Saturday Spotlight: New Book Releases August 2025
By Claire Buss, Deputy Editor, Write On!
At Write On! and Pen to Print, we want to help connect authors and readers, playwrights and audiences, so we’ve created a Spotlight page on the last Saturday of the month, showcasing some of the exciting new reads and plays available. The curated list is based on books and plays that you send us, so if you’re an author or a playwright and you’d like your book or play in the spotlight, reach out to us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk. Whether you’re an indie author, with a small press or mainstream publisher, established or brand new playwright, we’d love to hear from you and shine a light on your new work.
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.
*****
Tim Peake Astronauts: The Quest To Explore Space Tour, Cliffs Pavillion Southend, 14 September
With fewer than 650 people having reached Earth’s orbit, nobody is more qualified than Tim Peake to celebrate the historic achievements and human endeavours of space exploration. Up until now, Tim has brought his own incredible journey to life through unparalleled storytelling and extraordinary archive footage. In this new show, Tim will share the remarkable stories of some of his fellow astronauts and explore the spectacular evolution of space travel.
*****
Soul & Motown Dinner And Dance, Cliffs Pavillion Southend, 19 September
Pay homage to the rich legacy of soul and R&B music at the smoothest dinner in town.
RSB Souldiers are an amazingly talented group who, with their smooth soulful vocals and great harmonies, complement a Soul, Motown, and R&B sound and style. Get ready for soulful melodies and amazing covers of all the iconic artists and bands, including: Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang, Luther Vandross, Lionel Richie and many more.
Fiddler On The Roof, Cliffs Pavilion, Southend, 30 September – 4 October 
A theatrical triumph, winner of three Olivier Awards including Best Musical Revival, Fiddler On The Roof is coming to Southend for one week only – a rare opportunity to catch this critically acclaimed production direct from the West End.
*****
Shadows In The Storm by TWM Ashford
The thieves who stole your heart have painted themselves into a corner…
For half a decade, Sheni’s been exiled from New Terra for sneaking aboard an Ark ship without a ticket. Now he wants to come home, but reams of bureaucratic red tape mean it’ll take years for his citizenship application to be approved – or denied.
So when a UEC shuttle carrying one of Earth’s rarest paintings goes missing, Sheni spots his chance to get back in humanity’s good books. If there’s anyone perfectly suited to hunting down stolen relics, it’s an ex-pirate. Unfortunately, the trail leads him to some of the most dangerous groups in the galaxy – Black Rock Raiders, Dread Pirate Queens, and over-ambitious tech companies – none of whom are exactly eager to hand over the artwork.
In order to prove he’s more than a petty criminal, Sheni and the crew of the Silver Hart will have to pull off their most audacious heist yet.
Available to buy here
Connect with TWM Ashford
The Windsor Love Connection by Lizzie Chantree
Daisy is back in her hometown, only to discover her new neighbour is ‘Him’! She’s right next door to the guy she never stopped thinking about. All grown up, impossibly sexy, and clearly still holding a grudge.
Arthur was her first love, her best friend, her almost-forever. Time and distance may have changed them both, but some things feel just as familiar: his smile, his humour, the way her heart infuriatingly skips a beat when he’s near.
Time has turned him into a grumpy tech millionaire with annoyingly broad shoulders and a habit of being exactly where she doesn’t want him… like her thoughts. Or her balcony.
As they navigate old memories and new beginnings, Daisy and Arthur start to wonder if maybe the magic they lost isn’t gone, but just waiting to be found again. Can someone who broke your heart and shattered your dreams earn your trust again?
Available to buy here
Connect with Lizzie Chantree
On The Edge: Sea, Surf And Impossible Dreams by Nicola Garrard
What happens when the summer ends?
Rhys lives in a small town on the Devon coast, where seasonal work dries up as winter storms hit, housing is hard to come by and livelihoods are threatened by distant bureaucrats. Life is much harder for Rhys and his two younger brothers than tourists can possibly know.
It is only when surfing that Rhys finds solace in the beauty around him: the crashing waves, towering cliffs and sandy beaches. But when that solace is taken, his tinder-dry rage is soon ignited. Determined to defend his family from a life blighted by social neglect and poverty, Rhys is drawn to Dodo, a radical political activist. Before long, Rhys’ actions spiral out of control, with dire consequences for himself and those he loves.
In 1996, at the age of 14, Richard Hall met a man who changed his life. Two-and-a-half decades later, he called the police. As a result, the man was jailed for 22 years.
This is the story of what came before the police: how a teenage boy who had been hounded at school because he was gay walked into a world where he thought he would be safe, but which he was too inexperienced to navigate. In his naivety, he thought what happened next was normal, or somehow his fault.
In a vivid, compellingly readable account, Hall recreates with unnerving frankness – and with surprising bursts of humour – the year in his childhood when the attention of older admirers went to his head, with lasting consequences for the rest of his life.
I’m Fine is not just the intensely moving story of one mixed-up boy’s private hell, it also stands as a powerful warning about predators operating with the impunity conferred on them by ‘community’ status.
The Sea Witch by Eva Leigh
Condemned as a witch, sentenced to die, Alys Tanner uses her innate magical power to flee Puritanical New England.
Stealing a ship, Alys becomes captain of The Sea Witch, leading its all-female, sorcery-wielding pirate crew. But the colonial British navy is in hot pursuit. The navy fights for a choke hold on the Caribbean and will destroy anything they cannot control, especially witches.
