Books for 2015

There are so many great books to come out in 2015, but here are just a few I'm looking forward to trying.

The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings – author of The Descendants and a tale of love and loss. Sarah has lost her son Cully in an accident and feels the need for some space. Then the opposite happens as she has to deal with Cully’s father (her ex), her own father and her best friend coming back into her life. Then she meets Kit which uproots her plan even further.

The Woman in the Green Coat by Katie Ward – a novel about suffragette Lady Bulwar-Lytton is from a fascinating period in history from the writer of Girl Reading.

God Help the Child by Toni Morrison – even though I have no idea what this book is about I know I will enjoy anything from Morrison.

Collected Stevie Smith – I have loved Stevie Smith from childhood, because I loved her humour. Now I enjoy even more her mix of death, humour and weird black comedy.

All the Rage by Courtney Summers – explores the aftermath of sexual violence in a town where nobody believes a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. After losing friends and family Romy Grey seeks refuge in a new job in a diner where nobody knows that happened to her. Yet, when another girl is attacked she has to decide whether she stands up and fights.

The Girl in the Photograph by Kate O’Riordan – this is set in the 1890s and the 1930s and follows two women whose lives are intertwined by fate. Alice comes to Fiercecombe Manor because she needs a sanctuary. She feels safe in the care of housekeeper Mrs Jelphs, but then secrets begin to emerge. Is there something Alice is not being told? She finds traces of Elizabeth, the previous occupant, and finds that their lives are remarkably similar.

The Uninvited by Cat Winters – Ivy Rowan wakes from bed after being struck by the Great Influenza epidemic of 1918. She is 25 and she has a strange ability – she sees the uninvited ones, ghosts of long dead family and friends that always herald the coming death of a loved one. The last vision foretold the death of her brother in WWI and now she sees them again. Society has changed and Ivy leaves home and is caught up in the Jazz Age, but why do the uninvited guests keep coming and who will she lose next?

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen – I keep being told I should try this author so this is the year! In this novel we follow the Waverley family. Clare is caught between her sweet business and family life, while Sydney is so desperate to have another baby that her need starts to steal the joy from everyday life. Her daughter, Bay, is in unrequited love with a boy who doesn’t notice she exists. Then a stranger comes into their lives and asks questions of them all that they struggle to answer and keep their family together.

The Undertaker’s Daughter by Kate Mayfield – Kate Mayfield’s family home was the local undertaker’s in a tale of Southern mystique and ghosts. Kate’s father was one of two morticians in Kentucky in the 1960’s. All kinds of deaths passed through their home, but how does living in a house of the dead teach you to deal with life?

A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson – Life after Life has been one of my favourite books of the last couple of years, and this follow up novel concentrates on the brother from the first book. Teddy is Ursula’s beloved younger brother and has been an RAF bomber pilot, poet and now husband and father. We follow him as he progresses through the 20^th Century, and after surviving battle he has to prepare to live in a future he didn’t expect to have. I always love her novels so I’m sure this will be a great read.