By Claire Buss, Deputy Editor, Write On! 

At Write On! and Pen to Print we want to help connect authors and readers, so we’ve created a Spotlight page every Saturday, showcasing some of the exciting new reads available. The list has been curated by Lisa Rouiller and myself, based on books that you send us, so if you’re an author and you’d like your book in the spotlight, reach out to Lisa at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk. Whether you’re an indie author, with a small press or mainstream publisher, we’d love to hear from you and shine a light on your new novel.

Write On! offers other opportunities for writers as well. If you’d like us to feature an extract from your book or a short story, please send the extract, book cover and blurb to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject Write On! Showcase (ensuring you have your publisher’s permission, of course).

Pen to Print are also looking for short videos from people reading a passage from their favourite book, or authors reading extracts from their own books. These videos will be featured on the Pen to Print YouTube channel and across our social media. Please send in your videos or links to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject ‘Video Stories’.

A Surprise Christmas Wedding by Phillipa Ashley

It’s been a year since Lottie’s fiancé walked out, leaving her heartbroken. But things start to look up when she lands her dream job at a beautiful Lake District estate, with a handsome groundskeeper for a neighbour.

So when Lottie is asked to organise a last-minute Christmas wedding at Firholme, she can’t wait to get started. Until she meets the couple and discovers that Connor, the man who broke her heart, is the groom-to-be.

As snow falls on the hills, can Lottie put aside her past to organise the perfect winter wedding? And will there be any festive magic left to bring Lottie the perfect Christmas she deserves?

Available to buy here
Connect with Phillipa Ashley

The New Abject: Tales Of Modern Unease – A Comma Press Anthology

Something has fallen away. We have lost something of ourselves, our history, what we once were.

That something, if we are to face it, look it squarely in the eyes, terrifies us, makes us wretched. This is the horror of the abject. Following the success of Comma’s award-winning New Uncanny anthology – which asked fiction writers to create new stories updating our understanding of Freud’s ‘unheimlich’ – The New Abject asks leading authors to produce new stories of modern unease, responding to that other psychoanalytic theory of horror: Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject.

Available to buy here
Connect with Comma Press

A Painter In Penang by Claire Flynn

Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Barrington hates everything about living in Kenya and longs to return to the island of Penang in British colonial Malaya, where she was born.

Expulsion from her Nairobi convent school offers a welcome escape: the chance to stay with her parents’ friends, Mary and Reggie Hyde-Underwood on their Penang rubber estate.

But this is 1948, and communist insurgents are embarking on a reign of terror in what becomes the Malayan Emergency. Jasmine unearths a shocking secret as her own life is put in danger. Throughout the turmoil, her one constant is her passion for painting.

From the international bestselling and award-winning author of The Pearl Of Penang, this is a dramatic coming-of-age story, set against the backdrop of a tropical paradise torn apart by civil war.

Available to buy here
Connect with Clare Flynn

Dead Perfect by Noelle Holten

A murdered woman… A determined detective…

When the body of a young woman is found in a local park, DC Maggie Jamieson knows she’s dealing with no ordinary killer.  The murder victim has been disfigured; her outfit changed to resemble someone else.  Someone Maggie knows all too well: her close friend Dr Kate Moloney.

Maggie is determined to keep her friend safe, but with Kate already struggling with a threatening stalker, Maggie now fears Kate’s life is in real danger.  Who else would want to harm Kate and why else would the killer be turning his victims into exact replicas – his living dolls?

Can Maggie find the depraved killer?  Or will Kate become his next living doll?

Available to buy here
Connect with Noelle Holten

Murder Under A Black Moon by Abigail Keam

Madeline Mona Moon is not your typical young lady.

She is a cartographer by trade, explorer by nature, and adventurer by heart. She attends the Kentucky Derby with Lord Farley and his guest, the fabulous Alice Roosevelt Longworth, one of the most famous women in the world.

To their surprise and dismay, a man is murdered right under their noses. How could they not have noticed? To make matters worse, Mona’s friend, Willie Deatherage, is accused of the murder.

Mona insists that Willie couldn’t have done it, as she didn’t leave Mona’s side during the race — or did she? Mona is not going to let her friend go to jail for something she didn’t do, but how does Mona find the real killer amongst other suspects at the Derby? If Mona has to interview every one of the 60,000 people attending the Derby, she will. That’s how Mona does things in 1934!

Available to buy here
Connect with Abigail Keam

The Seven Doors by Agnes Ravatn

University professor Nina is at a turning point. Her work seems increasingly irrelevant, her doctor husband is never home, relations with her difficult daughter are strained, and their beautiful house is scheduled for demolition.

When her daughter decides to move into another house they own, things take a very dark turn. The day after Nina and her daughter pay her a visit, the young woman living there disappears, leaving her son behind.

With few clues, the police enquiry soon grinds to a halt, but Nina has an inexplicable sense of guilt. Unable to rest, she begins her own investigation.  However, as she pulls on the threads of the case, it seems her discoveries may have very grave consequences for her and her family.

Exquisitely dark and immensely powerful, The Seven Doors is a sophisticated and deeply disturbing psychological thriller from one of Norway’s most distinguished voices.

Available to buy here

Remember, if you’re an author and you’d like to see your book in our Saturday Spotlight, email: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk and send us the details of your new novel. 

Further Links

For details of Penguin RandomHouse new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Hachette new releases, visit their website here.
For details of HarperCollins new releases, visit their website here.
For details of PanMacmillan new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Simon & Schuster new releases, visit their website here.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are given for ease but please remember there are a number of other online retailers operating, including hive (which helps to support independent book shops), Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Nook as well as online stores for bookstores like Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and WHSmiths. Given the current situation, though, please check first.

Read the latest issue of Write On! magazine online here