When Ben Priestley, a headstrong naval navigator, is inadvertently captured by the lady pirates, dangerous truths are revealed. A quest that could turn the tides against the navy’s might ignites a reluctant partnership between the by-the-books prisoner and the fierce witch pirate captain. While they brave backstabbing pirates, perilous tropical islands and monster-filled seas, Alys and Ben’s mistrust grows into unexpected desire as they battle an enemy that will stop at nothing to rule the waves.
What We Left Unsaid by Winnie M Li
The House At Devil’s Neck by Tom Mead
This gripping locked-room mystery sees Joseph Spector investigate his most sinister case yet: murderous machinations at a haunted manor house.
A former First World War field hospital, the spooky old mansion at Devil’s Neck attracts spirit-seekers from far and wide.
Illusionist-turned-sleuth Joseph Spector knows the house of old. With stories spreading of a phantom soldier making mischief, he joins a party of visitors in search of the truth.
But the house, located on a lonely causeway, is quickly cut off by floods. The stranded visitors are soon being killed off one by one.
With old ally Inspector Flint working on a complex case that has links to Spector’s investigation, the two men must connect the dots before Devil’s Neck claims Spector himself as its next victim.
Available to buy here
Connect with Tom Mead
It’s the early 1980s, and a household of lesbian feminists establish a women-only commune in an ancient Californian redwood forest.
It seems a perfect place to practise the ritual magic that helps them function harmoniously as a group – even if they aren’t all true believers. By getting back to the land, they can also live more as nature intended and give the finger to the Patriarchy.
That doesn’t stop jealousies arising, as Wren, an artist, nurses an unrequited crush on Robin, the land’s extraordinarily generous owner. Further conflict brews as Gloria, the manipulative leader of the group, disagrees with Robin about her own rule: no men on the land.
Available to buy here
Connect with Linda Rosewood
The Dead Come To Stay by Brandy Schillace
Jo Jones can’t seem to catch a break.
She’d hoped that trading in her city life for the cosy, peaceful hills of North Yorkshire to take over her family estate would finally be her chance for a fresh start. Instead, she’s been thrust further into the past than she thought possible. The estate property is littered with traces of ancestors Jo never knew existed, including a mysterious woman depicted in a half-destroyed painting inside the estate and also including Jo’s late uncle, who may hold the key to her cryptic family history. Add to all this the gossipy town politics that Jo’s forced to navigate as a neurodivergent transplanted American. And that’s not even getting to the murder yet.
When the prickly town detective James MacAdams discovers a body in the woods with coincidental ties to Jo Jones, they’re forced to team up on the case. The clues will lead them into the wealthiest locales of Yorkshire, from sparkling glass hotels to luxury property sites to elite country clubs. But below the glittering surfaces, Jo and MacAdams discover darker schemes brewing. Local teens, many of them international refugees, are disappearing left and right, and each case is somehow linked to a shady architectural firm – which also happened to employ the dead man from the woods.
What began as an unusual murder case plunges Jo and MacAdams into the underground world of rare artifacts and antique trading, and the murderer may not be finished yet.
Available to buy here
Connect with Brandy Schillace
The Island Of Last Things by Emma Sloley
Camille is a keeper at the last zoo in the world, on Alcatraz Island.
Reserved around humans, she is happy to spend her days caring for chimpanzees and tree frogs and a magnificent, restless jaguar, while outside nature crumbles. Resistance groups and brutal cartels are fighting to shape the world’s future, but Camille is safe within her routines.
Then a new zookeeper, Sailor, arrives. Glamorous and reckless, she seems to see something in Camille that no one has before. When Sailor whispers about a secret sanctuary where wild animals roam free, Camille begins to imagine a new kind of life, with Sailor by her side.
Sailor has a plan, and she wants Camille to be a part of it. Which means Camille must decide if she’s ready to risk everything for the promise of a better world.
Available to buy here
Connect with Emma Sloley
Me And #MeToo by Olaf Tyaransen
A true story based on a false story.
Late one night in February 2018, the award-winning Irish journalist Olaf Tyaransen returned home to find his name trending on Twitter.
To his horror, he discovered that Brooke Magnanti, a controversial author of the Belle De Jour books – had published an article accusing him of physically and sexually assaulting another woman a few years earlier.
Tyaransen had never met Magnanti, and the woman in question had recently died in tragic circumstances. While the allegation was completely untrue, it was already going viral. Hundreds of people were rushing to judgement and sharing Magnanti’s article.
In a painfully honest and compelling memoir, Tyaransen details the emotional, social and professional impact of that false accusation.
His lacerating, unflinching account highlights the importance of due process, the mindless cruelty of crowds and the potentially fatal consequences of online vigilantism.
Available to buy here
Connect with Olaf Tyaransen
The Dead Husband Cookbook by Danielle Valentine
She has the recipe for the perfect murder…
Maria Capello is a celebrity chef like no other. A household name with dozens of cookbooks and a weekly television show, not to mention her line of bestselling supermarket sauces. Once just the timid wife of famous chef Damien Capello, she stepped into the spotlight after his mysterious disappearance, an event she’s never spoken about publicly… until now.
Why is Maria willing to break her silence? When editor Thea Woods is invited to Maria’s remote farmhouse to work on the manuscript of her tell-all memoir, Thea spots an opportunity. She could be the one to finally learn whether the rumours are true. Did Maria kill Damien for his recipes and the legendary ‘secret ingredient’? Or is the truth even darker?
Available to buy here
Connect with Danielle Valentine
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.
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 such as Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and WHSmiths.
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We want to help connect authors and readers, so our Saturday Spotlight page showcases some of the exciting new reads available each month.
