Saturday Spotlight: New Book Releases September 2024
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.
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Fate Struck by Margena Adams Holmes
Kelly Brennen loves to perform.
As a high school gymnast and choir singer, Kelly is used to being onstage. She dreams of being a singer and as fate would have it, she’s asked to join a rock band with her friends. Kelly jumps at the chance, and vaults out of her sheltered life onto a bigger stage, but is she ready for it?
Jessica is Kelly’s biggest rival, who happens to be dating Ian, Fate Struck’s bass player. Jessica pushes Kelly’s buttons and, although, Kelly has given up gymnastic competitions to be in the band, that doesn’t stop Jess from hounding her.
Isaac, their drummer, works hard to get the approval of his father, who is more interested in grades and the right job, and thinks being in a rock band is beneath Isaac. Will Isaac ever be able to please his father with his chosen path?
With the band on the brink of fame, they will face temptations and threats. And they will soon learn that actions have consequences and decisions made will change their future.
Can they figure out how to make it all work, stay safe, and live their dreams?
Available to buy here
Connect with Margena Adams Holmes
A Day On A Journey by Sabinah Adewole
Identity, Values, Uniqueness
The inspiration behind the book is to believe in yourself. We are all individuals and our unique qualities are showcased in this book.
Sabinah was inspired to write about children enjoying a day in the shopping mall with their family or foster parent: sharing the unique quality of each child in the mall.
She highlights the unique relationship a child has with their parent, exposing ‘grey spots’ such as disability, a father having to change a daughter, a father caring for a baby in the food court, a single parent with four young children, a black mum with a white son, a black dad with a mixed-race son, a foster parent and her children, the boy with dreadlocks and his mum, the Arabic girl with her parents, the Somalian boy.
Flint by Joanne Bourne
Joanne Bourne has been in awe of flint as long as she can remember.
It was all around her where she grew up in Kent: used for garden walls, to edge drives and weight dustbin lids, as well as to build pubs, churches, Roman villas and castles. For centuries, it was the only building stone available.
It’s also magical. Made from the remains of plankton and sea sponges, it’s second only in hardness to a diamond and can be used to make fire. Part of human development for three million years, it was used as a weapon to hunt and in war, and hung as protection against thunderbolts and fairies.
In a deeply personal love letter to this extraordinary ‘biogenic’ rock, Bourne traces its geological, architectural and social history and invites us to roam with her in search of it on her beloved North Downs.
Fusing science, poetry, history and a profound love of landscape, this is her heartfelt, thoroughly persuasive tribute to the stone she calls “an art project of the great divine.”
Another Girl Lost by Mary Burton
Ten years ago, 15-year-old Scarlett Crosby was held captive in a terrifying ordeal with a girl named Della. Scarlett escaped, their predator was killed, and Della simply vanished. Detective Kevin Dawson always wondered if Della even existed.
A decade later, Scarlett is a successful artist. As hard as she tries to move on, the mysterious Della remains her inescapable obsession. Then a girl’s body is discovered—a link to Scarlett’s horrific past—and all her old traumas resurface. So does Della. Scarlett has seen her hiding in plain sight. The girl who knows Scarlett’s secrets, who understands the desperate compromises Scarlett made to endure hell, and who, like Scarlett, embraced the darkness to survive.
As a suspicious Detective Dawson once again comes calling, and obsessions turn deadly, Scarlett fears there isn’t a living soul she can trust. As for Della, who’s watching from afar, what could she possibly want from Scarlett now? And what new nightmare lies ahead?
Ghost Tide by Jim Cockin
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below. A tragic accident? Or murder?
Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened that night.
But their relationship has never been easy, and it’s about to be tested to the limit as they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father.
Unravelling his mysterious past takes them back to a world they knew nothing about: to a tangled love affair and a web of relationships that other people would far rather stay buried…
Filled with passion, intrigue, lies and dark, dark family secrets, The Night We Lost Him is a page-turning mystery you won’t ever want to put down.
Available to buy here
Connect with Laura Dave
An Academy For Liars by Alexis Henderson
Lennon Carter’s life is falling apart.
Until she gets a mysterious phone call inviting her to sit the entrance exam for somewhere very few have heard of – Drayton College, a school of magic hidden in a secret pocket of Savannah.
Lennon has been chosen because, like everyone else at the school, she is special. She possesses the innate gift of persuasion: the ability to wield her will like a weapon and to use it to control others and, in rare cases, matter itself.
After passing the gruelling exam, Lennon must now learn how to master this devastating power.
While persuasion takes a heavy toll on her body and her mind, she is captivated by all that surrounds her – her studies, Drayton’s lush, moss-draped campus, her brilliant classmates and, most of all, by Dante, the charismatic adviser who both intimidates and enamours her.
But as Lennon becomes more adept at wielding her uncanny abilities, she uncovers more about the unsettling history of Drayton and Dante’s tragic and violent past, and is increasingly disturbed by what she finds.
For it seems that the ultimate test is to embrace absolute power without succumbing to corruption and darkness – and it’s a test she’s terrified she’s going to fail.
Available to buy here
Connect with Alexis Henderson
Falling For You Anthology
An anthology you’ll simply find yourself ‘Falling in Love’ with, by all your favourite authors!
Second chance love where danger abounds, workplace romance that gets off on the wrong foot, and the beauty of rekindled romance await in Falling For You.
Enjoy eight contemporary romances, all set against a stunning autumn backdrop, while also supporting the International Red Cross.
