in my industry, I'm desperate to prove I deserve it. But with a new title comes new pressure, and I can't create a fresh and inspiring dessert to save my life.

With only two months to get back on track, I should be focusing in the kitchen, but instead, I let my dad talk me into using my time off to nanny for his star player's kid.

Kai Rhodes forgot how to have fun, and I'm eager to jog his memory. But when he and his son start to feel like home, I have to remind us both that my time in Chicago ends with the summer.

Besides, I've always been a runner, and the last thing I want is to get caught.

Caught Up is the third book in the sensational Windy City series which has gripped over a million readers across the world. But don't worry if you're new round here, you'll still love it as a standalone!

Growing up in 1940s Los Angeles, Gregory Reeves' outlook on life was always guided by two beliefs. The first: his fear of death was something to be conquered. The second: his father's radical religious doctrine, 'The Infinite Plan', was immutably true.

But when he leaves the barrio where he spent his youth for Berkeley, San Francisco, both beliefs are called into question. Soon he has graduated from college, and finds himself in the thick of the Vietnam War. And when he returns, how can he possibly think of life and death in the same way?

Following one man's journey through the twentieth century, The Infinite Plan asks: how much can the American reality shape one's pursuit of the American Dream?

Originally published in 1991.

The fifth explosive installment in Matt Dinniman’s best selling LitRPG series - going from the most watched to the most hunted isn't fun ... What a surprise!

Attention. The gates are down. The hunters are loose.

A lush jungle teeming with danger. Savage dinosaurs seeking blood. A fallen princess intent on vengeance. And now a mysterious, end-of-floor celebration for the top crawlers, dubbed ‘The Butcher’s Masquerade.’ But that’s not all. Just when Carl and Princess Donut think they’ve seen it all as they compete to survive in the galaxy’s most popular game show, the latest floor level introduces a terrible new threat.

The Hunting Grounds.

As the remaining crawlers battle for their lives, outside tourists are finally allowed to enter the game, and they are ready to hunt. Among them is Vrah, a famed and veteran hunter, intent on collecting the biggest trophy of her career.

Carl and Princess Donut might be her prey, but this season, the prey are fighting back.

No good ever comes from a redhead in a stolen dress with her whole life packed at her feet.

I should’ve known Penny Price was trouble the moment smoke and sin followed her into my bar and she challenged me to a game. I thought the only thing she stole was my watch. Little did I know, she also started a war.

Because the second her muddy boots stomped down the stairs of the club, my empire began to crack.

My cashmere charm is fraying. My gentleman’s mask is slipping. My enemies can smell the weakness. Penny Price thinks she’s dragging me to hell. But she doesn’t realise - hell’s exactly where I belong.

After all, it’s wonderfully warm among the flames…

Take your first steps into the epic.

Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.

A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .

An irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you’re already an adult.

When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood.

Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening.

Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend—she has accessed a new sense of possibility.

In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, and marriage, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, Succession meets magic in Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake. This is the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, is dead. As the ‘father of modern technology,’ he leaves an incredible legacy. But which of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children could inherit the Wrenfare throne?

Meredith, head of her own profitable company, has recently cured mental illness. If only her journalist ex-boyfriend wasn’t set on exposing what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman ever, wants to do everything right. Except his wife might be leaving, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. Heading Wrenfare could relaunch his sinking ship. Eilidh was a world-famous ballerina, until a life-altering injury. Gaining the company might finally validate her worth.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins. Yet as they gather to read his final words, which Wren will come out on top?

This is a compulsive contemporary fantasy of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the height of her powers.

Praise for Gifted & Talented

‘Addictively entertaining, this is Blake at the height of her abilities’ – Ava Reid, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Lady Macbeth

‘Utterly brilliant’ – Chloe Gong, New York Times bestselling author of Immortal Longings

‘A timely tale of greed, ambition and rivalry . . . terrific’ – M. L. Rio, bestselling author of If We Were Villains

This contemporary twist on Brief Encounter is a tender meditation on what might have been.

A summer's evening in Manhattan. Nothing - not cold drinks, not showers not a stroll through the chilly aisles of an all-night drugstore - can undo the heat's hold on the city. Julian is half watching the evening news, his husband filling the dishwasher. That's when it arrives. An email with the subject line: 'From Paul Axel'. An email about a dead man from Carol - a woman Julian has never met. Paul has left a message he'd like her to relay.

Emails are exchanged. Morning coffee at the Bryant Park Grill is agreed. Carol, fulfilling Paul's final request, wonders how she will tell Julian of a life - and a love - he has no idea existed. A life, encased in a flash drive, containing multitudes.

A compulsive story of family, twisted love and dangerous secrets from a writer at the peak of her powers.