When a secret separates Michael from his beloved Chloe, he’ll do anything to save the day, protect her, and make her fall back in love with him once more in this adventurous romance – Judy Lynn Ichkhanian
Veterinarian Lara has sworn not to become involved in a new romance after her long-term partner walked off. But then she meets Jeremiah, a farmer, who is totally different to anyone else she’s ever met and, occasionally, he seems to disapprove of her. Their attraction grows, but can they overcome the differences between them and find true love? – Bebe Sumner.
It’s New Year’s Eve and Tilly’s boyfriend is behaving strangely. She suspects she will be facing the new year as a reluctantly single woman, but it’s party time and Tilly is not giving up without a fight – Poppy Alexander.
When little Freya gives Rose flowers in the park because she seems sad, it brings back memories she wants to forget. Little does she know this simple gift and friendship from the girl and her father may enable her to move on and change her life for the better. First, a mystery from her past and the threat to her must be resolved – Dawn Bolton
Seeing her husband in the arms of another woman, Jan wonders if her decision to quit her job has come just too late. Distraught, she runs to the place where once she was happiest. Will she win Rob back, or is it all over? – Liz Martinson
Can a rocky first impression send a teacher and parent tumbling towards one another? Maybe their instant attraction will be the only thing that goes right on a disastrous field trip to the pumpkin patch where everything else seems to go wrong. – Danielle Sibarium-Tsapp
Desperate for some time alone after the stress of a messy divorce, Erin takes refuge in her friend’s cottage. Just her, the trees, the water, and her paints. The last thing she wants is company. Especially company in the inconveniently attractive form of Lawrence, who is also expecting to have the space to himself. Surely the lakeside retreat is big enough for both of them. Isn’t it? – Riana Everly
Walt has been secretly in love with Patti for almost a year, but the old-fashioned bachelor doesn’t know how to confess his feelings, until it’s too late. After months of missed opportunities, Patti’s fallen in love with a mysterious man named Oscar after only three dates! While Walt is busy kicking himself for missed opportunities and nursing a broken heart, Patti’s bedraggled appearance and missing smile point to trouble in paradise. Walt won’t stand for that. No one should steal Patti’s smile—especially not this ‘other man.’ There’s more to Oscar than meets the eye, and Walt is determined to find out what it is—even if curiosity kills the cat. Can Walter swoop in and prove that he’s the right man for Patti? Or will that make him the sleazy “other man” and ruin any chance he has to win her heart? – M Culler
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty
We’re all so busy, caught up in life’s moments, big and small . . .
The flight attendant working a shift on her birthday.
The mother struggling alone with two young children.
The newlyweds setting off on 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. Each with a life heading in a particular direction – or so they imagine.
Because an elderly woman is about to step into each of their paths. In just a few words, she will make a prediction, tying herself to all of them. And, in being bound to her, these disparate strangers will all face similar existential dilemmas. . .
Who is this woman? Is she a genuine clairvoyant? A charlatan? The answer to prayers, or a harbinger of nightmares?
What she will prove to be is an agent of chaos, fraying relationships, putting entire futures into doubt and causing the most ordered of lives to unravel in the most unexpected of ways . . .
Available to buy here
Connect with Liane Moriarty
The Tiger’s Mark by Ellen Read
Two men, one woman. She loves them both but can’t choose between them. One she idolises. One awakes her passion. Then another man’s evil tears their world apart.
Singapore. Grand mansions. Extravagant lifestyles. Steamy tropical weather. Riots and tiger attacks.
Minerva Edmondson has had the tiger’s mark on her from birth. Her pregnant mother died after being attacked by a tiger. Then at the age of 12, when a tiger attacks Minerva, leaving its mark on her, her grandmother tells her of a prophecy that has a far-reaching effect on her life.
After a difficult childhood protecting his mother and siblings from his brutal father, Oliver Barrett takes his family to live at Rumah Kebun, the Edmondson’s plantation house.
Oliver is Minnie’s best friend. He loves Minnie and when she’s 18 years old, awakens her passion. But she is torn between Oliver and Julian Sutcliffe, who she’s idolised since she was 12, and she can’t choose.
Then in 1854, the worst riots Singapore has known rage throughout the settlement. Oliver joins his grandfather and many other men, including Joss Edmondson, to quell the rioting. He suspects his father is in league with one of the Chinese secret societies and responsible for stirring up the rioters.
Minnie, frustrated that she can’t fight – she’s as good, if not better, a shot than the men – has to remain at the Edmondson nutmeg plantation.
By the end of ten days of rioting, Minnie has to fight to protect her family and her life.
Available to buy here
Connect with Ellen Read
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Available to buy here
Connect with Sally Rooney
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
Jane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around.
After a long, precarious stretch bouncing among sketchy rentals and sublets, she and her family are living in luxury for a year, house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles. The gig magically coincides with Jane’s sabbatical, giving her the time and space she needs to finish her second novel-a centuries-spanning epic her artist husband, Lenny, dubs her ‘Mulatto War And Peace.” Finally, some semblance of stability and success seems to be within her grasp.
But things don’t work out quite as hoped. Desperate for a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her gaze to Hollywood. When she finagles a meeting with Hampton Ford, a hot producer with a major development deal at a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a ‘real writer,’ and together they begin to develop ‘the Jackie Robinson of biracial comedies.’ Things finally seem to be going right for Jane – until they go terribly wrong.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother.
He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been.
Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Available to buy here
Connect with Elizabeth Strout
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.