Thayer Wren, brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech, is dead. As the ‘father of modern technology’, he leaves an incredible legacy. But which of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children is to inherit the Wrenfare throne?

Meredith, head of her own profitable company, is lauded for practically curing mental illness. If only her journalist ex-boyfriend wasn’t set on exposing her for what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman ever, wants to do everything right. Except he’s losing his re-election campaign and his wife might be leaving him. Heading Wrenfare could relaunch his sinking ship. Eilidh was a world-famous ballerina until a life-altering injury ended her dancing career. Gaining the company might finally validate her worth.

On the pipeline of gifted-kid-to-clinically-depressed-adult, nobody wins. Yet, as they gather to read Thayer’s final words, which Wren will come out on top?

A daring, stay-up-all-night story of love and the remarkable strength of women, from the multi-million copy bestselling author.

Alaska, 1974. Untamed. Unforgiving. Unpredictable.

For thirteen-year-old Leni Allbright, Alaska is supposed to be a fresh start. Her father, a former POW, is desperate to leave the world behind. Her mother, Cora, will follow the man she loves anywhere, even to the edge of the earth. But as winter descends and darkness blankets the land, the Allbrights realize they are woefully unprepared. The danger doesn't just lurk in the wilderness outside; it lives within the walls of their own cabin.

In the shadow of a volatile marriage and a landscape that wants to kill them, Leni must decide: how far will she go to survive?

This new edition comes with exciting bonus content to dig deeper into The Great Alone: a conversation with Kristin Hannah and reading group questions.

Annabel is in the thick of sandwich generation territory.

Widowed for nearly a decade and bringing up two teenagers alone, she now faces the dilemma of what is best for her ageing mother.

Her strong-willed sisters, Ginnie and Clarissa, have already mentally sold her mother’s London house, mentally spent the proceeds, but Annabel isn't sure what her mother will think of their plan. . .

After a decade on her own, Annabel's children have also decided now is the time to act as match makers. Before she knows it, Annabel has two romantic prospects; the charming, ex-army builder currently doing the loft extension in her home and, even more unexpectedly, the vicar from her local church.

But when family secrets come to light which threaten the entire fabric of Annabel’s childhood and family, what what — or who — she needs in her life comes becomes suddenly crystal clear to her, in the most surprising of ways. . .

Moord aan boord van die Leonardo

Forensiese patoloog Madelein Blignaut het al te veel dood in haar loopbaan gesien. Ná nog ’n ontstellende hofsaak besluit sy om ontvlugting te gaan soek op die Leonardo, ’n luukse passasierskip wat deur die verre ooste vaar.

Daar ontmoet sy ’n groep fassinerende Suid-Afrikaners: Die bekroonde pianis Tibor Lindeque wat kort-kort bekommerd vir haar kyk en ’n aantreklike kulkunstenaar Helmut Coleman wat gou vir haar onweer-staanbaar raak.

Wanneer hulle op Okinawa afklim, vertel Tibor vir haar die inwoners van hierdie eiland word oeroud. “Daar is nie dood op Okinawa nie.”

Maar hy is verkeerd. Kort voor lank tref hulle die een na die ander medepassasier se lyk aan. ’n Storm dwing hulle na dieper waters toe, en dan besef Madelein daar is ’n moordenaar op die Leonardo. Wie is dit? Wat wil hulle hê? En, meer belangrik, wie’s volgende?

We’re all so busy, caught up in life's moments, big and small . . .

The flight attendant working on her birthday.
The mother struggling with two young children.
The newlyweds off to their tropical honeymoon .
The overworked father missing his kid’s big show.
The young man returning from his best friend’s funeral.
The ER nurse wondering what retirement will bring.

All strangers. All unsuspecting. All on their own journey – or so they imagine.

Because they are each about to encounter an elderly woman. In just a few words, she will make a prediction, tying herself to them all. And, in being bound to her, these disparate strangers will be drawn together . . .

Who is this woman? Is she a clairvoyant? A charlatan? The answer to prayers, or a harbinger of nightmares?

They are about to find out – here one moment . . .

The ghosts of Charlie Parker's past watch over him as danger moves ever closer, in this spellbinding new novel in the number one bestselling series.

The players call it The Game. There are just two rules:
No Killing Close to Home.
No Killing Outside the Game.

But what happens when those rules get broken?

When the drowned body of a troubled teenager is recovered from a river in Maine's Kennebec Valley, and a young woman disappears from a small rural town, they draw the attention of the private investigator named Charlie Parker. Now Parker will be forced to confront a band of men without morality and without loyalty, not even to one another, in a place where the very darkness is alive.

Because something has emerged from the shadows, something very bad.

And it wants revenge.